Monday, October 15, 2012

Fr. James Martin, S.J. On Vice-President Biden's Idea, "Odd"

Last night's spirited Vice-Presidential debate was billed, in some quarters, as a "Catholic smackdown." The debate moderator, Martha Raddatz, made specific note of that reality, when she called the debate "historic," as it was the first time that both candidates for vice president were -- in case you've been living under a secular rock -- Catholic. As our blogger Michael O'Loughlin noted, however, Raddatz' "Catholic question" focused mainly on abortion. To me, it was not a surprising pivot, as many journalists tend to reduce all of Catholicism to a single issue. For his part, Congressman Ryan identify himself as strongly pro-life (though his reference to his daughter as "Bean" seemed oddly labored), dilated on what he perceived as threats to religious liberty and elaborated on the Romney administration's opposition to abortion, with Gov. Romney's (somewhat surprising to many pro-lifers) exceptions for rape, incest and threats to the life of the mother. Vice President Biden, in turn, stated that his religion "defines who I am," and spoke about his love of Catholic social teaching, his personal opposition to abortion and his unwillingness to "impose" that belief on others (though I've always found that odd, too -- we regularly "impose" our beliefs on others whenever we legislate.)
Link (here) to read the full post at The Huffington Post

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