Shoe on other foot for pro-life Catholics
From the Catholic News Agency. Apparently, a number of people are
unhappy that the US Bishops do not focus solely on abortion but on
other “traditionally Democratic” issues.
Bishops questionnaire criticized for seemingly supporting Democratic positions
WASHINGTON, USA, August 11 (CNA) – A political questionnaire,
issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops and distributed to
both major-party presidential candidates, has been criticized for
presenting questions that are traditionally associated with Democratic
Party policy positions, says a report by the Culture of Life
Foundation.The questionnaire contains 41 questions, asking the
candidates to answer “support” or “oppose” to statements on a range of
issues.The report, published in Culture and Cosmos, indicates that the
questionnaire had seven questions on immigration and refugees. Abortion
and school choice were each given three questions. Capital punishment,
gun control, agriculture and rural development, aid for low-income
families, housing, federal education programs, and marriage each
received two. Fourteen other topics received one question each,
including health care, decreasing nuclear weapons, cloning,
physician-assisted suicide, and embryonic stem-cell research.Patrick
F. Fagan, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, says that many
of the questions involve policies over which Catholics may properly
disagree, but that this official questionnaire gives the impression
that these are the only acceptable Catholic positions. *Robert Royal,
president of the Faith and Reason Institute, said that many of the
questions, such as those calling for more gun control and public
funding of health care, are written in such a way as to endorse the
Democratic Party approach. He says this gives the appearance of bias
and therefore undermines the usefulness of the questionnaire.Frank
Monahan, director of the Office of Government Liaison at the USCCB,
told Culture and Cosmos that the questionnaire “reflects the Bishops’
public policy agenda.”
(*Why can he pick and choose without being called a “cafeteria”
Catholic? Does all of this — from both sides of the debate —
strike anyone else as a bit hypocritical?)
What’s more, when the chairs of both the Rep.
party and the Dem. party were at the Catholic University of America
(they are both alums), RNC Chair Ed Gllespie could only point to the
Republican Party’s abortion stance as being in line with Catholic
social and moral teaching. DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe pointed to
multiple teachings of the Church that the Democratic party is more in
line with. According to my source, who was there, all Gillespie could
mention was abortion and gay marriage. McAuliffe mentioned poverty,
education, the war, income inequality, and racial inequality, to name a
few.
Ah, isn’t it wonderful how God’s on everyone’s side, ready to smite and
destroy His enemies, who, if you listen to most political operatives
right now, is often Himself?
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