Et ceteras
Et ceteras OTHER THINGS Richard Neuhaus, editor of the neo-conservative journal First Things, recently chastised the editors of Commonweal, America, Christianity Today, and Christian Century for...
...We continue to need all three...
...What would that sound like...
...Is it an "unyielding" message on abortion Bishop McHugh wants from his confreres...
...Bring down the government...
...We thank those who have come to our aid with advice, references, and moral support...
...He calls for a message that is "clear, morally compelling, and unyielding...
...He is critical not only of Catholic voters but of the election strategy of the bishops' conference...
...The bishop is unhappy that President Bill Clinton took 53 percent of the Catholic vote...
...The bishop's views may well reflect the frustrations of many bishops: their efforts to persuade Catholics to vote the church's moral teaching do not produce clear-cut results...
...Happily, in that very issue of First Things (February 1997), we found something very much worth talking about: Bishop James T. McHugh of Camden, New Jersey, reflects on "Catholics and the 1996 Election...
...Excommunicate Catholics who vote for can-didates like Clinton...
...They have made "clear and morally compelling" arguments...
...but they must continue to do what they do: offer thoughtful statements about religion and democracy and about the full-range of moral issues in the campaign, while avoiding even the appearance of partisanship...
...CORRECTION "Research News" in our January 31 "Et Cetera": Of 1.5 million Danish women in the study, 280,965 women had 370,715 abortions...
...He does not say that Bob Dole was to be preferred in 1996, though he favorably cites Sidney Callahan's Commonweal column (August 16,1996) in which she declared her vote for Dole to protest Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion bill...
...to inform our faithful readers that little progress has been made in finding Commonweal new office space ["Evicted...
...We have several leads on possible new homes, but so far everything seems either too expensive or too, too expensive...
...THE NEARLY HOMELESS We regret (really regret...
...Leege offered his sympathies and this advice to the bishops: "This has got to be maddening to the bishops...
...His conclusion: "For too long the Catholic bishops have been passive, withdrawn, or indirect in trying to give leadership...
...And then there were Catholics who in the voting booth couldn't bring themselves to pull the lever for either major candidate...
...Et ceteras OTHER THINGS Richard Neuhaus, editor of the neo-conservative journal First Things, recently chastised the editors of Commonweal, America, Christianity Today, and Christian Century for not practicing dialogue...
...Don't hesitate to call...
...Can the U.S...
...Look at the 1996 campaign...
...February 14...
...But do they pay attention to his...
...In his comprehensive article in these pages on the Catholic vote (September 27,1996), David Leege showed how com-plex, in generational and gender terms, the Catholic vote has become...
...seems to plod along in its own track, maintaining an enclosed universe of discourse...
...McHugh thinks that Catholics should "be identifiable in the electorate by voting patterns based on moral concerns, not on party membership or party loyalty...
...And who does not know where they stand on euthanasia, racism, care for the sick and dying, for the poor and elderly, for the immigrant and the homeless...
...We have been chastised frequently by the editor of First Things...
...Another thought for the bishops: Because the gender gap loomed so large in the '96 campaign, shouldn't the bishops try to find a way to talk to Catholic soccer moms...
...Each of them...
...And finally there were those who simply stayed home on election day...
...Is the bishop's analysis right...
...He himself practices regularly: "We try to pay serious attention to their worlds...
...The end of the regime...
...Like a good many others, we have come to think of Neuhaus's redoubt, "The Public Square," as more "The Public Scold...
...They should support candidates who display moral integrity and whose positions are consistent with Catholic moral concerns...
...No, they do not...
...Yet this time, plodding along in our own narrow way, talking to ourselves, we lifted our heads at this plea for attention...
...If abortion is the defining moral concern for the bishop, was Dole really that much better than Clinton...
...Bishop McHugh also criticizes the American bishops' 1995 statement on "Political Responsibility" for failing to be timely, for excessive length and generality, and for seeming to treat all issues equally...
...bishops truly be described as "passive, withdrawn, or indirect in their leadership...
...Is there anyone who does not know where the bishops stand on abortion...
...But there were equally conscientious Catholics who, examining Dole's record, felt they had no choice but to vote for Clinton, as the lesser of two evils...
Vol. 124 • February 1997 • No. 4
