Meanwhile, there's Mr. Santorum, who is firmly with the U.S. Catholic bishops and their centrist allies in their "pro-life" stance against contraception and in their conscience-driven attack on the Obama administration. Yesterday, I got an email from Catholics United with a statement by James Salt, the group's director, about the HHS controversy. I haven't yet seen this statement show up on the Catholics United website or the site of their Daily Thread blog (or their Facebook page). Perhaps it's at one of those sites and I'm just not seeing it.
I do see, however, that Jim Howard has published the Catholics United statement at his ShowMeBlog. The Catholics United statement makes the following observation that I think is critically important for anyone seeking to measure the U.S. Catholic bishops' commitment to pro-life values by their politically manufactured contraceptive guidelines controversy to keep in mind:
Catholics United understands that contraception use is a sensitive issue for the Catholic Church, but it is hard to stomach this level of outrage when the bishops have been relatively silent on so many pressing issues of our day. Where was the public outcry over our nation's past use of torture or our involvement in unjust wars? Why aren't the bishops reading letters at Mass about the moral scandal of unemployment and poverty in America?
To my mind, this important statement dovetails nicely with what John Gehring said several days ago at the Faith in Public Life Action blog. Gehring examines Rick Santorum's commitment to Catholic values (including pro-life values) and finds that commitment significantly lacking, as judged by Santorum's public and easily accessed statements about various issues. He notes that on issues ranging from torture to war to immigration, climate change, the widening gap between rich and poor, and workers’ rights, Santorum promotes positions that directly conflict with Catholic magisterial teaching.
And isn't it remarkable that as the U.S. Catholic bishops and their "pro-life" Catholic Democratic centrist allies go on the warpath against Mr. Obama with claims that he contributes to the culture of death, they're totally silent about Mr. Santorum? A fellow Catholic. Whose pro-life record on issue after issue could not be more dismal and more directly in opposition to Catholic values.
It's enough to make you wonder whether the bishops and those "pro-life" Catholic Democratic centrist cheerleaders are really pro-life, after all, isn't it?
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