Denver Archbishop Chaput not only criticizes Obama's positions, but also the bishops' conference for not speaking out forcefully--as the Archbishop does in this interview with young Thomas Peters, a.k.a. the "American Papist" and one of the more popular bloggers among the conservative Catholic set. The Papist's excerpts from the video indicate that Archbishop Chaput will be one of those seeking a major change in the bishops' approach when they meet in Baltimore next week:
On vocal bishops: "The bishops are aware ... a quieter approach to these things has not been effective ... we have to be stronger in what we say. We've just had it."
On Faithful Citizenship: "[It is] not very clear. We either ought to get rid of it, or say things much clearer."
On claiming Obama is a pro-life candidate: "It would be foolish to say that someone who ... runs on a party platform that has no regret at all about abortion ... to call that position pro-life is really strange."
On IRS investigations: "It's simply bullying. It shouldn't stop us from talking about the important issues of our time."
On the separation of Church and State: "We do believe in it. We don't like the state to tell us what to do. We don't believe in the separation of faith and politics."
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As the election winds down to an Obama victory and a crushing defeat for the Bishops, one must wonder which Bishop will be the first to be indicted for something.
The bishops should grapple more fully than they have with the loss of credibility that they suffered as a result of the sex abuse scandals. It's by no means a blanket condemnation that I'm making here - there were and are wonderful bishops whom I admire. But many parishioners feel that there was a failure truly to make amends.
When some of them looked the other way, and enabled or covered up abuse, they might have anticipated the impact on their moral authority to teach in other areas. So I consider that they let us down twice over in some sense. It may not be fair for people to dismiss them out of hand, and I myself do not dismiss them out o hand. But many people do because of the scandals.
The quieter approach is indeed ineffective in any number of instances. Why didn't they shout out loud the moment they knew what was going on?
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