Obama, the 1st Catholic president

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jun 02, 2009

 "We have a Vatican II president," John O'Malley informs us in a revealing America magazine article. 

It seems that just as Bill Clinton was a "black president," even though he was white, so too Barack Obama is a "Catholic president" even though he is Protestant. 

To understand the political translation, you must first understand the-- wait for it!-- spirit of Vatican II. You see, the "spirit of Vatican II' transformed human nature-- or at least our way of understanding human nature.

The council hoped that this new style of being, which brings with it a new way of proceeding, would lead to cooperation among all persons of good will—Catholics and non-Catholics, Christians and non-Christians, believers and non-believers—on the new, massive, and sometimes terrifying problems that face humanity today.

Myself, I haven't enjoyed a "new style of being" since I put away my last Nehru jacket. So I've been "proceeding" in the same tired old way. Silly me. 

But for all of you new beings, suffused with the spirit of Vatican II, how has that cooperation among all persons of good will been proceeding? Working out well for you? Solving the terrifying problems? In the past 40 years, have we pretty well eliminated problems like war, poverty, hunger, injustice, racial and religious hatred?

And what about problems such as abortion, terrorism, embryo research, same-sex marriage, AIDS, crack addiction, shattered families-- are they less threatening than in the 1960s?

Oh, wait; those weren't really major problems back in the 1960s, were they? They're new. We've been proceeding, all right. But in what direction?