Marin Op-Ed Takes Springfield Bishop to Task

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 6, 2010 2:00PM

From yesterday's Sun-Times, Carol Marin, in her own inimitable way, tells Springfield Bishop Thomas John Paprocki (pictured) to STFU already about the recently passed civil unions bill. Paprocki, head of the Springfield Diocese, emerged as one of the stronger opponents of the bill and offered a stern warning to Gov. Quinn against signing the bill into law. "(I)f (Quinn) wishes to speak as a Catholic, then he is accountable to Catholic authority, and the Catholic Church does not support civil unions or other measures that are contrary to the natural moral law,” Paprocki wrote last week.

Marin reminds Paprocki that Quinn answers to a higher authority, the voters of Illinois. She also eloquently lists the litany of transgressions of the Catholic Church that undermine Paprocki's notions of "authority:"

"A church that should be chastened by the failure of its authority to protect children from sexual abuse, a church misusing its authority to conduct the current inquisition of the faithfulness of Roman Catholic sisters, is instead evermore consumed with its authority."

Bishop Paprocki might also want to re-familiarize himself with the First Amendment and Matthew 22:21.