But Then There's Bishop Daly Of Spokane!

This isn't the first time Bp Thomas Daly of Spokane, WA has come up on this blog. Late last year, we looked at how his chancery handled the question of about 20 Jesuits who'd been credibly accused of abuse and were living under theoretical "safety plans" in a residence on the Gonzaga University campus, but were actually free to come and go.

As best we can tell from the record, then-Bp Cupich had been aware of at least seven of the Jesuits while he was ordinary there from 2010 to 2014, but did nothing about them. Daly, in contrast, acted decisively but quietly:

In 2016, they all suddenly left Gonzaga for California, a complete coincidence, I'm sure. (However, they were relocated to the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California, in the diocese where Daly had previously been auxiliary.) By 2017, the Spokane diocese was updating its policies to be sure that no more hinky Jesuits (or hinkies of any other stripe) could come in without the bishop's knowledge and approval.

When the news of the Jesuits at Gonzaga eventually broke, the diocese responded with what I thought was a textbook example of good crisis management. Yes, it had happened. Yes, the problem was fixed when the bishop learned about it. Yes, changes have been made to keep it from happening again. It was handled up front, everything out at once, no steady drip of new revelations. This had to say something about Bp Daly, in my view.

This week, we heard from Bp Daly again:

Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly’s call for local Catholic politicians who support legislation enabling abortions to get right with the church drew a skeptical response Monday from two Spokane City Council members.

Daly signed a letter Friday calling on local politicians “who obstinately persevere in their public support for abortion” to abstain from the sacrament of Communion until they’ve “reconciled to Christ and the Church.”

Daly cites legislation approved in New York state and proposed in Virginia in his letter and invokes language from Catholic canonical law indicating that actions promoting such laws are grave offenses to the church that would require public atonement.

“The Church’s commitment to the life of every human person from conception until death is firm,” Daly wrote. “God alone is the author of life and for the civil government to sanction the willful murder of children is unacceptable. For a Catholic political leader to do so is scandalous.”

On one hand, Daly appears to be one of very few US bishops to take such a clear position. He isn't threatening them with excommunication, but he's certainly urging them to an examination of conscience. Last Sunday we had a homily from an important guy in our archdiocesan chancery who was pretty darn ticked off (he used a stronger word) that more bishops weren't simply excommunicating the likes of Andrew Cuomo.

On the other, Daly clearly pays a price for his witness. The story linked above continues,

Spokane City council members Ben Stuckart and Karen Stratton, who were both raised Catholic and have taken Communion in the church, said the bishop’s words sent the wrong message.

“It hurt my feelings to read that,” said Stuckart, who said he doesn’t “regularly” attend church but that he’d been baptized and confirmed in the faith. “It’s the exact opposite of what Spokane should be.”

Stratton agreed, saying she supported “a woman’s right to choose” and that she was raised in the church by nuns who encouraged her to be a strong-willed person.

“Those kinds of comments, they split people,” Stratton said of the letter. “He should be setting an example.”

The stories we're seeing about bishops like Bp Foys in Covington show how easily they can be terrified by the press, something Foys himself acknowledged in his apology. This makes Daly that much more an example of courage, all too rare in the US Church. Michael Voris has a similar point about Cardinal Dolan:

His reaction and media comments following Governor Cuomo signing the new state abortion law reveals some serious issues upstairs with His Eminence.

He says Cuomo shouldn't be excommunicated because it would be giving ammo to the enemy — that the Left would seize on the excommunication and portray Cuomo in a sympathetic light. Yeah, they probably would — so what? Is that worse than allowing the world to think — or actually realize — that U.S. bishops are lily-livered cowards when it comes to the hard truths.

Dolan claims it would be counter-productive. What a stupid analysis; counter-productive to what, exactly? What's counter-productive is letting the world think leaders in the Church don't think this is a big deal, and what's worse, other Catholics think it's not a big deal.

. . . For example, when he was on FOX & Friends answering questions from the hosts about all this, FOX actually took down and edited out part of the live interview where Dolan simply got it wrong about Church teaching.

He said, in sum, that those involved in an abortion are not excommunicated, in direct defiance of existing canon law.

The laity needs to demand better bishops. We in fact have a number of them.