Conservative Cafeteria Catholics

Huh? I thought that, according to canon law, anything the Pope decrees ex cathedra is divine truth and that all Catholics are obligated to regard it as such. What's with this "one from column A" approach to right-to-life issues? Opposition to abortion is mandatory, while concern for the poor, a committment to peace, and elimination of the death penalty are optional? Who the fuck says? Didn't Papa JP II issue "Evangelium Vitae" in 1995, saying the following:

And how can we fail to consider the violence against life done to millions of human beings, especially children, who are forced into poverty, malnutrition and hunger because of an unjust distribution of resources between peoples and between social classes? And what of the violence inherent not only in wars as such but in the scandalous arms trade, which spawns the many armed conflicts which stain our world with blood?

[...]

It is clear that, for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

The House's Catholic Democrats Detail Role Religion Plays

Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the Catholic Democrats "have decided to stop letting others define us." But Tom McClusky, a Catholic who is acting vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, predicted they would fail.

"What is at the core of being Catholic is the life issue, and that's something the pope has never strayed from," he said. "While other issues are important -- such as helping the poor, the death penalty, views on war -- these are things that aren't tenets of the Catholic Church."

That is a lie, plain as day. But then I suppose the eighth commandment is another of those optional doctrines.

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