Cardinals reflect 2 paths of Catholicism

Books focus on being Catholic, gay

The New York Times

NEW YORK — Two very different books about being Roman Catholic and gay were released recently, each with an endorsement from a cardinal who oversees an archdiocese along the Hudson River.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, N.J., endorsed “Building a Bridge,” calling it “brave, prophetic and inspiring.” The book calls on church leaders to use preferred terms like “gay” instead of “same-sex attraction,” as a sign of respect to gay Catholics.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, endorsed “Why I Don’t Call Myself Gay,” a memoir by a Catholic man who resisted his homosexual attractions and who now leads a celibate life inspired by the Gospel. Cardinal Dolan praised the book as an “honest account of the genuine struggles faced by those with same-sex attraction” that details how its author came to “understand and accept God’s loving plan for his life.”

The simultaneous endorsements were just the latest sign that the two cardinals on opposite sides of the Hudson appeal to two very different constituencies within the Roman Catholic Church in America.

Cardinal Tobin is emerging as a champion of progressive, center-left Catholics, who favor a church that places more emphasis on protecting immigrants and the environment than on fighting same-sex marriage. Cardinal Dolan, who was elevated to cardinal in 2012, remains a favorite of center-right Catholics, taking a more conservative approach toward doctrine and focusing more on issues like the church’s opposition to abortion.

Neither man is out of step with church tenets, and both believe in a kind of “big tent” Catholicism that reaches out to all, church experts said.

Neither cardinal wanted to comment for an article that compared them. But comparisons are inevitable because Pope Francis placed Cardinal Tobin in the same major media market as Cardinal Dolan when he appointed him to Newark in November. There had never been a cardinal in Newark. And of course, there is the standard rivalry that exists between New York and New Jersey in all things.

“I have to tell you that this beautiful cathedral is 5 feet longer than St. Patrick’s,” Cardinal Tobin said in May to laughter and applause at a Mass for gay Catholics at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, comparing the building with Cardinal Dolan’s majestic church in Manhattan.

The two took different paths to the highest reaches of the church. Cardinal Dolan took the route of the institutional insider, becoming a diocesan priest, which does not require a vow of poverty, then earning a doctorate in church history. He served at the Vatican’s embassy to Washington, and later he became the rector of the main seminary for U.S. priests in Rome. It was there that the genial conservative came to the attention of St. John Paul II, the pope who appointed him auxiliary bishop of his home diocese of St. Louis.

Cardinal Tobin, in contrast, wanted to travel the world as a missionary. He took a vow of poverty and joined the Redemptorists, the religious order that ran his home parish in Detroit and focuses on ministering to those on society’s margins. He became an administrator and ultimately superior general of his worldwide order, based in Rome. He learned several languages fluently.

To some, Cardinal Tobin represents the future and Cardinal Dolan the past. “Tobin and Cupich” — the Francis-appointed archbishop of Chicago, Blase J. Cupich — “are really breathing fresh air into the American Catholic Church,” said Pat McNamara, who has written a history of the Brooklyn Diocese. “Dolan is sort of like the old guard.”