There he goes again, talking about the teachings of the Cathlic faith! How dare he? Who does he think he is? Imagine telling Catholics how to think about a moral issue!
Only in Boston would you find this article, an interview with Cardinal Sean O'Malley, on the front page and above the fold:
"Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, saying the Democratic Party has been persistently hostile to opponents of abortion rights, asserted yesterday that the support of many Catholics for Democratic candidates 'borders on scandal.' "
Sigh. An unfortunate choice of words for the scandal-plagued Archdiocese of Boston, which covered up and shuttled around pedophile priests for decades. The coverup was worse than the crimes, which were abominable. Nonetheless, O'Malley makes a valid point about the Democratic party and its stance on abortion:
"In his sharpest comments about the political landscape since he was installed as archbishop of Boston four years ago, O'Malley made clear that, despite his differences with the Republican Party over immigration policy, capital punishment, economic issues, and the war in Iraq, he views abortion as the most important moral issue facing policymakers. 'I think the Democratic Party, which has been in many parts of the country traditionally the party which Catholics have supported, has been extremely insensitive to the church's position, on the gospel of life in particular, and on other moral issues,' O'Malley said."
"O'Malley urged the Democratic Party to be more open to abortion opponents....O'Malley made his comments in an interview just after the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly to approve its quadrennial statement offering guidance for Catholic voters, declaring abortion, cloning, and embryonic research to be 'intrinsically evil' and warning that support for such acts could endanger a Catholic voter's salvation."
Well, that's what the Church teaches, that abortion is wrong, that all life is sacred, from conception to natural death. A politician (or anybody else) can't be a proponent of abortion and consider himself a Catholic, it's pretty simple. There are many religions that allow abortion, but Catholicism isn't one of them. The article created a brouhaha locally, on Michelle McPhee's radio show ("O'Malley is mean-spirited") and at two local blogs, Universal Hub and Boston Daily Blog. Lots of angry commenters there:
- "Sean O'Malley, shut the f*ck up,"
- "I am very tired of their attempt to roll the Catholic Church back into the mid-1800s,"
- "Bishops like O’Malley are intrinsically EVIL!!!"
As an aside, I commented on one blog that the Catholic dogma of defending the sanctity of life doesn't go back 200 years, it goes back 2,000 years. Early Christians abolished the practice of infanticide. Girl babies especially were killed, much as they are in China and India today, where they are aborted at more than twice the rate of boys. (That will make for some problematic demographics in a generation or so.)
I don't get the invective directed at O'Malley all the time. No matter what he says or does, he gets attacked because of the pedophile scandal. I can see directing it at Cardinal Law, but not at O'Malley, who was nowhere near Boston when this was going on. No matter what O'Malley does on this matter, it's never enough for some. I was discussing this with a blogger friend who wrote:
"I believe Cardinal Law has poisoned the well for his successors by not personally doing penance for the harm done during his tenure as Archbishop. He should have resigned and spent the rest of his life in some meaningful form of penance, such as helping the poor or the sick. His acceptance of the high Vatican post was as hurtful to the Archdiocese as was the scandal itself in my opinion. It makes me suspect he is an insufferably arrogant person."
"I remember reading (in Andrew Sullivan I believe), that many Bishops behaved during the scandal as if they believed there was no Hell. Law is the best (or should I say the worst) example of that behavior. These problems are chronic and doubtless were in full swing when Law took over, but like his colleagues, he did far too little and presumed that Church sexual scandal would remain a private matter indefinitely."
What would it take for people to get past the bitterness?
"'I think the Democratic Party, which has been in many parts of the country traditionally the party which Catholics have supported, has been extremely insensitive to the church's position"
What weak prattle. He couches reality in soft insinuating tones like some disappointed Democrat from the old days. "Extremely insensitive" - give me a break
Posted by: Thomas Shawn | November 23, 2007 at 04:40 PM