Catholic Democrats: Right-Wing's View of Catholic Social Teaching Only About Abortion & Terri Schiavo

The following appears on the website for Catholic Democrats:

August 14, 2005

It's only about abortion and Terri Schiavo, in the Heritage Foundation's narrow view of Catholic social teaching

“Justice Sunday II” purported to represent a new ecumenism, bringing together Catholics, Protestants and Jews in a united effort to frame the concerns of religious people as the Senate prepares for its first Supreme Court confirmation process in eleven years. But like the vastly inflated estimate of a Super Bowl-sized audience of 79 million households, this broadcast was long on self-congratulation and short on substance.

Below is a full transcript of William Donohue's remarks Sunday night, August 14, for this broadcast before a small crowd in Nashville. The audience repeatedly rose to its feet as this Heritage Foundation-supported head of the New York-based Catholic League focused entirely on abortion, with a mention of Mrs. Terri Schiavo. It is notable that, like the Bush Administration, Mr. Donohue's group has done virtually nothing to decrease the number of abortions in America.

The Catholic component in particular turned into an exercise in substance-free bombast from Dr. Donohue, whose brief speech might best be described as a tirade. He started out by bashing Irish Catholics and ended by bragging about what a threat he perceives himself to be to the left, apparently unaware of the eerie dissociation evident in one who threatens in the name of Christianity.

Aside from the vague references to abortion, there was no mention of any values that Catholics and our Bishops hold dear. No discussion of wage stagnation for the lower and middle classes, the killing in Iraq, gun violence, or the threat of global warming. There was nothing substantive on abortion, other than repetition of the same misleading stereotype – that the right is moral and the left is not. There was no mention of the rights of immigrants, minorities or those in need. The 40 million Americans without healthcare were overlooked.

Donohue chose rather to show his true extremist colors by referring to Marxist/atheist Sidney Hook as the heroic influence for a plan to essentially strip the Supreme Court of its role in maintaining legislative fidelity to the Constitution. Donohue suggested that the Constitution be amended to require a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court to overturn any law passed by Congress. Never mind First Amendment rights to free speech, the problem is a loose cannon like Donohue speaking to matters of the Constitution as if he is a spokesman for the Catholic Church.

When we speak as Catholics, our inspiration should reside in the Gospels rather than in the utopian schemes, dressed up in religious clothing, of secular political theorists or of the Heritage Foundation. Donohue’s claim to speak for all people of faith, in some pitched battle with “the secular left,” should be recognized for what it is: one ideologically extreme position, offensive to many faithful Catholics, that worships at the altar of a very secular creed.

(emphasis added)

My Comments:
So-called "Catholic" Democrats wish the Church's social teaching were about anything other than the Gospel of Life.

And talk about left-wing projection - the only ones pushing "the utopian schemes, dressed up in religious clothing, of secular political theorists" are the "progressive" Catholics who act as if their Marxist worldview has the imprimatur of the Catholic Church.