SALEM — Archbishop John Vlazny is criticizing Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Catholic, for playing host to an abortion rights fundraiser Friday night in Portland.
Vlazny, head of the Archdiocese of Portland, said it’s an embarrassment and a scandal for Catholics that Kulongoski is hosting the event two days before the church conducts its annual “Respect Life” mass in Portland to show opposition to abortion.
“For a Catholic governor to host an event of this sort seems a deliberate dissent from the teachings of the church,” Vlazny said in a statement today.
Kulongoski is a longtime supporter of a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
“The archbishop is the governor’s pastor, and he has only respect and admiration for the archbishop,” Kulongoski spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor said. “They obviously disagree on the issue of choice.”
Kulongoski and his wife, Mary Oberst, are the honorary hosts of Friday night’s fundraising dinner for NARAL Pro Choice Oregon. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is among those scheduled to speak. The event is to be held at a Portland hotel.
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Raymond Arroyo quipped about all of these bishop’s speaking out that we are having “bishop eruptions” in contrast to the “bimbo eruptions” of the Clinton years.
10 comments
All of these public statements are great, but we need more. If hosting a NARAL fundraiser isn’t manifest grave sin, I don’t know what is. I’d like to see the good Archbishop go to the governor’s office and explain the Church’s teachings and leave Governor Kulongoski with the warning that there will be medicinal disciplines if he goes through with hosting the event.
At least the bishop is speaking up. Of course more can be done but at least he has taken the first step.
And I guess the Gov keeps right on goin’ up to Communion.
THAT is scandal upon scandal.
I guess Gov and Archbishop will just have to agree to disagree.
sheesh.
It’s nice to see our regional bishops beginning to speak out. Bishop Vasa has always been a public voice. I’m glad to see Absp. Vlazny speaking up.
This is a good and charitable first step. Now the ball is in the governor’s court. It gives him the opportunity to amend his behavior (in this case not go to the fundraiser). If the governor goes ahead with his plan, the ball then is back in the bishop’s court… let’s hope his excellency follows through.
Gov and Archbishop will just have to agree to disagree?
This statement encapsulates the deep-flippant-scandalous quagmire, that seems to engulf the USCCB.
Let’s be clear: each bishop has the DUTY of following the Gospel three steps.
1) Call the culprit to repent privately.
2) Call again him-her publicly to repent.
3) Excommunicate the offender.
So, Rome (Abp. Burke?) is called to clarify this on the rebels in the USCCB, ordering the process of making public the automatic excommunications of: FORMAL abortion lawmakers like scandalous Bide, Pelosi, Kennedy, Kerry, Dodd, etc.
They have to recant PUBLICLY of their PUBLIC SCANDAL, in order to name themselves Catholics, and nod discredit-disgrace us.
Here is the story as it appeared in the Oregonian this morning, October 1. At the end a truly hair-raising paragraph.
Archbishop takes Gov. Kulongoski to task over abortion-rights event
by Dave Hogan, The Oregonian
Tuesday September 30, 2008, 10:22
In a rare political clash, Roman Catholic Archbishop John Vlazny criticized Gov. Ted Kulongoski for hosting an abortion-rights event Friday in Portland, two days before the church holds its annual Respect Life Mass.
Vlazny on Tuesday called on Catholics to express their displeasure to the governor’s office after parishioners brought the event to his attention.
“This is a source of embarrassment for our church and a scandal for the Catholic community,” Vlazny said in a statement. “For a Catholic governor to host an event of this sort seems a deliberate dissent from the teachings of the church.”
Parishioners tell archbishop of event Kulongoski spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor said that although he has nothing but admiration and respect for the archbishop, the governor has been a longtime supporter of abortion rights.
“This is not a new issue,” Richter Taylor said. “In his 35 years of public service, he’s always been upfront about his position as pro-choice.”
Kulongoski and his wife, Mary Oberst, are honorary hosts of the 6:30 p.m. fundraiser for a national abortion-rights organization at the Portland Marriott Waterfront. Oberst, who also is Catholic, is scheduled to speak. Choice Celebration Gala 2008 is expected to draw about 500 people.
Kulongoski has not hosted the Naral dinner before, but he has been a speaker and has purchased tables for the event, Richter Taylor said.
Consistent in pro-choice supportAlthough the Catholic Church has long taken a firm anti-abortion position and Kulongoski has been a consistent supporter of abortion rights, it was the timing of the two events that prompted Vlazny’s statement, said Bud Bunce, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland.
The archbishop was not aware of Kulongoski’s previous participation with the Naral fundraiser, Bunce said, but parishioners called his office this year “and said, ‘Are you aware that this is happening?'”
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The Respect Life Mass will be at 11 a.m. Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Northwest Portland to celebrate “every human life, from conception to natural death.”
Vlazny, who is normally reserved in his public remarks, used unusually strong language in the statement.
“For a Catholic to have a private disagreement would be one thing,” Bunce said, “but to be so publicly involved with this abortion-rights organization that he would actually host their gala for them, I think that prompted the language and the sense of urgency the archbishop might have had to make a statement at this time.”
After a Vatican cardinal said in 2004 that politicians who support abortion rights — such as Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. — were not fit to receive Holy Communion, Vlazny said he refused to bar Catholics who publicly disagree with church teaching from receiving communion. He did ask, however, that Catholics refrain from communion if they found themselves at serious odds with the church.
Kulongoski, who was raised by nuns in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri, now attends Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Salem. He continues to receive communion there, Richter Taylor said.
“When the governor was a young boy, he was taught that a good Catholic was one who believed in the sacraments, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in the social teachings of the church of justice and fairness for all people, and throughout his more than 35 years in public service, it is those values that have guided him,” Richter Taylor said.
Guillermo ….
I think Pat was being “Ironical”…. you may have missed it.
take a breath, step away from the computer have a cuppacoffee. smile!
It is nice to see the Archbishop is not living up to his name. That is to say, his last name is Slovak, and can be translated as “Lukewarm”! Cool huh?
Kulongoski (and Pelosi, Biden, et al) should know better – they are intelligent folk. Yet, they openly defy the Church while claiming to be faithful. Wolves, all of them! Put the boot to these obstinate sinners who are complicit with abortionists in the deaths of millions of unborn children. Ban Kulongoski from receiving Holy Communion until he repents and does public penance.