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* Oops…
Cardinal Francis George said Sunday that he did not have all the facts when the Catholic Conference of Illinois issued a statement decrying Gov. Pat Quinn for his involvement with an abortion-rights organization that, it turned out, plans to give an award to an advocate for rape victims.
George, leader of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Chicago, and the five other bishops who oversee the church in Illinois released the statement Wednesday criticizing Quinn, a Catholic, for his plans to present an award Nov. 17 at the annual luncheon for the Personal PAC. The statement said Quinn had “gone beyond a political alignment with those supporting the legal right to kill children in their mothers’ wombs to rewarding those deemed most successful in this terrible work.” […]
“I deeply regret that,” George said Sunday afternoon, en route to Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, where he was scheduled to present awards to parishioners for their dedication to ministries. “A rape victim demands all the respect and sympathy that anybody can give.”
“I first heard of Ms. Goodman only after we had crafted the statement (and) published it. Then, all of a sudden she comes forward. All of a sudden, she was there, and that wasn’t part of the story as we did it,” George said.
* And there goes Gilligan, right under the bus…
Speaking outside a banquet celebrating the 130th anniversary of Chicago’s St. Elizabeth Parish, George said “had we known that [Goodman] was involved and known her story we may have found another occasion to say something about the governor.”
Later Saturday, the Catholic Conference of Illinois also said the “bishops were not aware of her and her tragic story.”
The statement said that conference executive director Bob Gilligan “takes responsibility for not adequately informing the bishops.”
Director Gilligan has been very aggressive with his attacks on Gov. Quinn. I doubt they’ll subside, but perhaps Gilligan will be more precise in the future. He obviously didn’t give the Cardinal and others the full story before they unloaded both barrels on Gov. Quinn last week. Perhaps a little more thought and reflection are in order here. As I write this, there’s no apology on the Catholic Conference’s website. The top story is from Fox Chicago’s Mike Flannery about the controversy, which both hyped Cardinal George’s original attack and seemed to demonize the opposition.
* Background…
Two weeks out of high school, Jennie Goodman had not been up long that summer morning back in 1991 when a football player friend bound for college paid an unexpected visit to her North Shore home.
Wearing the T-shirt and shorts she had slept in, she felt unkempt but noticed that he was “looking at me differently,” Goodman said. The young man, who was not a boyfriend, asked whether they could go somewhere away from her mother, who was at home, too. The shed behind her home popped into Goodman’s mind.
“I thought we’d go into the shed, and we’d make out. How exciting. I was nervous because I was inexperienced with that,” said Goodman, who was an 18-year-old virgin. “I knew he dated other girls and knew he was much more physically experienced.”
Once in that shed, excitement turned quickly to pain. The young man took off her shirt, then her shorts. He pinned her to the ground, closed his eyes and raped her, ignoring her pleas to stop.
That violent act 20 years ago reshaped Goodman’s life and now has made her the unlikely focal point of a nasty spat between two of Illinois’ most powerful men: the state’s Roman Catholic governor and the spiritual head of 2.3 million Chicago area Roman Catholics.
* Carol Marin, a Catholic who isn’t all that popular with the Archdiocese, summed it up…
In the current controversy, Goodman cut a 2010 campaign commercial for the pro-choice Quinn, saying, “I was raped at 18. I don’t know what I would have done if I had gotten pregnant.”
The cardinal and the Catholic Conference now question Quinn’s Catholicism. The Rev. Larry McNally, pastor of Ascension Catholic Church in Oak Park, does not.
“He comes to church at Ascension. I give him communion,” McNally said Friday. “His heart is with the needy and the poor.”
McNally knows what it’s like to be in the cardinal’s cross hairs.
Reprimanded by the archdiocese for supporting the ordination of women, he was ordered to publicly apologize for deviating from church doctrine, and he did.
“I love my priesthood and my parish,” he said. “Staying was more important than leaving.”
Pat Quinn has chosen to stay in the church of his birth as well. As the Gospel of Luke makes clear, we all walk among people with whom we profoundly disagree.
It doesn’t hurt to love them.
Or listen.
* I’m taking the morning off, but any attacks on Ms. Goodman in comments during my absence will be met with the full force of my considerable retaliatory capabilities. Don’t even think about it.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 5:06 am
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“And how dare you tell me what choice to make when I didn’t have a choice when I was raped!”
The Church has done a good job in rejecting those whom they believe are not fit for their regard the past few months, but the attack on Quinn and Ms Goodman have to be their crowning achievement. God will bless you Ms Goodman, even if the Church won’t. For shame.
Comment by Wensicia Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 6:43 am
The CCI statement is pretty specific in it’s condemnation of Pat Quinn and Personal PAC.
Quinn and Cosgrove (a $46K/year Quinn appointee) are hiding behind a victim to defend their cowardly political stunts.
JBP
Comment by JP Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 7:20 am
It’s interesting how much effort the Catholic Conference puts into an issue rarely mentioned by Jesus (sexual conduct) as opposed to how little effort it puts into the issue most mentioned by Him (social and economic justice).
Comment by The Other Anonymous Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 8:27 am
Wouldn’t that be the skipper throwing Gillligan under the boat?
