Affirming Life

[struggle4progress]

The threat by Catholic bishops to withhold communion from politicians who uphold abortion rights is an affront not just to democracy, but also to the best moral teachings of Catholicism.
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The threat is particularly startling because it is a blatantly selective, almost capricious application of church morality. Catholicism's teachings on the sanctity of human life, while unsettling to some, are a model of consistency. They prohibit not only abortion, but also capital punishment and wars of choice. Pope John Paul II has been a powerful voice for the weak and defenseless throughout his papacy, speaking out for his church's principles without distinction. He has confronted American presidents time and again on our nation's outmoded addiction to the death penalty. During the Iraq crisis his voice, though muted by age, has been lifted repeatedly in defense of sanity and against the Bush administration's rashness.

He also has spoken out repeatedly against what he has called a "culture of death" in the excesses of unregulated, free-market capitalism. Drawing on church doctrine that goes back a century, he has declared repeatedly that "capitalism needs to be circumscribed," condemning the "structures of sin which deliberately steer the goods of the earth away from their true purpose, that of serving the good of all, towards private and sterile ends."
Just five years ago he called on the Catholic church in America explicitly to help "in reducing the negative effects of globalization, such as the domination of the powerful over the weak, especially in the economic sphere."

America's bishops dishonored that doctrine of life last week. If they were consistent, they would have condemned all those who violate their traditions — war hawks, death-penalty advocates and free-market fundamentalists no less than abortion-rights advocates. They would be defending the rights of the born as vigorously as they defend the unborn.
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http://forward.com/main/article.php?ref=200406241117

[Mnemosyne]

1. Thank you struggle! great post and point.