One of the University of Dayton’s most vocal dissidents to Church teaching, Dr. Vincent Miller (UD’s Gudorf Chair of Catholic Theology and Culture) who has made a recent career of being a public malcontent against the Church, as well as making the case that the Vatican stands in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, has published an editorial on CNN.com taking the US Bishops to task for their recent election year efforts to teach the faithful of their responsibilities as Catholics in the public square.  

Take a read of it, and have fun counting the number of times Miller simply gets Church teaching wrong. Will someone (Archbishop Schnurr????, UD leadership???, Marianist leadersip???) please let him know that Church teaching requires Catholics in the public square to oppose intrinsic evils, and that issues involving intrinsic evils (such as abortion) outweigh prudental issues (such as Medicare)? As Archbishop Schnurr put it, issues involving intrinsic evil, such as opposing abortion, have a “special claim on our conscience as we choose between candidates.” You’ll find that this central tenent to Catholic morality conveniently missing from Miller’s rant. (But you will see a line imploring the spirit of Vatican II!) Actually, I’m sure he is already well aware of this Church teaching, but that would not serve his political agenda. Instead, he is dishonest and puts out an opinion column that mixes truth with faslehood in order to convince himself and others that, indeed, the salvation of their souls is not in jeopardy for their material cooperation with the Culture of Death.

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