The Church does the right thing

In a recent post I lamented the lack of progressive voices in Chicago's Catholic Church. Indeed, many of the practicing Catholics in my life are disillusioned with the Church's frequent focus on doctrinal issues over social justice.

But apparently there are still vocal progressive Catholics out there. To wit, a group of Catholic professors, as well as the US Conference of Bishops, have been speaking out over the backwards, anti-Christian slant of the Republican-led House budget proposal. These groups claim that the budget's cutting of social programs, combined with its tax cuts to the wealthy, violates Catholic pro-life morality. In particular, they seem to be applying what Chicago's late Cardinal Bernardin called a consistent ethic of life. This ethic implies that abortion, war, capital punishment, poverty, hunger, and injustice are all affronts to life, and must be simultaneously fought against.