Cardinal George on the election

The United States may have overcome a steep barrier by electing a black president last week, but racial justice is just one “pillar” of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine, said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. George’s address to about 200 fellow bishops Monday morning in Baltimore opened […]

The United States may have overcome a steep barrier by electing a black president last week, but racial justice is just one “pillar” of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine, said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

George’s address to about 200 fellow bishops Monday morning in Baltimore opened the U.S. bishops’ annual fall meeting. The intellectual cardinal tried to tread a fine line between celebrating Barack Obama’s election, and lamenting that a slim majority of Catholic voters neglected the church’s teaching by choosing a candidate who supports abortion rights.

“We should rejoice today with those who, following heroic figures like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were part of a movement to bring our country’s civil rights into better accord with universal human rights,” George said. “In working for the common good of our society, racial justice is one pillar of our social doctrine.”


But, the cardinal continued, “the common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can legally be killed at choice. If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision that African Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be president of the United States. Today, as was the case a hundred and fifty years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good.”

George also took a swing at Catholic activist groups that tried to frame their favored candidate as the “Catholic choice.”

“As bishops, we can only insist that those who would impose their own agenda on the Church, those who believe and act self-righteously, answerable only to themselves, whether ideologically on the left or right, betray the Lord Jesus.”

Finally, George closed with a message for newly elected Catholic politicians.

“Strengthening people’s relationship with Christ remains our primary concern and heartfelt duty as bishops. We extend that pastoral concern, especially at the beginning of a new administration and a new Congress, to Catholics of either major party serving others in government. We respect you and love you, and we pray that the Catholic faith will shape your decisions so that our communion may be full.”

In other news, the bishops’ discussion on abortion and politics is on for Tuesday afternoon. It had been taken off the table, but several bishops told me that too many bishops had too much to say on the matter for it to be left of the agenda.

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