William E. Lori
Encyclopedia
William E. Lori is the fourth Bishop
of Bridgeport, Connecticut
. Before succeeding Edward Egan in 2001 he was an Auxiliary Bishop
of the Archdiocese of Washington
.
He attended the Seminary of Saint Pius X in Erlanger, Kentucky
where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1973. He holds a M.A. from Mount Saint Mary's Seminary and a S.T.D.
from The Catholic University of America
, where he is now chairman of the Board of Trustees
. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Sacred Heart University
in Fairfield, CT and is also the Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus
.
Bishop Lori was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington by Cardinal William Baum on May 14, 1977. His first assignment was as associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Landover, MD. Bishop Lori then held a number of positions in the archdiocese's chancery including vicar general
, moderator of the Curia, and secretary to Cardinal James Hickey.
Lori is member of the Committee on Pro-Life
Activities and the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
.
In 2001 he invited Sister Mary Nirmala Joshi, M.C.
, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity
, to Bridgeport for the opening of the Sisters' first convent in Connecticut
.
The bishop called those concerns "only the most recent instances in a broader trend of erosion of religious liberty in the United States." "The ultimate root causes of these threats are profound, and lie beyond the scope of this hearing or even this august body to fix," he said. "But we can -- and must -- also treat the symptoms immediately, lest the disease spread so quickly that the patient is overcome before the ultimate cure can be formulated and delivered." Bishop Lori urged members of the House of Representatives to pass three bills that would "go a long way toward guaranteeing religious liberty and freedom of conscience for religious employers, health insurers and health care providers." They are the Protect Life Act
(H.R. 358), the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 361) and the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179). He also called for a congressional hearing or other investigation into "the illegal conditions that HHS and USAID are placing on religious providers of human services." He said new statutes might be necessary "to create new conscience protections, but more likely to create private rights of action for those whose rights under the existing protections have been violated."
"Unfortunately, the authority to enforce the applicable conscience protections now lies principally with the federal agencies that may be violating the protections," Bishop Lori said.
He urged House members to "resist legislative efforts to repeal" the Defense of Marriage Act
, including the Respect for Marriage Act
(H.R. 1116). "The religious freedom threats to marriage at the state level may fall beyond the scope of authority of Congress to control -- except to the extent that state adoption and foster care services are federally funded," he said.
Other witnesses at the hearing on "The State of Religious Liberty in the United States" were the Rev. Barry W. Lynn
, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
, and Colby M. May, director and senior counsel of the Washington office of the American Center for Law and Justice
.
Bishop (Catholic Church)
In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is responsible for teaching the Catholic faith and ruling the Church....
of Bridgeport, Connecticut
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport is located in the south western part of the state of Connecticut, and its boundaries are the same as that of Fairfield County, Connecticut. There are 87 parishes in the diocese. Its cathedral is St. Augustine in Bridgeport.The current bishop is The Most...
. Before succeeding Edward Egan in 2001 he was an Auxiliary Bishop
Auxiliary bishop
An auxiliary bishop, in the Roman Catholic Church, is an additional bishop assigned to a diocese because the diocesan bishop is unable to perform his functions, the diocese is so extensive that it requires more than one bishop to administer, or the diocese is attached to a royal or imperial office...
of the Archdiocese of Washington
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It comprises the District of Columbia and Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George's and Saint Mary's counties in the state of Maryland....
.
He attended the Seminary of Saint Pius X in Erlanger, Kentucky
Erlanger, Kentucky
Erlanger is a city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 16,676 at the 2000 census.- Geography :Erlanger is located at ....
where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1973. He holds a M.A. from Mount Saint Mary's Seminary and a S.T.D.
Doctor of Sacred Theology
The Doctor of Sacred Theology is the final theological degree in the pontifical university system of the Catholic Church....
from The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
, where he is now chairman of the Board of Trustees
Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America
As of May 2010, the Board of Trustees at The Catholic University of America was composed of:*Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus*Richard D. Banziger, B.A. 1981, Managing Director, Salomon Smith Barney...
. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Sacred Heart University
Sacred Heart University
Sacred Heart University is a Roman Catholic university located in suburban Fairfield, Connecticut, United States. Sacred Heart was founded in 1963 by the Most Reverend Walter W. Curtis, Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Sacred Heart University was the first Catholic university in...
in Fairfield, CT and is also the Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
.
Bishop Lori was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington by Cardinal William Baum on May 14, 1977. His first assignment was as associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Landover, MD. Bishop Lori then held a number of positions in the archdiocese's chancery including vicar general
Vicar general
A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular...
