In his column today, George Skelton joins the ranks of those who think a) religion should be seen and not heard (unless they agree with Skelton) and b) being a Catholic means being able to flout Catholic doctrine without consequence. Skelton’s column is a classic of this particular of genre of secular political outrage, hitting all the bases.
Skelton is upset that Cardinal Roger Mahoney pointed out that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s support for legalizing assisted suicide "…he has allowed himself to get into this other direction, the culture of death."
Excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but making it easier for people to kill themselves is inextricably linked to death. Death is kind of the point of assisted suicide.
But this is just too much for Skelton:
The church is bucking back and looking like an ugly old political attack dog.
I like the "speeding up death" euphemism for suicide. Leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge isn’t suicide, it’s just "speeding up death."
And thank you, George Skelton, for informing me that when the Catholic Church upholds church teaching and reminds Nunez , a high-profile elected official who likes to identify himself as a Catholic, that he is disobeying Church teaching — it isn’t doing its job but instead acting like "an ugly old political attack dog."
Skelton also trots out the the brain-dead understanding of the separation of church and state:
Let’s see — what it is the Constitution says? Oh yeah:
Hmmm…I don’t see anything prohibiting religious leaders instructing members of their flock who happen to be elected officials.
And I don’t recall Skelton yelling "violation of church and state" when Cardinal Mahoney called on his flock – which includes Speaker Nunez — to fast "in solidarity with undocumented immigrants."
I guess liberals only fret about "separation of church and state" when the Church speaks out against legalized abortion, assisted suicide — you know, death stuff.
Here’s a another nugget from Skelton’s column:
"At least its leadership"? Are there two parallel bodies of doctrine in the Catholic Church — one for the laity and one for the clergy? Does George Skelton know something the Roman Catholic Church no one else does?
And no column from this genre would be complete without the obligatory self-descriptions by politicians who self-identify as Catholic when it’s convenient:
That’s lovely Assemblywoman Berg — but I could "consider" myself to be a tree and it doesn’t make me one.
And old Skelton can’t resist this cheap shot:
No matter that those molestation cases involved only a fraction of the clergy. I guess George would agree that journalists are "on shaky ground" when reporting the news because of the small number of reporters who fabricate "facts" or entire stories.
And I’ll be curious to see Skelton whine about "lack of moral stature" next time the Church takes a political stance he agrees with.
Skelton concludes with this note of tolerance and liberality:
Amazing. Skelton is outraged when a Cardinal admonishes a member of his flock about a deadly serious breach of Church traching, yet he’s OK with using the power of government to intimidate religion. What part of "free exercise" does Skelton not understand?