Governor Mario Cuomo, Catholic Politician Who Respected Separation of Church and State, Dies at 82

[rug]

January 1, 2015
by Hemant Mehta

As the stories about former New York Governor Mario Cuomo pour in following his death earlier today, I’m reminded of a speech the famously Catholic politician gave at the University of Notre Dame in 1984.

In it, he reminded the audience that while he might personally adhere to Catholic doctrine, his role as a politician was to secure religious freedoms for everyone and not legislate his personal morality:

In addition to all the weaknesses, dilemmas and temptations that impede every pilgrim’s progress, the Catholic who holds political office in a pluralistic democracy — who is elected to serve Jews and Muslims, atheists and Protestants, as well as Catholics — bears special responsibility. He or she undertakes to help create conditions under which all can live with a maximum of dignity and with a reasonable degree of freedom; where everyone who chooses may hold beliefs different from specifically Catholic ones — sometimes contradictory to them; where the laws protect people’s right to divorce, to use birth control and even to choose abortion.

In fact, Catholic public officials take an oath to preserve the Constitution that guarantees this freedom. And they do so gladly. Not because they love what others do with their freedom, but because they realize that in guaranteeing freedom for all, they guarantee our right to be Catholics: our right to pray, to use the sacraments, to refuse birth control devices, to reject abortion, not to divorce and remarry if we believe it to be wrong.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/01/01/governor-mario-cuomo-catholic-politician-who-respected-separation-of-church-and-state-dies-at-82/

http://archives.nd.edu/research/texts/cuomo.htm

[cbayer]

1. He will be sorely missed.

I wish we could have had him as president, but it was not meant to be.

[hrmjustin]

2. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

[pinto]

3. +1. Cuomo got it.