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 8:52 am
No, Gilligan deserves to be keelhauled. He is often out ahead of the Cardinal with his messages and antics — though he is representative of the more strident lay activists in the Church, especially around abortion and lifestyle issues. It begs the question of where Gilligan is getting his direction. And of course, the Cardinal has to be accountable for his actions.
Comment by walkinfool Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 9:07 am
wow seems this PR All Star Morning here at Capt Fax’s bunkhouse. Who else can make a bonehead move to make it a trifecta?
How about Gags Brady and Billboards announcing a Ron Paul Buscapade to the next GOPie debate? Be sure there will be an open Velveta bar on the bus.
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 9:52 am
I might consider returning to the Catholic Church if it started treating women as human beings!
Comment by Ace Matson Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 10:01 am
ah, never thinking about the woman. typical.
Comment by amalia Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 10:03 am
Of course, no one from CCI mentioned anyone besides Quinn in their press release.
Quinn and his appointee Cosgrove are the ones violating a right to privacy.
JBP
Comment by JP Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 10:54 am
Sad that the CEO of a ‘big market’ archdiocese doesn’t have better / doesn’t get better staff work. And that the CEO only realizes it after the fact?
Comment by sal-says Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 11:21 am
“All of a sudden, she was there, and that wasn’t part of the story as we did it.” Ah, yes. That’s the rub, isn’t it, Cardinal? Once we know the are real people, and their real circumstances, we might be sympathetic to them. That would explain why Catholics are as likely to get abortions as anyone else. Real people. Real circumstances. So much more harder than just labeling everyone as baby killers.
Comment by Ann Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 11:28 am
“Didn’t have all the facts…?” It’s kinda hard to take seriously the head of a large bureaucracy that uses this as an excuse.
This was a formal statement, no a one-liner off-the-cuff at a press conference.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 11:38 am
Bottom line-Gov. Quinn professes to be Catholic. He should not be supporting a proabortion group like Planned Parenthood. Ms.Goodman’s situation is irrelevant to the governor’s actions. Life begins at conception and all life is sacred. Gov. Quinn, Planned Parenthood and Ms. Goodman obviously do not have a respect for the unborn.
Comment by kels Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 12:06 pm
In 2010 two Catholics ran for governor. One ran decrying the corruption and incompetence of the incumbant and the other ran an anti abortion campaign decrying that by accommodating the Churchs stand on abortion the challenger was an extremist. The election ended up tied with an edge going to the incumbant. Many believed the edge was gotten with his “My opponent is an anti abortion zealot who will victimize rape victims”.
Naturally their Church would like to know where the incumbant stands. They do not like being painted as anti woman since their church has made a woman a central figure in it. They do not like claims of heartlessness since they have made healing a mission.
They want to know how Quinn can claim to be one of them when he won running against their pro life beliefs and making a pro life stand out to be what it is not.
Quinn beat Brady by claiming that Brady was an extremist Catholic. Quinn made anti abortion Church stands THE issue to beat a man who did not run as an anti abortionist. That was not an issue until Quinn made it one. A disingenuous one in 2010.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 12:08 pm
Bottom line-we’ve had pro lifer governors and found a way to respect one another. Quinn made that out to be an extremist anti woman view with his actions.
I am not Catholic but I get it.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 12:17 pm
kels–I respect your right to belief. However, your belief is not scientific fact and should not be imposed on others. I wish the Catholic Church and its allies on this issue would spend its time, money and energy on the already born about whom there is no disagreement.
Comment by D.P. Gumby Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 12:21 pm
Science has always recognized that the life within a pregnant lady is a human life. What you want to debate is that it is not what you want to recognize as a human being, for some reason or another. Your argument is not scientific because it is hair splitting and speculative.
We used to claim that slaves were not humans too.
We know to the day when conception occurs. Your argument is obsolete. We are saving human life at the same stage as others are killing it.
The science is settled. Our politics ignores the huge challenges it created by trying to have it all ways.
Its understandable. We want perfection even when we end human lives. It is a messy world.
I think science confirms that too.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 12:47 pm
Vman, when you start talking about settled science….
Tell us again, how old is the Planet Earth.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 12:54 pm
kels:
You don’t get to decide who is a “professed Catholic.” Quite an arrogant statement from you in my opinion.
Comment by Demoralized Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:00 pm
It comes down to who gets to choose life and death. For religious conservatives, the government through its judicial system kills criminals deemed too dangerous for society. And they would also like the government to save lives at the earliest stages of procreation by apparently making women and doctors criminals.
That’s messed up.
Comment by Lefty Lefty Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:02 pm
I think it’s a distration to say things like “the life within a pregnant lady is a human life.” What else could it be? Nonhuman life?
The simple fact of the matter is this is a legal question. Does a blastocyst have rights separate from and superior to its host, its mother? Whose rights are paramount?
Science gives us great info to understand the development of a fertilized egg and the process by which the embyro grows in the uterus. But when is the fetus viable, and should that be the threshold for legal rights? I think the science is not settled on viability, but advances in medicine are making viability earlier and earlier.
