AmericanPapist Comments
"We hate to see our moral teachers squandering their moral teaching authority when there are important issues they should be dealing with--poverty and social justice and the war," said Sam Sinnett, president of Dignity USA, the nation's largest gay Catholic organization."
They're much more concerned with whether two homosexuals are going to get married or not," he said. "They've lost focus on the needs of the human race."
Ah, yes, the time better spent fallacy, a favorite tactic of the Catholic left. If the Bishops take their side of an issue, then they are doing important work. If they take the opposite side, then they should be spending their time doing something "more important," like dealing with poverty, etc.
Perhaps what the Bishops should be focusing on is the spiritual realm - what makes us better Catholics rather than weighing in on public policy issues which a spiritually re-invigorated laity is better equipped to handle anyway.I guess "render under Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God's the things that are God's" has been superseded. Sorry, Jesus, you're just too old fashioned. Tom
Publius is so right. What a canard.
I guess "render under Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God's the things that are God's" has been superseded. Sorry, Jesus, you're just too old fashioned. Tom
Or perhaps it's just that your interpretation has been rejected.
Perhaps what the Bishops should be focusing on is the spiritual realm - what makes us better Catholics rather than weighing in on public policy issues which a spiritually re-invigorated laity is better equipped to handle anyway.
You have created a false dichotomy that really flies in the face of 110 years of papal social teaching.
One of the hallmarks of Benedict XVI's pontificate has been the promotion of political and social involvement by Catholics. He blends together splendidly the "spiritual realm" and "public policy issues" in Deus Caritas Est. In fact, he even devotes the entirety of Part 2 to the application of the Christian ethos to the social and political sphere. Just look at Benedict's Angelus address yesterday:
Putting Part 2 of Deus Caritas Est into Action
Make no mistake, Benedict's papacy is a strong emphasis on the heart of Christian reality: love of God and love of neighbor. There is no "spiritual realm" without this love, and the Pope is teaching us that this love is lived out to a large degree through "public policy issues".
It is unfortunate when a layperson feels he/she knows what the entire episcopacy of the U.S. Church should have on its agenda better than the episcopacy itself.
Michael, please explain why then the Catholic bishops embodied in the USCCB, year in and year out do NOTHING affirmative about "Catholic" politicians who routinely flout the Church's position on abortion, the most fundamental of all life issues? Particularly in light of "Catholics in Public Life." Instead they wring their hands when they clearly have it in their power to do something and they don't. I can't seem to recall Catholic politicians being told by the USCCB or any bishop for that matter "recant or you're out." Forgive me for my loutishness but I might be more willing to listen to their pontifications about walls with Mexico and the minimum wage, if they addressed this very important issue first. Tom
By "you're out" I assume you mean excommunication. This would be a measure more appropriately taken by a local bishop since the USCCB as a corporate body is not canonically head of a local church. The local bishop has full jurisdiction over his diocese. It is the prerogative of the local bishop or, less frequently, the prerogative of the Pope.
If you are looking for a corporate excommunication, perhaps you can take that up with Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) and the CDF who informed the U.S. bishops that excommunication over political positions is not to be normative.
Now, there have been several American bishops who have explicitly condemned pro-choice positions and have explicitly stated that they will deny Catholic politicians who promote the "right" to abortion the Eucharist. This is properly the decision of the local bishop, not that of the USCCB.
But this talk of abortion is a smokescreen hiding your original sentiment. As I mentioned before, our bishops are implimenting and appropriating the papal social teachings of the past 100 years. This is important work. As a corporate body, our bishops stand united and univocal on these issues, which is more convincing politically than the scattered comments of bishops. And as Catholics who are obedient to our Church, we do not minimize or attenuate the authority of our bishops. Pope Benedict has made this quite clear.
Sorry, Michael, it's not a smokescreen, and I find that rather insulting. I understand the canonical implications but I also recognize that this "body" frequently acts or speaks on a collective basis. If they cannot act or speak collectively on this most fundamental issue, then why bother with subsidiary issues. I understand you're a Democrat now, hence the apologetics. Tom
My apologies for insulting you.
No, I am not a Democrat, nor would I ever be tempted to become one. I do not see the relevance of my political sensibilities within our conversation.
The USCCB has made countless statements on the sin of abortion. The sin of abortion is an extremely grave issue that is connected to an entire web of social injustices against the human person (of which, mind you, Republicans also perpetuate). Abortion is not a social or moral monad as your comments imply. It is not a singular issue that stands alone without other violations of life caused by consumerism, poverty, hunger, euthanasia, the destruction of life for medical advancement and the death penalty.
Your criticisms of the USCCB on their involvement in political and social issues OTHER than abortion extends also to Benedict XVI who did not explicitly attack abortion in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est though he addressed a whole host of other social and political issues. I don't think you would want to criticize the Pope, too.
Again, I don't think either of us is qualified to craft an agenda for the USCCB. Neither of us is a bishop (if you are, then why aren't you in Baltimore?) and so neither of us truly knows what our shepherds perceive to be our needs.
I'm lost, what is in Michael's "apologetics" that makes him a Democrat?
Could you please clarify?
Michael (psst, I'm a bishop emailing you from Baltimore on my blackberry,so please don't blow my cover or I will be thrown out). Just trying to inject a little humor. In recent years, the Vatican has seemed to repudiate Cardinal Bernadin's "seamless garment" approach which you appear to be re-stating. I just don't view the minimum wage as on a moral parity with abortion, nor has the Catholic Church proscribed the death penalty. Although bishops like Bruskewitz have acted decisively on abortion, most shilly-shally on the issue. Until a prominent Catholic pro-abortion in the US is excommunicated (which is what happened to Leander Perez of Louisianna when he tried to go around the Church's strong pro-civil rights position in the late 1940s)I will continue to view them as almost as ineffective as the debating society fondly known as the UN. I actually believe a bishop actually contributes to "scandal" when they do not take affirmative steps against a vocal pro-abortion Catholic politician in their diocese. What say you Ed Peters? Tom
Why in the @#!! does a bishop need soundbites from a committee to explain Catholic moral doctrine?!?!
Let's try something new there, boys: Let's inspire the Catholic people of God to seek out, hold to, and teach others the truth of the gospel and tell the media to stick their soundbites up their collective...(breathebreathebreathe)...
Hail Mary, full of grace....
Fr. Philip (calmer now...)
http://hancaquam.blogspot.com
Michael, I was relieved to see that Archbishop Burke of St. Louis sees the "scandal" I mentioned earlier regarding the bishops shilly-shallying on abortion. At least there's ONE man in the bunch. Tom
One small point of the meeting I found interesting was how Bishop Brown was trying to weasel out of complying with the directive that Eucharistic Ministers not purify sacred vessels. "Send it back to Rome" indeed. It CAME from Rome, you dumba@#%..
Sorry. Watching the ineffectiveness of this group always gets my blood pressure up.
--Ann
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