FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
Email: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Truth Wins Out Condemns Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s Blessing of the Republican National Convention
BURLINGTON, Vt – Truth Wins Out condemned New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan today after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney revealed yesterday in an interview that the prelate will deliver the benediction at next week’s Republican National Convention on the same night that Romney accepts the GOP presidential nomination.
Dolan, who is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and currently suing the Obama administration over the birth control mandates in the new health care law, said through a spokesperson that his appearance in Tampa is not an endorsement, but a report from the New York Times betrays Dolan’s apolitical claims:
Asked in the interview about the opposition of Catholic bishops to the Obama administration’s health care mandates on birth control, Mr. Romney said: “Well, first of all, I’ll continue to meet with Cardinal Dolan, who, by the way, is going to offer the benediction on the last evening of the Republican Convention after my acceptance speech. So I am making it very clear that the interest of religious freedom is something I support wholeheartedly.”
In response, Truth Wins Out — the national LGBT organization dedicated to fighting anti-gay extremism — released the following statement:
“It is utterly disgraceful that Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the highest-profile Catholic in the United States, has chosen to lend his tacit endorsement to the Republican Party by blessing a purely partisan political convention, on national television, immediately following Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “There can no longer be any doubt that the American Catholic bishops are in bed with the GOP.”
“Dolan seems to have no problem appearing to endorse the party of Paul Ryan, whose budget the USCCB strongly condemned as a moral failure,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications. “Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the GOP just passed the most right-wing, anti-woman, anti-LGBT party platform in modern history – because if we know one thing, it’s that the leadership of the Catholic Church will do absolutely anything to block the rights of women and LGBT people. The cardinal’s blessing of next week’s national gathering of Republicans makes it abundantly clear that the unholy alliance between the U.S. Catholic bishops and the GOP is complete.”
Truth Wins Out (TWO) is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly and true to themselves. TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes their leaders. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
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