never change a winning game

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 10, 2010

 Two more American archbishops have joined the list of prelates who would prefer to try gentle persuasion on pro-abortion Catholic politicians rather than impose canonical discipline.

Leaving aside the obligation that canon law imposes on Eucharistic ministers, let's ask a cold practical question. We've been working this moral-suasion angle for 37 years now. Can anyone point to one success? One case in which a bishop has persuaded a politician to abandon the "pro-choice" rhetoric and embrace the pro-life cause? One?  

There's more. Archbishop Dolan says that he doesn't know just where Andrew Cuomo stands on abortion. Funny; nearly everyone else in New York knows. Meanwhile Archbishop Listecki says: "It's very difficult for me to see how somebody can be pro-choice knowing the teachings of the Church." Perhaps it follows, then, that a politician who espouses the "pro-choice" philosophy must be ignorant of Church teaching. 

The politicians are the only ones who don't know what the Church teaches about abortion, and the bishops are the only ones who don't know what the politicians are saying. What a coincidence!