E.J. Dionne Jr.Confused Column on Catholics and Obama In the Washinton Post

Ah here we go again.

When President Obama meets with Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow, there will be no right-wing Catholic demonstrators upbraiding the pontiff, as they did Notre Dame earlier this year, for conferring the church's legitimacy upon this liberal politician.

Right wing? I think many of the Bishops will be shocked that by their opposition to this visit they are left wing. I think the African American Priest of the oldest Catholic School for African Americans is shocked that he is right wing. Also what Century is this writer leaving in. Conferring Legitimacy? This is not the era where the Pope would crown a Monarch to give legitimacy.

In fact, whether he is the beneficiary of providence or merely good luck, Obama will have his audience with Benedict just three days after the release of a papal encyclical on social justice that places the pope well to Obama's left on economics. What a delightful surprise it would be for a pope to tell our president that on some matters, he's just too conservative.

Note of course the non economic stuff in the encyclical (which the Pope said you can't separate is not mentioned). This is becoming a new tiresome line that the Pope is to the left of the Obama on economics. Really? I have this document three times and do not see that...............

The Vatican press has been largely sympathetic to Obama, and in a recent article, Cardinal Georges Cottier, who was the theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II, praised Obama's "humble realism" and on abortion went so far as to compare the president's approach to that of St. Thomas Aquinas. (Pray this won't go to Obama's head.)
No one pretends that the Vatican is at peace with Obama's views on the life issues, and Benedict mentioned the church's resistance to abortion at three points in this week's economic encyclical, "Charity in Truth."

I have touched on this before that the Cardinal was by his own statements operating on bad facts. For instance he was under the impression that Obama did not think there was a "right" to a Abortion. Such a statement if true would be a radical shift in the Democrat party. Of course the truth is just the opposite. By the way was the current theologian to the Papal household unavailable. She also seems to to ignore the latest reporting in the Vatican Press.

No one pretends that the Vatican is at peace with Obama's views on the life issues, and Benedict mentioned the church's resistance to abortion at three points in this week's economic encyclical, "Charity in Truth."
But the pope and many of his advisers also see Obama as a potential ally on such questions as development in the Third World, their shared approach to a quest for peace in the Middle East and the opening of a dialogue with Islam.

The Pope did a little bit more than that. As to third world development a huge concern the Pope indicates he is very much in opposition to what is now our stated policy toward the developing world on a number of issues. I quote:
Some non-governmental Organizations work actively to spread abortion, at times promoting the practice of sterilization in poor countries, in some cases not even informing the women concerned. Moreover, there is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong birth control measures. Further grounds for concern are laws permitting euthanasia as well as pressure from lobby groups, nationally and internationally, in favour of its juridical recognition.


The Vatican's stance and the broadly positive response to Obama's Notre Dame speech have at least temporarily quelled the vocal opposition to the president among more conservative American bishops. Now, parts of the hierarchy are working closely with the administration on health-care reform, immigration and climate-change legislation.

I would be wary of observing that there is a Vatican stance. I find her use of the word NOW interesting. There is no indication that parts of the hierarchy were not working closely or giving input to the administration on this other issues before. If they were not does she have proof? For instance Cardinal Dinardo of Houston was quite vocal in the opposition to the Notre Dame visit. He is also becoming the front man on immigration reform. I have huge doubts he was hesitant about making his concerns s known before about that issue.

Benedict's encyclical may provide the best perspective for understanding why a pope seen as a conservative views Obama more favorably than do most Catholic conservatives in the United States.
While American conservatives, including most Catholics in their ranks, see capitalism in an almost entirely positive light, Benedict -- following a long tradition of church teaching -- is more skeptical of a system rooted in materialist values. In that sense, he is to the left of his American flock.

I am trying to figure out where in the Papal document that the Pope has endorsed a stimulus plan that does not stimulate, protectionist actions , the Govt takeover of car plants, or has given a particular endorsement of the Obama health care plan. Also the Pope did not use the word Captialism once in his document.

Benedict's letter had some good things to say about the market system, but only if it is tempered by both "distributive justice and social justice." He thus spoke approvingly of "the redistribution of wealth" -- not a phrase currently on many American lips -- and caused free-market conservatives to blanch with his call for a "world political authority" to oversee the global economy in the name of "the common good."

I will admit the "world political authority" has caused some problems. That is mainly because of bad reporting in not going into what Benedict is talking about. Basically is talking about structures that in many cases Conservatives even approve of. I don't here calls by Conservatives to get rid of the World Trade organization


This gives the pope a perspective on Obama that conventional American conservatives lack, and it's why he is far more inclined to work with the man in the White House than they are. But Benedict is also more disposed than American liberals to disagree with the president -- and, yes, on some issues, he may prod Obama from the left.

This is the problem. The consistent theme that the more liberal Catholics are using of us(American Bishops and Catholics) to them(The Vatican). They seem to be imagining a controversy that is not there. Most Conservative Catholics are not in a uproar that the Pope is meeting with Obama. Just like they were not when Pope John Paul the II met with Clinton. Or that the Vatican will work with the Obama administration in areas of common concern. I can't help but note many of these voices are the same that pontificated that the Pope was going to show his displeasure with the Bush Administration over the Iraq war when he came to the USA. The very opposite happened. So why are we listening to them now.