Oxymorons: “jumbo shrimp”; “pro-life Obama”; “reality TV”.

We’ve had an interesting presidential campaign. Not only has it been the longest, it has also once again stirred controversy over a matter that has been settled for Catholics for 2000 years.

Tom McCluskey, VP of Government Affairs at the Family Research Council (and my former colleague), has this excellent piece examining Senator Obama’s radical abortion position. As Tom points out, in a time when the economy and the war are first on people’s minds, it’s remarkable (at the very least) that Senator Obama has said that one of the first things he’ll do as president is to sign the Freedom Of Choice Act which would go beyond Roe and remove all state limitations on abortion, in addition to mandating federal funding (public tax dollars) for abortion. Strange sense of priorities, to say the least. Tom’s piece is a must-read.

In addition, George Weigel has this piece in Newsweek where he examines the validity of the Bishops insistence on the teaching of the Church.Basically, we cannot fault the Bishops for being political when they are only offering the teachings of the Catholic Church. It seems to me that we can’t have the luxury of being political so long as basic human rights issues, like the right to life, are up for grabs.

Bishop Kevin Farrell and Bishop Kevin Vann, two Texas Bishops, issued a statement on the role of Catholics particularly as voting citizens. This succint letter is an easy read, but it covers Church teaching and makes clear the obligation that Catholics have to be “faithful citizens.”