Cardinal Timothy Dolan Twists Pope Francis’ Position On Gays As Nothing New (Video)
Pope Francis I made headlines around the world yesterday for his supportive comments of gay people, especially gay priests. Whereas his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI literally declared an international holy war against gay people, homosexuality, and same-sex marriage, Pope Francis asked, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
It wad a shot — of tolerance and love — heard around the world.
“Francis’s words could not have been more different from those of Benedict XVI, who in 2005 wrote that homosexuality was ‘a strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil,’ and an ‘objective disorder,'” the New York Times today said. “The church document said men with ‘deep-seated homosexual tendencies’ should not become priests.'”
“At a certain point, tone becomes substance if it’s seen as revitalizing the prospects of the church,†said John L. Allen, Jr., a Vatican expert at The National Catholic Reporter.
The Times added, “the fact that he made such comments — and used the word “gay†— was nevertheless revolutionary, and likely to generate significant discussion in local dioceses, where bishops are divided over whether to accept priests who are gay but celibate.”
So of course, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and thus the top-ranking Roman Catholic in America — the man literally responsible for leading America’s Catholics, and the Pope’s de facto representative in the U.S. — worked quickly to claim the Pope’s message is nothing new, as opposed to his own never-ending campaign of hate against LGBT people.
You’ll remember that Cardinal Dolan had his St. Patrick’s Cathedral officials call the NYPD and have them block the entrance to the Church one Sunday a few months ago, in his petty fight over getting gay people to literally wash their hands before entering to worship.
Dolan, who is also the Archbishop of New York, this morning appeared on CBS News’ “This Morning,” telling Charlie Rose that Pope Francis said nothing new, claiming that he and the Church have always called for tolerance and respect for LGBT people.
“I think we got a question of emphasis and tone,” Dolan said on CBS:
“That may be something people find new and refreshing. I for one don’t think it is and I hate to see previous popes caricatured as not having that.”
Which is a ludicrous whitewashing.
Just last month, Dolan called the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage a “tragic day for marriage and our nation,” and “a profound injustice†that threatens the “preservation of liberty and justice.â€
“After lobbying against New York’s marriage equality law, Dolan prohibited by decree any Church personnel or property from being utilized for same-sex marriage ceremonies under penalty of ‘canonical sanctions,’ calling the state’s law ‘irreconcilable with the nature and the definition of marriage as established by Divine law,'” Igor Volsky at Think Progress reports:
He has also compared the “threat†posed to marriage by gays and lesbians to that of polygamy, adultery, forced marriage,communist dictatorships, and incest. Dolan responded to the Supreme Court’s decision striking down a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act by claiming that the spread of marriage equality will threaten “the common good of all.â€
In May, an anti-gay hate crime wave hit New York City, with nine violent anti-gay attacks, including a murder with a gun at point-blank range. Nine anti-gay attacks in one month and 27 for the year, twice the rate of the year previous. Cardinal Dolan ignored the anti-gay hate in his own backyard, while issuing a directive to all Catholic dioceses to focus their sermons on “traditional marriage†and opposing the “redefinition of marriage†to include LGBT people, in the hope that somehow his prayers would reach the Supreme Court.
They did not.
Yes, instead of denouncing anti-gay violence, instead of even acknowledging it, instead of calling for tolerance and love, Cardinal Dolan issued a directive to preach anti-LGBT hate in Church.
And it was only after The New Civil Rights Movement and other called him out for his silence that he spent 17 seconds acknowledging the violence, on a local radio show.
And did nothing more.
Here’s Dolan this morning:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/cbsnews_player_embed.swf
Related:
Cardinal Timothy Dolan Hid $57 Million From Church Sex Abuse Victims
Cardinal Dolan Calls For Anti-LGBT Sermons In Shadow Of Violent Anti-Gay Hate Crime Wave
Timothy Dolan Wants You To Fast For Those Who Are Marching In Hate Against Your Marriage
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
