A case in point

That bishops’ document on principled voting and faithful citizenship is still circulating through the media and throughout the blogosphere. Some (few) think it made issues clearer. Many are dismayed that….while the bishops intended to provide clarity on Church teaching and how to apply it to politics and voting, the final document actually may be more confusing and open to wider interpretation than the document it replaced.

Here’s just one example of some creative interpretation, describing CNN’s reporting. I saw this when CNN was airing it, and stopped in the middle of a conversation when I think the banner read ‘Bishops to Democrats: Be Flexible on Abortion’. My son saw it, too, and it prompted us to go online (though on vacation at the time) to check the story and its authenticity. It was a news tease, though the news story never came up for the rest of the hour. And the banner quickly changed. It’s not inconceivable that CNN realized it was not expedient to run that banner that the bishops told the Democrats to ease up on abortion.

The story continues to ‘have legs’, and it’s still confusing. Fr. Richard John Neuhaus had a different take over at First Things, and it must be noted along with the other reviews. Scroll down on that post to the second half (though the first half is compelling, too).

LifeSiteNews summarized:

The 44 page document, which examines a variety of political issues facing the United States, strongly emphasizes that human life is the highest of all political values, and that among human life issues abortion is the most pressing…

However, Forming Consciences strangely neglects to address the particular duties of legislators and other politicians with regard to supporting or enforcing legislation that contradicts the right to life.  In fact, politicians are only mentioned once, very briefly, despite the fact that many Catholics hold prominent positions in all three branches of the U.S. federal government and many have persistently supported anti-life policies, including abortion.

Soooo……read the document.