By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future
“We need a moral leader of the church who will speak out against
war and poverty, not gay marriage and marijuana,” I said about Bishop Thomas
Tobin on NBC10 News Conference this weekend.
Tobin was in the news for a blog post he wrote calling on lawmakers to keep cannabis illegal in
Rhode Island. “In opening the door to drug use even a little bit, we have so
much to lose and absolutely nothing to gain,” he wrote.
But as I responded on TV, “The Bishop is essentially siding with
mass incarceration if he wants marijuana to stay illegal, and that’s a far
greater sin than indulgence.”
I called him a “moral failure for our state and for the Catholic
Church.”
In the online segment I made clear my harsh judgement is
not for his position on drug policy. It’s also not for taking a strong position
against abortion.
It’s because he has been completely absent from the public
discussion on poverty and war – issues that have been central to all Rhode Islanders
lives during his tenure as bishop.
In his interview with Bill Rappleye, Tobin expressed his views
on war.
“Of course I’m against wars, I don’t know anyone who is in favor
of wars,” Tobin said. “I think it was St. John Paul who said war is always a
defeat for humanity. It’s never good.”
But, he added, “Sometimes there are prudential judgments.”
He continued, “The Catholic Church has a long tradition of
talking about a ‘just war theory’. It is never to say someone is just in
starting a war, but we certainly believe in the right of self-defense. What
would someone do to respond to the attacks of terrorism, of ISIS, the terrible
persecution of Christians taking place in the Middle East, the attacks on our
own country or in France or in Belgium? How do we respond to these violent
terrorist attacks without having some means of self-defense. That’s where I
think someone providing legitimate armaments and self-defense has a legitimate
role to play. Again, no one is in favor of war.”
On transgender bathrooms, Tobin, a Republican who said he
probably won’t vote for Donald Trump, showed some compassion before invoking a
popular conservative talking point.
“I have no doubt there are some people for physiological or
psychological reasons have to deal with being transgendered and those people
deserve all the support and respect and cooperation and assistance we can offer
them but I’m also concerned this seems to be becoming a politically-driven
agenda. It does seem to me to be very sweeping and overarching and perhaps
another intrusion of the federal government into areas that are best decided at
the local level.”
Bob
Plain is the editor/publisher of Rhode Island's Future. Previously,
he's worked as a reporter for several different news organizations both in
Rhode Island and across the country.