Revisiting Bp. Daily's 2002 mobster funeral decision
Just last year, though, a civil lawyer published what purported to be an extensive canonical and theological criticism of Bp. Daily's decision: Patrick Gordon, "Gotti, Mob Funerals, and the Catholic Church", Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 44 (2005) 253-276. (Abstract here) When I saw the article, I turned to it with interest because I assumed it would deal competently with a legally and socially important topic. To my surprise and disappointment, however, the article was very poor. Gordon, using demonstrably shabby canonical analysis, visited severe criticism on a bishop who was acting squarely within the scope his authority. I decided a reply was in order.
My defense of Bp. Daily's funeral decision, "Lest amateurs argue canon law: a reply to Patrick Gordon's brief against Bp. Thomas Daily", has just been published by the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Rome), in its review Angelicum 86 (2006) 121-142. The article is now available on my website.
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