Weigel launches another Newsweek salvo at Catholic Obama supporters

Washington DC, Oct 24, 2008 / 07:09 am (CNA).- The discussion over Catholic support for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama continued this past week as professors Nick Cafardi, Cathy Kaveny, and Doug Kmiec—all Obama backers—debated the topic with political commentator George Weigel in the pages of Newsweek. Obama’s Catholic supporters argued that Obama would serve the pro-life cause in other aspects, while Weigel charged that such arguments ignore or minimize Obama’s vigorous support for abortion rights.
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Weigel responded ... suggesting the professors’ criticism of what they called the “elegant theorizing” of pro-life Republicans avoided the real argument....

Calling most Catholic politicians “woefully ill-informed” about the logic of Catholic teaching on life issues, he said this “enormous failure” of pastors and bishops is compounded when prominent Catholic intellectuals “fail to make clear” that their preferred pro-abortion rights candidate’s record on such issues is “reprehensible.”