August 7, 2012
Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines has an article at America on Catholics in the public square. Like Bishop Balse Cupich's letter to Spokane's Catholics I referenced yesterday, Bishop Pates's article does not adopt a cultural warrior mode but is also intensely challenging to serious Catholics, asking us to examine the extent to which we are willing to wink at the ways our chosen political parties fail to grasp and enflesh the robust moral vision of the Church. And, because he does not engage in cheap shots, or grotesque analogies, or patent demagoguery, Bishop Pates not only shows faithful Catholics how to engage the public square, his article shows his fellow bishops how they should.
