An open letter to Cardinal Dolan about the Obama invitation

Life Site News ^ | 8/15/2012 | Judie Brown

[IbJensen]

Your Eminence,

During the last week, there has been much written on diocesan websites and by other bishops concerning the controversy created by your invitation to President Obama to attend the Alfred E. Smith dinner. Much of what has been written seeks to justify that invitation.

American Life League recently launched an effort to convince you to rescind that invitation. The reason for this memo is to let you know exactly why we are doing what we are doing.

First, let me point out that Cardinal Egan invited Mr. Obama to this same dinner four years ago and we did not object. Although we disagreed with Obama’s basic philosophies, we felt that an attempt by the cardinal to show congeniality was worth trying.

However, it is now four years later and it is clear that whatever the cardinal hoped to accomplish at the 2008 dinner did not work. In four short years, President Obama has done everything in his power to undermine the teachings of the Catholic Church. As you know, he is implementing programs and policies that may soon make it necessary for the Church to repudiate our basic beliefs or close down all of our charitable and educational organizations.

Your Eminence, Mr. Obama has a long history with the Catholic Church. From his days as a community organizer working with Catholic churches in Chicago to his current attack on our beliefs, Obama has shown himself to be a shrewd politician with a captivating personality. How else do you explain the fact that, despite his very public support of abortion, contraception, and Planned Parenthood, he received 54 percent of the Catholic vote in 2008?

The question is NOT why you invited Mr. Obama to the dinner. The real question is why he accepted.

I submit to you that the reason he accepted is that he has nothing to lose. The Al Smith Foundation website touts that, at the 2008 dinner, Obama displayed “wit, wisdom, warmth, and wile.” I am sure the author of those words thought he was being totally complimentary, but the fact is that he was very accurate. Synonyms for “wile” are, of course, “hoax,” “ploy,” “scam,” and “deception.”

I believe Mr. Obama sees the 2012 Al Smith dinner as an opportunity to, once again, use his wiles to entice the Catholics in America to “trust” him——a trust that he has betrayed time and time again.

Your Eminence, when I think of the outcome of the event - where you are seen hosting both candidates for president - I am convinced the idea that will be transmitted through the images of that dinner will be that a vote for either candidate is okay with the hierarchy.

This is precisely why American Life League launched the No Dinner for Obama campaign. We don’t want Catholics to be confused about the most pro-abortion president in American history. Our duty is to be faithful and to defend moral principles, while begging our hierarchy to do the same.

We pray for you, and all members of the hierarchy, “Lead us out of temptation and toward truth, particularly today when so much is at stake.”

You and the bishops of the Church have convinced us over the last several months that the future of the Catholic Church in America is hanging in the balance. We MUST oppose the contraceptive mandate and all of the other affronts the current administration is throwing at us.

Inviting the head of that administration to dinner and a night of humor and congeniality is NOT how we are going to save our Church.

Please, your Eminence, cancel the invitation or cancel the dinner. If you do neither, I am very afraid that, at this time next year, you may be forced to cancel most Church activities that take place outside the confines of your physical churches.

Asking the blessing of Your Eminence, I am,

Yours respectfully in Christ,

Judie Brown, President American Life League

[IbJensen]

The '08 & '12 Al Smith dinners perfectly illustrate the adulterous relationship between the New Catholic Church (created as a result of Vatican II) and the two major political parties (especially the Democrats).

Based on her actions, one could conclude that the Bride of the Lamb loves, trusts, and relies on the U.S.A. and its government more than Her Bridegroom Jesus Christ. A vast majority of our nation's Catholics (from Cardinals down to the laity) identify more with one of the political parties than as servants of God--obeying God's commandments takes a back seat to advancing a political agenda.

Rethinking the upcoming Al Smith dinner is just the tip of the iceberg. Cardinal Dolan must end this adulterous affair and lead the Bride back to her Bridegroom.

[kjo]

This appearance should be used to confront Obama on his anti-Catholic policies.

[RitaOK]

You said it all and so well. Thank you.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

At Archdiocesan Gala, No Room for Clinton or Dole

By JONATHAN P. HICKS
Published: August 23, 1996

For 50 years, it has been New York's most prestigious nonpolitical political event. And since John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon took off their campaign gloves to attend the glittering dinner three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, most candidates for the nation's highest office have made the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner a mandatory stop on the road to the White House.

But not this year.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has not invited President Clinton or his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, to its $600-a-plate annual charity dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel next month. It is the first Presidential election year since 1960 that the archdiocese has not invited the Democratic and Republican candidates. And there are conflicting explanations.

The dinner's organizers said that the candidates were unable to make firm commitments to attend, and so were not invited. But other archdiocesan officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the exclusion stemmed from John Cardinal O'Connor's annoyance at President Clinton's veto of a bill that would have outlawed certain late-term abortions. They added that Mr. Dole was not invited to keep the dinner from taking on a partisan tone.

[RitaOK]

Now THAT is not a bad idea. There is nothing to be gained for the sake of Christ Jesus and His Church by smoozing with the antagonist, absent a serious, firm warning to him, coupled with a serious and firm evangelization effort.

