The Tablet, a periodical known as a 'Catholic weekly' only by those with an unsavoury sense of humour, has done it again. This time, the editorial team thought it would be a really good idea to interfere in American politics and tell American Catholics why they have to support Obama's healthcare plan rather than get bogged down in these nasty little 'catholic issues' like abortion.
Archbishop Chaput of Denver has made a robust response to this arrogant, ill-informed nonsense. His statement includes the following words:
The editorial has value for several reasons. First, it proves once again that people don't need to actually live in the United States to have unhelpful and badly informed opinions about our domestic issues. Second, some of the same pious voices that once criticized U.S. Catholics for supporting a previous president now sound very much like acolytes of a new president. Third, abortion is not, and has never been, a "specifically Catholic issue," and the editors know it. And fourth, the growing misuse of Catholic "common ground" and "common good" language in the current health-care debate can only stem from one of two sources: ignorance or cynicism.
h/t The Hermeneutic of Continuity
