I thank reader Catherine King for pointing out this protest by social justice Catholics against New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s pledge of support for Donald Trump.
The letter they signed can be found here.
The strong tradition of social justice within the Roman Catholic faith is at odds with Trump’s craven disregard for human life and human dignity, with his racism and xenophobia, with his preference for “gun rights” over human life, with his cruel treatment of immigrant families and children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s true that the Catholic leadership has a long, proud history of supporting programs for people in need. That same leadership also opposes abortion and favors helping pregnant women get prenatal care and other needed support after the child is born. Pro-abortion liberals like to cite the moral authority of the Catholic church when it bolsters their agenda and then ignore that authority when it opposes their agenda; most anti-abortion conservatives do likewise.
LikeLike
Are one of these guys?
LikeLike
It is beyond my comprehension how ANYONE who claims to be Christian can support such a personage as Trump. He is the very ANTITHESIS of everything that Jesus ever taught. I must have had a dismal education.
LikeLike
Many fundamentalists are raised on the value of personal responsibility. It is your responsibility to choose to accept Christ. It is your personal responsibility to follow the guidelines set by your tradition. If the minister says the Bible supports your cultural viewpoint, that is as much as you need to know. This produces a very productive and stable society.
It is also an attitude that breeds xenophobia, especially among those who see themselves negatively. This places people with this upbringing at risk of being convinced by authoritarian speakers that there is an assault on their version of Christianity. Groups like Focus on the Family can find many people who believe the fabrication that American institutions are essentially antagonistic to Christianity. This like other fear appeals, work well on those who are raised this way.
When Falwell began the moral majority (it has never been either), he consciously decided to split the protestant churches in order to create power form himself. He has been the model for much of the movement to the right in this country.
LikeLike
I seem to recall that it was Catholic activist priests who called the government of El Salvador to account in that country’s civil war.
Blanket statements are rarely a good way to describe any group of people. Don’t we call that prejudice?
Thus we should decry policy, not personality. When we decry personality, whether it be group personality or individual, we make a way for “.group think.” Right, left, or center, group think is rarely logical.
LikeLike
You are sooooo right, Roy!!!!!!!!! I like the way you stated that- decry policy, not personality.
Cardinal Dolan in no way could/would support Trump. If Trump says he is pro life, yes
the Cardinal would cheer that but not his duplicity and the many other negative attributes.
LikeLike
Mary and Roy,
I get the idea of decrying policy not personality, but Trump’s vile, mean-spirited personality is intertwined with his policies of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, etc.
LikeLike
Diane: I will not argue with you on that one. Still, when we pay attention to the antics of Trump as a person, we often allow him to distract us from the aspects of his policies that are so damaging. While we are talking about whether Trump actually said this or that, he and his policy supporters are often doing much more, as your NPE writers are always pointing out with their excellent research. There are too many examples to name.
Mary: I would hope that Dolan and other Catholics who are “Pro-life” are in favor of the idea of supporting life after it hits the ground. Any farmer will tell you that the real job takes place after the calf is born.
LikeLike
Speaking of Cardinal Dolan:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/cardinal-dolan-quiet-20k-payments-pedophile-priests/story?id=16467662
https://www.einpresswire.com/article/419377054/gov-cuomo-cardinal-dolan-protect-sexual-predators-pedophiles-in-sex-cover-up-scandal
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cardinal-dolan-ripped-stalling-talk-child-sex-abuse-article-1.2648910
But hey, he’s got a nice smile and is amiable at cocktail parties.
LikeLike
Time to remove the tax exemption of religious institutions. He is the public face of the Church and as such his personal views when expressed publicly de-facto represent the Church.
LikeLike
Thank you for publishing this letter from Catholics who seek to follow the teachings of Jesus: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Watching Cardinal Dolan on Fox News made us sick to our stomach. When Cardinal Dolan praised the leadership of Donald Trump who spews hate, racism, and mockery of all that Jesus called us to seek, I thought of Cardinal Wolsey and his attempts to appease King Henry VIII and garner wealth and power. See the film A Man for All Seasons.
Trump’s promises of vouchers for catholic schools and anti abortion legislation in return for clerical support of selfish dominance of the rich over all others, of official child abuse at our borders, of acquiescence to racist and divisive statements, his endorsement of violence and intimidation by gun toting demonstrators at Michigan’s legislature and his constant failure to care for the sick are an evil transaction that Cardinal Dolan wishes Catholics to accept.
We will not accept this evil, we will not praise it; we will oppose it.
