"A Genial Enforcer of Rome’s Conservative Line"
Ppffmmfft...
Hee hee...
"Enforcer". It brings up images of Steven Segal movies...which when you meet Dolan in person, makes one start to giggle.
It was 2003, and the priest had opined to a reporter that women should be ordained. Faraway bishops rumbled about censure. Then he picked up the telephone and heard the baritone of Milwaukee’s archbishop, Timothy Michael Dolan. Father Cooper immediately offered to resign.
No, no, the archbishop replied, we just need to repair the damage.
“He was very pastoral and caring,” Father Cooper recalled.
I'm sure he was.
Yep. This is the New York Times' idea of a "conservative enforcer".
"When talking with parishioners, he places his hand on their shoulders, sidles in close and, out of the corner of his mouth, cracks a joke."
But he ticks all the boxes of the NYT's style-guide list of Catholic doctrines:
On matters of doctrine, the archbishop 59, adheres to the line laid down by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, including firm opposition to abortion, birth control, divorce, gay marriage and any crack in the wall of priestly celibacy.
'cause you know, the "line laid down" by JPII and Ratzi is all the Church is about. Yep. Yepper...
Soooooo, bishop Dolan,
how about that old Social Reign of Christ the King huh? Catholic Confessional State?
Anything?
Helloooo?
Umnnnhhhh....
ReplyDeleteI've been of divided mind on the Archbishop's 'conservatism.' Yes, he is, personally, orthodox, and a VERY nice pastor (not often found...)
But he walked into an open sewer in Milwaukee. He had to clean the Augean Stables while his boat was floating down the River Styx here. He gets an "A" for effort, and (frankly) a B- for 'completion of the assignment.'
IMHO.
The question is "What else could he have done, given the hand he was dealt?" and the answer is "Not much, I'm afraid."