BILL DONOHUE COMMENTS ON ANDREW CUOMO'S LIFESTYLE

ANDREW CUOMO'S LIFESTYLE 

Catholic League president Bill Donohue addresses recent news stories on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's lifestyle:

I have been asked by many media outlets to comment on the propriety of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo receiving Holy Communion. The question arises because everyone knows that he is living in an adulterous relationship with his female companion. The reason we don't take a position on this issue is quite simple: it is not our job.

We are a civil rights organization that protects the rights of individual Catholics and the institutional Church from discrimination and defamation. We are not a moral detective agency for the Catholic Church. It is up to the bishops to decide what the appropriate course of action is regarding a Catholic public figure who is widely believed to be openly flouting the teachings of the Catholic Church. 

When it comes to policy matters and cultural issues, as opposed to personal matters, that is a different story. Thus, we continue to criticize the notorious 1984 address that New York Governor Mario Cuomo, the father of Andrew, made at the University of Notre Dame: he is most responsible for disseminating the invidious notion that Catholics can be personally opposed to, but publicly supportive of, abortion rights.

Also objectionable is the seedy voyeurism of the media. No reporter would ever stand outside a synagogue or a mosque asking passersby whether they agree with Jewish or Islamic strictures on any internal matter. Catholicism is deserving of the same respect.

Nor do we appreciate the incredibly ignorant remarks made yesterday on "The View." Since all of the panelists have either left Catholicism (Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck), or were never a member (Sherri Shepherd), it should not matter what Catholicism teaches about anything. How about a little respect for diversity?

Andrew Cuomo and the bishops are the only parties that really matter on this issue. Everyone else belongs on the sidelines.

Jeff Field
Director of Communications
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
450 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10123
212-371-3191
212-371-3394 (fax)