Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin will be honored this Friday with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Congress for Racial Equality and Alliance for Marriage.
The award is not just for his support for the most draconian constitutional provision in the country to "protect" marriage that a bunch of clod-headed voters in Wisconsin just adopted.
Instead:
The award will honor Bishop Morlino for resisting groups seeking to deprive him of his fundamental right -- as an American and as a Catholic leader -- to express support for a state constitutional amendment to protect marriage as a man and woman.
That’s right. Bishop Morlino will be applauded for his free speech courage.
Now, I will pause momentarily to allow those who know something about Bishop Morlino to pick your jaw off the floor after reading that sentence.
Those of you not so familiar with the tyrannical Bishopness of Madison can simply read this letter from him to Madison diocese priests just before the November 7th election. It commands the priests to play a pre-recorded message from the Bishop during mass in which he states support for adding hate to the Wisconsin state constitution with the marriage amendment. It then goes on to show us why the Bishop is such a strong advocate of free speech with these words:
I apologize in advance for this second paragraph that I must write, and I would very much prefer otherwise. My office has received reports that in isolated cases, priests have refused to cooperate with my requests in terms of preaching in defense of marriage and have even expressed disagreement with my clear wishes in this matter. Please listen to the enclosed message: it deals with the marriage referendum, the death penalty referendum, and the issue of embryonic-stem cell research.
The message is educational in its purpose, and is certainly non-partisan. What I expect of each of you is a simple introductory statement that the bishop has required this message to be played during the homily time at all Masses of obligation on November the 4th or the 5th. If you can express some support for the message that I offer that would be appreciated but not expected.
I must make it very clear that any verbal or non-verbal expression of disagreement with this teaching on the part of the priest will have to be considered by myself as an act of disobedience, which could have serious consequences. I am sorry that a few isolated reports cause me to write to all of you in this vein. Up to this point I have not investigated the accuracy of those reports and at the moment I am giving the priests involved the benefit of the doubt, as is my custom. But it would be less than fair for me to leave any lingering ambiguity in anyone's mind about my seriousness in this particular matter. As always you are welcome to discuss the matter with me, through the use of my private phone number.
Wow. Those are truly inspiring words of a man who courageously defends the human rights enshrined in the First Amendment. If a Madison priest says anything negative or even so much as grimaces negatively in response to the Bishop's speech, Morlino will pull out his anti-free speech knee-breaker on that priest. Jefferson and Madison would be so proud.
Now, I hardly expect the Catholic Church to be a font of opportunity for free speech. It is an authoritarian institution where free speech is not a guiding principle which Morlino has clearly taken to heart. Free speech in the Catholic Church is not my point and is one best left to a Catholic to argue for, not me.
I object to some trumped-up effort by any organization or person that seeks to show that a man like Morlino who so freely crushes the First Amendment rights of others is worthy of praise for asserting his own free speech rights. Giving Bishop Morlino an award for free speech courage is like giving George Bush an award for foreign policy achievement. It's pure crap.
Crossposted at DICTA