Social Justice Initiatives
Flynn is especially noted for his devotion to Catholic education and the emphasis in his ministry on social justice, especially within his own archdiocese. He is also a strong advocate for Catholic economic justice abroad, and many of the parishes in the archdiocese have sister parishes in impoverished nations, such as Costa Rica. On September 12, 2003 he released a pastoral letter dealing with the issue of racism titled In God's Image, in which he called for the parishes of the diocese to unite in an effort to end racism and promote diversity and harmony, and in so doing, to make God's love more present to the rest of the world. Like his late predecessor, Flynn is an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq.
In May 2005, Archbishop Flynn publicly criticized Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty in the Star Tribune for what he perceived as irresponsible tax policies.
In the same month, Flynn departed from archdiocesan precedent by ordering his priests to refuse the Eucharist to any person wearing a rainbow sash – a symbol associated with those advocating change in the Church's position on homosexual activity.
Read more about this topic: Harry Joseph Flynn
Famous quotes containing the words social, justice and/or initiatives:
“After experience taught me that all the ordinary
Surroundings of social life are futile and vain;”
—William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)
“They make a great ado nowadays about hard times; but I think that ... this general failure, both private and public, is rather occasion for rejoicing, as reminding us whom we have at the helm,—that justice is always done. If our merchants did not most of them fail, and the banks too, my faith in the old laws of the world would be staggered.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)