The Senate confirmation hearings for John Roberts’ Supreme Court nominations are expected to return to the issue of religion:
"The degree to which Roberts’s religious beliefs may inform his judicial philosophy could be a significant line of questioning, especially given that Roberts is replacing Sandra Day O’Connor [Editor’s note: Since Chief Justice Rehnquist’s death, Roberts will now be replacing Rehnquist and not O’Connor. –MLA], a key vote on many contentious social issues. Conservatives distrusted O’Connor for the same reason that liberals are sorry to see her go: She supported abortion rights and took moderate stances on other social causes, including voting to strike down Texas’s sodomy law, a 2003 case that was a turning point for gay rights.
"The signals with Roberts are mixed. Liberal women’s groups believe that based on his legal record, he may attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. Conservative groups also have found material not to like in the Roberts dossier, such as the Supreme Court case he helped to prepare challenging a Colorado constitutional amendment excluding gays from anti-discrimination laws."
One commentator, Georgetown university professor of government W. Clyde Wilcox had this to say:
"’They want to get a read on the guy, and it’s hard to find anything to grab onto — so maybe [his Catholicism] would be an attractive line of questioning,’ said W. Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University government professor.
"’You can understand a person better if you know the reason they’ve taken a position is from their faith,’ Wilcox said. But, he added: ‘Knowing someone is a Catholic doesn’t really tell you where they are on abortion at all.’"
That a Georgetown University professor could blithely note that a person’s known adherence to Catholicism "doesn’t really tell you where [he is] on abortion at all" is a scary assessment of the state of cafeteria Catholicism in our country today.
Kennedy Considers Roberts Nomination
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) talks about President Bush’s nomination of John Roberts for Chief Justice. K
Scary because it’s uncomfortably true. Some surveys show that the number of Catholics who favor “choice” is roughly equal to that of the general population.
Contraceptive use by Catholics happens at just about exactly the same rate as the general population.
Sad.
The parable of the sower shows that people will be in the cafeteria until Judgment Day. Let us not hope for temporal blessings that we have already been told that we won’t get.
Are you implying that it is scary because
A) An “educated” representative of our faith says one’s faith has nothing to do with Catholicism?
or
B) Because he is right?
The way I see it, it is the older generation of unorthodox priests like this bozo who are breeding the next generation of “spiritual” Catholics. How long, oh Lord, will the younger generation of orthodox Catholics have to bear the burden of being shepherded by these old men who are still lost in a forty-year-old failed social revolution?
The generation who said “trust no one over 30” is causing such pain and loss for those under 30 today!! Who will wake them?
Right on, StubbleSpark.
Preach it!