It’s the Catholic internet tool of choice. In the hands of some, it looks like a chisel, chipping away at the rough and many-veined rock that is the Church. In doing so, people Who Don’t Think Like Us can be conveniently set aside in the great (some would say neo-Benedictine) quest for a leaner, meaner entity*. Or at least one that has the uniform appearance of white marble. All traditional-like.
Complaints are rolling from the Right in some quarters, including on this now-euthanized thread (291 comments falling far short of the Olympic record, but it may be a personal best) that meanie liberal leftists are trying to use the Wedge to carve up the Almighty Antiabortion Movement. Never was a mercy-killing as justified, even in the animal kingdom. But I see it as an exercise — a challenge, if you will–in the Have Faith department.
Do the political pro-lifers believe in their power of indoctrination? If so, why not just cut loose the pro-torture crowd from the Church? Excommunicate them, deny them little shiny medals at conventions, call them silly names on YouTube–all that stuff. If their training has stuck, they will still make fools of themse work hard for the pro-life cause. And a baby saved from some lifeboat in the Tiber is still a baby saved, right? We talk to evangelicals and accept their pro-life support, right? It could be the same thing for EWTN.
So let me add a voice of encouragement to Archbishop Burke and those inclined to go for another round of politicizing the Eu medicinal sacramental discipline as an election year swings into full gear. Cut loose the torture apologists. Don’t even appear on the same tv network stage with them. Disinvite them from your tea parties, and make a big show of not attending theirs. But don’t worry. They’ll still vote pro-life when it comes to abortion, right? Have faith.
Consider it good practice for action against the Party of Bad Breath Death in the Fall. Only which one is which, eh? The people who not only advocate for torture and indiscriminate killing, or the one that leaves it in the hands of the mob populace people?
Good thing two political parties supply all our needs, eh? And on the remote chance they don’t, there’s always the teapot, right?
* SCGS
16 February 2010 at 3:24 pm
If so, why not just cut loose the pro-torture crowd from the Church?
Because abortion is pretty easy to define. “Torture” not so much.
17 February 2010 at 1:13 am
Torture is only difficult to define if one’s conscience has gone asleep. It’s not about parsing words, it’s about human dignity. We are supposed to have an innate sense about this, not a calculating approach that looks for some obscure line in the sand. It’s not about definitions; it’s about living according to the example of Jesus Christ. That’s all that matters to a Christian. And if some can picture Jesus torturing people, then we are in deep trouble.
18 February 2010 at 6:00 pm
CCC 2298: In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.