Daschle -- Oh, this is great!!!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Catholic : One Thread

I don't know how I missed this story -- it's two months old! But I love it. Has anyone seen this?

Tom Daschle's Duty to Be Morally Coherent A Weekly Standard Exclusive: The Senate minority leader is ordered to stop calling himself a Catholic. by J. Bottum 04/17/2003 12:00:00 PM

J. Bottum, Books & Arts editor

TOM DASCHLE may no longer call himself a Catholic. The Senate minority leader and the highest ranking Democrat in Washington has been sent a letter by his home diocese of Sioux Falls, sources in South Dakota have told The Weekly Standard, directing him to remove from his congressional biography and campaign documents all references to his standing as a member of the Catholic Church.

This isn't exactly excommunication--which is unnecessary, in any case, since Daschle made himself ineligible for communion almost 20 years ago with his divorce and remarriage to a Washington lobbyist. The directive from Sioux Falls' Bishop Robert Carlson is rather something less than excommunication--and, at the same time, something more: a declaration that Tom Daschle's religious identification constitutes, in technical Catholic vocabulary, a grave public scandal. He was brought up as a Catholic, and he may still be in some sort of genuine mental and spiritual relation to the Church. Who besides his confessor could say? But Daschle's consistent political opposition to Catholic teachings on moral issues--abortion, in particular--has made him such a problem for ordinary churchgoers that the Church must deny him the use of the word "Catholic."

Much of the discussion about Daschle's standing has gone on in private over the last few years, although Bishop Carlson and Senator Daschle had a very public spat about partial-birth abortion in 1997. During the run-up to a Senate vote on the issue, Daschle proposed what he called a "compromise," banning the procedure while allowing exemptions for any woman who claimed mental or physical health reasons for having such a late-term procedure. Pointing out the way the exemptions gutted the ban, Carlson called Daschle's proposed compromise a "smokescreen" designed solely to "provide cover for pro-abortion senators and President Clinton, who wanted to avoid a veto confrontation."

Daschle, in turn, rose on the floor of the Senate in Washington to denounce his own bishop back in South Dakota for speaking in a way "more identified with the radical right than with thoughtful religious leadership." Carlson later told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader that he remains mystified by Daschle's position on abortion. "NARAL claims him as one of their number-one supporters. I don't understand how he can be in touch with South Dakotans as much as he is, and yet consistently have a pro-abortion record."

This year, on January 16, Bishop Carlson received additional ammunition for his discussions with Daschle when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued in Rome a "Doctrinal Note" on Catholics in political life. "A well-formed Christian conscience," the note declared, "does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals."

The Doctrinal Note marks at least the beginning of the end of the Vatican's toleration of what the pope's biographer George Weigel has called "Cuomoism" in the American Church: the effort to finesse abortion by declaring oneself personally opposed but politically supportive of laws allowing abortion. Catholics have a "duty to be morally coherent," the Doctrinal Note declares, and the Catholic fight on the life issues--abortion, euthanasia, and cloning--is not some merely prudential question, to be decided by political give and take. The Catholic Church doesn't take political positions--except when politics intrudes into something, like the right to life, that ought to be beyond the power of politicians.

Bishop William Weigand of Sacramento was the first American bishop to use the new note from Rome. At a pro-life Mass on January 22, he spoke of California Governor Gray Davis's claim to be a "pro-choice Catholic." After describing the efforts by Davis's pastor to get the governor to see the moral incoherence of his position, Weigand declared, "As your bishop, I have to say clearly that anyone--politician or otherwise--who thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk, and is not in good standing with the Church. Such a person should have the integrity to acknowledge this and choose of his own volition to abstain from receiving Holy Communion until he has a change of heart." (Russ Lopez, a spokesman for Davis, responded with the hilarious and deeply revealing complaint that Bishop Weigand was "telling the faithful how to practice their faith." In Lopez's mind--as, indeed, in the minds of many--the promise of the separation of Church and state, in which no political figure gets to tell believers how to practice their faith, has turned into a need for the separation of Church and Church, in which not even a religious figure gets to tell believers how to practice their faith.)

There's quite a list of pro-abortion Catholics in Washington--beginning with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader in the House--who could use similar instruction in "the duty to be morally coherent." Just in the Senate, there's Biden, Collins, Daschle, Dodd, Harkin, Kennedy, Kerry, Landrieu, Leahy, Mikulski, Murray, Reed, and more. But at least Tom Daschle has now been forced by Bishop Carlson to assume some responsibility for moral coherence--even if it is, unfortunately, a coherence achieved in the wrong direction.

