New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., should be excommunicated for celebrating the passage of a bill removing abortion from the state criminal code, leading some high-level members of the Catholic Church to call for his excommunication.
After the signing the bill, Cuomo ordered state landmarks like One World Trade Center be lit pink in celebration, a move that upset many of his pro-life opponents.
"It goes way beyond Roe v. Wade in so many ways, so I don't see it as something to celebrate," Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger said in an interview on "Fox & Friends" on Saturday. "The kind of procedures that are now available in New York state, we wouldn't even do to a dog or a cat...It's torture.
Tennessee Bishop Rick Stika in Knoxville tweeted on Thursday: “Someone asked me today if I would issue an excommunication of a Catholic Governor under my jurisdiction if the Governor did the same as in New York. I think I might do it for any Catholic legislator under my jurisdiction who voted for the bill as well as the Governor.”
The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, said on “Fox & Friends” Monday that excommunicating Cuomo would only provide “ammunition” for his supporters, adding that he gets “wheelbarrows” of letters each day and that the governor is “not going to be moved by this, so what’s the use?”
The archbishop also noted that the church used to excommunicate anyone who supported or performed abortions, but has focused on mercy for the past 50 years.