When I was at Auriesville on Saturday I stood in front of a large memorial to the pro-life movement. It had the seal of a diocese I think and many endorsements from local Knights of Columbus chapters. As I looked across that beautiful Mohawk River valley I thought, “What is life?” What is pro-life? Is pro-life care for the unborn, but pro-war and pro-capital punishment for the born? Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB has a very good column in this week’s National Catholic Reporter. I liked it and hope you will too.
“But, though we have talked about the American Dream in every election for years, society simply goes on deteriorating — here as well as everywhere else. The poor get poorer. The middle class has stalled. Patriotism has become militarism. Economic success has become corporate greed. And, most troubling of all, morality has become particularized — which means that some of the Ten Commandments are being taken seriously, but some are not. Some morality is being politicized; most is not.
Evolution and cloning and same-sex marriage and abortion have become legislative hallmarks of U.S. morality. Torture and preemptive war, lack of universal health insurance, disregard for the care of the elderly and the welfare fraud of the wealthy (called tax breaks) are called “social issues,” not moral problems. Yet all of those things have to do with the quality of life, the dignity of life and the sacredness of life. Obviously, the “dream” is getting muddled.” Read more here.
Peace.