Faithful Citizenship & the Catholic Vote
Writing at The Curt Jester, Jeff Miller takes issue with this piece by Deal Hudson:
... The USCCB could have published Faithful Citizenship with one line saying "Abortion is the preeminent issue of our time." and they would still have found wiggle room with a Clintonesque meaning of "is". Like Vatican II we have a "spirit of Faithful Citizenship." It does not matter what the totality of a document says, they will strip it out of context.
The main things about many dissenters is that they are basically liars...
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As to Faithful Citizenship itself it certainly is not without flaws. It is way to wordy, long and, repetitive. Obviously written by a committee and not having a strong editor to clean it up. Though that is kind of the nature of USCCB documents in the first place. It does though have some of the clearer statements on abortion and that it is not just one issue of many and it much better than the documents released in 2000 and 2004.
Somebody who understands how horrific an evil abortion is, is not going to read Faithful Citizenship and say "Wow, I guess I can vote for Obama if I want to." People who are willing to overlook abortion, ESCR, euthanasia, cloning, and homosexual marriage are not likely to be swayed by a USCCB document anyway.
Besides how many average people in the pew have actually read Faithful Citizenship anyway. Or in fact any USCCB document. I have never seen a bishop's document passed out or on a table as you enter a church. Sure wonks such as myself read all the documents coming out of the Vatican and USCCB, but surely this is not common. Probably the average Catholic knowledge on these documents is often third hand if at all. So I think blaming the Faithful Citizenship is a bit of hyperbole...
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Labels: Bishops, Catholic Social Teaching, Dissident Catholics, Elections, Pro-Life, The Catholic Vote, Voting Your Values
posted by Pro Ecclesia 7:07 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I agree with Jeff Miller's criticism that Hudson places too much stock in the influence of 'Faithful Citizenship' on the everyday Catholic voter.
But I also agree with what Hudson said earlier -- about the damage being done by the "peace and justice" crowd:
"most of the damage to the Catholic Church is being done at the middle management level. The bishops should be paying more attention to what is being taught by their staff, both at the conference and the chanceries."
Not the Bishops themselves, but those who are perverting the intent of the Bishops. . . . which is why 100(+?) bishops have sought to emphasize the priority of life issues in voting, with a particular focus on abortion.
I agree that in most cases, middle level Management is the problem as opposed to the Bishops themselves. It is about time that that Bishops promote Life instead of clowning around with Issues 5 & 6.
Ohio Joe
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