Politics

Archbishop of New York: Obama contraception mandate ‘a dramatic, radical intrusion’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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On Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS, Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a man considered to be the most powerful cleric of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, picked up where he left off a couple of weeks ago in condemning the Obama administration.

Dolan explained to “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer that, although he is concerned about getting “too involved in politics,” the reason he is at odds with President Barack Obama’s White House isn’t his own doing.

“I do worry about that, Bob,” Dolan said. “And this is a good place for me to remind everybody, we didn’t ask for this fight. I don’t enjoy it at all. I wish I was out here on ‘Face the Nation’ answering other questions and you probably do too. We didn’t ask for the fight, but we are not going to back away from it.”

But, despite not desiring the fight, Dolan didn’t back off his rhetoric. He blasted the current administration’s “dramatic, radical intrusion of a government bureaucracy.”

“What I say is this — yeah, I don’t think religion should be too involved in politics,” Dolan continued. “But I also don’t think the government and politics should be overly involved in the Church, and that is our problem here. You’ve got a dramatic, radical intrusion of a government bureaucracy into the internal life of the Church. That bothers me. So, hear me say, hey I would like to back away from this. I’ve got other things to worry about and bigger fish to fry than this. Our problem is the government is intruding into the life of faith and into the Church that they shouldn’t be doing. That is our read on this.”

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Jeff Poor