A Sore Loser?
William A. Dinges, a professor of religious studies at The Catholic University of America, is steamed. Addressing a national gathering of 100 or so diocesan social-action leaders in Washington, D.C., Dinges says that “polarization” in the Catholic Church has reached a new peak with the 2004 presidential election (according to a Catholic News Service report, Feb. 22).
Who’s to blame? It’s largely the right-wing Catholics, who insisted that the election hinged on abortion and embryonic stem-cell research. Dinges says the rhetoric has been “vitriolic” and the behavior “uncivil,” being characterized by “confrontation, harassment and attempts at intimidation.”
Dinges deplores all this “rancor,” “incivility,” and “name-calling.”
You May Also Enjoy
A real difficulty with the bishops’ pastoral letter on the U.S. economy is the ignorance and apathy of both laity and clergy.
In June 1968 Pope Paul issued a motu proprio, arguably of greater importance than Humanae Vitae, called Solemni Hac Liturgia, a profession of faith.
Tolkien knew very well that God allowed him to understand the reason for the bloodletting of modernity: Man had fallen away from the Creator.