Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Single-Issue Trap | Commonweal magazine

A thoughtful essay about the U.S. Catholic Bishops guide for voters by Notre Dame law professor Cathleen Kaveney.  In my view the Bishops - having failed the biggest moral crisis of our era (clerical sex abuse) - seek to redeem themselves by elevating abortion above all others, while making the fight against same-sex marriage a priority, helping to further isolate youth (and me) from the Church hierarchy.  
Archbishop John Myers of Newark has now gone so far as to say, in a nearly interminable pastoral letter to the faithful that those who don't accept the hierarchy's absolute prohibition of gay marriage (in fact anything but heterosexual marital sex) should not receive communion.  By this measure the overwhelming majority of American Catholics should not being going to Communion because, at a minimum, they don't accept the Church's teaching on contraception.  - GWC
The Single-Issue Trap | Commonweal magazine
by Cathleen Kaveney 
"Voters cannot blind themselves and focus single-mindedly on one issue in the abstract, even if the issue is abortion. They must select among candidates, not among issues—and they are morally required to do so in light of the concrete challenges and possibilities for the common good posed by a specific election at a specific time. This, and not a litmus test of issues, is what forming consciences for faithful citizenship is really all about."

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