No, this isn’t a question of science. It’s a question of law. Women cannot be legally equal to men unless they can decide whether and when to have children. Science can’t answer that question, so we have laws that tell us that the woman’s rights to terminate a pregnancy are superior to a fetus’ right to exist. Legally, we’ve set a time limit on when a woman can make that decision (health issues notwithstanding).
So the science on fetal viability is far from settled. The law is settled. If the Church thinks abortion is a sin, it should preach against it. But that isn’t the basis for legal rights in this country, where we retain the legal right to sin. In fact, the legal right to sin is part of what makes churches relevant and necessary in modern times.
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:05 pm
Even most right-to-lifers would agree allowing a woman to immediately block a pregnancy after rape is not an evil event many portray it to be, neither is the use of birth control. The hypocrisy exists when the same people who say all life is sacred have no problem with the death penalty, starting wars to kill others. The Church has a history of supporting such events.
Comment by Wensicia Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:06 pm
At heart I happen to think Cardinal George is a decent guy, but his discomfort with things sexual is apparent. To watch him discuss “genital relations” is painful.
Unfortunately the hierarchy of “Holy Mother the Church” really doesn’t understand human sexuality in general and women specifically.
The Catholic Church is like the Tea Party on abortion. Either you are with them 100 percent or you are an outcast. There is no room for discussion or debate. You can be anti death penalty, pro feeding the poor, anti war, etc but if you suggest that a woman who is raped has the right to get an abortion days after the rape you shall be tossed into the fiery pit of public condemnation.
By the way I find this comment from Rich intriguing:
“full force of my considerable retaliatory capabilities.”
Does Capitol Fax now have it’s own supply of Predator Drones? Is there an intern somewhere in a bunker under a Springfield bar targeting me as I typ…………….
Comment by IrishPirate Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:19 pm
wait, can there be life other that that of “life within a pregnant lady”?
Comment by amalia Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:21 pm
~By the way I find this comment from Rich intriguing~
I was thinking more like vengeful librarians, rather than predator drones.
Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:26 pm
People in glass house’s like Cardinal George should not be throwing stones. He should have benn as zealous protecting kid’s as he is spying on Quinn.
Comment by mokenavince Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:31 pm
Vengeful librarians? Oh heavens, we could be shushed to death… “Not the date stamp! Not the date stamp? I’m begging you, please, not the date stamp!”
Comment by soccermom Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:36 pm
Wordy-
Whatever. We know when a human life begins. I am not a creationist if that is what you are asking. And you are a lot older and probably remember the big bang.
Our Constitution recognizes unalienable rights given to us by our maker. So lawyers and politicians are not those recognized as the first or final arbitraitors. Both Dred Scott and Rowe stripped human life of unalienable rights via the justice system.
I am anti capitol punishment although I empathize with the need for justice as defined by the justice system.
Science does not care if some conservative hold differing views on differing issues.
Abortion is a tragic medical procedure. Quinn abused it to scare women away from a fellow Catholic, so voters would forget his actions in Illinois since 2002.
Your support of Quinns actions reaffirms the need to reach higher than politics and law.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:52 pm
–Vengeful librarians? Oh heavens, we could be shushed to death… “Not the date stamp! Not the date stamp? I’m begging you, please, not the date stamp!”–
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Comment by King Louis XVI Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 1:55 pm
NO not Constitution, DOI.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 2:03 pm
Maybe you people should perform a Google search on the term ‘vengeful librarian.’
Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 2:43 pm
I just did, Cheryl44. Now I get it.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 2:46 pm
what no punishment from Cardinal Fang and the comfy chair?
Comment by amalia Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 3:21 pm
Well, Cardinal, with respect, that’s the second unmanly thing you’ve done.
“really my son, what was the first?”
Caving in to Father Pfleger.
“oh yes, ahem, that was unmanly”
Comment by Park Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 6:28 pm
“He obviously didn’t give the Cardinal and others the full story before they unloaded both barrels on Gov. Quinn last week. Perhaps a little more thought and reflection are in order here.”
Mr. Miller–Who are you to judge Mr. Gilligan’s actions? Unless you have some inside information, judge not.
“As I write this, there’s no apology on the Catholic Conference’s website.” What are they supposed to apologize for, supporting the teachings of the Catholic faith?
Quoting Carol Marin is pretty lame as well. She has no credibility to write about the Catholic Church and her comments are always the same, bashing the church.
My advice to you and all the other Catholic critics out there, take some time to study the faith, pray about it and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Comment by ktg Monday, Nov 7, 11 @ 10:42 pm
===Unless you have some inside information, judge not.===
Try reading the Cardinal’s own words. Sheesh.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Nov 8, 11 @ 4:44 am
I read a Sun-Times article last night. Card. George’s fuller statement is that what he regrets is that Ms. Goodman felt attacked. He goes on to say the Conference’s statement is not aimed at her but at Quinn. So, he doesn’t regret chastising Quinn. He regrets the impact of the statement on Ms. Goodman.
http://www.suntimes.com/8640987-417/george
-says-criticism-was-aimed-at-quinn-not-rape-victim.html
Thanks.
Comment by Southern Peggy Tuesday, Nov 8, 11 @ 8:18 am