"Are They Really Catholic?"

UPI's religion editor Uwe Siemon-Netto writes a column, Sep. 30, on the hypocrisy of "pro-choice" "Catholic" politicians:

Pardon this religion columnist, a Protestant, for being puzzled by two political frontrunners, who are Catholics. One is retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a man who converted to Catholicism during the Vietnam War. Now he is leading the pack of Democrats wishing to be nominated presidential candidate.

And what are his opening remarks when asked by doubtful interviewers about his party credentials? "I am pro-choice!" he keeps insisting in a manner that strikes some of us a trifle too forceful.

The other guy is actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican, father of four, in-law of the Kennedy clan, evidently on his way to becoming governor of California, if polls can be trusted. He too presents himself as "pro choice." Both gentlemen thus favor what their church calls an "abominable crime" for which perpetrators automatically incur excommunication.

Of course there's nothing new about Catholic politicians promoting what Pope John Paul II calls the "culture of death." Sens. Edward Kennedy, John Kerry and Tom Daschle come to mind. Yet Clark's and Schwarzenegger's stridently "pro-choice" position at a time when public support for a right -- especially an unrestricted right -- to abortion is on the wane strikes this outside observer as particularly incongruous, given their personal histories....

"Abominable crime"? I think the reference is to Gaudium et spes 51, which in Latin has nefanda crimina.

(Thanks, Bill.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 10/02/03 01:36:36 PM
Categorized as Religious.