Pocono News Section

Bishop Martino Breaks On-Camera Silence

Bishop Martino Breaks On-Camera Silence - Sunday, March 8, 2009 at 7:00PM EST

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY- After being in the headlines for weeks, Bishop Joseph Martino has broken his silence on camera.
The bishop talked with WYOU News Sunday after a special mass for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Scranton.

Bishop Martino has grabbed headlines recently for both disagreements with Misericordia University over a gay rights speaker and Senator Bob Casey for his stance on abortion.

It’s the bishop's strong stance on the "sanctity of life" that made him agree to an interview. Here are his comments… “I think that we, in our society today, believe that we can decide who should live and who should die, who's perfect and who's not perfect. So, it’s interesting while young men and women are here with disabilities, there are probably a lot more that have been eliminated over the years in our culture of death. That's why I speak so forcefully about the right to life. The sanctity of life, from its beginning at conception to natural death, that we not make ourselves God, the way Nazi Germany did."

The bishop would not address his recent disagreement with Misericordia University. This is the first time the bishop has agreed to an on-camera interview with us in months.