Do something about CINO politicians

In yesterday’s first meetings of the bishops’ conference, they discusses how to punish Catholic politicians who dissent from the Church’s teachings (sometimes known as CINOs—Catholic In Name Only). There was much intense discussion of revoking honorary degrees and refusing to allow them to speak at Catholic institutions. Welcome to the party, your eminences. People have been clamoring for years for you to do something about this. Yet everytime someone complained to the chancery about “Sen. Pro-abortion Feelgood” speaking at the local Catholic college, they were told that the senator has many other positions that Catholics could support, blah, blah, blah.

Now, perhaps, the “seamless garment” approach of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin is fading from prominence and a more pragmatic and realistic view is rising. Maybe the bishops are tired of stomping for pro-life causes only to have Catholic politicians consistently shoot them down. And maybe they’re tired of seeing Catholic solons trot out their Catholic faith during election season, convincing the devout little old ladies it’s okay to vote for them.

Maybe the first step the bishops should take is to stop socializing with the “personally opposed but…” politicians and giving them the benefit of a photo op that says, “Hey , I may disagree with the Church’s teaching, but Bishop So-and-so likes me.”

In the end, we end up with yet another level of bureaucracy—this time a group appointed to study the issue—when all it takes is for the individual bishops to do what’s already in their authority as shepherds of their own flocks. Instead they dither and subsume their responsibility and authority to whim of some committee and they can claim that something’s being done.