Wisconsin bishops lament partisan attitudes toward faith
August 25, 2011
In the wake of a divisive political battle, Wisconsin's Catholic bishops are urging Catholics to overcome their differences, and to resist the temptation to see Church teaching from a partisan perspective.
The tendency to force Church teachings into conformity with a political ideology is "a profound pastoral problem," said Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison. The message of the Church can be lost, he said, where "the objective truth of the faith is subordinated to political concerns."
Bishop Morlino observed that during in a dispute between union leaders and Governor Scott Walker, "Archbishop [Jerome] Listecki of Milwaukee rightly chose to emphasize workers’ rights in his own statement, while I chose to emphasize the principle of fairness. The media and local politicians decided he was pro-union and I was anti-union." In fact, he said, both he and Archbishop Listecki were emphasizing different aspects of Catholic social teaching.
For all current news, visit our News home page.
Further information:
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
-
Posted by: dover beachcomber -
Aug. 25, 2011 6:22 PM ET USA
Well, I don't know. Is "the tendency to force Church teachings into conformity with a political ideology" really "a profound pastoral problem" anymore? So many U.S. bishops have spent their entire careers successfully jamming the Church's moral teaching into the mold of secular Progressivism that I can hardly imagine they've left even a single such "pastoral problem" unsolved.
