Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic bishop who denounced war, dies at 94
He became a national religious figure in the 1960s when he was urged by activist priests to oppose the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. Thomas Gumbleton, a Catholic bishop in Detroit, has died at 94. He was known for his outspoken stance against war and racism, and an advocate for labor and social justice. His death was announced by the Archdiocese of Detroit, where he served as a clergyman for over 50 years. Gumbleon became a national religious figure in the 1960s when he was urged by activist priests to oppose the U.S. role in the Vietnam War and was a founding leader of Pax Christi USA, an American Catholic peace movement. His activism sometimes led to his arrest at protests and he was taken away in 1996 while supporting striking newspaper workers in Detroit. In 2006, the year he retired from active ministry, he supported legislation in Colorado and Ohio to give sexual abuse victims more time to file lawsuits. He also supported public support for LGBTQ+ youth and denounced bullying.
Publicados : um mês atrás por Associated Press no Politics
Thomas Gumbleton, a Catholic bishop in Detroit who for decades was an international voice against war and racism and an advocate for labor and social justice, died April 4 at 94. His death was announced by the Archdiocese of Detroit, where he was a clergyman for more than 50 years. No further details were disclosed.
Bishop Gumbleton became a national religious figure in the 1960s when he was urged by activist priests to oppose the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. He was a founding leader of Pax Christi USA, an American Catholic peace movement.
“Our participation in it is gravely immoral,” Bishop Gumbleton said of the war, writing in the New York Times. “When Jesus faced his captors, He told Peter to put away his sword. It seems to me He is saying the same thing to the people of the United States in 1971.”
Bishop Gumbleton said if he were a young man drafted into U.S. military service at that time he would go to jail or even leave the country if turned down as a conscientious objector.
His opinions led to hate mail from people who said he was giving comfort to cowards, authors Frank Fromherz and Suzanne Sattler wrote in “No Guilty Bystander,” a 2023 book about Bishop Gumbleton. “The war had become a personal turning point,” they wrote.
His activism sometimes led to his arrest at protests in Washington and elsewhere. He was taken away in 1996 while supporting striking newspaper workers in Detroit.
“Bishop Gumbleton took the gospel to heart and lived it day in and day out. He preferred to speak the truth and to be on the side of the marginalized than to toe any party line and climb the ecclesiastical ladder," said Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Ky.
The fifth of nine children, Thomas John Gumbleton was born in Detroit on Jan. 26, 1930. He was ordained a priest in 1956, received a doctorate in canon law from Pontifical Lateran University in Rome in 1964 and was promoted to auxiliary bishop in 1968.
He worked at numerous parishes but was best known for 20-plus years of leadership at St. Leo in Detroit, which had a large Black congregation. A newspaper, National Catholic Reporter, regularly published his sermons in a column called “The Peace Pulpit.”
In 2006, the year he retired from active ministry, Bishop Gumbleton spoke in favor of legislation in Colorado and Ohio to give sexual abuse victims more time to file lawsuits. He disclosed that he was inappropriately touched by a priest decades earlier.
In 2021 he joined a Catholic cardinal and a group of other bishops in expressing public support for LGBTQ+ youth and denouncing the bullying often directed at them.
“Lest all of this seem overwhelming,” he wrote, “the important thing is to recognize that each of us has a small part to play in the whole picture.”
Tópicos: Christianity, In Memoriam