LikeLike
Thank you, Robert. An eloquent affirmation of what faith entails. The core principle: Love your neighbor as yourself.
I just read Trump’s morning tweets, and I was ashamed that this hateful man is in the White House. His cup runneth over with pride, jealousy, and vengefulness.
LikeLike
👍👍
LikeLike
Thanks for the analogy with the past.
LikeLike
The Roman Catholic Church has a checkered past, and today’s church is no different. While there are many decent, devout people in the church, like some evangelical Christians, there are the politically expedient types that are willing to throw in with Don the Con to achieve political goals.
LikeLike
Catholics are now essentially Southern Baptists and together are more fanatical than all the Ayatollahs in the Middle East. And their followers are worried about Shariah law being established in the U.S.! If Jesus were alive today would he have a sense of irony? That his followers have become the Bull Connors and George Wallaces today? Or, at best, the Franklin Grahams and Jim Bakkers?
LikeLike
GregB “Catholics”? I wouldn’t have expected that of you, Greg. CBK
LikeLike
I’m a very secular agnostic who has no involvement with any organized religion, so I have no personal investment in religious matters. But what a deeply uninformed, bigoted comment GregB has written, of the type that would be deleted on this blog if it were directed at Muslims or non-Orthodox Jews. Catholics and Southern Baptists are more fanatical than the Ayatollahs in the Middle East? You know, the Ayatollahs that hang and torture gay men, that require female genital mutilation, that force women and girls under veils and burkas and deny them opportunities for education and employment, that deny any meaningful rights to free speech?
Ms. Ravitch, are you OK with this type of comment? Wow.
LikeLike
I understood the statement as a critique of religious zealotry. I censor foul language, nor opinion. Although I admit I delete comments that slander the teaching profession, which are vulgar.
LikeLike
I understood the statement as a critique of religious zealotry. I censor foul language, nor opinion. Although I admit I delete comments that slander the teaching profession, which are vulgar.
LikeLike
CBK, perhaps I should have written “the Catholic establishment,” but otherwise, I stand by every word. If some of them can call me “pro-abortion,” like the commentator here who is shocked—shocked, I tell you—then they should expect a retort in kind! There is nothing bigoted here. Just a statement of empirical fact.
Or do you think the Franklin Grahams of the world are tolerant? What’s the difference between the Jim Bakkers who peddle snake oil cures and the Idiot who does so and lies about doing so? What’s the difference between the George Wallaces who would bar people from accessing public institutions? What’s the difference the Bull Connors of today who would call me a “baby killer” as they try to re-institutionalize segregation and make women subject to the dictates of men?
LikeLike
GregB It’s not your “usual.” I though you to be more nuanced–the prior notes were clear, especially with the letter signed by so many Catholics–that what you say applies to ONLY those Catholics who, as you say, resemble the religious idiots of the other so-called “faiths.” Catholics may be too quiet at times, and take a long time to finally give up their tradition, but I know none who are “lockstep” behind such absurdities and hypocrisies. CBK
LikeLike
John Webster, do you see the difference between “the Ayatollahs that hang and torture gay men, that require female genital mutilation, that force women and girls under veils and burkas and deny them opportunities for education and employment, that deny any meaningful rights to free speech?” and doctrinaire Catholics and Southern Baptists in the U.S.? The Ayatollahs have the power to do so. Should the Idiot somehow maintain office after November, check in with me again and let me know how far off base I am.
LikeLike
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one, CBK. I have known many Catholics who are “’lockstep’ behind such absurdities and hypocrisies.” I went to high school with many of them. My high school teachers were many of them (I had a US history teacher who claimed that Crispus Attucks was probably “some drunk hanging around” the Boston massacre.) I see it in Catholics who purport to be tolerant and only vote against “pro-abortion” Democrats if they choose to vote at all. I see them going to mass at the church/high school two blocks from my house that once a year places crosses on every part of their property to protest abortion. But, as I wrote, in a post earlier, they will not engage in serious policy discussions about how we can solve this to make abortions safe, legal and rare. I’d like to make them more rare. I’d like to have serious sex education in schools. I’d like to have every school with a qualified nurse and mental health professional. I’d like have serious discussions that don’t include “either/or” false equivalencies. If I occasionally group all Catholics together, I apologize. Yet they want to keep me in my pen, and many would be happy to see me killed, legally, of course.
LikeLike
GregB
I’ll keep it short
Agreed
Leonard Leo , William Barr…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/19/william-barr-attorney-general-catholic-conservative-speech
LikeLike
It struck me today, CBK, that you jumped all over me for my—admittedly—gross generalization of Catholics, but said nothing about me doing the same about Southern Baptists. Why is that?
