The Rev. Mark Collins compares responses from Episcopal Church Bishop Andrew Dietsche and one from Roman Catholic Church Bishop Timothy Dolan during Pride Month and about the rise of anti-gay violence in New York,:
Recently, New York City has experienced a sharp spike in anti-gay violence. The most egregious example is the brutal murder of Mark Carson in May of this year. Naturally, Pride Month events will be both saddened and inspired by this senseless event.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, has issued a new bulletin insert to be included in the service leaflets and bulletins used in Sundays in most Roman Catholic parishes. The insert urges parishioners to pray and advocate to influence upcoming Supreme Court cases that might extend LGBT rights. Dolan’s timing is focussed on the Supreme Court calendar and, not surprisingly, completely ignores Pride Month and Carson’s murder.
The Rt. Rev. Andrew Dietsche, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, takes another tack. Bishop Dietsche issued a pastoral letter on the eve of Pride Month condemning the surge in anti-gay violence in his diocese and condemning the Carson murder. Dietsche’s letter urged a different approach for Episcopalians during the upcoming month of June.
Dolan’s bulletin insert is here.
Dietsche’s letter is here.
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Fr. McQueen,
I knew you were going to take my words to mean something other than what I really said. Conservatives always assume kindness, compassion, and tolerance to mean agreement or promotion. That’s a major fallacy and you should know better since you are a priest and not a lay person.
You are extremely tolerant of all sorts of things that are “unbiblical” in your church. Do you rail against every remarried divorcee that enters your nave? Do you encourage your parishioners to hold up pickets against divorcees and to boycott divorce attorneys? Of course not Instead, you try to understand the reason certain people divorce, even if the reason isn’t always in line with scripture. That’s all I’m suggesting about homosexuality, that you treat them with respect and to stop using politics to show your lack of compassion and empathy. All adults should know that unconditional love is given without qualification. Besides, none of us are good enough to earn God’s love if he first didn’t have the grace to extend it.
James Mikolajczyk
J. C. Fisher, who said anything about the Magisterium? I said catholic teaching. I would venture to say that the some 230 million Orthodox, and 300-400 million Protestants would agree with Cardinal Dolan’s statement as well.
Enrique, please explain how I am “corrupting the Gospel with my message of exclusion”? All religion by its very nature is exclusionary in some way, shape, form or fashion. Jesus was exclusive in his message too.
You and others here seem to have a problem with understanding what sacred Scripture, what historic tradition, and right human reason have said about human sexuality for millennia. Your position is completely antinomian.
And James, when you say love for humankind, I guess you mean telling people what they want to hear instead of the truth as contained in the Bible. Leading people astray isn’t loving them, it’s actually placing the eternal state of their soul in jeopardy. Jesus did have something very, very hard to say about those who do just that.
In this case, one’s stance on homosexuality should not determine their response. It’s clear that the Catholic bishop is apathetic to the victims of anti-gay violence. In fact, his silence seems to condone it. Even if we think homosexuality is a sin, it’s abundantly clear that the Episcopal bishop was more interested in being a pastor with a servant heart.
I may not agree with everything that the Episcopal Church conveys at times, but I remain committed to it because I see a love for humankind that I have never, ever seen in more conservative denominations. I don’t care about stances as much as how one acts about them. As Paul said, if we don’t have love, then we are nothing.
James Mikolajczyk
Fr Will, why don’t you become a Roman Catholic priest if you feel that way? I will hold no punches. Cardinal Dolan’s silence about the violence against LGBT people is disgraceful. The religious bigotry of him and those like him is mostly to blame for the violence against LGBT people.
As a gay Organist & Choirmaster who has devoted my life to the mission of the church, I condemn your words and Dolan’s too. You are corrupting the Gospel with your message of exclusion. I echo the words of Archbishop Tutu: if God were, as they say, a homophobe, I would not serve that god.
Enrique Molina [added by ed.]
Check that; obviously, I meant Carson’s killing, not Collins’. Sunday night, and my brain isn’t ready for the week to start.