Nov 11 2008
Catholic Church Gearing Up for a Fight with the Obama Adminstration
The Catholic Church appears to be getting ready for a fight with the Obama Administration on several fronts:
BALTIMORE — The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops told his fellow prelates Monday that while they should “rejoice” at the election of an African-American president, they should confront him over his support for abortion rights.
“The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,” the president, Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, said in an opening address to about 300 bishops gathered here for their national meeting. “Common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good.”
Cardinal George’s remarks were a repudiation of the “common good” approach to the abortion issue that President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic Party leaders, including some prominent Roman Catholics, honed in the recent election.
Sounds like the bishops are concerned that a liberal Democrat in the White House may mean more policies that stray from Catholic teachings.
John Podesta, Obama’s transition chief, has said the president-elect is considering reversing President Bush’s limit on federal spending for embryonic stem cell research.
Catholic leaders are among those who consider destroying embryos akin to killing a fetus. Obama, along with many moderate Republicans, has supported the research in an effort to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
It’s not all bad news for Bishop George, the Proposition 8 issue in California is a victory for the Church:
George pointed to the success of Proposition 8 in California as an example that America’s emphasis on individuality has gone too far and failed.
“For me, what that confirms is the ideology of individual rights is not adequate to treating every public-policy decision that comes before the people and our legislatures,” he said.
In my opinion, the Catholic Church needs to recognize that the world has changed and continues to change. Unless they adapt their teachings, the world may just move on without them.
