Vincible Ignorance
Moses, Paul
fact is that it was almost inevitable. Since 9/11, a culture of intolerance in the United States has been systematically encouraged and sustained. (My husband, who is brown-skinned and bearded, now...
...Or, as Koch put it: "This one puts you to the test...
...His easy air of authority reassured those around him, and gradually the atmosphere became less frenzied...
...If taken literally, it would chill the relations that bishops and various Catholic institutions cultivate with elected officials...
...These young men and women have heard about the enemies of the American way of life busy planning mass-destruction attacks on the country, who must be stopped before it is too late...
...Midway through the journey, someone outside hurled a large rock through a window, shattering the glass and injuring several passengers...
...This paragraph has gotten relatively little attention because news accounts focused on the hot-button political topic of whether bishops can deny Communion to prochoice Catholic politicians...
...He thought for a moment and said, "It's just training, I guess...
...They have been part of the wide-scale indoctrination, the paranoia, the fear—just like everyone else...
...Yet if the bishops follow through on this passage, it could have significant consequences for the everyday inter-actions between Catholic organizations and elected officials...
...If the statement is invoked unevenly, some critics might accuse Catholic leaders of going after Democrats and not prochoice Republicans...
...One can only imagine what sort of things they must have been told in basic training, or how many half-truths they heard about Arab terrorists, how many twisted versions they were given of Iraqi plans to take over America...
...The sanction is not limited to Catholics or even to politicians...
...It's hard to imagine that the sort of public friendship Koch and O'Connor enjoyed could flourish if the bishops enforce this paragraph...
...There are people who are incidentally prochoice, and for others, it's what they do for a living...
...Koch told me that story when I asked him about a passage in the U.S...
...Which awards or platforms might offer such support is not spelled out...
...Without some clarification, the bishops' prohibition will be applied broadly by those who make decisions in the Catholic community and by those who administer Catholic institutions...
...My friend was the picture of calm, however...
...Should politicians "who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" be denied a place in the St...
...as written, it covers far more than honorary degrees...
...So is New York governor George Pataki, also Catholic, Republican, and prochoice on abortion...
...I was by now a wreck, trembling uncontrollably and terrified at the thought of those two policemen coming to get me again...
...Unlike their fellow citizens at home, though, these young recruits have been given a chance to do something about it...
...I asked William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, about that...
...Paul Moses teaches journalism at Brooklyn College/CUNY...
...This particular route went through an area where bandit attacks on trains and buses are not uncommon, and people re-acted with screams and panic, expecting worse to follow...
...At the time, Giuliani was planning to run for the U.S...
...These situations call for "prudence," observes Donohue...
...I never found out who he was, but I am willing to bet that he had loving parents who taught him from childhood all the true, right things: that everyone has feelings, that bullies are cowards, that you have to stand up for what you believe...
...The San Diego Union-Tribune raised this issue in a front-page article in June, noting that California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a prochoice Republican who is a Catholic, has not received the same sort of criticism as prochoice Democrats who are Catholics, such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and former governor Gray Davis...
...A televised clip of a prominent politician speaking at a Catholic university might suggest that the candidate has some offiC Commonweal 9 July 16, 2004...
...There's no nuance...
...Patrick's Cathedral during the St...
...The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles," the bishops wrote...
...A few months ago, I was traveling to Delhi by railway with a close friend who is a pediatric surgeon...
...Should prochoice politicians be allowed to speak at graduations, parades, and other civic events...
...I fear that Catholic colleges and universities will not invite politicians with prohibited views to speak...
...And Senator Clinton...
...The bishops may be painting themselves into a corner...
...He also is an advocate of the death penalty...
...After all, Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs has proposed barring from the Eucharist Catholics who "would vote" for a prochoice politician...
...Just training...
...Part of being a surgeon...
...Catholic organizations often develop productive relations with politicians who are pro-choice...
...It is, after all, a premier political "platform" for officials such as Pataki, Giuliani, and the present New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, a prochoice Republican (even though many politicians avoid the parade because gays and lesbians are barred from marching as a group...
...The bishops state that "the Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" by giving them awards, honors, or platforms which might suggest support for their actions or views...
...When they did in fact move toward me, something amazing happened...
...Donohue says the prochoice New York Democrat "would be more in the line of Giuliani," that is, a suitable speaker for a Catholic college, if she speaks in her area of expertise...
...Why wouldn't you have him in...
...Catholic bishops' interim statement Catholics in Political Life, which was approved in a 183-6 vote at their June meeting...
...Patrick's Day Parade...
...The bishops' statement is so broadly worded that it could apply to these "honors or platforms" granted Koch, a Democrat who won election as mayor three times in a city more than 40 percent Catholic...
