Now This Is a Bishop

4 November AD 2014
Donald R. McClarey

It is easy to get cynical about Bishops, and then one of them does something like this:

GLENS FALLS — Edward Scharfenberger, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, joined a small group of men praying in front of the Planned Parenthood offices on Friday afternoon.

“Wow, we’re really surrounded by a lot of religious symbols,” said Scharfenberger when he arrived, pointing out statues of Mary and Jesus located on the second story of a building, once planned to house a Christian adoption agency, across Warren Street.

Next door to Planned Parenthood, the Open Arms Pregnancy Center has offered alternative pregnancy counseling since 2007.

The men gathered on the sidewalk were part of a campaign called 40 Days for Life, a national movement calling for a peaceful approach to protest abortion through prayer, vigils and community outreach.

“My approach is about making a change in their hearts,” he said of those they were praying for, mentioned in prayers as the people in the building behind them (Planned Parenthood). “My hope is that the Lord moves them to do the right thing. That they get guidance to choose with their conscience.”Bravo Bishop!

Donald R. McClarey

Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.

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Thomas Collins

Tuesday, November 4, AD 2014 10:01am

Indeed! +Scharfenberger is a breath of fresh air.
Fr Z fisked a letter to the editor of the Times-Union from a Unitarian minister objecting to the Bishop’s remarks at an interfaith gathering because it was full of Catholic theology and [gasp!] mentioned Hell.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/10/shock-a-catholic-bishop-who-speaks-like-gulp-a-catholic-bishop/

rey adalid

Wednesday, November 5, AD 2014 2:24am

I once visited Del Angelo Diocese of Texas and joined the bishop there praying the rosary before an abortion clinic! they are doing it – accompanying their flock but are not concerned if media people notice them or not…

Michael Leggett

Wednesday, November 5, AD 2014 8:41am

I knew His Excellency in all of his time here in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, NY, as Msgr Scharfenberger, so he was made to be, by God, a Bishop, to revitalize the Moribund Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, NY. “Scharf”, is missed here in Queens.

Now This Is a Bishop

Donald R. McClarey

The American Catholic is a Little Vatican Apostolate