By 2004 any reasonable person could see that churchgoers had already been ‘onboard’ for many years to refusing communion and more to abortion supporters.
I put quotes around ‘onboard’ because no one in the church had provided an ‘onboard’ platform for them to stand on. The congregation members built that platform, and the church leaders were the ones who finally got onboard.
Prove my above assertions wrong by showing me where the churches led the way in the 70’s, 80’s or even the 90’s (when the pro-life movement began to really sway public opinion) by putting some teeth into supporting the doctorine of life.
You can’t, because the record is what it is, a shameful record of what they didn’t do.
I’m hesitant to enter this discussion, especially on the side of the bishops, because frankly, the bishops’ records have been far from glorious on this issue, and what’s more, it’s lots easier to bash them than to defend them.
Nonetheless, I think that perhaps you paint with too broad a brush.
The first thing to make clear is that your view of a monolithic response from Catholic bishops towards the politics of abortion is false.
The response of bishops to the politics of abortion ranges everywhere from non-existent to excommunication. There are some bishops who seem to have said little about “Catholic” politicians and people who are involved with politics who embrace pro-abortion views. We also have Bishop Bruskewitz who formally excommunicated members of so-called “Catholic” pro-abortion groups in his own diocese. He did that about a decade ago, a few years into his reign in his diocese. The Vatican has upheld his actions.
There are also some bishops who have called out pro-abortion politicians by name and told them that they might not receive Holy Communion.
These are few in number, but they refute the idea of a monolithic response.
As well, many bishops have stated generally that pro-abortion politicians should not approach Holy Communion. Although they haven’t singled out specific politicians for specific bans, they have spoken out and stated clearly that pro-abort politicians should not receive Holy Communion. There are many bishops who have done this, including Cardinal O’Malley of Boston.
I believe it’s fair to criticize this set of bishops that they haven’t gone far enough. Rather than expressing a general rule, my view is that they should take the time to specifically ban specific persons from Holy Communion, as some other bishops have done.
It isn’t quite practical to formally ban by name ALL pro-abort politicians, but perhaps each bishop could take the top ten offenders in his diocese.
However, dealing with the specific politics of abortion shouldn’t be primarily the role of the hierarchy. Participation in the political arena is primarily the work of the laity. Thus, it is right that it should be the laity who take the lead in the politics of abortion. The bishops have taught clearly and specifically what are the teachings and principles of the Church in this regard. One could wish for more spine from them where the political intersects the ecclesiastical, but it’s false to say they have done nothing or have not done anything to help lead the way.
Beyond the strictly political, the bishops, collectively, have done other things regarding abortion. Since the late ‘70s or the ‘80s, the movement in many dioceses to provide assistance to women in crisis pregnancies has enjoyed the support, spiritual, emotional, and financial, of many bishops.
This extends to efforts in this area by non-Catholics. I worked with a Protestant pro-life organization back in the early 1990s. Its leaders told me flat-out that it was members of the Catholic hierarchy and Catholic laity who helped them get off the ground in their initial efforts in the 1980s.
Now, it’s true, this didn’t make any headlines. It’s true that if I mentioned the name of the organization, not many Catholics, not many folks at all would recognize its name. Nonetheless, it provides support for a couple of thousand crisis pregnancy centers.
The bottom line is that many of our bishops HAVE lent significant support to charitable works to assist women in crisis pregnancies. Many bishops feel more comfortable performing this more traditional role - doing works of charity - in relationship to abortion than getting out in front of the politics of abortion.
Thus, many of our bishops have led in important ways on the issue of abortion. For a very long time.
Could they, should they have done more? I believe that they should have.
Did they do nothing? Did they entirely abdicate their leadership role? No, they didn’t.
Could all of us have done more?
Probably.
I know I could.
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