Cuomo & the lay voice

...nevertheless, as they must, religion and politics meet in the man, 1 think it can be fairly said that Governor Cuomo, like most Catholics in government, believes that the translation of morality into effective and sound law is the province of the politician...

...In a more concrete sense it says that there is no machinery for consulting with a lay person in a particular area of competence, and, in any case, little or no will to do so...

...And in unexpected places...

...If so, must we not be grateful to Governor Cuomo for "illuminating" the problem "in a refreshing and candid way" (The New Republic) as was his responsibility and his right7 ABIGAIL McCARTHY 19 October 1984:551...

...Unlike most politicians he is willing to contend for his right to that province...

...What does it say about a church which in its documents defines itself as the People of God...

...other discus- sions in Commonweal on this topic) but there is no doubt that, in the area in which they bear practical responsibility, they believe that to endorse the specific legis- lation apparently insisted upon by the bishops would be to the detriment of the laws proper to the temporal order in the shifting circumstances of this particular time in this particular place ~ the United States of America...

...In the Washington Post editorial page writer William McPherson says in a column: "We are saying, as society has always said, that there are circumstances under which life is sacred and circumstances under which it is not...

...As an American he also believes in the separation of church and state...

...Alas for Bishop Maginn who will prob- ably never be recalled in Albany without reference to the exchange which almost literally took place over his body...

...But "'1 believe that the legal interdicting of abortion ,by either the federal govern- ment or the individual states is not a plausible possibility and wouldn't . . . work...

...One of his political gifts is to make clear what the concrete application of theory will mean...

...But let's call it what it clearly is: life...

...His position stated in his own words is worth recalling: "For me, life or fetal life in the womb should be protected.., the full potential of human life is indisputably there...

...It was launched and carried on, until Gov- ernor Cuomo's speech at Notre Dame, in the public press, The archbishop's first remark was made to a reporter...

...it is important to remember that Mario Cuomo does not differ with the biHops about the fact that abortion is wrong and sinful...

...it can be brought into con- formity with the higher principles of Christian life and adapted to the shifting circumstances of time...

...it is also worth noting that Cuomo's insistence on his right to come to his conclusiems in terms of his responsibility as a public official has brought about the debate asked for by the New England bishops...

...The editorial is worth reading as a model of respectful inquiry into a thorny issue...

...The gov- ernor's reply was made via the New York Times...

...Perhaps in a dialogue of respectful mutuality preparatory to any public statements, they might have come to modify their positions or come to state them differently, in a world in which bishops communicate with office-holders by making pointed joke s in homilies to which it would be unseemly to reply, we will certainly'never know...

...Let me remind readers of the origins of this discussion, if discussion it was...

...Governor Cuomo interpreted the archbishop's statement as "'saying that no Catholic can vote for Ed Koch, no Catholic can vote for Jay Goidin...

...And in a civilized society, the decision to end it for whatever reason.., ought to be not only troublesome but terrible in the first sense of the word: causing terror, fearful...

...Governor Cuomo, Congresswoman Fen'am, Senator Edward Kennedy and the others may or may not have stated their various cases well (cf...

...Says a New Republic editorial, "We do not normally commit theology, but then again neither, normally, do governors," and raises the bishops' own question: "Why does the pragmatic principle apply to abortion and not to civil rights...

...this statement was commented on by the governor at a news conference...

...The second encounter was by means of a press statement issued by the archbishop (saying he had been mis-quoted and clarifying, but not really modifying, his position...

...The third encounter was similarly indirect, and at a funeral...

...W HAT DOES this say to the world which the whole church is called to serve...

...Are these the germs of a future consensus...

...for Carol Bellamy...

...It says that there is a tragic disregard for the bonds which should unite its members in reverence and love...

...Under-standably he took umbrage when the archbishop of New York "seemed" to say that no Catholic in good conscience could vote for any candidate who dis- agreed with the bishops --not on abor- tion --but on the political solution to the problem of abortion in our society, The archbishop seemed to interpret the deci- sion not to support specific anti-abortion laws or a specific Constitutional amend- ment as acts "explicitly supporting abor- tion...

...nor for Pat Moynihan or Mario Cuomo...

...In this instance there seems to have been a blatant disregard for the principle that "the citizen must cooper- ate with other citizens, using their own skills and acting on their ~wn responsi- bility...'" and that "'the temporal order must be renewed in such a way that, without the slightest detriment in its own proper laws...

...Mario Cuomo is a Catholic, in his own words "'attached to the church first by birth, then by choice, now by love.'" He accepts, so he affirms, the teaching au- thority of the church on matters of doc- trine, faith: and morals...

...place, and per- son" ( Decree on the Laio', Vatican il -(all italics mine...