Nov 3, 2009 6:54 pm US/Eastern
Dolan Decries 'Anti-Catholic Bias' At NY Times
Archbishop Calls Venerable Newspaper, Respected Columnist Out Over What He Believes Is Negative Coverage
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan (file)
CBS
There is a growing war of words between New York's archbishop and the New York Times.
Timothy Dolan recently fired back at the newspaper and a column that he said is biased against the Catholic Church.
Now we're learning who's taking sides.
The genial Dolan lost his patience with the venerable newspaper over what he sees as a pattern of anti-Catholic coverage, specifically from columnist Maureen Dowd, whose recent column on American nuns and the Church patriarchy Dolan labeled as intemperate and surrilous.
She really pushed his buttons.
"I think pushing buttons is what Maureen Dowd does. I think that's absolutely what that column was absolutely about. I don't think she was trying to provoke a response from the bishop exactly," said Mollie Wilson O'Reilly of the Catholic magazine Commonweal.
Oh did she.
"It is not hyperbole," Dolan wrote, "to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime, 'the anti-Semitism of the Left' is how Viereck reads it."
At Commonweal, however, they think he might be overstating his case.
"I don't think I disagree with the Archbishop on the merits of the things he objects to. I think, though, that responding in this way is not fruitful," O'Reilly said.
It certainly rubbed some folks in the Irish-American press the wrong way. At IrishCentral.com, the Internet arm of the Irish voice lept to Dowd's defense.
"I don't think there's any way Maureen Dowd could be described as anti-Catholic. She's one of the most Catholic people I've ever met," said Kelly Fincham from the site. "I think maybe the Archbishop thinks he's putting an uppity woman in her place."
The suggestion that Dolan has gone over the line is sparking a spirited debate.
"The Archbishop is over the line for what? For calling the New York Times on the carpet? For pointing out with specifics that there's a bias there, that there's an animus against the Roman Catholic Church? No, Irish Central does not exactly speak for New Yorkers," said William O'Donohue of the Catholic League.
In many ways this very public flare-up is an echo of a debate going on inside the Church about the role of women and their ability even to speak up. As one nun put it to CBS 2 HD on Tuesday, "I'd love to talk to you, but I want to keep my job."
Neither the Archbishop, the New York Times, nor Dowd returned CBS 2 HD's requests for comment on Tuesday.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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