LikeLike
Hello Greg: “It struck me today, CBK, that you jumped all over me for my—admittedly—gross generalization of Catholics, but said nothing about me doing the same about Southern Baptists. Why is that?”
Probably because I’m Catholic and tired of the Catholic bashing that’s been going on here for awhile–so, I was involved in “selective defending.”
So, . . . you grossly overgeneralized the Southern Baptists also.
AND while we’re at it, the HUGE differences in the histories of and relationships between the Catholic Church and the Protestant movement makes for a similarly huge difference between these groups today. To lump them together in most any respect, including their educational influences and institutions, is also a gross generalization which, like all the others, only reveals ignorance on the part of the speaker/ writer. I have also thought of you often as a thoughtful person and continue to do so. CBK
LikeLike
Thanks, CBK.
You know I always criticize those who stereotype entire groups, be it all Catholics or all Southern Baptists. Pastor Charles Foster Johnson, who is a Southern Baptist, has led the fight against vouchers in Texas and other Southern states. Stereotyping is always wrong. It’s okay to criticize but be specific. Not all Germans were Nazis. Not all X were Y.
LikeLike
Hello Diane: I commonly do a double-take whenever I see the protestant religious groups, especially in the USA, lumped together with the much longer-lived religions, e.g., Judaism, Catholic, Islamist and others–so, so different.
But the more general point is that, whenever groups of people emerge in history under one order, the political spectrum of extremes within the group, generally from left to right, also emerges and vies for power, each in its own way. The interior factions and conflicts in the Catholic Church are many and worldwide, but they became manifest with some clear outlines with “the Trump problem.”
As with other stereotypes, in terms of those factions and conflicts, there is no meaning to “the Catholics,” even though the structure of this particular religion in history has lent itself to a unity of voice, e.g., in
the Pope. But now even that is changing. CBK
LikeLike
Diane The link to the letter was in the original note about Catholic support of Trump. But in my view, I don’t think it can be “aired” too many times.
Also, I think Roy’s distinction between policy and personality is central to this and, at its core, to any discussion. In my classes, I could always “hear” when one of my students was (in logical fallacy-speak) “going to the man,” which is to aim criticism at the person (their motivations, their background, etc.) rather than to the substance of what they are talking about. It’s a subtle way to mislead the argument–if we don’t recognize it when it occurs, we easily get sidelined to where the focus of the discussion (on the what) gets lost. . . .
. . . and it gets messy, calling for lots of discernment, precisely because, SOMETIME S, a person’s motivations, background, group-identity (gender, race, etc.), etc., ARE important dimensions of the the discussion.
I cringe every time I think of the movie “Spotlight,” and now when I even think of Catholics supporting Trump and, in history, being either duplicitous, or being used to further horrible policies and to help destroy the kind of (secular) government that keeps religious factions from going to war again. CBK
LikeLike
Truly disgusting and despicable of Not-So-Cardinal Dolan. He approves of serial liars, crypto-fascists, kakistocrats, predatory plutocrats, wannabe autocrats and necrotizing narcissists!? Shame on him, he is the Uncardinal.
LikeLike
What happened 50 years ago on May 4? Does anyone remember?
LikeLike
Fifty years since the Kent State massacre, the Jackson State killings and 52 years since the Orangeburg massacre.
LikeLike
Thanks. for remembering.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Shouldn’t this cost the Catholic Church its tax free status? If not, then why? It’s OK for any individual to get politically involved regardless of his/her religion, but Dolan speaks for the Church. I don’t expect Catholic people to do what I did (just leave the Church altogether) but I’m sure many resent Dolan doing this. I know the people of Ireland would not stand for this. One more nail for the Church’s coffin.
LikeLike
Cardinal Dolan made a dopey decision. Actually “dopey” is too kind a term.
LikeLike
That is so disappointing Trump does not hold any Catholic or Christian values. He claims to be anti abortion but I would not even depend on that. He lies and would change his mind if it were in HIS interest
LikeLike
Catholics Charles Koch and his dead brother David Koch were behind the split between Catholics in the United States that do not agree with Pope Francis.
Charles Koch (since David is dead) wants to control more than just the United States. He also wants to control the Catholic Church.
