The Grand Inquisitor of Wisconsin
Frank Cocozzelli printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Sat Mar 28, 2009 at 01:45:27 PM EST
Bishop Robert Morlino of Wisconsin is one of a small group of Catholic Right leaders who is gradually igniting a firestorm that threatens to engulf all of American Catholicism.  By assuming the role of Grand Inquisitor he recklessly suppresses free expression in the name of quelling what he deems to be heresies.  In his distrust of humanity, Bishop Morlino eerily echoes the infamous Dostoyevsky character: this modern-day Inquisitor does not believe that the most of us can handle the choices that Jesus offers in Christian thought let alone those afforded all citizens in a liberal pluralistic democracy such as ours.
As the National Catholic Reporter observed:

Morlino, 62, is the fourth bishop of the Madison diocese. Previously he served as the bishop of the Helena, Mont., diocese, was a priest in the Kalamazoo, Mich., diocese and was once a member of the Jesuit order. He assumed leadership in Madison in August 2003 and within months was creating waves.

After six months he made a controversial statement that he had found in Madison "a high comfort level with virtually no public morality." Some were not pleased with that assessment. After being