Thursday, January 25, 2007

Stem Cell Controversy at Buffalo Church





It seems that the latest stem cell debate has crossed the line of civil decency in a church:

Political confrontation in Buffalo church for NY lawmaker

Newsday
January 24, 2007, 2:14 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Buffalo congressman Brian Higgins walked out of a Catholic church service Sunday after a deacon berated him during a sermon for the lawmaker's recent vote supporting stem cell research. The public tongue-lashing came during morning Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic church, where deacon Tom McDonnell criticized the Democratic lawmaker. Higgins, who was baptized and married in that church, walked out with his wife and son.

"Leaving was the appropriate thing to do," the two-term lawmaker said Wednesday, adding that he apologized "to the good people of St. Thomas Aquinas for their having been subjected to this whole, unfortunate and avoidable mess... Those people deserved much better."

The pastor of the church, the Rev. Art Smith, offered an apology from the pulpit after the congressman left, the Buffalo News reported in Wednesday's editions. Higgins was criticized by McDonnell for voting earlier this month for a bill that would allow federal funding for research involving stem cell lines derived from surplus embryos created in fertility clinics.

www.newsday.com

Should the deacon publicly point out every "sinner" known to him in the sanctuary of the church? Could he have approached the Congressman privately, away from his family, to express his disappointment about the vote? And then we have this follow-up article from today's Buffalo News:

Anti-abortion group says cleric ‘did his job’

By MARK SOMMER

News Staff Reporter

1/25/2007

The Buffalo Regional Right to Life Committee on Wednesday hailed a deacon who criticized Rep. Brian Higgins during Sunday Mass in St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Deacon Tom McDonnell’s rebuke of the Buffalo Democrat for voting for federal funding for embryonic stem cell research led Higgins to walk out of the church during his sermon.

“God bless the deacon a thousand times. He did his job. If every bishop, every clergy member of all faiths did their jobs, we wouldn’t have the shedding of innocent life in our country,” said Stacey Vogel of the Buffalo Regional Right to Life Committee. The anti-abortion group’s position was in stark contrast with the phone calls and e-mails at Higgins’ Buffalo and Washington offices, which were running in his favor by a nearly 4 to 1 ratio, according to a staff member.

Higgins said his relationship with St. Thomas Aquinas Church, where he was baptized and married, is “very deep, very meaningful and very long.” He apologized earlier for the congregation’s having to be subjected to criticism of him during the morning Mass. “The lesson here is that the Catholic Church has enough problems and should take greater care before allowing nonpriests to use the church as a forum to advance what clearly was a political agenda,” Higgins said. “I think the letters and e-mails speak for themselves and show the inconsistencies in what the church leaders have said,” he added. One of the callers to his office, Marie Fitzgerald, a 45-year member of St. Thomas Aquinas parish, told The Buffalo News she was appalled by what happened.

“I think it was terrible the way [the Mass] was done. It’s an embarrassment to Brian and to a lot of a parishioners who were there,” Fitzgerald said. She said she held the Rev. Art Smith, the church’s pastor, partly responsible. “I think he’s the boss, and I think he should have put a stop to it,” Fitzgerald said. She also said McDonnell owes the congregation an apology. “I think he should make a public apology to all of us and to Brian in particular,” Fitzgerald said. Vogel said she did not understand why anyone would be rallying to the congressman’s side. “You shouldn’t care so much about Brian’s feelings so much as Brian’s salvation,” Vogel said. She also said the clergy owed McDonnell an apology for any criticism of him for “doing his duty” and said her committee would be giving him an award at its fall dinner.


8 comments:

5th Estate said...

EYEDOC!
Thanks so much for your kind remebrance of my birthday. I don't actually celebrate myself not becuase I'm getting older but because of an odd pragmatic sensibility I acquired as a child. However whenever anyone I consider admirable (one such being you) expresses birthday goodwill it means more to me than my brothers acknowledgemts ( no issues there, I'm sure :D). I 'm sorry I've been such a crappy blogfriend.

To address some issues in your post the fundamental point overall I think is the inordinate imposition of religion into the secular political scene.
That Rep. Higgins still subscribes to a religion that by policy paractically insitutionalizes pederasty and public rails against homosexuality whilst allowing it in private strikes me as being beyond the pale or rationality. But that's not why he's being singled out and criticisized.
The Catholic church has few grounds to criticisize anyone given their past and their present, and its members, blind to their privilege that is provided by the secularists they so willingly attack abuse theior position and argue in public not for the betterment of society as a whole but to press their own position exclusively on all matters, social and politicial.

Give'em an inch and they'll not only take a mile, they'll take the public non-denominational money that allows them to exist. The non devout actually subsidize this organization (and others of it's ilk). It's nothing less than a sado-masochistic relationship, except apparently there's no "control" word to establish a mutual limit.

This is yet one more example that would serve the establishment of a third political party, the Shut The Fuck Up party.

eyedoc333 said...

Thanks, 5th Estate! I hope you're having a wonderful day.

InternetJunkie said...

If it weren't for the fact that Rep. Higgins is a DINO, I would have a little sympathy for him. Up until the Dems retook the majority of the House, Higgins had voted regularly with the Republicans. And he is famous for hogging the limelight, taking all of the credit for legislation, etc., that was also fought for by his colleague Louise Slaughter.

Higgins loves being the center of attention. Since this episode took place in church, you have to wonder how the Buffalo (s)news got wind of it.

PS - Happy Belated 5th Estate! Hope it was a great day.

Anonymous said...

God Bless Deacon Tom for following all of his Church teachings & not the ones that are convienent!!!

InternetJunkie said...

Judith - Just exactly which church teaching was Deacon Tom following? Certainly not the Bible that I know.

In Matthew 18:15-17 Jesus says the following:

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that "every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

If Rep. Higgins was admonished on a private basis, it still would not have been up to Deacon Tom to lay a person's sins upon the altar. That is what hypocrites do.

Perhaps Deacon Tom would be less willing to condemn a man publicly if there was an open mike during each Mass where everyone got a chance to "out" someone. Deacon Tom, and you, should remember the verse:

"For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God."

Or even better:

He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your 'E-State'-ment, 5th ...

Like you, I think the Catholic Church is really caught with their 'pants down', 'bi' both condoning and attacking homosexuality ... fondling the genitals of virtue while self-righteously claiming to be her advocate, as it were!

Oh ... and Happy Birthday, 5th

Snerd

Anonymous said...

HY Doc:

Thanks for the artwork from the Sistine.

Not many people know that Mr. Buonarotti originally titled that work:

Where God Hides His Boogers.


See ya latah.

Anonymous said...

Go Deacon Tom!! Good for you Higgins...you spineless Pro-Abort! He caught ya with yer pants down..didn't he? You are basically ex-communicated with those beliefs. May God have mercy on your soul.