Archbishop Emeritus John Quinn of San Francisco has again criticized the response of 80 active U.S. bishops against the Notre Dame scandal, whose negative reaction he characterized as the “demonization of alternative viewpoints and of opposing leaders.” This reaction against President Obama, he said, gave the impression that American Church officials were racist and party to “an ongoing alliance with the Republican party.”
Quinn’s column appears in the August 31 edition of America magazine, which also contains a column by Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D’Arcy, bishop of the University of Notre Dame. There, Bishop D’Arcy challenged the University “to leave politics and ambition at the door” and answer for its decision to honor pro-abortion President Obama at its May 17 commencement exercises.
The magazine notes that Quinn’s statements were originally intended for the June meeting of the American bishops, but as “circumstances did not make that possible at the time,” the remarks have been published instead as “a contribution to the debate on the role of bishops in dealing with public issues” hosted by America magazine.
The archbishop emeritus began by acknowledging that the argument against the Obama honor “is rooted in a powerful truth: The president has supported virtually every proposed legal right to abortion in his public career, and abortion constitutes the pre-eminent moral issue in American government today.”
“Notwithstanding this fact,” Quinn reasoned, his criticism of the strategy rests in “a more fundamental truth”: that “such a strategy of condemnation undermines the church’s transcendent role in the American political order.”
Quinn said the condemnation of the Notre Dame scandal by the bishops – and, presumably, the 360,000 individuals who petitioned in a similar vein – sent several “false and unintended messages” on the Church’s role in politics. The first such message, he claimed, was that “the leadership of the church in the United States has strategically tilted in favor of an ongoing alliance with the Republican Party.”
“Such a message is alienating to many in the Catholic community, especially those among the poor and the marginalized who feel that they do not have supportive representation within the Republican Party,” he added.
Quinn also criticized the “culture war mentality” that he said both “distort[s]” and “corrodes debate both in American politics and in the internal life of the church.” “Both poles of the American political spectrum,” he said, argue that in such a war, “the demonization of alternative viewpoints and of opposing leaders is not merely acceptable, but required,” and that “more intense tactics and language are automatically seen as more effective, as necessary and more in keeping with the importance of the issues being debated.”
The archbishop’s words echo those of Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins, who also defended the decision to honor Obama against what he called the “demonizing” rhetoric of those who opposed the Catholic university’s decision to honor the pro-abortion president.
President Obama himself, while counseling Notre Dame graduates on how to approach the abortion debate, repeated Jenkins’ sentiments: “How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?”
Quinn also said that Catholic bishops stating opposition to President Obama and his administration risked the appearance of insensitivity to racism.
“It is not that African-American Catholics do not understand that the church must oppose abortion, or that they themselves personally believe that the bishops are acting out of racist motivations,” wrote the archbishop.
“It is rather that when the church embraces a new level of confrontation when an African-American is involved, this readily raises widespread questions about our racial sensitivity.
“And these questions will only continue to be raised more forcefully if we continue to walk down the path of confrontation with this administration.”
Quinn conjectured that “these principles of cordiality will not make our task as bishops in the public square an easy one,” but will “provide the best anchor for insuring that our actions and statements remain faithful to the comprehensive and transcendent mission of the church, our ultimate mandate.”