, moderator of the Curia, and secretary to Cardinal James Hickey.
Lori is member of the Committee on Pro-Life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
Activities and the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...
.
In 2001 he invited Sister Mary Nirmala Joshi, M.C.
Sister Nirmala
Sister Nirmala succeeded Mother Teresa as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity in March 1997.She was born Nirmala Joshi into a Brahmin family in Ranchi . Her parents were Hindu Brahmins from Nepal...
, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity
Missionaries of Charity
Missionaries of Charity is a Roman Catholic religious congregation established in 1950 by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which consists of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries...
, to Bridgeport for the opening of the Sisters' first convent in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
Views
- Lori is seen as a conservative cleric who has carried out controversial church mandates in the past. Some critics, however, say he does not question the church hierarchy and, at times, has acted harshly in order to please his superiors. While an auxiliary bishop in Washington D.C., he led an investigation at the behest of Cardinal James Aloysius Hickey into a liberal parish in Georgetown. Investigators taped their questioning of priests, staff and volunteers and asked them all to pledge their honesty. Critics said the tactics were a heavy-handed attempt to bully the parish away from its liberal ways. One called it "an inquisition." The investigation revealed that two Protestant ministers had been allowed to deliver and receive communion. Two of the parish priests had to apologize publicly. "He was an arch-conservative," said Bill Wellington, a member of another parish in Washington. "He cracked down on liberal parishes when Hickey wanted him to."
- Lori has been credited with establishing a new attitude and local policy toward sex abuse after being appointed Bishop of Bridgeport which had been reeling from abuse cases under then Bishop Edward Egan. In 2002, Lori was one of seven members of the ad hoc, bishops' committee tasked with writing a new policy (known as the Dallas Policy) on how to deal with abusive priests. Once approved by the USCCB, Lori was one of four bishops picked to travel to the VaticanHoly SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
and work out compromises that would make the proposed Dallas policy (now known as the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young PeopleCatholic sexual abuse scandal in the United StatesCatholic sexual abuse scandal in the United States refers to a series of lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, and scandals related to sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests and members of religious orders, that first rose to widespread public attention in the last two decades of the 20th...
), which established a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual abuse, more palatable to the Pope. Lori emerged as the de facto spokesman. The group also included Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Ill., Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and Archbishop William LevadaWilliam LevadaWilliam Joseph Levada is an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Since 2005, he has served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making him the highest ranking American in the Roman Curia. He was previously the Archbishop of Portland from 1986 to 1995 and...
of San Francisco. Lori also enacted many of the provisions in the charter before all the bishops accepted them as a whole: he was one of the first bishops to establish a local review board and acted swiftly against priests who have been accused of abuse under his watch. One of the priests, the Rev. Alfred J. Bietighofer, committed suicide soon after he was suspended.
- In 2004 Bishop Lori blessed and dedicated "Villa Maria Guadalupe" on the grounds of the former Villa Maria Retreat Center in Stamford, CT. The property was purchased by the Knights of Columbus, who invited the Sisters of LifeSisters of LifeSisters of Life is a female Roman Catholic religious order, following the Augustinian rule, that was founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, after much prayer and a visit to the remains of the Dachau concentration camp. It is both a contemplative and active religious...
, a religious community dedicated to protecting and advancing a sense of the sacredness of all human life, to offer retreats for families and married couples, for women facing problem pregnancies, for pro-life leaders, and for Knights and their families.
- In 2007, he announced a doctrinal investigation on American theologian Peter C. PhanPeter C. PhanPeter C. Phan is an American Catholic theologian who is a native of Vietnam.He obtained three doctorates, the Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Salesian University in Rome, and the Doctor of Philosophy and the Doctor of Divinity from the university of London...
, who has written about Asian perspectives on interreligious dialogue.
- Bishop Lori has opposed legislation by Rep. Michael P. Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonaldAndrew J. McDonaldAndrew J. McDonald is an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut. A Democrat, he served as a member of the Connecticut State Senate from 2003 to 2011, representing the state's 27th district in Stamford and Darien...
that would remove control of the diocese from the bishop and place it into the hands of laymen. The legislation had been written with the help of liberal Catholics, including Connecticut attorney Thomas Gallagher, a contributor to the group Voice of the FaithfulVoice of the FaithfulVoice of the Faithful is an organization of progressive Catholics, formed in early 2002 in response to the Catholic sex abuse cases.-Founding, growth and mission:...
