Your dailiy dose of Catholicism

[nonionay]

I read the New Advent newsfeed, which, just by scanning headlines, gives me a good idea of what's going on in the Catholic world. It's a place where pro-life headlines are side-by-side with ones about ytterbium atoms. (teleportation!) Apparently some Americans are annoyed at the Pope for not including abortion in his first messages to President Obama. The article then points out this:

"Inevitably, however, the situation also highlights a basic contrast in Catholic culture on the two sides of the Atlantic. Catholics in Europe, even the most ferociously conservative, generally do not have a single-issue focus on abortion. They’re no less pro-life, but perhaps because there’s no prospect of rolling back abortion rights in most European nations, it’s not their signature crusade. In the States, abortion is the elephant in the room during any conversation about Catholics and politics, but not so across the water, and not so for the pope."

Thank God the Vatican has a wider scope of vision than some people.

Comments

[hawkdancer.livejournal.com]

I wish our theology teachers would refrain from being more conservative than the Pope.

[criada.livejournal.com]

It's not even so much a matter of conservatism, it's a matter of having the diplomatic, political sense to know what you should and shouldn't bother with.

[jsbangs.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

The thing I find ironic is that, for all of the sound and fury over here, the US has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world. Most European states have restrictions on abortion that have been declared unconstitutional here--things like forbidding minors from getting abortions without parental permission, or total bans on abortion in the third trimester.

So you can't always assume that Europe is more liberal than the US. It may also explain why European Catholics aren't as incensed over the issue.