Archbishop Rips Coach On Support for Abortion Rights & Stem Cell Research

[DeSwiss]

Archbishop Rips Rick Majerus for Support of Abortion Rights, Stem Cell Research

AOL Fanhouse
Posted Jan 22nd 2008 1:31PM
by Michael David Smith

Saint Louis University basketball coach Rick Majerus is supporting Hillary Clinton for president, and he made an appearance for her campaign on Saturday. Now Majerus could be in hot water with his employer. Saint Louis is a Catholic school, and Majerus said he is pro-choice on abortion and that he supports stem cell research. St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke says Majerus should be disciplined -- and maybe even fired:

During an interview with the Post-Dispatch today in Washington, where Burke is attending the March for Life, he said the coach should be disciplined. "It's not possible to be a Catholic and hold those positions," Burke said. "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everythign the Catholic church teaches. But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic church."

The archbishop declined to offer specifics of what discipline Majerus should face. "I'm confident it (the university) will deal with the question of a public representative making declarations that are inconsistent with the Catholic faith." Burke has a long history of using his position in the Catholic church to criticize Democrats and Catholics who support Democrats, and Majerus is just the latest person to feel his wrath.

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/01/22/archbishop-rips-rick-majerus-for-support-of-abortion-rights-ste/?ncid=NWS00010000000001">LINK

- Hmmm.... this is way too easy. I think I'll leave to others. Personally, I'm sick of all these preacher guy's pontificating bullshit. I will say though that here's just one more instance where the church is poking its damned nose into the world of politics. I'm sick of that even more.



REPEAL CHURCH TAX-EXEMPTED STATUS NOW!!!!

on edit: spelling

[sallyseven]

1. Those dumbbells never learn.

They can fire the coach but no one is listening to them anymore.

[GodlessBiker]

2. I guess Don't Ask Don't Tell applies to St. Louis University, too.

[CatholicEdHead]

3. Burke is a radical conservative nut

His stories go way back in the LaCrosse Diocese, yet how he acts with zero tolerance and the stern father approach is what gets you ahead in the Church nowadays. :(

[JerseygirlCT]

4. Funny

In 12 years of Catholic school, I never once heard that stem cell research was a central theological tenet of the church...

They're playing politics, and this one could be interesting... wonder if they really want to give up their coach?

[CatholicEdHead]

5. He is of the Catholic Answers style Catholics

There are five "non-negotiable issues" and that is it, game set match or excommunication to them.

This is a bunch of crap but follows Burke's public statements.

http://www.caaction.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=95

Catholic Answers is a San Diego based lay group.

[JerseygirlCT]

6. Yeah, not the way I was raised

But as soon as I left home, I found that the way I was raised wasn't necessarily the norm.

Thus, my move to the Episcopal church... I couldn't wait another few lifetimes for women to be offered equal treatment.

These men really need to step back and take stock. If these are the hills they wish to die on, I think they've missed the entire point.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. They are actually still stuck in their Seminary

and still on the defensive from the pedophile scandal.

I have been interacting with a soon to be ordained seminarian who references Burke. Apparently that type of Catholism has a weird definition of the Church as a "perfect society", which in a youthful power trip which sticks around puts you above others with a infallible-god complex. He is so much into the Kool Aid that everything is infallible and the Church is perfect in all things. He also only talks about serving the "faithful" and he "speaks the truth". A young Burke.

[JerseygirlCT]

8. My impression is that's pretty much all that's coming

out of seminary these days. Anyone else has been driven off.

All the younger priests I've run into (at my parents' church, for instance) are nice, but oh boy! conservative. Very limited worldview. Not at all like the pastor I grew up with, who wasn't particularly loved by his bishop. Mavericks seldom are.

But the stubborn old men who are TPTB will have parishes of 10,000 served by one priest, and then agree to ordain (male) monkeys before they give on the issue of women.

[CatholicEdHead]

11. You are pretty much correct

It has crossed my mind recently to look into it, but I know I would ask too many questions and not last long at all in seminary.

This is not good for the future to have so many "yes men" moving up the ranks, yet that is what this movement wants, a much smaller, but more "faithful" (unquestioning) group of people in the pews.

Many of the recent converts are often former Southern Baptists who love the rules and have found their Baptist churches not conservative enough, but they can find more conservatism in a strain of Catholicism and they are jumping on it.

[JerseygirlCT]

12. And that's such a shame

Because the "don't question" stuff sucks the life out of the faith. People who don't or won't ask questions never get very deep. They measure their faith by the number of rules they can follow -- entirely missing the point.

I'm sorry for you -- if you've felt called, and yet at the same time, realize that your real calling would be squelched. That's sad.

It's one of the things I most like about the Episcopal church. My old rector used to quote someone she knew who said that doubt isn't the opposite of faith, it's the leading edge faith. Questions are allowed - encouraged even. And shockingly, people can reach different conclusions and still share a pew. I like that, because it's a sure bet that my conclusions aren't going to match up neatly with the majority, lol!

[CatholicEdHead]

13. Thanks

Yes, it does feel tough at times but that is where the Catholic Church is going, so I will use my talents in other ways.

[JerseygirlCT]

14. I'm glad to hear that nt

[skepticscott]

9. Here's the ironic part

From King Kaufman's sports blog on Salon: http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2008/01/23/wednesday/

The school would look terrible if it sanctioned Majerus for expressing opinions that are inconsistent with the Catholic Church, since it just won a lawsuit last year that allowed it to collect $8 million in tax increment financing for its new basketball arena on the grounds that it's not an organ of the Catholic Church. Opponents of the plan had sued, arguing that the subsidy violates a church-state clause in the state constitution, but the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that SLU "is not controlled by a religious creed."

But I guess irony and hypocrisy are daily fare for the RCC these days. Well, actually they always have been, come to think of it.

[CatholicEdHead]

10. The School and Bishop are playing different approaches here

As Burke was probably not directly involved in that deal, it was more of a school day-to-day matter. Taxes are not Burke's forte, making sweeping statements on "life" issues is. He is the Archbishop, nobody can question him (so he thinks).