Links for 10/20/16

At Politico, the influence of Kris Kobach on Trump. Kobach is one of the most sinister political influences in the country. 

At Commonweal, John Gehring is upset that the Al Smith dinner is going ahead as planned, with Donald Trump in attendance. I sympathize but, in the final analysis, I do not want bishops deciding to favor one candidate over another because that usurps the role of the laity. For all his flaws, and they are many, we cannot ignore that Clinton defends a legal regime that has resulted in millions of abortions. If New York is going to host the Al Snith dinner, they should invariably invite both candidates. Exceptions? No Holocaust deniers. So, Gehring gets my sympathy but not my agreement.

But, this problem is worse: Another example of false moral equivalence when facing this election: Catholic University President John Garvey, writing at Philly.com, has this to say about the two candidates:

Hillary Clinton will appoint a cabinet and a Supreme Court that view human life, faith and the traditional family as disposable items on society’s path toward a peculiar kind of personal autonomy that values none of them.

Donald Trump seems to be running a campaign against the love of neighbor, and his private conversations about women demonstrate little regard for human dignity.

I do not just think his characterization of Clinton is unduly harsh but also that his characterization of Donald Trump is unduly generous. Trump's conversations show more than a lack of regard for the dignity of women. They show a moral monster, utterly self-absorbed and unconcerned with anything except meeting his needs. And Clinton does not think faith is disposable. She holds to a different faith from that of Garvey. Hope they teach ecumenism at CUA's theology department.

Continuing our look/listen to beautiful funeral music, here is "I am the Bread of Life":

  

 


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