This is different. After a couple dozen Catholic Democrats issued a statement last week basically saying that they can believe whatever they want, and do whatever they want politically, and still be good Catholics, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn issued a joint statement saying the Democrats are wrong.
Okay so it wasn’t all that strong of a letter. It boiled down to an admonition that while “we really, really love liberal Democrat policies on economics and government entitlements, we wish you wouldn’t make abortion such an issue.”
“While it is always necessary to work to reduce the number of abortions . . . Catholic teaching calls all Catholics to work actively to restrain, restrict and bring an end to the destruction of unborn human life,” the bishops said.
I’m sure it was quite a shock to the Democrats who are used to saying whatever outrageous thing they want about Catholic belief and practice and getting away with it. Maybe the bishops are starting to feel the scrutiny after the whole John Kerry affair. Yeah, I didn’t think so either.
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