Pope May Color Debate in "Moral Issues" in US Politics

The New York Times > International > International Special > Pope May Color Debate in U.S. Over 'Life' Issues Like Abortion: "'You say to the bishops, look, I respect you, I want to stay in the club, I try to live by your rules, but let's not be selective.' He noted that church teaching also includes opposition to the death penalty and the war in Iraq, as well as a strong agenda of social justice for the poor, and he asserts that Catholic Republicans ought to be judged by those standards.
Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and prominent Catholic, agreed: 'American bishops always have been involved in politics and been very selective. If you are a Republican who is for the death penalty, that is O.K., but if you are a Democrat for choice, that is not O.K.'"

This is what alarms me the most about modern Catholicism, and I hope the new Pope softens his line. From an objective standpoint where one makes the assumption that all life is sacred, the leniency and willingness to support politicians favouring the death penalty is clearly the greater wrong. Consider: euthanasia devalues the sacredness of life, yes. BUT many situations are often lumped under this heading that should not be, like the events surrounding Terri Schiavo's situation. Going to extraordinary and artifiical means to "preserve life" when someone is essentially medically dead is in a way, itself wrong--for it destroys the essential dignity of life. Furthermore, the linkages between anti abortion and anti contraception do not add up at all--the dangers of STDS, especially in the modern world, and the concept of sexuality as, yes sacred--but as a union whose natual end is not explicity only the creation of new life but also the celebration of love and devotion mandate that one again softens and broadens the lines along which these arguments are usually drawn. The conservative politicians of America are in support of the only black and white anti-Catholic, anti-life stance. Fold in the pro-war, pro-violent arms bit and compare against the social justice support of the left... and it's clear that religion should not explicitly dabble in politics and pick sides. Nicely written article--I only hope we see less rather than more of the political maneauvering we saw in the last election on the part of the Bishops and leaders of the Church, because it seems apparent that many are in danger of losing sight of the real roots of the Catholic faith. Catholicism means universal...and most factions are acting against any "universal" instincts at the moment--rather than emphasizing agape (humility, charity, love, brotherhood) the Church has been emphasizing the opposite.