UPDATE 28 August 2020:
Msgr. Paul Garrity apologized Thursday for the “confusion and upset” caused by his statements on #abortion and politics, and said he is “totally against legalized abortion” “committed to upholding Church teaching regarding the sanctity of life.” https://t.co/mg6tWmsJV4
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) August 28, 2020
From CNA:
On Thursday, Garrity clarified that he is “totally against legalized abortion.”
“I am committed to upholding Church teaching regarding the sanctity of life from the moment of conception until natural death,” he said in his most recent Facebook post. Garrity added that he was “not prepared for the uncharitable responses” to his earlier post, and that “the last thing that I would ever want to do is hurt anyone with my words.”
A priest writes that he is with the Dems abortion platform and he says he received “uncharitable” responses?!?
Hang on. Telling him he is WRONG is, in fact, charity… at least when done in a measured way.
On Thursday, Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, issued a statement saying that Catholics have “the right to expect the priests of the Archdiocese and those entrusted with handing on the faith to be clear and unequivocal on the Church’s teaching concerning respect and protection for life from the first moment of conception to natural death.”
“This teaching is of the highest priority for the Church,” he added.
Originally posted Aug 27, 2020 at 14:02
I say… suspend the jackass now.
If nothing else this priest in Boston is committing the sin of scandal, by leading people to think that support of abortion – which is the sacramental plank of the Party of Death’s platform – is anywhere near acceptable for a Catholic.
Garrity’s Facebook post: pic.twitter.com/XsxzkfYXFT
— JD Flynn (@jdflynn) August 26, 2020
Scandal is any action or its omission, not necessarily sinful in itself, that is likely to induce another to do something morally wrong. Direct scandal, also called diabolical, has the deliberate intention to induce another to sin. In indirect scandal a person does something that he or she foresees will at least likely lead another to commit sin, but this is rather tolerated than positively desired.
From CNA
Boston priest claims Catholics can support ‘right to choose,’ archdiocese declines comment
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 26, 2020 / 03:00 pm MT (CNA).- A Boston priest has said he believes in “a woman’s right to choose” on the issue of abortion, and will continue his advocacy for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, despite Catholic teaching on abortion and a Church prohibition on clerical advocacy for political candidates.
Msgr. Paul Garrity of the Archdiocese of Boston spoke to CNA Tuesday, after attracting criticism for a Facebook post endorsing former vice president Joe Biden for president.
In an Aug. 23 Facebook post titled “I AM PRO-LIFE AND SUPPORT JOE BIDEN,” Msgr. Garrity wrote: “I am pro-life and I believe in a woman’s right to choose. I will vote for Joe Biden for President because I believe that Joe Biden is pro-life like me.”
[…]
He’s pro-life, like Joe!
B as in B. S as in S.
Pro!
He keeps using that word. I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.
[…]
Biden is running for president on a platform that would codify the full extent of Roe vs. Wade into federal law, effectively preventing any state limitations on the practice. Biden also supports the expanded use of taxpayer funds for abortion.
Garrity added that he believes “any woman who becomes pregnant should have the right to choose to give birth to her baby.”
[…]
In effect, he says that women… in fact anyone, now that I think of it… has the right to kill the unborn if they don’t feel, at the moment, properly disposed to allow the baby to be born.
That priest thinks that the child doesn’t not have a RIGHT to be born. Or, if he can be induced to accept that this unborn human does have a right to be born, he is saying that other human beings’ rights cancel out the rights of the unborn. There are human beings who have more rights than others.
So, why not slavery and sex trafficking? The priest’s argument comes down to one of convenience and who has more power. The powerful win.
Moreover, if the unborn child doesn’t have rights, then some person other than the mother can choose to abort the child as well, à la the One Child Policy.
This priest’s public statement is a scandal that must be dealt with.
[…]
While the archdiocese did not offer any official comment on the matter, one archdiocesan leader did say the priest’s view was contrary to Catholic teaching.
In a since-deleted tweet, Thomas Carroll, Secretary of Education & Superintendent of Schools for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, expressed criticism of Garrity’s post. He followed it up with an explanation saying that he believed Garrity’s view is “100% not” in line with Church teaching, and that he did not “want the 30,000 students in our schools to be led astray by false teachings spread by someone wearing a collar.”
Carroll deleted the tweet on Tuesday afternoon. He referred questions from CNA to the Archdiocese of Boston.
