MRC president L. Brent Bozell III had his Letter to the Editor published in Saturday's Washington Post. He objected to liberal Post columnist E.J. Dionne trying to make a mountain out of the molehill of one liberal bishop granting an interview to one liberal Catholic magazine. Dionne did not note that this same bishop, so nervous about the bishops being used by political partisans "far to the right," delighted liberals by attacking the Paul Ryan budget.
Dionne wrote the conservative bishops who are "eagerly picking fights with President Obama....have angered more progressive Catholics and led to talk among the disgruntled faithful of the need for a 'Catholic spring' to challenge the hierarchy’s shift to the right." So now the Catholic hierarchy is like Arab dictators? Brent wrote in reply:
In his May 24 op-ed column, “A Catholic spring?,” E.J. Dionne Jr. suggested that there is an internal revolt against the “right-wing” Catholic bishops for their lawsuit against the Obama administration. He wrote, “The vast majority of the nation’s 195 dioceses did not go to court.”
There are many possible strategic and tactical reasons for that, from financial to legal. Mr. Dionne, however, knows it is because of their political opposition to those “right-wing” bishops. His proof? He cites the words of one bishop. Even more telling, in a lengthy quotation, his one bishop expresses concern over, not opposition to, the legal challenge.
According to a list compiled by CatholicVote.org, every Catholic bishop in the United States — “right-wing,” “left-wing” and everything-in-between-wing — is on the record opposing this mandate as an assault on religious freedom. Every single one.
L. Brent Bozell III, Alexandria
