DISQUS

DoubtingThomas · 1 month ago

I must say that I am surprised by the fact that my Diocese, the Diocese of Savannah is on the list. Bishop Boland does not seem like the kind of person who would support this measure, in fact I feel that he would support just the opposite. Very surprising and very interesting- thank you for this information.

Michael · 1 month ago

Thank you for sharing this. My home diocese is on the list.

WDL · 1 month ago

Thomas and Michael, I'm glad the list helped you identify dioceses that contributed to what happened in Maine.

The question facing all of us now is what to do with this information. It seems to me that if many Catholics in all of these places knew how their donations to churches were being used, they'd be horrified--as many Mormons were when they found they had been giving to a gay-bashing campaign in the prop 8 battle.

colkoch · 1 month ago

It's very fascinating to read which dioceses were on the list. Thank God neither my previous diocese of Helena, nor my current one of Santa Fe were on it. One less irritant for me.

WDL · 1 month ago

I'm fascinated (and repulsed), too, Colleen. I look for patterns, but they elude me. It would be interesting to take a U.S. diocesan map and put pins in it for each diocese on the list, and see if a regional pattern shows up. (And I'm also aware money changes hands behind closed doors when churches are involved, without any records, sometimes--so the list may be far from complete.)

There seems at first glance to be a preponderance of dioceses in the Southeast, which is not surprising--but then, when I think about it, there are surprising lacunae in the pattern. For instance, why is Charlotte not there, or Raleigh?

If there is a certain weight in the direction of the Southeast, I'd attribute that to 1) the influence of EWTN and Mother Angelica in that region, and 2) the influence of Atlanta, which wields great influence regionally through Donoghue, even though he's retired.

I see several Texas dioceses, but why Fort Worth and not Dallas? And why places like Crookston, when to my knowledge, no other Minnesota dioceses are on the list? Steve finds the Crookston listing especially grievous. It's his home diocese.

One thing's for sure: hard not to look at this list and recognize that bishops across the U.S., in all regions, are willing to wage war on their gay brothers and sisters. And history will judge that behavior very harshly, I feel sure.

John · 1 month ago

If you look more closely at the list and click on the hyperlinks you will see various bishops reprenting even more dioceses. It looks like U.S. Catholic Dioceses contributed around a half million dollars to this "effort."

WDL · 1 month ago

John, you're right, there are bishops my list missed, because they aren't identified as bishops (specifically) in the list compiled by the Portland diocese and reported to the Maine Ethics Commission. They include:

Bishop John LeVoir, New Ulm diocese
Bishop Herbert Brevard, St. Thomas diocese, Virgin Islands (though that diocese is in the list)
Bishop John D'Arcy, diocese of South Bend also in the list)
Bishop Jose Gomez, diocese of San Antonio

Thanks for pointing out these omissions to me. I would have missed them otherwise.
Bishop Joseph Kurtz, diocese of Louisville (also in the list)

khughes1963 · 1 month ago

I am in the archdiocese of Cincinnati, and there were no second collections at any masses I attended. We've had other issues in the past where the archdiocese had to tell people they weren't using diocesan appeal money to finance sexual abuse settlements.

I've been critical of the outgoing archbishop for how he treated Sister Louise Akers, but I don't recall any campaigning for the Maine measure or for the 2004 Ohio ballot initiative denying same sex couples recognized rights. It passed, unfortunately.

WDL · 1 month ago

Kathy, thanks for the on-the-ground report from Cincinnati. You say there were no special collections that you can recall in your archdiocese.

That's actually my point in this posting: I doubt that in most, perhaps all, of these dioceses, there were any special collections for the Maine initiative. Which means that people were putting money into their churches' collection plates on Sunday, believing they were giving for the upkeep of the parish and school, supporting programs to feed the hungry, provide shelter for the homeless, and heal the sick.

Now it turns out they were actually giving--without their knowledge or consent--to a political initiative of some bishops, which many Catholics do not support. A mean-spirited initiative that targets a group of already marginalized brothers and sisters--in the name of Christ.

I'm not sure everyone who discovers that his/her diocese used his/her donations for this mean-spirited political attack on gay people will be happy to learn that the dioceses are using contributions in this fashion.