[…]
Wow. This gives “cancelled” new meaning.
[…]
In the past, Pope Francis has called abortion akin to “hiring a hitman.”
At least those who are killed in the open air by hitmen were born.
This is where Fr. Jackass’ argument comes off the rail, along with all the Dems on that engine hauling those box cars toward the camp. All the other issues, such as poverty, trafficking etc. are equally sacred, they say. Seamless garment! But those poor people were born. More fundamental even than the rights of those in poverty is the right to be born.
A Catholic cannot support the Dem platform or a candidate who has resolutely, for decades, supported the extermination of the unborn for what – in the final analysis – beyond all the anxiety and pain and pressure and doubt that precedes the decision to abort – the convenience of those who are breathing air in this world.
The fact is that people who are walking around have power and those who are not yet born do not.
This priest – and the Archdiocese of Boston? – should a least be as honest as, say, Camille Paglia. As Paglia puts it – with honesty instead of smarmy weasel words draped in pious crepe –
“I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue.”
Paglia: Of course abortion is murder! It’s just that we don’t care. We have power and we do what we want.
Liberals will refer you to the sophistication of “nuance” regarding balancing factors.
No. This is not a position that a Catholic priest can hold in good conscience.
This is not a position that any Catholic politician can hold in good conscience.
And for those out there who think that woman have the right to control their bodies, as if their bodies were things they possess, I’ve got new for you. If our bodies are our possessions, then they aren’t truly part of who we are. If you can possess, as in own your body, so can someone else. They can do whatever the hell they want to your body, and if they have more power than you, you can’t stop them. But don’t worry! You are different from your body. Your body belongs to you so you can do anything you want to to it. It’s just something you ride around in.
Or… as John Paul underscored… we are our bodies. We people are both body and soul. Our bodies are not our personal possessions, as if they are some separate from our interior self. They are destined to be together for eternity… and they will be. Not even death can stop that.
That priest in Boston needs publicly to retract his scandalous public statement.
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I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t even care if this priest does not retract his comments. I would not believe him if he did. I greatly dislike that he does not use “Father” in his Facebook post, as if he’s beyond that now. If this Facebook post by a Catholic PRIEST is not evidence enough that the evil one is fully exposing himself, I don’t know what is. The only thing that will satisfy me is if the Cardinal denounces him FULLY and suspends him. He needs to go away for a good re-think about his future as a Catholic priest, for his own sake. I am so sick of this.
Good point, JerseyCatholic. Just where is the public statement of Cardinal O’Malley rebuking and disciplining his errant priest and restating Catholic teaching on the sanctity of unborn human life?
For that matter, maybe His Eminence could take this opportunity to publicly ask Joe Biden not to receive Holy Communion in the Boston archdiocese, until he publicly changes his stance on abortion rights.
“NB: Catholic Vote is an organization that purports to speak for the Catholic Church. It does not.”
Evidently, Fr. Garrity, neither do you.
Msgr Garrity was ordained in 1973. That is all you need to know.
The Archdiocese of Boston is unlikely to discipline the msgr., because it remains the same archdiocese that gave us this recent travesty:
Catholic priest at MIT fired for not following the state religion
The question I would ask Father, and indeed, anyone, including (if ever given the chance), Mr. Biden, is: “Do you accept the premise that there are some things that are such great evils that even if everyone in society doesn’t agree that they are evil, the society must, nevertheless, outlaw them?”
It’s a clear enough question, and no doubt someone like Mr. Biden will avoid being pinned down; probably Father Garrity would likewise avoid the question. But there’s nothing unfair about it; indeed, it is the question, isn’t it?
But of course, once someone grants this premise, the next question comes immediately: “And why isn’t abortion one of those things?”
As I understand it, Monsignor is a title of honour bestowed by the Pope, to a Priest who has rendered outstanding service? It would be an outstanding service to the Archdiocese if H.H. would render this Right Rev. back to Rev. right quick.
Are we to understand that little man with a suit and sunglasses is a Monsignor?
I’m not shocked, not one bit. In fact, I bet he represents a good many priests and bishops, probably Cardinals too. He knows it, or he wouldn’t be so open about it. It’s like James Martin, he’s pretty much out like trout, just not formally, but he knows he’s got lots of company, and he definitely knows he’s got support, so, nothing to lose. This guy knows the same. I’d be willing to bet most bishops are card-carrying Democrats, I wouldn’t know the number, but I bet most. Of course they support abortion! They support all things liberal/Marxist. My rose-colored glasses got blown off a few years ago, way before the pope worshipped Pachamama over the bones of St. Peter. I don’t know where they went, but I can’t find them. Now I’m a hard core realist, I’m crabby, but at least I’m not pretending things are what they clearly aren’t in the church.
