The
Dolan-Cuomo affair
Recently, many faithful
Catholics publicly asked Cardinal Dolan to excommunicate Gov. Cuomo for the
abortion bill he signed into law, which is an open and defiant declaration of
war on human life, made in the image and likeness of God Himself. Well, wasn’t
His Eminence upset!
The Most Eminent Sir went
on Sirius XM and defended his inaction by saying: “I’m a pastor, not a
politician.” He feels that “the Far Right” (a.k.a. faithful Catholics) unjustly
criticizes him for being “too conciliatory,” and that they expect too much from
him who is simply “some fat balding Irish bishop” with not “much clout.”
He then encouraged the faithful to “do something about it.” In fact, he did
more than that: he blamed THEM for being inactive, for not speaking up!
According to him, “our folks” (a.k.a. faithful Catholics) unlike those in the
Jewish, Muslim, and gay communities, do not speak up! And pointed the finger at
the faithful who do not do anything to show that their votes count and that
they should make it clear to Gov. Cuomo that they won’t vote for him if he
doesn’t keep the “essentials of the faith.” (We’re not so sure that His Eminence
actually knows --or cares about-- what the essentials of the faith are, but let's move on).
Well, color us stupid, but His Eminence’s responsibility does not depend on
whether the faithful do their job or not – he must do his job as the Ordinary
of the Archdiocese of NY and as a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, regardless
of whether others do theirs or not. Besides, the faithful would not be the
legitimate authority to issue an official declaration that Gov. Cuomo has
incurred a penalty for his notorious and scandalous delicts.
His Eminence then went on
to say that he feels it would be “completely counterproductive” to
excommunicate the governor because Cuomo wants to be seen as being persecuted
by the Church, to make himself a martyr in the eyes of the public by being
officially excommunicated, and His Eminence does not want to give him that!
Well, at the rate at which he has been doing things, Cardinal Dolan is also depriving himself of the palm and crown of martyrdom!
The Christian Religion, established by Our Lord Jesus Christ as a perfect
society for the salvation of souls, from the very beginning, has exercised the
right and the authority to excommunicate scandalously delinquent and
contumacious members, of which Gov. Cuomo has definitely been one for a very
long time, and a very public one at that! Excommunication is “a penalty by which a baptized person,
delinquent and contumacious, is deprived of some spiritual goods, or goods
annexed to spiritual things, until he ceases to be contumacious and is absolved”
by the legitimate authority. This used to be employed not only as a corrective
(for the benefit of the sinner in question), but also as a protective (for the
benefit of all the faithful) measure, so that other Catholics would not follow
the evil example, as well as avoid the company, of the openly contumacious
sinner. It was not only for the purpose of punishing the delinquent member, but
also to DETER others from following the bad example of the excommunicate by
placing before the faithful in a public and official manner the gravity of the
punishment (as well as the gravity of the sin).
Obviously, since Vatican II, bishops in the badly wounded Catholic Church have
been reluctant to teach and correct evil members of the Church. We might think
that a possible reason could be that they themselves have been doing and
allowing so many horrible things for which they themselves should be punished
with excommunication, so they do not want to call attention to that weapon of
the Church and have the faithful clamor for it to be used against them (the
bishops themselves). And to be fair, these days, the Bishop of Rome would be
the first one to be kept in mind for such corrective measures! And that is why
Gov. Cuomo thinks he can quote Pope Francis to support his sinful behavior and
say that he is “with the pope” on certain issues. But that specific Bishop will
be judged by a much Higher Authority when Divine Providence decides it is the
best time. For now, we’ll focus on the Episcopal Shepherd here in New York.
It is also possible that the lack of incentive to excommunicate public,
contumacious members could be due to the fact that such members would also have
to be avoided by the faithful and they would also not be allowed to receive the
Sacraments. And in such case, Gov. Cuomo could, in all sincerity, point the
finger at so many priests and bishops who should not only not be in church, but
shouldn’t be celebrating Mass or conferring any of the other Sacraments due to
their egregiously and embarrassingly uselessness as shepherds of souls, with
many of them behaving more like wolves than shepherds!
And, again, the current
Ordinary of the Diocese of Rome would be the first one at whom the finger would
be pointed. And given that, as can be safely assumed and asserted, none of
these people in question have any remorse of conscience about what they do
(that they should not do) and what they do not do (that they should do) – in
this context, the whole matter of dishing out excommunications simply does not
even enter the realm of possibilities. It does not enter their minds and hearts
that the virtue of religion demands that a sacred thing not be exposed to
profanations, and that they should not let public, shameless sinners such as
Gov. Cuomo anywhere near any of the Sacraments (save for the Sacrament of
Confession, but we can bet that that’s the one Sacrament he does not care for
at all).
St. Jerome and St. Augustine used to compare excommunication to the expulsion
of Adam from Paradise, given that it would be an “exile from the Church of
God,” the city of God on earth. They also (as the Church always did up until
Vatican II) thought it imperative that an
organization/society whose principal aim is the sanctification of its members
should have the right and the duty to expel from its communion obstinate
members who persistently scandalize others and bring religion itself into
disrepute by their disgraceful manner of living – even the pagan religions of
old employed such measures! Yet Cardinal Dolan wants the faithful to do what
is the responsibility of the Bishops to do. He seems to forget that when the hour
of his judgment arrives, he’ll have to give an account of his own actions, not
those of the faithful (unless what the faithful do wrong is due to his eminent
failure as a shepherd).
Don’t get us wrong, Cardinal Dolan seems to be “very upset” with Gov. Cuomo and
his recent ghoulish actions! But, of men like that, who are afraid to say the simple governor of New York should be excommunicated, who forget that in the old days
the Church excommunicated princes, kings, and emperors (!), not much can be expected.
In fact, it is our belief that when Gov. Cuomo passes to the next life,
Cardinal Dolan, if he is still in this world and still driving the Archdiocese
of NY to the ground, after the fashion of the Schismatic Orthodox with their
leaders, will give him the most solemn of funeral services – whatever that
means in the New Order – with the most inspiring byzantine panegyric in which
the faithful Catholics (a.k.a. “the Far Right”) will be publicly told how Gov.
Cuomo was the wisest, holiest, and most persecuted and misunderstood of men!