Otherwise, what’s the point, really? Clanging cymbols come at a price.

[Ransomed]

“A vast majority of our nation’s Catholics...”

What % qualifies as a ‘vast majority’ to you?

Freegards

[RitaOK]

This is all pretty shocking. I believe Dolan’s actions are hurtful on their face and confusing to say the least for laity to conjugate - just short of scandalizing, but veiled by the Archbishop’s jolliness and non-combative nature.

Enough of “jolly”.

[RitaOK]

Given the shape the culture is in, it is fair to say that American Christians are inclined to vote against their own best interests, their highest values and against virtue in general, demonstrating for all to see that certainly their political interests have done dang little for the Church, or the nation. In fact, you could say...”the vast majority” affiliate heavily with one party or the other for their peace and safety to the exclusion of calling on His Name, repentance, obedience and trust in God.

[IbJensen]

Sorry. I stated that incorrectly. I should have written ‘Many of our nation’s Roman Catholics.’

At any rate, it is quite a large number as I could see from the Feast of The Assumption crowd at last night’s mass.

These aren’t old, sentimental worshippers; rather, they’re also a ‘majority’ of young single people, young married families with children.

The Novus Ordo affront to Jesus Christ won’t be resolved in my lifetime (I’m getting on in years), however, that being said a new pope and a large broom just might sweep those cobwebs from the Vatican. What would result would be exactly what our Savior had in mind when he left the Keys to The Kingdom in the hands of Saint Peter.

It’s hard to believe that there are people who believe that what passes as worship in the new Catholic Church could be pleasing to God. Where’s the tabernacle? Where’s the confessionals? Oh, those are now ‘reconciliation rooms.’ What happened to the Holy Ghost? Oh, I know, that word is frightening, especially to protestants which the New Catholic Church have tailored the ‘service’ to please. Where is the respect and the majesty that is God’s Presence in the sanctuary?

Speaking of the sancuary, prior to hearing the new mass one can’t help but be distracted by the talking as though there wasn’t anything special about to happen.

Statues of Saints? Votive candles? Forget it. The worshippers of the new religion are lucky to have the stations of the cross, if indeed those haven’t been excluded.

And the new churches in the suburbs that have sprouted up subsequent to Vatican II as much of the old, dignified gothic churches downtown have been boarded up, resemble airplane hangars. Antiseptically bland so that one wouldn’t know if they were in a Catholic Church or a Baptist temple.

God’s blessings to all on this day after the Feast of The Assumption.

[IbJensen]

Sorry. I stated that incorrectly. I should have written ‘Many of our nation’s Roman Catholics.’

At any rate, it is quite a large number as I could see from the Feast of The Assumption crowd at last night’s mass.

These aren’t old, sentimental worshippers; rather, they’re also a ‘majority’ of young single people, young married families with children.

The Novus Ordo affront to Jesus Christ won’t be resolved in my lifetime (I’m getting on in years), however, that being said a new pope and a large broom just might sweep those cobwebs from the Vatican. What would result would be exactly what our Savior had in mind when he left the Keys to The Kingdom in the hands of Saint Peter.

It’s hard to believe that there are people who believe that what passes as worship in the new Catholic Church could be pleasing to God. Where’s the tabernacle? Where’s the confessionals? Oh, those are now ‘reconciliation rooms.’ What happened to the Holy Ghost? Oh, I know, that word is frightening, especially to protestants which the New Catholic Church have tailored the ‘service’ to please. Where is the respect and the majesty that is God’s Presence in the sanctuary?

Speaking of the sancuary, prior to hearing the new mass one can’t help but be distracted by the talking as though there wasn’t anything special about to happen.

Statues of Saints? Votive candles? Forget it. The worshippers of the new religion are lucky to have the stations of the cross, if indeed those haven’t been excluded.

And the new churches in the suburbs that have sprouted up subsequent to Vatican II as much of the old, dignified gothic churches downtown have been boarded up, resemble airplane hangars. Antiseptically bland so that one wouldn’t know if they were in a Catholic Church or a Baptist temple.

God’s blessings to all on this day after the Feast of The Assumption.

[IbJensen]

Sorry about the ‘hiccup.’

[Ransomed]

I think it is generally better now than in the 70’s or 80’s. Of course that doesn’t mean it is anywhere near what it should be in many, many areas. Part of the problem, in my opinion, is we have become an ‘instant expectation culture.’ On the other hand, in my opinion, there is no reason to move as slowly as when communications between areas of the Church used to take months. 25 years of a bad bishop means a few generations of Catholics who don’t know what is what, and makes it very hard for a new good bishop to turn things around.

Freegards

[IbJensen]

Not to drag it on too long, but the agonizing problem is that ‘catholic’ doesn’t mean universal anymore.

Visiting foreign countries and if you’re not fluent in the local language, you’re lost. You haven’t a clue as to what’s going on.

With the traditional mass at least you knew what was happening and it wasn’t only a beautiful offering to God, but one that was more meaningful to those worshipping.