. Similar Separation of church and stateSeparation of church and state in the United StatesThe phrase "separation of church and state" , attributed to Thomas Jefferson and others, and since quoted by the Supreme Court of the United States, expresses an understanding of the intent and function of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States...
legislation was adopted in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the early 20th century, which is called the 1905law.
- A Catholic News ServiceCatholic News ServiceCatholic News Service is an American news agency covering the Roman Catholic Church. CNS was established in 1920 and is a leading source of news for Catholic print and broadcast media throughout the world....
online news story article by Nancy Frazier O'Brien, posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011, stated that: "Recent "grave threats to religious liberty" serve as "grim validations" of the U.S. bishops' decision last June to create a special committee to address those issues, Bishop William C. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., told a House subcommittee Oct. 26. Bishop Lori, appointed in late September to chair the bishops' new Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence require government to acknowledge and protect religious liberty as fundamental, no matter the moral and political trends of the moment." But in recent days, he said, "the bishops of the United States have watched with increasing alarm as this great national legacy of religious liberty, so profoundly in harmony with our own teachings, has been subject to ever more frequent assault and ever more rapid erosion." In written testimony before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Bishop Lori called for "corrective action by Congress" to address six areas of particular concern: 1.) Regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services in August that would mandate coverage of contraception and sterilization in most private health insurance plans; 2.) A new requirement by HHS that would require the bishops' Migration and Refugee Services to agree to provide the "full range" of reproductive services, including abortion and contraception, to human trafficking victims and unaccompanied refugee minors; 3.) The U.S. Agency for International Development's requirement that Catholic Relief Services and other contractors include condom distribution in their HIV prevention activities and provide contraception in a range of international relief and development programs; 4.) The Department of Justice's actions to mischaracterize the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which states that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, as an act of bigotry and to actively attack its constitutionality; 5.) The Justice Department's efforts to undermine the "ministerial exception" that exempts religious institutions from some civil laws when it comes to hiring and firing; 6.) State actions on same-sex marriage that have resulted in Catholic Charities agencies in Illinois being "driven out of the adoption and foster care business" and some county clerks in New York state facing legal action for refusing to participate in same-sex unions.
The bishop called those concerns "only the most recent instances in a broader trend of erosion of religious liberty in the United States." "The ultimate root causes of these threats are profound, and lie beyond the scope of this hearing or even this august body to fix," he said. "But we can -- and must -- also treat the symptoms immediately, lest the disease spread so quickly that the patient is overcome before the ultimate cure can be formulated and delivered." Bishop Lori urged members of the House of Representatives to pass three bills that would "go a long way toward guaranteeing religious liberty and freedom of conscience for religious employers, health insurers and health care providers." They are the Protect Life Act
Protect Life Act
The Protect Life Act is a bill introduced to the 112th United States Congress in the House of Representatives by Rep. Joe Pitts . The bill has 121 co-sponsors, including 6 Democrats...
(H.R. 358), the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 361) and the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179). He also called for a congressional hearing or other investigation into "the illegal conditions that HHS and USAID are placing on religious providers of human services." He said new statutes might be necessary "to create new conscience protections, but more likely to create private rights of action for those whose rights under the existing protections have been violated."
"Unfortunately, the authority to enforce the applicable conscience protections now lies principally with the federal agencies that may be violating the protections," Bishop Lori said.
He urged House members to "resist legislative efforts to repeal" the Defense of Marriage Act
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act is a United States federal law whereby the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, no U.S. state may be required to recognize as a marriage a same-sex relationship considered a marriage in another state...
, including the Respect for Marriage Act
Respect for Marriage Act
The Respect for Marriage Act, or RFMA , is a proposed bill in the United States Congress that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and allow the U.S. federal government to provide benefits to couples in a same-sex marriage; the bill would not compel individual states to recognize same-sex...
(H.R. 1116). "The religious freedom threats to marriage at the state level may fall beyond the scope of authority of Congress to control -- except to the extent that state adoption and foster care services are federally funded," he said.
Other witnesses at the hearing on "The State of Religious Liberty in the United States" were the Rev. Barry W. Lynn
Barry W. Lynn
Barry W. Lynn, Esq. has been the Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1992. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and a prominent leader of the American religious left...
, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a group that advocates separation of church and state, a legal doctrine interpreted by AU as being enshrined in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.-Mission:The guiding principle of Americans...
, and Colby M. May, director and senior counsel of the Washington office of the American Center for Law and Justice
American Center for Law and Justice
The American Center for Law & Justice is a conservative Christian, pro-life group that was founded in 1990 by evangelical Pat Robertson.-History:...
.