“The university, the Koch brothers and the ‘right kind’ of Catholic”
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/15277/the-university-the-koch-brothers-and-the-right-kind-of-catholic
Koch Brothers-Backed Conservative Archbishop Attacks Pope and “Homosexuals in the Church”
https://therealnews.com/stories/koch-brothers-backed-conservative-archbishop-attacks-pope-and-homosexuals-in-the-church
The Rise of the Catholic Right
How right-wing billionaires are attempting a hostile takeover of the U.S. Catholic Church.
https://sojo.net/magazine/march-2019/rise-catholic-right
LikeLike
Don’t forget about Steve Bannon’s role as well – it’s a shame that the good Cardinal would align himself with these hi-jackers of the Catholic Church. Those of us still holding on by a thread have to protest & resist.
LikeLike
A H . . . here, here. CBK
LikeLike
Here is another great article on the same topic:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/grace-margins/call-president-trump-cardinal-dolan-reveals-his-true-colors
LikeLike
These posts bring back to mind my teaching days, when virtually all of the parents of students I taught, most of whom did not agree with my views—I was far to the left of Che Guevara then—were very happy that I made their children think. And those who weren’t happy were kept in check by my headmaster. I remember a parent coming up to me saying, “So, you’re Mr. B. who makes my dinners so lively!” as he hugged me. As I used to say to my students, if you don’t talk about religion and politics, what the hell are you talking about?
LikeLike
`I like to say you will never find the Oligarchy / Plutocracy saying lets not talk Politics .
“Politics: Who Determines Who Gets What When And How”
Laswell
“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.”
― Thomas Jefferson
LikeLike
Thanks, Joel. Once again, you cite great examples, as above.
LikeLike
Joel Herman In our day, at least in my experience, it’s “some priests,” and one exception seems to be Pope Francis. And that “our day” is itself a manifestation of much of what Jefferson himself taught. Let’s get up to speed on that? CBK
LikeLike
How many U.S. Catholics are we talking about?
According to Pew Research Center, in 2016, 52-percent of Catholics voted for Trump and 45 percent for Hillary Clinton.
Pew also broke it down by:
White Catholics: 60 percent for Trump vs 37 percent for Hillary Clinton.
Hispanic Catholics: 26 percent for Trump vs 67 percent for Hillary Clinton.
There is a lot more data in this report, but what I think was most revealing is:
White, born-again/evangelical Christians: 81-percent voted for Trump vs 16-percent for Hillary Clinton.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/
LikeLike
Very good, Lloyd. I was wrong to use the sweeping generalization of “Catholics.” However, the silent majority of whom you write are not the decision makers. I do not apologize for citing them.
LikeLike
Who was I referring to as the “silent majority”?
The silent majority is an unspecified large group of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly.
How can anyone allege that the majority of Americans do not express their opinions publicly?
I’m 74 going on 75, and everyone I know and have known throughout my life has expressed their opinions publicly in small gatherings of co-workers, friends, and/or family members. Even my father, who refused to vote, shared his opinion to whoever listened when the topic of voting came up on why he did not vote: “Why waste my time. They are all crooks.”
If someone votes, their vote publicly expresses their opinions. Therefore, the alleged “Silent Majority” are the Americans that do not vote, even for Trump.
Do you know who popularized the phrase “silent majority”?
the U.S. citizens who supported President Nixon’s policies but who were not politically vocal, outspoken, or active: considered by him to constitute a majority
any group of people who are not outspoken and who are considered to constitute a majority
President Nixon used the term as a political tool to claim he had support.
Trump has been doing the same thing with MAGA and his endless dumber than dumb lies.
LikeLike
Again, bad choice of words. The point I was making was that the 52% of Catholics you cite, the 60% of white Catholics, the 67% of hispanic Catholics do not have influence over doctrine or leadership. Many priest would deny them communion. We agree. If that’s not good enough for you…
LikeLike
The Pew Research cited those numbers. I only repeated what they reported several yeas ago.
LikeLike
I feel religious leaders should keep out of politics. Especially if they support trump
LikeLike
Looks bad for Cardinal Dolon to be cosy with Donald Trump. Perhaps Cardinal Dolan should reflect on the life of Archbishop Romero. Is Cardinal Dolan standing with the oppressed or standing with the rich. Cardinal Dolan photos look bad for you.
LikeLike
James Cavanagh I agree with the social-justice letter, but I didn’t point it out–I think it was someone else–whom, with you, I applaud. CBK
LikeLike
Knights of Columbus organization should be ashamed to have been used by Donald Trump. Donald Trump ordered to remove peaceful demonstrators with rubber bullets batons, shoving and tear gas. St Pope John Paul II would be outrage.
What on God’s earth were you thinking. My estimation of the Knights of Columbus organization has fallen.
LikeLike