...They should not be given awards, honors, or platforms which would suggest support for their actions...
...Paul Weithman LET THEM SPEAK Prochoice politicians & Catholic universities atholics in Political Life, the statement issued by the American Catholic bishops at the end of their June meeting in Denver, will be remembered primarily for how the bishops addressed the issue of whether Catholic politicians with prochoice records may receive Communion...
...Read this way, the bishops' statement will have a chilling effect on an important debate and limit the role Catholic colleges and universities play in the church and in the public forum...
...You take care of yourself now," he said fiercely...
...After they had gotten my prints, I was dragged to another area to wait my turn to be hauled in front of a judge...
...But it would be a different story for a politician who was a point person for prochoice legislation, he says, adding, "I can't give the kind of black-and-white [answer] that people want...
...Koch says the cardinal "roared with laughter" when he heard a phrase from moral theology textbooks applied to his friend, the mayor...
...Training is everything...
...That's why occasionally it's good to be invincibly ignorant...
...They feel impelled to come across with a zero tolerance–type policy on everything...
...The rationale for the bishops' prohibition is clear...
...They even E Commonweal 8 July 16, 2004 coauthored the book His Eminence and Hizzoner, in which the prochoice Koch revealed deep misgivings about abortion...
...He was prolife early in his political career, but flip-flopped during his first mayoral race...
...And it's clear that some bishops will take it to unexpected extremes...
...Training is everything...
...You learn to stay focused on what needs to be done...
...Koch basked in O'Connor's praise and friendly barbs when he sat in the front row at midnight Mass, and they greeted each other heartily on the steps of St...
...In New York City, where I've written on politics and religion since the early 1980s, it's difficult to even find a major-party candidate who is prolife...
...After he had bandaged the man who had been hit by the rock, examined those who had been sprayed with bits of glass, and sat down again beside me, I asked how he had stayed so calm...
...Senate against Hillary Rodham Clinton...
...Giuliani, who is Catholic and Republican, has also been a strong supporter of Catholic schools and school vouchers...
...As he turned to go, I saw that his eyes were full of tears...
...A very young, very skinny National Guards-man darted across the room and reached me just seconds ahead of them...
...There's got to be some flexibility...
...You're invincibly ignorant and therefore you're excused," his partner explained...
...From the racial profiling of air travelers to the suspension of normal criminal-justice procedures for prisoners from the war in Afghanistan, every effort has been made to deny the humanity of anyone even vaguely considered a threat to American interests...
...He stood up quietly and after instructing people to close their curtains so as not to present an easy target, he quickly surveyed the compartment to assess who was most badly injured and whom he should assist first...
...Because of the timeliness of that issue, other aspects of the bishops' remarks passed largely unnoticed...
...And, as parade organizers have argued in court, it is a religious event...
...Before they had a chance to react, and in front of all his friends—the same ones who had been laughing minutes before—he scooped me up in his arms like a baby, carried me into the courtroom, and de-posited me gently into a chair...
...That is unfortunate, for Catholics in Political Life raises significant questions not only for individual politicians and voters but also for Catholic institutions...
...He says it was appropriate for Giuliani to speak at a Catholic college on urban issues...
...My husband, who is brown-skinned and bearded, now refuses to travel to the United States—he has heard too many stories from similar-looking friends of the harassment encountered in American air-ports...
...My Seabrook story doesn't end with the fingerprinting episode...
...He's an expert in urban affairs...
...Donohue thinks the bishops have gone too far...
...Donohue, who has recently been assailing John Kerry's Democratic presidential campaign, often appeared publicly with Giuliani while he was mayor, most notably to charge that art exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art was anti-Catholic...
...The bishops' statement could pose similar problems in communities across the country...
...Koch, who is Jewish, says he once asked a Catholic law partner why O'Connor would not let prochoice Catholics speak at the cathedral and yet "he never hesitates to invite me...
...I'm grateful," Koch said, "but I don't understand...
...The soldiers who were sent to Iraq in the latest phase of the "war against terror" have lived in the United States since September 11 and, along with everyone else, have listened to the increasingly strident rants of George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld about the need to "destroy" those who oppose the United States in Iraq and other parts of the world...
...Patrick's Day Parade...
...Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani has, for example, appeared in advertising for Manhattan College, his alma mater, and led a fundraising drive for a Catholic hospital...
...Paul Moses VINCIBLE IGNORANCE The bishops on prochoice politicians dward I. Koch, the former mayor of New York City, says he sometimes wondered how he had managed to have such a good relationship with the late Cardinal John O'Connor despite their opposing views on abortion rights...
Vol. 131 • July 2004 • No. 13
