It's Monday, November 12, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is hosting a national meeting of the nation's bishops this week. We need to pray for our bishops during this meeting.
As you know, the "Catholilc Call to Observe Civility in Political Debate" was issued last week with, I believe, one purpose and one purpose only: to diffuse any effort to encourage our bishops to be unanimous in their commitment to enforce Canon 915.
The politically motivated Catholics who signed that statement must not have the final word. So we must pray that our bishops take the lead in deflecting the criticism such as the following statement from the so-called prominent Catholics:
As Catholics we must learn to disagree respectfully and without judgmenet to avoid rudeness in expressing our opinions to those to those we suspect will disagree with us …
Our bishops are called by God to enforce the laws of the Church and to do so with courage and commitment to the truth. It is not the job of a bishop to cowtow to the politically motivated, be they Catholic, Protestant or Jew.
It is never rude to point out to a public figure who claims to be Catholic that his public actions in defense of abortion are not only sinful but a cause of scandal.
