Over the years as he has been on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Antonin
Scalia has, in my opinion, become nuttier and nuttier and displayed a growing inability to grasp the concept of separation of church and state - and to refrain from injection his personal religious views into court decisions where they do not belong. In short, he's become more and more of a
Christianist who seeks to inflict his religious beliefs on all Americans. The irony is that while
Scalia sees himself as
Uber Catholic, his views (and those of the U. C. Catholic bishops) often make short shrift of true Catholic social teaching. Maureen
Dowd has a column in the
New York Times that gives
Scalia an enjoyable to read smack down on his hypocrisy, pompousness and willingness to condone evil. Here are some highlights:
The church has aggressively meddled in politics on abortion, trying to defeat candidates who support abortion rights and prevent some liberal politicians from receiving Communion. But American bishops have been inconsistent in preaching their values.
They do not try to bring down politicians who supported the Iraq war, even though Pope John Paul II spoke out against it and sent a Vatican cardinal to warn W. that the war would be a “disaster” that would “destroy human life.” They do not express outrage at Republican audiences that cheer for executions, or target pols who brag on the death penalty, even though John Paul issued an encyclical against “the culture of death,” saying modern states have so many ways to protect citizens that the necessity for executions is “very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”
Scalia, confident in his own infallibility, dissented. As he wrote in a religious journal in 2002, he does not find the death penalty immoral, and he believes that as the “minister of God,” government has powers to get “revenge” and “execute wrath.” He’s clearly more an Old Testament guy than New, or he would know that some prisoners get falsely accused and nailed to the cross (Matthew 26:59-66).
Now Scalia has dissented from the opinion of a second pope on the issue. Pope Benedict sent Georgia state officials a letter last month asking for clemency for Troy Davis, but the very Catholic Supreme Court denied a last-minute stay of execution.
In his Duquesne speech, Scalia said: “If I thought that Catholic doctrine held the death penalty to be immoral, I would resign. I could not be a part of a system that imposes it.”
My family priest, Father Kevin O’Neil, teaches about “cooperation in evil” in Catholic moral theology. If you facilitate something that has been deemed wrong, like taking a human life, are you cooperating in evil? Maybe the Supreme Court should ask itself that question. Are you “cooperating in evil,” Justice Scalia?
Over the years as he has been on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia has, in my opinion, become nuttier and nuttier and displayed a growing inability to grasp the concept of separation of church and state - and to refrain from injection his personal religious views into court decisions where they do not belong. In short, he's become more and more of a Christianist who seeks to inflict his religious beliefs on all Americans. The irony is that while Scalia sees himself as Uber Catholic, his views (and those of the U. C. Catholic bishops) often make short shrift of true Catholic social teaching. Maureen Dowd has a column in the New York Times that gives Scalia an enjoyable to read smack down on his hypocrisy, pompousness and willingness to condone evil. Here are some highlights:
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