[Announce] Bishops destroy the Church's witness to life

[Robert Waldrop]

Bishops Destroy the Church's Witness to Life

The Catholic Church's doctrine and praxis regarding the "Gospel of Life" is based on the strict and consistent application of moral principles to all aspects of the human condition. In modern terms, the Catholic Church applies the precautionary principle to all life issues. This principle is usually used in debates about environmental issues, and means that in situations where an action or policy is proposed that may cause great harm but the scientific consensus remains in doubt, the burden of proof is on those advocating the action or policy to prove that no harm will result. Incorporating this principle into the life issues debate - we can say that in situations where we maybe aren't sure about life or the proper moral action, we must resolve the question in favor of life and not death. Fr. Emmanuel McCarthy makes this point, at much greater length and with more theological insight, in his essay on Moral Laxism elsewhere in this issue.

And so it comes to pass that the Church makes heavy moral demands on people. The bishops don't hesitate to apply those principles strictly and consistently when it comes to abortion, contraception, and euthanasia. But when it comes to unjust war, strictness and consistency go out the window, and bishops publicly worry about "laying such heavy moral demands on the faithful." 

We certainly agree that the Gospel's teachings on life should be strictly construed and consistently applied. Like Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin who went before us, we defend life from the moment of conception to the time of natural death - and also, all points "between". Thus, the inconsistency - the moral laxism - of the bishops regarding the unjust Iraq War is troubling. It is dangerous to the public witness of the Church to life. And it is a very grave scandal. In the debate on Iraq, the Church stands exposed as merely a member of the crowd. Instead of leading the moral debate, the bishops pander to the demands of the American Empire and provide moral comfort for its worst excesses.

It is my belief that the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the bishops' moral laxism regarding Iraq and Afghanistan, share a common foundation - the inability of the U.S. Catholic bishops to see the poor as human persons. The bishops protest that this is an outrageous accusation, and point to their many statements on solidarity and the charitable works of the Church as evidence of their good faith. While it is true that no person can look into their souls, it is certainly possible for us to judge their actions, and by that standard, it is evident that the bishops do not see the poor who are in the way of the American Empire as human persons. They refuse to use their canonical authority to hinder the Empire's war effort. They try to cover that refusal with florid rhetoric about their solidarity with the "brave Iraqi people", but words are a poor comfort for a people who have been slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands by the American Empire over the last two decades. They show little or no obedience to the call of Pope John Paul II to "ecological conversion", and thus they and their dioceses "take more, so that others - that is, the poor - have less." 

The bishops are not leading us towards a civilization of life and love. No, like the rest of the American leadership, they urge us ever onwards towards the ash heap of history. 

March 19, 2007, Robert Waldrop, Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, Oklahoma City

www.justpeace.org


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