Ellen wrote: >You know, I'd love to know who these progressive Catholics >are that can't work in coalition with other progressives >because of abortion. Left Catholics I know (and I know >quite a few) are happy to work with progressives on >issues like welfare, family support, health care and so on, >for exactly the sorts of reasons Nathan mentions. Moreover, >progressives and feminists are happy to work with them >also for the reasons Natban mentions. And both groups are >very happy to leave the abortion issue be. Indeed, this has been my experience as well. I haven't met any Left Catholics and Feminists for that matter who refused to work with one another on issues of importance because of the abortion issue. >Progressive Catholics of my acquaintance seem to >have no problem reconciling their coalition work with the >church's official position -- it's a church-state >issue and they leave it at that. Most are somewhat >embarassed by the church's positions on family-planning >and reproductive rights. I think that progressive pro-choice Catholics probably vastly outnumber the Seamless Garment anti-abortion types. In the face of so many pro-choice Catholics who vocally or quietly defy the church doctrine in their lives and activism, I don't see why non-Catholic leftists should privilege the church doctrine over what millions of Catholics are already doing. Hopefully pro-choice Catholics will one day persuade anti-abortion ones into dropping their anti-abortion part of belief. Yoshie
