Spokane's Bishop Daly Talks to the Inlander About Gay Priests, Sex Abuse and that Abortion Letter

The Inlander ^ | 3/8/19 | Daniel Walters

[marshmallow]

There's a quote that Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly uses a lot that he attributes to his favorite saint, Vincent de Paul, from back when the church was experiencing another crisis of corrupt and abusive priests.

“'If you want to be one of the church’s enemies, be one of her priests',” Daly said on his Bishop and the Vicars podcast last year. “And, of course, you could say, one of her bishops for that matter.”

It's one of those quotes that can be read in two ways. You could read it as saying that it's sometimes the job of priests or bishops to become the righteous enemy of a corrupt institution. Or you could read it as saying that the priests themselves had become one of the biggest problems in the church.

"The very men who are supposed to be the heroes, by their behavior, are the villains," Daly said. "The very people who are supposed to lead people to Christ are harming it."

And that's the stance that Daly took in November at the bishop's conference in Baltimore, when he stood up on the floor and condemned some of his fellow bishops for their role in the latest series of abuse scandals, arguing some bishops were morally compromised while others were so obsessed with climbing up the "ecclesiastical escalator" that they'd turned a blind eye to evil and degeneracy.

In our latest edition of the Inlander, our cover story focuses on the culture-war divide splitting the Catholic Church, with Daly representing the more conservative, traditional wing, while his predecessor, Cardinal Blase Cupich, representing the more moderate or liberal wing.

While Cupich's prominent role in the American Catholic Church has made him a more visible lightning rod for debate, Daly's role in Spokane has been particularly interesting.

[irishjuggler]

A rare gem of a bishop. How could a guy like him even get appointed bishop of Spokane, you ask? The term is “promoveatur ut amoveatur” (promote ‘em to move ‘em). He was auxiliary bishop in San Jose, and the SJ bishop is a well-connected, Francis-style liberal. Do the math.

[cherry]

okay I was just in Vegas for the WCC basketball tourney and this Bishop said the Mass upstairs in the Mardi Gra room at the Orleans......it ran thru my head that the last time I went to Mass there it was Cuprich, who I met later at a Irish bar.....

glad to see that this one is upstanding and righteous so far...

[Jeff Chandler]

I recommend everyone read the entire article.