Cardinal O'Malley's missed opportunity

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 23, 2013

“We must build a civilization of love, or there will be no civilization at all,” said Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, at a Mass for the repose of the souls of those killed in the Marathon bombing. So far, so good. But then the wheels came off.

Pointing to sources of the “culture of death,” the cardinal mentioned individualism, alienation, abortion, violent films, and video games. He decried the death penalty. And then this:

The inability of the Congress to enact laws that control access to automatic weapons is emblematic of the pathology of our violent culture.

What’s wrong with that statement? Let me count the ways:

1. It’s inappropriate. This Mass was celebrated for a congregation still grieving a series of sudden, shocking tragic deaths; it was not the time for political pronouncements.
2. It’s factually incorrect. Access to automatic weapons is already tightly restricted. Congress was debating measures that would restrict access to some semi-automatic weapons. If you don’t know the difference between automatic and semi-automatic weapons, you shouldn’t issue public statements about gun control.
3. It’s factually incorrect for another reason. As I explained yesterday, Congress did not show an “inability” to impose restrictions on access to firearms. Supporters of one particular legislative measure voluntarily withdrew their bill, because they refused to compromise on any particular.
4. It’s misleading. From what we already know, it seems quite clear that tighter gun-control laws would not have prevented the Marathon bombing. (The accused bombers did not have licenses to obtain guns legally, and in any case most of their killing was done with ordinary household items: pressure cookers, ball-bearings, nails.) For that matter, laws against abortion would not have prevented the slaughter either, nor would restrictions on violent films and video games. Whatever damage the “culture of death” has done to our society, these particular killings—and thus the deaths that brought together this congregation at Holy Cross cathedral—were apparently motivated by radical Islam. The cardinal was searching far afield to explain the bombers’ motivations, when there was an obvious explanation close at hand.

Cardinal O’Malley may have been right to say that the bombers were influenced by a “perversion of their religion.” He was certainly right to warn against a blanket condemnation of all Muslims. But he missed an opportunity to comment on a problem that was surely on the minds of those who heard or read his homily. The cardinal’s congregation was not (for better or worse) thinking about abortion or gun-control or video games. The people of Boston were thinking about Islamic terrorism. It’s a difficult topic, but one that Church leaders cannot wish away.