Pope Benedict met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she was in Rome this past week. On the one hand, being third in line for the presidency, she's hard to ignore. On the other hand, being a Catholic who's an outspoken supporter of abortion rights, she's hard to ignore. As the Vatican officially (and delicately) summarized, "His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics."
Given the two-party nature of American politics, it's not easy for a Catholic to navigate the political arena, because neither party fully reflects church teaching. On the one hand Democratic support in justice areas is close to Catholic teaching but support for abortion is a major problem. On the other hand Republican support for protecting the unborn is close to Catholic teaching but support for the death penalty is a problem.
Which means that the Catholic church (unlike many other churches) doesn't fit the political molds, and this confuses people. Even many Catholics. Some of whom (on both ends of the spectrum) manage to convince themselves that dearly held political views are in fact supported by their faith. On the opposite end from Ms Pelosi, I remember conservative Catholic commentator Michael Novak being sent to Rome as an emissary from George Bush to convince Pope John Paul that the Iraq war was in fact just, in spite the pope's repeated specific statements that it was not. Imagine trying to lecture the pope that he was wrong on his understanding of just war teaching. Not being third in line for the presidency, John Paul refused to see Novak, and neither changed his mind.
So whichever party is in power nationally or locally, for us the glass is half empty. Or half full. But one way or another we have a lot of work to do. After the most recent elections, our work has become harder in protecting the unborn. A lot of talk around this lately has been over the Freedom of Choice Act. Probably because Barack Obama promised during the campaign to sign it. The US bishops have been conducting a postcard campaign to ask legislators not to support the act, and to do more to protect life from conception until natural death.
There has been a bit of hysteria around the FOCA as well. Much of it apparently fed by emails warning that it would cause Catholic hospitals to close unless they performed abortions, and that it would even require women to have abortions in certain cases. The bishops and members of the Catholic Health Care Association have tried to squelch the rumors, but it hasn't entirely helped. In fact the FOCA hasn't even been introduced as legislation (not that it isn't good to be prepared if it is.) The two times it was previously introduced it never made it out of committee (even in a Democratically-controlled House.) And Catholic leaders who worked against those previous versions point out that it never included anything that would require Catholic hospitals or personnel to perform abortions. As Bishop Robert Lynch said in an article released by the Catholic News Service (a division of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops), "There's no sense of ominous danger threatening health care institutions."
All of which seems to be behind an article today in Time Magazine titled, "The Catholic Crusade Against a Mythical Abortion Bill." So if you get an email about the immanent closing of all Catholic hospitals, don't feed the hysteria. The church taking positions that lie all over the political spectrum is confusing enough for people. We don't need to make it worse by inventing craziness.
Given the two-party nature of American politics, it's not easy for a Catholic to navigate the political arena, because neither party fully reflects church teaching. On the one hand Democratic support in justice areas is close to Catholic teaching but support for abortion is a major problem. On the other hand Republican support for protecting the unborn is close to Catholic teaching but support for the death penalty is a problem.
Which means that the Catholic church (unlike many other churches) doesn't fit the political molds, and this confuses people. Even many Catholics. Some of whom (on both ends of the spectrum) manage to convince themselves that dearly held political views are in fact supported by their faith. On the opposite end from Ms Pelosi, I remember conservative Catholic commentator Michael Novak being sent to Rome as an emissary from George Bush to convince Pope John Paul that the Iraq war was in fact just, in spite the pope's repeated specific statements that it was not. Imagine trying to lecture the pope that he was wrong on his understanding of just war teaching. Not being third in line for the presidency, John Paul refused to see Novak, and neither changed his mind.
So whichever party is in power nationally or locally, for us the glass is half empty. Or half full. But one way or another we have a lot of work to do. After the most recent elections, our work has become harder in protecting the unborn. A lot of talk around this lately has been over the Freedom of Choice Act. Probably because Barack Obama promised during the campaign to sign it. The US bishops have been conducting a postcard campaign to ask legislators not to support the act, and to do more to protect life from conception until natural death.
There has been a bit of hysteria around the FOCA as well. Much of it apparently fed by emails warning that it would cause Catholic hospitals to close unless they performed abortions, and that it would even require women to have abortions in certain cases. The bishops and members of the Catholic Health Care Association have tried to squelch the rumors, but it hasn't entirely helped. In fact the FOCA hasn't even been introduced as legislation (not that it isn't good to be prepared if it is.) The two times it was previously introduced it never made it out of committee (even in a Democratically-controlled House.) And Catholic leaders who worked against those previous versions point out that it never included anything that would require Catholic hospitals or personnel to perform abortions. As Bishop Robert Lynch said in an article released by the Catholic News Service (a division of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops), "There's no sense of ominous danger threatening health care institutions."
All of which seems to be behind an article today in Time Magazine titled, "The Catholic Crusade Against a Mythical Abortion Bill." So if you get an email about the immanent closing of all Catholic hospitals, don't feed the hysteria. The church taking positions that lie all over the political spectrum is confusing enough for people. We don't need to make it worse by inventing craziness.
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