New York Archbishop: No More Mr. Nice Guy?

I've gotten the impression that Catholics in America have spent much of the last few hundred years trying to prove to the WASP establishment that we're almost as good as 'regular Americans.' Considering the sort of "Irish Need Not Apply" hiring practices of 'the good old days:' that's somewhat understandable.

But maybe enough is enough, of being nice and diffident when our faith is derided.

Noted, in today's news:

"Archbishop Dolan slams NY Times for offending 'Catholic sensibility'"
EWTN News (October 23, 2010)

"New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has called out the New York Times for regularly offending 'Catholic sensibility.' Evidence of this, he argues, is the paper lauding recent theater productions and art exhibits with mocking attitudes towards nuns and Church leaders.

"The New York prelate charged in his 'Gospel in the Digital Age' blog that the Times commonly and casually 'offends Catholic sensitivity, something they would never think of doing - rightly so - to the Jewish, Black, Islamic, or gay communities.'

"Archbishop Dolan said the latest example of this can be found in the Oct. 15 issue which featured an 'insulting' picture of a male actor dressed in drag as a nun in a theatrical show titled 'The Divine Sister.'

"The archbishop called the play 'yet another tiresome production making fun of Catholic consecrated women' and decried its 'cheap laughs at the expense of a bigoted view of the most noble women around.'..."

I've discussed New York City's hometown paper, time zones and deadlines in another blog:

• "The New York Times, Insularity, and Assumptions"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (October 21, 2008)
• "War in the Information Age: Cell Phone Redial Brings Battlefield Experience to Family"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (May 11, 2008)
  Particularly
  • Welcome to the Information Age

A few more words from the archbishop about nuns. Real nuns, not that cross-dresser:

"...'Maybe I'm especially sensitive since I just came from the excellent exhibit on the contributions of Catholic nuns now out on Ellis Island,' he explained.

" 'These are the women who tended to the homeless immigrants and refugees, who died nursing the abandoned in the cholera epidemic, who ran hospitals and universities decades before women did so in the non-Catholic sphere, who marched in Selma and today teach our poorest in our inner-city schools.'..."
(EWTN News)

The archbishop was describing nuns of years gone by. That was then, this is now.

Today, we've got nuns like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and EWTN's Mother Angelica.

Maybe nuns haven't change all that much, after all. And that's another topic.

I'm glad that the archbishop spoke out like this. And that bishops across America are acting like bishops: telling the truth about the Catholic Church and the culture we live in; and not trying to be nice, 'regular American' WASPs.

Related posts:

• "St. Mary MacKillop and Another News SNAFU"
  (October 19, 2010)
• "Rutgers Gay Suicide Reality Check"
  (October 1, 2010)
• "Stem Cell Research in the News: My Take"
  (August 23, 2010)
• "Lourdes, Daft Comments, and Thinking of Something to Say"
  (August 18, 2010)
• "'Those Immigrants,' Assumptions, and the Catholic Church"
  (May 18, 2010)

In the news:

• "Archbishop Dolan slams NY Times for offending 'Catholic sensibility'"
  EWTN News (October 23, 2010)

The Archbishop's Blog:

• The Gospel in the Digital Age
  'That' Post:
  • "More from the Times"
    (October 19, 2010)