Bill Donohue comments on a story in today’s New York Times on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio:
A Gallup poll this week shows Pope Francis’ favorability rating is 59 percent, a drop of 17 percent since 2014. But for what it counts, the pope’s popularity with Mayor de Blasio has never been higher. It shouldn’t count for much: the mayor is neither a Catholic nor a member of any religious community. Indeed, he is a Marxist.
The Times tells us that as a graduate student, de Blasio “traveled to Nicaragua to work with a Catholic social justice group.” In fact, he raised money for the Sandinistas, the Communists who impoverished and oppressed their own people. The mayor seems to believe that his support for liberation theology, a failed attempt to wed Christianity and Marxism, means he has something in common with the pope. He is mistaken: Two years ago, Pope Francis said, “The Marxist ideology is wrong.”
“He [de Blasio] refers to Francis’ remark about homosexuality—’Who am I to judge’—as a ‘seismic moment.'” This is twice wrong: the pope’s comment was about homosexuals, not homosexuality, and he conditioned his position by saying that if a gay person “searches for the Lord and has good will,” then it would be wrong to pass judgment. (My emphasis.) By the way, the pope broke no new theological ground in making this statement; his predecessors believed the same. Moreover, the pope is on record saying that gay marriage is the work of the devil.
Rhetorically, de Blasio is a champion of diversity—save when it extends to Catholicism. He told the Times that “on the issue of women, there’s a lot more that has be done,” meaning that “as a moral matter,” the Church “has to respect the role of women differently.” Translation: Not until the Catholic Church okays abortion will de Blasio give Cardinal Timothy Dolan a high five. His unmitigated arrogance is his signature characteristic.
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