Quote of the Day (Bishop Joseph Martino)

“I own this building.”-- Bishop Joseph F. Martino of the Diocese of Scranton, at a political forum at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Honesdale, Pa., saying he was “very uncomfortable” with the meeting, quoted by Brian Hineline, “Bishop Blasts Political Forum,” The Weekly Almanac (Wayne County, PA), October 22, 2008

(As a Roman Catholic who has despaired many times over the Democratic Party’s 30-year-tilt toward legitimizing abortion without limits, I have to say that I, too, am “very uncomfortable”—but with Bishop Martino’s reactionary remarks at St. John’s. Accept, if you will, that abortion is the first among equals in terms of issues in this election. If you want, even accept the contention that abortion does so to the exclusion of all other matters. Accept all of that and you are still struck by the fact that, six years after the explosion of the sexual abuse scandal in the church, “I own this building” has the same arrogance that scandalized the faithful.

The bishop took issue with a nun, Sister Margaret Gannon, for distributing a document called “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” Was this from some sort of splinter or heretical Catholic group? Not unless that’s what you call the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Has the bishop heard of collegiality?

As much as anyone, I think that the usual mantra of Catholic politicians—“I’m against abortion, but I support Roe v. Wade”—is a cop-out. But closing off intellectual debate is against a Catholic tradition going back to Aquinas of using reason and persuasion in the service of God.

“I own this building” sounds an awful lot like “I am the law,” the blunt statement of one of the machine politicians of the 20th century, Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City. Moreover, in its “Father Knows Best” attitude and its undercurrent of privilege and triumphalism, it also smacks all too much of the remark once made about the backward-looking Bourbons of France: “They forgot nothing and learned nothing.”

I’m as impatient with liberals’ invocation of “the spirit of Vatican II” as with conservatives’ allusions to “the magisterium,” as if the mere repetition of these phrases cuts off all arguments. But one of the central insights of Vatican II is of the crucial importance of an involved, informed laity in spreading the value of the Gospel, even in a fallen world. In other words, we are the church.

The bishop could have urged the lay members of the audience to involve themselves in both parties—and yes, if necessary, fight against abortion, rule by rule in meeting after meeting—so that neither Democrats nor Republicans would become the de facto anti-abortion party and Catholics wouldn’t find themselves, in the apt phrase of reporter John Allen, among “the politically homeless.” He could have sought to persuade through the power of argument. Instead, he walked out of this forum. He didn’t want to inform. He didn’t even want to listen.

Instead, he embarrassed one of his own priests for no good reason. Worse than that, he treated a group of sentient, educated adults as children. He should ask forgiveness of his flock for this double insult.)