A CATHOLIC POLITICIAN

The latest issue of The National Catholic Register has an interview with Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon. He is a devout Catholic and great DA but unfortunately the interview is not online. In the interview, he mentions working on civil-rights cases in the 1960's under Robert F. Kennedy and then later leaving the Democratic Party because of its stance on abortion in 1988. Dillon also mentions the two priests he prosecuted and jailed for abusing children. He also mentions the Rising Star program which is described on the Nassau DA's website this way:

"All of Rising Star’s many programs, which include academic intervention, recreational and sports activities and mentoring, are designed to guide young people in a positive direction and to fortify them with the natural virtues -- justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude -- that will help them resist the negative influences of crime, drugs and gang activity."

I hope the interview will be available online someday, but I don't think the NC Register puts these interviews online. Here is a quote that demonstrates how a Catholic politician should be:

"If something is morally evil such as abortion, one can't support it. We are never free to knowingly do immoral acts. I can't go before the judgment seat of God and say I was a public official and I did what my constituents wanted. I'll be held responsible for what I do.
There are times when I might have to recuse myself. There are other times when my moral beliefs have as much right to be involved in the clash of ideas in the public square as anyone else's.
If I get my moral beliefs from the Catholic faith and the dictates of the natural moral law, so be it. I have every right to draw on these sources in a democracy as the secularists have drawn from their own sources in forming their own opinions."


Update: I just found this National Catholic Reporter (gag) article comparing Mario Cuomo and Denis Dillon that really shows how Dillon puts his faith into action in his work.

"When Operation Rescue antiabortion activists took their illegal protests to Nassau County, Dillon refused to prosecute them. "I even considered resigning," Dillon told NCR, because he believed the protesters were "morally justified." Instead, he arranged with prosecutors in a neighboring jurisdiction to handle the cases."

"Despite a post-Cuomo law putting capital punishment back on the books, Dillon has steadfastly opposed efforts to execute convicted murderers in his jurisdiction. Instead, he has established a panel to advise him on the death penalty. In keeping with modern Catholic teaching, the panel can only recommend a death sentence in cases where it is essential to protect the broader community. Dillon has, in effect, abolished the death penalty in one of New York's largest jurisdictions--and has done so along explicitly Catholic lines.

"I apply a standard in discerning whether to use that statute, which is not really in the law--the standard that has been set forth in [the March 1995 papal encyclical] Evangelium Vitae and also in the's pope's comments. So there's a tension there."


"Dillon is, however, content with his position. "My feeling is that everybody knows I'm a Catholic and when I run [for office] I make no secret of the fact that in some of these areas I am not going to commit what for me would be an immoral act. And if the electorate does not want me in office, they can vote me out."