Cardinal Timothy Dolan

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NYC pro-abortion activists curse at churchgoers, beam ‘God loves abortion’ onto St. Patrick’s Cathedral

January 24, 2022 Catholic News Agency 0
Pro-abortion demonstrators yelled obscenities at people leaving a pro-life vigil at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on Jan. 22, 2022. / Joe Bukuras/CNA

New York City, N.Y., Jan 24, 2022 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

Barricades and a line of police protected pro-life attendees entering and exiting the Archdiocese of New York’s Prayer Vigil for Life at St. Patrick’s Cathedral Saturday night, as members of the activist group New York City for Abortion Rights chanted insults and screamed vulgarities at them.

“Go to h*** b****,” one protester screamed at a churchgoer. Multiple other demonstrators screamed “F*** you” and made obscene gestures as a range of people from young children to elderly men and women exited the midtown Manhattan church. 

In addition to the vulgarities, demonstrators chanted “Shame,” “Thank God for abortion,” “Go home fascists, go home,” and “New York hates you,” along with pro-choice slogans aimed at churchgoers.

Toward the end of the protest, pro-abortion slogans including “God loves abortion,” and “Abortion forever” were illuminated up on the exterior of the cathedral as demonstrators cheered. On Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., another activist group, Catholics for Choice, projected pro-choice slogans on the facade of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception during a Mass and Holy Hour on the eve of the March for Life.

Approximately 100 demonstrators attended the New York City rally, which organizers dubbed “F*** the March for Life” in an Instagram post. Many of the participants used drums, shakers, and other noisemakers, which were audible to those inside the cathedral.

The Prayer Vigil for Life marked the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. In accord with the U.S. bishops’ call for penance and prayer for violations against the dignity of the unborn, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York celebrated the Vigil Mass at 5:30 p.m., which was followed by an hour of Eucharistic adoration.

“When a nation founded on the right to life and the equal protection of law for all life finds such violence to be legal, as it did 49 years ago today in legalizing abortion, boy that’s tragic,” Dolan said during his homily. “That’s not right. That’s not natural. That’s not the way God intended it. That’s not the way our country intended it.”

Nathan Long (in white cap) and his teenage son have a brief interaction with one of the demonstrators at a pro-abortion rally outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on Jan. 22, 2022. Joe Bukuras/CNA
Nathan Long (in white cap) and his teenage son have a brief interaction with one of the demonstrators at a pro-abortion rally outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on Jan. 22, 2022. Joe Bukuras/CNA

Among those who were screamed upon exiting the vigil were Nathan Long and his teen-age son. The two had a brief interaction with one of the demonstrators.

“I looked at him and I was just kind of praying,” Long told CNA afterward. “He’s just uninformed and I think he’s lost the spirit of Christ.”

Long, a father of seven from Dallas, Texas, said he thinks most of the protesters aren’t educated on the issue of life. “We’re living in a society where people just want to pick up the torch and be angry at anything,” he added.

One of the many slogans that protesters chanted at churchgoers was “Stop harassing patients!”

The chant referred to a recurring pro-life day of prayer called Witness for Life, which consists of Mass and Eucharistic adoration, followed by a rosary procession to the nearby Planned Parenthood and then a vigil in front of the clinic. 

The pro-abortion demonstrators on Saturday handed out flyers that state that many attendees at the Prayer Vigil for Life are Witness for Life attendees as well. The flyers claim there is “nothing peaceful” about the Witness for Life.

“They intimidate patients by praying, holding offensive signs, [and] impersonating clinic escorts to coerce patients,” the flyer states.

New York City for Abortion Rights often protests the Witness for Life. The pro-abortion group made headlines in July for standing in front of the rosary procession in order to block their path to the Planned Parenthood. Police officers were required to escort the rosary procession and separate the demonstrators. 

Toward the end of Saturday’s rally, a woman who appeared to be an organizer announced to the demonstrators that the group would be protesting the next Witness for Life event Feb. 5 by slowing down participants’ rosary procession “with our bodies.”

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Cardinal Dolan quarantining after contact with COVID-positive individual

January 29, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

CNA Staff, Jan 29, 2021 / 06:27 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of New York announced Thursday that Cardinal Timothy Dolan is quarantining after “close contact” with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. The cardinal does not currently have symptoms.

“Cardinal Timothy Dolan has cancelled all public appearances, including celebrating 10:15 a.m. Sunday Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, to remain in quarantine after last week having been in close contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID,” the brief statement said.

The 70-year-old cardinal “has not tested positive, feels fine, and has no symptoms,” it added.

The archdiocese indicated that “others on his staff who also had close contact with this individual” will similarly follow “health and safety protocols as instructed by medical professionals.” The statement did not specify who or how many members of his staff will be under quarantine.

Since 2009, Cardinal Dolan has led more than 2.8 million Catholics in Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, and six counties north of the city.

New York has reached a new peak of COVID-19 cases this month, with more than 10,000 infected per day during January 2021.

Last Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a 76-page report accusing the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo of undercounting the number of elderly who died in nursing homes by as much as 50%.

According to the Health Department’s data, there were 8,671 reported COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities as of January 18. The report from the Attorney General suggests that many nursing home residents died from COVID in the hospital, resulting in their deaths being reported as hospital deaths.


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Cardinal Dolan explains why Catholics are more ‘hung up’ on abortion as Biden administration looms

January 13, 2021 CNA Daily News 4

New York City, N.Y., Jan 13, 2021 / 01:49 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has explained why Catholics are not ashamed of being ‘hung up’ on abortion, especially in the context of the upcoming Biden administration, in a Wednesday column.

Recalling a conversation with a politician who asked him, “why are you Catholics so hung up about abortion,” the Archbishop of New York explained in a Jan. 13 column at Catholic New York that “actually, we’re obsessed with the dignity of the human person and the sacredness of all human life! Yes, the innocent, helpless life of the baby in the womb, but also the life of the death row prisoner, the immigrant, the fragile elderly, the poor and the sick.”

“As a matter of fact,” Cardinal Dolan says, “this is not a uniquely ‘Catholic’ issue at all, but one of human rights. We didn’t learn that abortion was horrible in religion class, but in biology, and in our courses on the ‘inalienable rights’ tradition in American history.”

“How can we sustain a culture that recoils at violence, exclusion, suicide, racism, injustice, and callousness toward those in need, if we applaud, allow, pay for, and promote the destruction of the most helpless, the baby in the womb?”

Cardinal Dolan also writes that “pro-abortionists reassured us forty-eight years ago” that abortion would be kept safe, legal, and rare. “So much for the reassurances! We have hardly gotten used to it. Abortion remains the hottest issue in our politics, with polls showing that most Americans want restrictions on its unquestioned use, and do not want their taxes to pay for it.”

“We’re even more ‘hung up’ now, as our new president, whom we wish well, and who speaks with admirable sensitivity about protecting the rights of the weakest and most threatened, ran on a platform avidly supporting this gruesome capital punishment for innocent pre-born babies.”

“We’re all still cringing from the disturbing violence last week in Washington. This upheaval was made the more nauseating as it was seemingly encouraged by the one sworn to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, and because it trashed the very edifice designed to be a sanctuary of safety, reason, civility, and decorum,” the Cardinal added.

He finally praised President-elect Joe Biden for “reminding us that the rampage we saw was not America,” and concluded by asking if we can hope “that violence will subside,” and that “the sacredness of all life and the dignity of the human person will be revived, and that the sanctuary of the womb will be off-limits to violent invasion.”


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