I\u2019ve said it before, and I\u2019ll say it again: It ain\u2019t easy being a bishop. As proof, just consider the avalanche of wildly conflicting advice descending upon the Catholic bishops of the United States as they gather Nov. 10-13 in Baltimore, most of it focused on abortion, the 2008 elections, and where the bishops go from here.<\/p>\n
Some analysts, especially those of a more liberal bent, are spinning the election of Barak Obama as a \u201crepudiation\u201d of what they see as an overly strident and partisan tone from the bishops, especially on abortion. A few ardently pro-life Catholics, meanwhile, actually believe that what they call \u201csilence and treachery\u201d from the bishops on abortion helped pave the way for Obama\u2019s success. Pro-lifers who fault the bishops for being too subtle are planning to wear Obama masks outside Baltimore\u2019s Marriott Waterfront, where the bishops are meeting, with signs reading, \u201cI couldn\u2019t have been elected without you.\u201d<\/p>\n
High-profile Catholic commentators have been similarly, and perhaps predictably, all over the map.<\/p>\n
Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese, for example, has suggested the bishops follow the lead of \u201cpragmatic pro-lifers,\u201d who do not necessarily support criminalization of abortion but rather social policies to reduce the actual number of abortions. Meanwhile, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, writing on his First Things blog, has counseled the bishops in Baltimore to avoid \u201ccalculated timidity,\u201d and to bear in mind that \u201cit is not their business to win political races\u201d but rather \u201cto defend and teach the faith, including the church\u2019s moral doctrine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fr. John Jay Hughes, a noted Catholic writer based in St. Louis, has offered yet another perspective. Since the prospect for legislative or judicial progress under Obama \u2013 i.e., overturning Roe v. Wade \u2013 is virtually nil, Hughes suggested earlier this week, the challenge is to win the argument for life on the cultural level. In other words, the bishops should focus on changing hearts and minds, not, at least for now, the law.<\/p>\n
Still others are counseling the bishops to focus on other matters where Catholic social teaching and the President-elect seem closer to a meeting of minds, such as immigration reform, poverty relief, peace-making, and environmental protection.<\/p>\n
Complicating things further, as the bishops gather in Baltimore, is that the conflicting voices don\u2019t come just from outside the conference. The bishops themselves \u201caren\u2019t of one mind,\u201d as Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, vice-president of the conference, put it in a mid-October interview in Rome with NCR.<\/p>\n
To be clear, there\u2019s no disagreement among the bishops on the core teaching that abortion is a grave moral evil. How to translate that into concrete pastoral and political choices, however, is another matter. Russell Shaw, former spokesperson for the bishops\u2019 conference, offered a rough-and-ready taxonomy this week by dividing the bishops into three categories:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cHardliners,\u201d who want to deny communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians and who believe that under canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law, pro-choice legislators and judges (and, possibly, ordinary Catholics who vote for them) have excommunicated themselves;
\u2022 \u201cCompromisers,\u201d who support a less confrontational approach to politicians who don\u2019t follow church teaching, in hopes of finding common ground and avoiding impressions that the bishops are overly partisan;
\u2022 A largely silent majority who are just trying to keep their dioceses going, and who hope that polarizing national debates like this one will somehow go away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There’s much more at the NCR link<\/a>. <\/p>\nAs these men embark on their meeting in Baltimore, they need our prayers. Now, perhaps, more than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}