The word has gone out, “Uh oh, we need as many votes for Biden as possible, we need to tell Catholics it’s okay to vote for Biden/Harris…so go public…”. So here they are, making their public confessions. This guy was willing to take one for the team, gotta get Biden in there! Wonder what he’s been promised. Well it’s all a lark, what’s he going to get, a couple of nasty emails? He’ll have an interesting week or two, no big deal. In the world of Catholicism, there’s no heavy cost to worry about.
How is this priest any different than pro – sodomy Fr Jimmy ?
This statement by this man is in stark contrast to those given my Sister Byrne and Lou Holz at yesterday’s RNC convention.
I don’t expect to hear much from the Boston Catholic hierarchy about this. Whatever is said will be weak. Naturally.
And I suspect the vast majority of the US bishops will continue to hide behind their lawyerly obfuscations and the tax code. Ours here is well-practiced as a moral coward having been trained well by Cupich.
I suspect that these “bishops” have muzzled the many good priests under them.
They are now reaping the fruit of their faithlessness and I wonder what it will lead to in the future.
This is an outrage. I am angry. I will pray for this priest and I expect the cardinal to suspend him.
No less of a penalty is proper. A clear message must be sent to all Catholics and even people outside the Church that is an unacceptable position for any Catholic to hold let alone a priest who is a monsignor. Certainly a waste of purple piping on this priest. He is confusing good Catholic people and especially those who are shaky in their understanding of the Faith.
The cardinal must take public action and very soon.
He needs to go on a retreat. A long one.
Statement of Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM, Cap.
“The Catholic community has the right to expect the priests of the Archdiocese and those entrusted with handing on the faith to be clear and unequivocal on the Church’s teaching concerning respect and protection for life from the first moment of conception to natural death. This teaching is of the highest priority for the Church.
With regard to statements of the clergy and religious and laity who minister or serve in the Archdiocese of Boston, following the guidance of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as representatives of the Archdiocese they may not endorse or oppose candidates for election or political parties. This directive also applies to parishes and organizations directly connected to the Archdiocese.
The teaching role of the Catholic Church brings religious and moral principles to the life of our society, our Commonwealth, and our nation. Our advocacy addresses protection of human life at all stages and in all circumstances, including issues of social and economic equality, the pervasive influence of systemic racism and welcoming immigrants and refugees.
Catholics are urged to play an active role in our public life and to fulfill the basic obligation of a democracy, to vote. We are called to bring the light of faith and reason to our civic responsibilities as we strive to build a civilization of love.”
And if a priest comes out in enthusiastic support for Trump, watch his bishop condemn him and demand the post removed with a public apology in place or face temporary removal from his office.
Monsignor Garrity has a long history of dissent from Catholic teachings. Among the articles he has written are:
The Annulment Dilemma: Revisiting a complicated process
and
Synod Needs Your Prayers
Wow, could it be possible we have found common ground with FR Jimmy Martin of tje Jesuit Church? The horror, the horror
https://mobile.twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1298963775962349570
This is a pitiful response. I will summarize:
1)we are pro life.
2) we should not speak basic truth of pointing out that some politicians are not pro life.
3) being prolife is complicated.
4) go be good laity, and don’t look for any help from the archdiocese.
With such weak defense of easy truths makes you wander how defending hard truths like marriage go in the archdiocese.
The seamless garment discussion is valid when the garment is actually seamless.
” If you can possess, as in own your body, so can someone else”
That does seem to be part of how they spin their logic, doesn’t it – arguing that the mother possesses the body of her child, in order to convince her it’s ok to take what feels like the easy way out of whatever challenges she is facing that make her motherhood seem insurmountable.
So this jackass, your term for him Father, is a Monsignor. You are not…to me that just shows how the Dark One has infiltrated Christ’s Church.
In reading this post, two things immediately came to mind: A well-known quote: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Beyond its socialist connection, it is also often the mantra of those who wield power over others.
The second is this priest needs our prayers for his soul’s salvation.
https://imgur.com/ipTvAjv
Poor little dalek, so very busy.
