A quick response to Michael

In response to Michael's recent post on the election:  He is right, certainly, that "many faithful Catholics" do not agree that "the only reasonable choice for a faithful Catholic to make is to vote Republican."  And, for what it's worth, I think I've always been pretty clear in my own posts that I do not believe faithful Catholics must vote Republican.  I do think they should, all things considered, but it seems clear to me that reasonable, faithful people can disagree with each other about what reasonable, faithful people should do.

It seems a separate question, though, whether the current position of Sen. Obama specifically, and the Democratic Party generally, on abortion is one that a "faithful Catholic" should, or even may, endorse.   Michael quotes a recent NCR article, which includes this:

According to a recent Associated Press story, Biden has said in the past that he is “prepared to accept” church teaching on when life begins, but at the same time he believes that Roe v. Wade “is as close as we’re going to be able to get as a society” to a consensus among differing religious and other views on the subject. We suspect that view is held by a lot of ordinary Catholics and more than a few bishops, albeit privately. So the dispute becomes more over political strategy than church teaching. How to attack the abortion problem from the political stump in the political arena -- where compromise is the coin of the realm -- is far different from pronouncing from the pulpit.

Here, Biden is wrong, I think.  First, even if it is true that, in a society like ours, we are not going to achieve consensus on abortion regulations, this does not mean that "Roe v. Wade" is the best we can do.  Roe v. Wade, again, makes it impossible for us, as a society, to work together towards consensus, or even just compromise.  Even if we think that Catholics can support, as a matter of political strategy, a permissive abortion-regulation regime, it does not follow that such Catholics should not care about Roe's wrong-ness.  (To be clear:  I am not saying that the question whether the Constitution in fact protects an abortion-right is one that Catholic teaching can or should answer.) 

Second, it is crucial that any Catholic -- or any pro-life voter -- who is trying to understand what is at stake, with respect to abortion, confront and read carefully the proposed Freedom of Choice Act.  This proposed law -- which Sen. Obama strongly supports -- is not at all (to use NCR's words) a "compromise."

UPDATE:  More here.