Muddying the Waters
In the past few weeks, Bishop Thomas Tobin has been in the news a number of times. Patrick Kennedy a “Catholic” who resides in the State of Rhode Island and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, attacked the Bishops of the Catholic Church for opposing any health care reform that would involve public funding for abortion. Kennedy had the gaul to suggest the Catholic Church was fanning the “flames of dissent and discord”. With Kennedy’s serious and offensive remarks, Bishop Tobin had no choice but to respond. The Bishop invited Patrick to meet in privacy to discuss the issue at hand and Kennedy declined. Since then, Kennedy also made public a letter he received from the Bishop in 2007 requesting that he refrain from receiving Holy Communion. Kennedy even went so far as to lie about the Bishop notifying his priests to refuse to give him Communion. I personally never received any such memorandum, and the Bishop stated that he never sent one.
In the midst of this, the media has given their usual spin. On November 10th, Providence Journal article “Bishop again attacks Kennedy over abortion stand in health-care reform”. Again on November 24th, Projo reported “R.I. Bishop Tobin has testy exchange with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews”. Who was the one that actually attacked who?
Last night, Matthews kept turning the issue to how the bishop would punish women who have an abortion. In reality, this was not the issue at all. The issue Matthews will not face is that the Bishops, and most Americans do not want to support abortion with our money. WE DON’T WANT TAX FUNDED ABORTION!
This evening Bishop Tobin was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly. O’Reilly was much fairer in his treatment of the bishop, allowed him to speak and give his response, unlike the rude and hostile treatment of Matthews.
Again, the issue for the Catholic Church is plain and simple. We are against the killing of innocent human life in all instances and we do not want to pay for it! I wonder if our Catholic politicians who are against abortion, but don’t want to force their opinions on others would allow someone to own slaves! It’s called intellectual dishonesty.
Let’s not muddy the waters!
Fr. Jay,
Bishop Tobin is a wonderful and spiritual man and has been a true leader on this issue. He is way out in front and taking most of the bullets. Please know that I stand with him on this issue and pray for him each day. And you as well my friend.
Good post Father. Kennedy et. al. need to make a choice of what they want to be: Catholic, pro-abortion, or hypocrites (which is what they are now). I hope they’ll choose Catholic.
As usual you nailed it Father Jay! I believe clergy being interviewed in hostile environments like Chris Matthews should squeeze in their web site where “this discussion will be reviewed and assessed”. That way they can answer the questions without interuption.