I agree. It’s torturous to watch someone try to thread that needle. Catholic clergy who support, inter alia, in vitro fertilization, contraceptives, marriage equality, and abortion rights, should do the intellectually honest thing and leave rather than pushing at an immovable object.
SURREAL… a singer is standing on the White House balcony just sang AVE MARIA just like you’d hear at church. A quick search shows it’s practically the same set of songs that the singer, Christopher Macchio, sang at a Catholic Christmas benefit concert for Catholic Schools in 2015. https://catholicstarherald.org/all-together-now-for-catholic-school-students/
Of course, Father must Also be an advocate of airtight border security to stop human trafficking, which he says is a pro-life issue. Pro-life = Pro boarder security.
Evidently Fr Garrity doesn’t think too far into the future.
Say he gets his wish.
One of the first things Sleepy Joe’s officials will do is hit Fr Garrity and his Diocese hard for breaking the law regarding political endorsements.
Msgr. Garrity isn’t the only priest saying this. From the Baton Rouge newspaper, a letter to the editor.
.
Letters: Priest says Biden more pro-life than Trump, in broadest sense
.
BY LOUIS ARCENEAUX Aug 25, 2020 – 6:00
.
The article by Kathryn Jean Lopez in Saturday’s newspaper claimed that Joe Biden has widened gaps on life issues. This is not true. She bases her article on the fact that Biden no longer supports the Hyde Amendment.
The problem with her approach is that she confines her view of life issues to the life of the unborn. Unfortunately, that is the view of many so-called pro-life voters. The reality is that there is much more to being truly pro-life than advocating for the life of the unborn.
Despite the fact that these same so-called pro-life voters declare that one is either pro-life or pro-abortion is a gross oversimplification. There are many pro-choice people who oppose abortion and do what they can to urge people to choose life, whether the life of the unborn or the life of the newly born, homeless, undocumented, elderly or death-row person.
To make this issue very practical and relevant to the upcoming election of president, I think it is easy to make a compelling case that Biden is much more pro-life than Donald Trump. Biden has not forced anyone to have an abortion. Trump’s failure to establish a national plan to work to end the novel caronavirus has caused the deaths of many thousands.
His placement of children in cages at the border and his refusal to allow people seeking asylum to wait on this side of the border are simply a couple of examples of a failure to be pro-life in the true sense of the phrase.
If anyone has widened gaps on life issues, it is not Biden. It is Trump. No Catholic or pro-life person need be concerned about voting for Biden. I certainly won’t be concerned and I am a Roman Catholic priest. [You, rather, are a horse’s patoot.]
.
The Rev. LOUIS ARCENEAUX, C.M
New Orleans
.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_2b09469e-e61e-11ea-bc55-0bc13280d0ec.html
Imagine having this guy baptizing a child whose abortion he would have applauded one week prior. I wonder what he would counsel a woman who confided to him that she didn’t know whether to schedule her daughter’s abortion or her daughter’s baptism.
Cardinal O’Malley has issued a statement. Here is the complete text.
The Catholic community has the right to expect the priests of the Archdiocese and those entrusted with handing on the faith to be clear and unequivocal on the Church’s teaching concerning respect and protection for life from the first moment of conception to natural death. This teaching is of the highest priority for the Church.
With regard to statements of the clergy and religious and laity who minister or serve in the Archdiocese of Boston, following the guidance of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as representatives of the Archdiocese they may not endorse or oppose candidates for election or political parties. This directive also applies to parishes and organizations directly connected to the Archdiocese.
The teaching role of the Catholic Church brings religious and moral principles to the life of our society, our Commonwealth, and our nation. Our advocacy addresses protection of human life at all stages and in all circumstances, including issues of social and economic equality, the pervasive influence of systemic racism and welcoming immigrants and refugees.
Catholics are urged to play an active role in our public life and to fulfill the basic obligation of a democracy, to vote. We are called to bring the light of faith and reason to our civic responsibilities as we strive to build a civilization of love
https://www.thebostonpilot.com/articleprint.asp?id=188342
From that same article:
Just hours after the cardinal’s statement was released, Msgr. Garrity issued an apology on his Facebook page.
“Please accept my apology for the confusion and upset caused by the Facebook post concerning the presidential election and expectant woman carrying their children to birth. I am totally against legalized abortion. I am committed to upholding Church teaching regarding the sanctity of life from the moment of conception until natural death,” Msgr. Garrity said in his Aug. 27 post.