The diocese in Sioux Falls would not say what brought the issue of Tom Daschle's Catholicism to a head at this moment, although one South Dakotan suggested it may have to do with Daschle's crossing of yet another line recently when he began direct fund-raising for NARAL. Senator Daschle's office has not yet responded to a request for comment. It's a serious thing when a bishop breaks a pastoral relation, no matter how tenuous that relation may have grown. But Bishop Carlson is right that the time has come to banish Cuomoism from American politics. This isn't a matter of favoring Republicans or Democrats. Regardless of their party, public figures who aren't going to oppose abortion shouldn't call themselves Catholic anymore.



-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), June 04, 2003

Answers

Yes, Gail, thank heavens for a few outspoken bishops! May God bless them. I've yet to see a politician renounce his pro-abort stance and embrace his Faith. Rather, when given the choice, they'll stick with baby-killing, and knock the Church which condemns it. (And they have the nerve to call themselves Catholic!)

Pax Christi. <><

-- Anna <>< (flower@youknow.com), June 05, 2003.


You'r very happy, Gail. You should pray for your ennemies!

oh, we pray for them, but we do not condone the use of our name to position themselves in politics, when their moral values shame our beliefs and shed a bad light on a church to which they dont belong. if daschle were to repent his ways he would be welcome to join the ranks of catholicism, but until that time it is only appropriate that he not call himself that which he is not

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), June 07, 2003.


Yes, I am happy, very happy, that one Bishop (God bless him) had the guts and conviction to stand up against politicians in this country who think that they can do anything, say anything, and still call themselves by the Name.

When Mel Carnahan, the Governor of our state, who sang in his Baptist Church choir on Sunday, repeatedly and vehemently denied the passage of a ban on partial birth abortion in our state, it was a blight -- a terrible blight upon this state. It was blight upon his own church, that one could utter the precious name of our savior in one moment and wield his pen for the purpose of murder on the other.

Should we pray for their conversion? Absolutely. But I will rejoice when evil plans and purposes are thwarted by men of courage! For that I DO NOT apologize, and I refuse to be rebuked for rejoicing when good triumphs over evil!

Gail

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), June 07, 2003.


I live in Sioux Falls, SD.

What you read was a rumor, not true. Bishop Robert Carlson did no such thing.

Don't be so sinful and spread rumors. If you don't beleive me, I'd be happy to have you call St. Joseph's Cathederal and talk to Most Rev. Bishop Carlson yourself...

-- Nick (nospamn@nicspam.com), June 08, 2003.


Here's the link lest anyone think I made this encouraging news up. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/559j rrei.asp

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), June 08, 2003.


Jmj

Here is a South Dakota article, quoting the bishop, and written in response to the "Weekly Standard" article copied above. Contrary to what Nick said, the bishop did not completely contradict the earlier article. Instead, he is keeping certain matters private.

But, anyway, we can all contrast the sordid pro-death Daschle situation with a wonderful thing I just read about pro-life Catholic Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. He gave the commencement address on May 17 at Christendom College in Virginia. Here is a marvelous excerpt from it:

"Back in 1998, we were attempting to override the President's veto. This was the second veto of the partial birth abortion ban. We were two votes short and it was the night before the vote. We had been debating the issue all day and it was now eight o'clock at night. The Senate was closing down, and we were pretty much done for the day. We were going to vote the next morning. But there was something inside me that said, 'You know, I really have more to say.'

"No one was in the chambers except the poor soul who had to sit and preside over the Senate. But I felt I needed to say more, even though no one was even listening! So I called my wife. She picked up the phone as I heard the children screaming in the background, and I said, 'Honey, it's late, I know, but I really feel like I need to stay here and finish this debate.' She said, as she always has, she would support me, of course, and take whatever time I needed. So, I went back to the floor and I told the presiding officer I would only be here a few more minutes.

"About 100 minutes later, I finished, and we closed up the chamber. I went home, and the next day we lost. I didn't change one vote! But a week later I received an e-mail. The e-mail was from a man, a young man your age at Michigan State University. The e-mail read as follows: 'On Thursday night, I was zapping through my television with my girlfriend. We were sitting watching TV and I came across you, standing on the floor of the United States Senate with a picture of a baby that you had beside you. And so, we decided to listen for a while. And as we listened and talked about this procedure called partial birth abortion, and these children, I noticed my girlfriend began to cry. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I'm pregnant and I have an abortion scheduled for tomorrow and I wasn't going to tell you. But I'm not going to have an abortion."'

"There is now a little girl who is four years old who was adopted by two loving parents. To the world I failed. To the world I failed! We didn't win the vote. But God was faithful."


Now, we have to pray for a miracle -- that Tom Daschle will some day be such a good man and Catholic as Rick Santorum is.
God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), June 09, 2003.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