Thanksgiving Day shopping 'assaults' family life

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and other clergy denounce stores opening on the holiday

Many retailers will be open on Thanksgiving Day, which analysts say is due in part to
increased competition from online shopping. However, priests including Cardinal
Timothy M. Dolan of New York sees the holiday shopping day as "a sign of a
further descent into a highly privatized, impersonal, keep-people-at-a-distance culture."
Photo: Sxc.hu.

The B.C. Catholic has a story from Catholic News Service about some of the concerns Catholic clergy and workers have with more retailers opening on Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.:

The expansion of Thanksgiving weekend shopping to the holiday itself has raised concerns among both workers and clergy who worry that the change puts family time at risk.

Father Sinclair Oubre, Spiritual Moderator of the Texas-based Catholic Labor Network, said the store openings are a “disturbing trend” that is “an assault on the family.”

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Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York criticized the new phenomenon of Thanksgiving Day shopping in a Nov. 20 essay in the New York Post.

“The stores, we hear, will open on Thanksgiving. Isn’t that a sign of progress and liberation?” he asked. “Sorry, but no — it’s a sign of a further descent into a highly privatized, impersonal, keep-people-at-a-distance culture, one that values having stuff and doing things over just being with people whom we love, cherish, and appreciate.”

Read the full story at The B.C. Catholic website.