Msgr Garrity continued, “I was not prepared for the uncharitable responses that I am receiving from this post. The last thing that I would ever want to do is to hurt anyone with my words. Peace and Blessings to all!”
In his post, Msgr. Garrity has three variations of his opening sentence. Unfortunately, he didn’t provide a word in that first sentence (I have added it in brackets) that would have made it parallel with the other two variations and avoided the ambiguity as to what he meant by “right to choose”.
I am pro-life and I believe in a woman’s right to choose [life].
I believe that any woman who becomes pregnant should have the right to choose to give birth to her baby.
I believe that any woman who becomes pregnant deserves to have the freedom to choose life
Most of the article is a list of actions he believes society should take to support her in her choice to carry her pregnancy to term,
Pingback: SATVRDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
One more example, from one of The Usual Suspects, via Brietbart:
Jesuit Priest Doubles Down in Support of Pro-Abortion Catholics
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
A prominent Jesuit priest reiterated his belief this week that it is acceptable for Catholics to vote for Catholic candidates who openly support abortion on demand.
Writing for Religion News Service (RNS), Father Thomas Reese, the former editor-in-chief of America magazine, asserts that “a Catholic Democrat can vote for Biden, even if his policies promote abortions and gay marriage, as long as the voter’s intent is not to support those positions.”
Father Reese argues that issues such as abortion should be weighed against other issues, seeming to suggest that these issues all carry equal weight.
“A Catholic Democrat might feel impelled to vote for Biden despite his position on abortion and gay marriage because of other morally grave reasons, for example, his positions on racism, immigration, global warming and COVID-19,” Reese declares.
By Father Reese’s logic, a believing Catholic could morally vote for a candidate who sought to reinstitute slavery or who believed that Jews should be exterminated, as long as that candidate held good positions on climate change and immigration reform.
His reasoning further suggests that a Catholic could vote for a pro-slavery or openly antisemitic candidate as long as “the voter’s intent is not to support those positions.”
More simply still, Father Reese states that “most Catholic Democrats agree with Biden that abortion should be legal,” so, for many, there is no moral dilemma anyway.
In his article, Father Reese quotes at length from the U.S. bishops’ Faithful Citizenship letter, which is intended as a “teaching document on the political responsibility of Catholics.”
Curiously, Reese fails to cite the bishops’ key words on abortion, which would seem to indicate a very different moral course than the one proposed by the Jesuit priest.
“The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed,” the bishops declare.
The bishops here seem to suggest that abortion is not “just another issue” to be weighed against prudential matters such as immigration laws or a carbon tax, but stands out as a singularly egregious moral evil.
This is not the first time Father Reese has thrown his weight behind pro-abortion Democrats.
In 2018, Father Reese wrote a similar piece insisting that pro-lifers must consider voting for “pro-choice Democrats” because they will reduce the number of abortions better than Republicans. Because opposing abortion clearly does not work, he contended, it is better to elect pro-abortion politicians whose economic policies will make abortion less attractive.
“Pro-life voters must choose between Republican rhetoric and Democratic results,” he declared, in arrant advocacy for a party that applies a pro-abortion litmus test to all its political candidates as well as to potential judges.
A belief that abortion could ever be illegal is “simply ignoring reality,” he insisted. “Time is on the side of the pro-choice movement.”
In that same article, Father Reese argued against defunding abortion giant Planned Parenthood, asserting that cutting taxpayer aid to the abortion provider would be “irresponsible and counterproductive.”
Not long after Father Reese’s 2018 article appeared, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan publicly rebuked the Jesuit priest, declaring that his strategy constitutes “a capitulation to the abortion culture, and a grave weakening of the powerful pro-life witness.”
“Catholic tradition and basic human rights teach us that every human being has an inalienable right to life that must be recognized and protected in law,” Cardinal Dolan wrote. “While the law is not the only means of protecting life, it plays a key and decisive role in affecting both human behavior and thinking. We cannot give up!”
Compare Father Reese’s strategy to similar arguments employed against abolitionists in the mid-19th century, Cardinal Dolan wrote: “Thank God, those who believed that slavery was a moral horror, a cancer on our country, and contrary to the higher values of a lawful republic, could never accept this capitulation.”
Abortion is a grave injustice and must be fought, Dolan concluded.
“May we never give in to the culture of death or lose faith in our efforts to build a culture of life in our world,” he wrote.