The Catholic Church and the Florida House

During the lengthy House session on Wednesday, as the legislators grappled with abortion bills and the Blaine Amendment, Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, arose during debate and mentioned her unhappiness that the Catholic Church --with which, according to her House webpage, she is affiliated -- has largely downplayed social justice issues in favor of opposition to abortion.

This is troubling and shows the struggles the Church faces in getting its message out. The most recent encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, was about social justice, in the tradition of previous papal encyclicals like Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII, Quadragesimo Anno by Pius XI and Populorum Progressio by Paul VI -- not to mention the Catholic Distributist tradition embraced by the likes of Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton. Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who is currently overseeing the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in which Rehwinkel Vasilinda is based, has been very outspoken in his criticism of attempts to bring an Arizona-style immigration law to Florida. So have the other bishops in the Florida Catholic Conference. While Floridas Catholic bishops have agreed with conservatives and backed pro-life measures and increased school-choice options, they have also called for expansion of Medicaid and health-care services -- not exactly positions associated with the right these days. Its disheartening to see that Rehwinkel Vasilinda, a college professor with an impressive education, did not seem aware of this, and that none of the other Catholics in the House feels the need to reply.

On Good Friday, Catholics in Tallahassee showed why the Church can both comfort and bewilder liberals and conservatives alike. That morning Catholics held the Stations of the Cross at abortion providers in Tallahassee and prayed to end the practice. At noon, the hour on Good Friday when Christ was on the cross, Catholics held another Stations of the Cross to oppose the death penalty.

Too often journalists covering the Catholic Church make the mistake of putting clerical matters in American political terms -- most laughably when the media labeled the newly installed Benedict XVI a neoconservative even though he had opposed American military involvement in Iraq. There are some things that are simply above politics, and the Church --which continues to defend life and fight for social justice --is one of them.