My immediate reaction to the success of President Obama's speech at Notre Dame's commencement Sunday? Exhilaration. A resounding Hallelujah that, for the the first time in a long time, the right-wing nut bishops--who so desperately covet a monopoly on American Catholicism--had been thwarted.
They did not succeed in bullying Notre Dame's president and trustees and faculty and students from continuing their tradition of cordially welcoming presidents of the United States, regardless of their views on specific issues.
They did not succeed in scaring the very popular president of the United States from accepting an opportunity to explain his particular position on abortion.
As significantly, they did not succeed in drumming pro-choice Catholics out of the church. The above cartoon aptly portrays what the result of that would have been!
Icing on the cake?
Reports today that L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaper, had nothing negative to say about Obama's Notre Dame speech--and nothing at all to acknowledge that any American bishop had opposed it.
Instead, as several news outlets including Catholic News Service report, the Vatican daily wrote approvingly of Obama's efforts at Notre to seek "common ground" on ways to reduce abortion and his confirmation that enacting the so-called Freedom of Choice Act was really low on his legislative agenda.
The conservative Catholic blogs are aghast that some heretic has captured L'Osservatore Romano. They need to grasp what the Vatican daily has: the pope does not agree with them.
Amen.
1 comment:
I've thought for a long time that if churches threw out people who didn't believe everything in the church's doctrine were thrown out there would be very few members. In my experience people are Catholic, Lutheran or whatever because they were born in that church, married into that tradition, or found a church that matched their worship style and needs - not that people go philosophy shopping. I have never understood why the Catholics (as well as most other denominations) delude themselves into thinking that all their members believe exactly the same things.
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