The New York Times peppered its obituary of Cardinal Edward Egan with "cheap shots," using the death of the former archbishop of New York to editorialize against the Catholic Church, says Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
"It was unbelievable. This obituary was really an editorial," Donohue said Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
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"Two thousand, eight-hundred words … and they start off by saying he was a stern defender of the orthodoxy. First of all, why the sternness?
"Did they actually expect at The New York Times that an archbishop in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere is not going to defend the orthodoxy? Don't they defend their orthodoxy, their editorial positions?"
Donohue — author of the new book,
"The Catholic Advantage: Why Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await the Faithful," published by Image — said the obituary also came with a "lecture: abortion, homosexuality, contraception, right down the list."
"Ok, the Catholic Church and The New York Times are not at one. Why do they always have to take these cheap shots at a moment like this?" he asked.
Egan was pronounced dead at NYU Langone Medical Center at 2:20 p.m. Thursday, after suffering a heart attack at his home. He was promoted to cardinal in 2001, but retired eight years later after being hospitalized with heart problems and fitted with a pacemaker.
The
Times obituary, written by Robert D. McFadden, began: "Cardinal Edward M. Egan, a stern defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy who presided over the Archdiocese of New York for nine years in an era of troubled finances, changing demographics and an aging, dwindling priesthood shaken by sexual-abuse scandals, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 82."
Donohue said that several years ago he had written a letter to the Times in defense of Egan, whom he said had been trashed and treated unfairly.
"They did publish it. It was right around Christmastime. On Christmas Eve, I get a call from the doorman saying there's a package here for you," Donohue said.
"It's a nice and great picture of him in a letter to me thanking me because he felt that not enough Catholics would defend him when he was doing the right things. That was a touching moment."
Donohue said that Egan was never afraid to be criticized, but believes the Times had another agenda in its review of the cardinal's life.
"I looked at what the New York papers did, I listened to radio, television, I looked around the country and it was the only media outlet … that took advantage to basically make another editorial statement against the Catholic Church. All alone was The New York Times," he said.
"I can't believe they said he actually had to call the cops one time about a church. Yes, there were protesters in the church because he had to close the church for financial reasons. They wouldn't get out.
"The police came there and the priest came there. Now, if I take over at the editorial offices of The New York Times, are they not going to call the cops?"
Donohue said Egan was a unique presence in New York and a vibrant leader following the 9/11 terror attacks.
"He didn't just say a couple of prayers, he was down there at the Twin Towers and he's remembered for that," Donohue said.
He added that Egan's great strength as a Catholic leader was in the area of finance.
"Some people were critical of him because he didn't engage the culture that much and he didn't, in all fairness. Egan's predecessor, John O'Connor, was very much involved in the culture. His successor, Timothy Dolan, was very much involved in the culture," Donohue said.
"When [Egan] went to Bridgeport [Connecticut], back in '88, [the church there] was in dire trouble financially. He turned it around and put it into the black.... O'Connor's strength was the culture, his weakness really was in taking care of some financial stuff.... [Egan will] be remembered for basically putting the financial house in order in Bridgeport and in New York."
In a separate interview with Ed Berliner on the Newsmax TV's "MidPoint," Donohue said one mistaken belief about the Catholic Church is that its riches are endless.
"I wish the Catholic Church was as rich as Harvard University. One of the great myths is that the Vatican has all these billions of dollars. It's a joke," Donohue told Berliner.
"Take a look at the endowment of Harvard University [which] dwarfs the Catholic Church." Donohue told Berliner.
But, he added, parishioners enjoy the pageantry of the church.
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"They want to experience a sense of solemnity, and to them, they do want money put into the church," Donohue said.
"I guarantee, if you take a look at any survey done of Catholics and I would say it's probably true with other religions as well, they don't want some little dump shop to go into, they want something with some degree of regality.
"They want the organ, they want statues that cost them money. So this idea that it's an either-or, zero-sum equation — if you give money to the church to make it look nice, that somehow you're not having enough soup kitchens — is simply a bogus argument."
Donohue also praised Pope Francis and said there was a good reason for his growing popularity.
"Pope Francis is loved because of his bluntness, because he's not scripted. There's a genuineness to him that people can really reach out and touch … he's made a lot of pastoral changes, stylistic changes."
But Francis, for all of his progressive ideas, doesn't have the authority to alter a number of church doctrines.
"People may be surprised to learn this. The Pope does not have the authority to, for example, make women priests. Why? Because that's in scripture. Jesus chose 12 men and didn't even choose his own mother, did he, to be an apostle?" Donohue said.
He also said the Catholic Church will never recognize gay marriage, nor will it ever allow abortion to be considered to be anything other than "intrinsic evil."
"[If] people don't like those teachings, I would recommend that they shop around and go someplace else. A lot of the mainline Protestant religions [would] be glad to have you, although they're the ones losing members and we're not," Donohue said.
"I'm very comfortable with the fact that we have a long tradition of 2,000 years and we're not going to change.... You can change certain things. The fact that you're going to make glacial changes — no, that's not for us.
"I do believe in diversity, so if anybody wants women priests, they like abortion, they like two men getting married, go right ahead and do it. Just don't shop around the Catholic Church because we're not going to do that."
Donohue's new book explores the ways Catholicism is experienced by believers and how, in his view, Catholic living enhances one's health and well-being.
"I began to look at the relationship between health and religion a long time ago. My doctorate is in sociology. I'm not a physician, but I looked at the work done by physicians over the years," he said.
"People of faith — I chose Catholics, but it would also apply to Protestants and Jews in this country for the most part — I looked at why it is … [they] are healthier in terms of mental health and physical health …
"I looked at the three H's: health, happiness, and heaven. The people most likely to get there are people who are strong in their beliefs, people who have bonds … with family and friends and people who respect boundaries."
Donohue's group, the New York-based Catholic League, describes itself as the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, the goal of which is to defend "the right of Catholics — lay and clergy alike — to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination."
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