Cultural Assimilation Has Corrupted the Church in America, by Jason Surmiller

To start the year off, the New York state legislature passed the most regressive anti-life law in the history of the U.S. Its governor, Andrew Cuomo, a self-proclaimed Catholic supported and shepherded the legislation and gleefully proclaimed its enactment. Furthermore, many in the legislature enthusiastically applauded when the law was enacted. Unhappily, many of those people call themselves Catholic. As horribly sad as this situation is, what makes it infinitely more heartbreaking is that the bishops have been relatively silent on the matter. Now, Cardinal Dolan has spoken over the situation after being challenged, but apparently has no real plan to confront public officials that support the law. For example, he has refused to ex-communicate the Governor or even entertain the idea that Cuomo is a public heretic despite Cuomo publicly denying the Church’s teaching on abortion.

To be fair to the cardinal, major political figures that support abortion have rarely been censured. For instance, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House from California and the leader of the Democratic party, is still considered a Catholic in good standing both in San Francisco and Washington D.C. If Dolan did censure or excommunicate Cuomo, he would blaze a new trail in relations between the Catholic Church and the state. This would require an awesome amount of courage because, in large part, he cannot expect the support of his brother bishops. In fact, some would probably openly oppose him and may even denounce him. Yet, you do have examples of strong church leaders like Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., who stated that U.S. senator Dick Durbin should not receive communion; yet Paprocki and a few others are the exception. This begs the question, why aren’t the bishops speaking out and trying to bring back politicians, like Cuomo, to the fold? To venture a guess, it is because they do not want to lose their standing in American public life that they have gained over the last century and a half…..Read entire article, go to: crisismagazine.com/2019/cultural-assimilation-has-corrupted-the-church-in-america