Friday, June 09, 2006
Cardinal Rigali, Pawn of Politics
Or perhaps not. Maybe there's something to be said in being the unhired gun brought in to rally the neo-moralist base. This bit from CNS:
Bush said amending the Constitution was the only way to "take this issue out of the hands of over-reaching judges and put it back where it belongs -- in the hands of the American people."
I'd like to see the party reaction if W really wanted to put life on the line and scratch something into an amendment about the unborn.
I was reading something of Rock's profile on Busted Halo. I know Rigali is his man, but it also struck me that the cardinal could do worse than take a clue from one of his more faithful supporters:
The Church needs to play smart. We've had to deal with the crisis of a couple of bishops have chosen to say their piece about abortion and communion. Of course they are the shepherds of their dioceses and that is their prerogative. However, the church needs to play smart in politics – that McCarrick approach, the approach that we will fight for the dignity of the human person. Not the Catholic person. Not the liberal person. Not the conservative person. But every person at every stage. Period. No matter what that means, whether it’s immigration or marshalling every last force possible to protest abortion, to change it. But it also means to go past the question of law, that abortion is not just a question of law.
The culture of the world repels another invasion from the right--that's all they see. The Church remains marginalized even as it is used for political photo-ops. And if abortion is too touchy with Republicans in the same room, don't we have some life issue we could bring up? Or maybe the Catholic forays into the political realm are best left to the laity. The bishops can go back to the chanceries.
