It seems that just about nobody is happy about the debt deal. Tea-partiers feel they lost. Liberals feel they lost. The American people certainly lost and whether he feels that way or not, President Obama surely lost. But there are others that also lost in this deal. Others that many people would be surprised to see in a list of losers because of the debt deal, Bishops Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, and Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, New York. And by extension, all the Bishops of the USCCB lost in this deal.
Americans may have lost a great opportunity to get our fiscal house in order, politicians may have lost their base or some political capital, but the bishops lost something even more precious–their credibility.
It is often appropriate and even necessary for bishops, either individually or collectively, to weigh in on important moral matters of the day and I am usually…
August 3, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Unfortunately they surrendered their credibility in the 1960s and, with a few notable exceptions here and there, none have had a desire to get it back. Lord have mercy.
August 4, 2011 at 1:36 am
How is this any different than when pro-choicers question the "relevance" of the bishops when they advocate for life? Granted, that is a far more serious issue, but this is an undeserved political attack on the bishops. If you want to run a blog on "conversative" politics, go ahead, but you should stop pretending it's Catholic.
August 4, 2011 at 6:19 pm
"Shared sacrifice" when they start paying taxes and/or living like princes off money meant to care for the poor –