American Catholics are often called "cafeteria Catholics," because they tend to pick and choose which Church teachings they follow and which they don't. Fair enough, I suppose. (Full disclosure: I was raised in the Church but fell away long ago.) How then is it any different when Catholic Bishops campaign for George Bush because of his policy on abortion while ignoring his wars and his support of the death penalty, and actively work against fellow Catholic John Kerry, whose policies on the latter two are far more in line with traditional Catholic teaching? Shouldn't they be called "cafeteria Bishops?"
The Church has gone a long way down the wrong road when it begins to actively tell its members which candidate they should vote for.
Posted by Linkmeister at October 12, 2004 12:01 AMI agree, this totally sucks (I'm a Catholic). Interestingly, the campaign by the bishop in Colorado was smacked down by Cardinal Ratzinger himself -- the very guy who many feel is the architect of the Church's rightward turn under JPII -- the pope's Karl Rove, if you will.
Interesting.