The SOTU and the Gospel of Life

There are a lot of things I don't like about George Bush, but as a Catholic who takes very seriously my Church's Gospel of Life, I hear a fellow traveller in Bush that over comes my doubts on all other issues:

Because a society is measured by how it treats the weak and vulnerable, we must strive to build a culture of life. Medical research can help us reach that goal, by developing treatments and cures that save lives and help people overcome disabilities -- and I thank the Congress for doubling the funding of the National Institutes of Health. (Applause.) To build a culture of life, we must also ensure that scientific advances always serve human dignity, not take advantage of some lives for the benefit of others. We should all be able to agree -- (applause) -- we should all be able to agree on some clear standards. I will work with Congress to ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation or grown for body parts, and that human life is never bought and sold as a commodity. (Applause.) America will continue to lead the world in medical research that is ambitious, aggressive, and always ethical.  (SOTU Link)

The requirement that science promote human dignity could have come straight out of Evangelium vitae. Which calls to mind one of the Pontiff's observations in that encylical that speaks directly to those of us who participate in this blog:

Intellectuals can also do much to build a new culture of human life. A special task falls to Catholic intellectuals, who are called to be present and active in the leading centres where culture is formed, in schools and universities, in places of scientific and technological research, of artistic creativity and of the study of man. Allowing their talents and activity to be nourished by the living force of the Gospel, they ought to place themselves at the service of a new culture of life by offering serious and well documented contributions, capable of commanding general respect and interest by reason of their merit.

Are we doing enough? Am I? I do know that tonight I feel a renewed call to action.