Catholic Sensibility

Abortion-Communion confluence It looks like the Eucharist is heading to be the battleground again in the abortion debate. Too bad, really. There's still a lot of good energy left in the conflict on its own terms. Sorting it all out, this is what I can find: - Abortion is a moral evil our nation, by and large, has not come to grips with. Politicians are too easily slouching their way through their stance on the issue. Republicans hide behind jurists' robes while giving lip service to voters. Democrats have sold their birthright, lost hundreds of thousands of voters for a radical stance no other Western country can match. Of course, I wouldn't want them to treat pro-choicers the way they've treated Blacks, but that card's not even on the table. - Abortion has been a thirty-year pain in the butt for both the pro-life and anti-abortion movements. Unable to convince two generations otherwise, lobbying groups are now spending hundreds of thousands to criticize bishops who would be in agreement with them right up the line on the issue itself. Maybe it's not surprising that a dysfunctional system has spawned such dysfunctional behavior in otherwise sensible pro-life people. - Bishops are barking up the wrong tree to be mixing up their issues of authority and governance with abortion, tempting though it may be to believe that a few hundred guys scarred by pedophile and financial mismanagement have something authoritative to say about people coming to Communion. Nobody questions that bishops can get people disinvited from time to time. And no doubt, the confluence of a bishop, a pastor, and a sorry politician might produce a spectacle during Mass somewhere, someday. In my mind, the question is not "Can they?" but "Should they?" - I'm entertained by neotrads suggesting that abortion is The Issue trumping all other issues, and that the war and death penalty are matters of prudential judgment, and "not at all important because I disagree with the Magisterium on them." For that matter, engaging in sexual intercourse is affected by prudential judgment. I can have intercourse with my wife, and that would be fine. But if I'm having sex for improper reasons, that would be sinful. I can examine my conscience and figure it all out. Same thing with the Iraq War. Conceding for the moment that not everybody is a pacifist, we can make judgments about the war (as we should, being Catholics and Americans and moral people) that lead us to the notion that it is proper to defend ourselves, but probably sinful, if not gravely sinful, to engage in lies, cheating, stealing, etc.. to justify the war. Just as sometimes an abusive spouse is unfit to engage in lawful marital intercourse, the same judgment can be made regarding the neocon support for the Iraq War, while they dismiss the Vatican as out-of-touch anti-American fools. - And lastly, the notion of excommunication. Ah. Like this is some new idea we should have tried twenty or thirty years ago. Or tried it in other countries, say, like Italy? The bishops look like they're making this thing up on the fly. Are there guidelines and judgments for using this last resort? Or are the speaking disinvites not working, so it's like: "Well, we could try denying them Communion. What d'ya think?" The one thing that worries me is that pro-lifers and especially anti-abortionists have lost most of their steam. Do you get the same feeling? The bishops sure look like they're running on fumes. People who have abortions haven't been listening to them for decades. People who provide abortions don't bother with them. Those who support those who provide probably want to keep making money. Those who support those who support those who provide are trying to maximize their voting popularity. (I guess.) And now we're going after those who support those who support those who support those who provide abortions for those who make the choice. This is the strategy of desperation, not effectiveness. Maybe it's time to pull back the lobbying efforts, the millions spent to sway opinion that just won't be swayed, the excommunication efforts, and all, and meet to determine the common ground for a societal conversion. Quite frankly when you start seeing your alies as the Enemy, it's time to chill: you're not doing the cause any good, and you're not doing yourself any good. Just for suggesting the mainstream pro-life movement seems out of kilter, I've been villified in the blogoscene. And heck, if you can't convince a pacifist Catholic pro-lifer, I doubt you're going to make serious headway with people who are not pacifists, not Catholic, and not particularly moral. Hard news, friends, but somebody has to deliver it.