Religion & Law

Michael P. linked the other day to an editorial in Commonweal which (among other things) asks "is there a possibility that the USCCB might be wrong?" It seems to me that the editors are beyond-question-right in observing that, with respect to "highly technical legislative and legal questions," it is possible for the USCCB to be wrong -- that is, to misunderstand what, in fact, the legislation or policy in question actually does or will do.  This is true with respect to complicated health-insurance legislation, and is also true with respect to policies and proposals regarding immigration, taxation, public-assistance, farm-subsidies, foreign aid, etc., etc. 

It strikes me that the important challenge for all of us -- in the context of the current health-insurance debate, I think it is Catholic "liberals" who face this challenge; in some other contexts, it is Catholic "conservatives" -- is to do all we can to be sure that, in opposing the bishops' policy judgments, we are indeed motivated by an informed and good-faith disagreement about a matter with respect to which the bishops have no special teaching authority, and are not instead animated by a (perhaps unacknowledged) rejection of the underlying moral principle, with respect to which (I assume) the bishops do enjoy such authority.  I am confident that our friends at Commonweal are in the former position, but no one should imagine that (say) Nancy Pelosi is, too.