Gratifyingly balanced comments from Cardinal George addressing the U.S. Catholic bishops. John Allen has the story (hat tip, as usual, to AmP):
Cardinal Francis George, speaking this morning as president of the
U.S. bishops’ conference, said all Americans should “rejoice” that a
country which once tolerated slavery has elected an African-American as
president – and, in the same breath, he issued a blunt challenge to the
new administration on abortion.
“If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, that African Americans
were other people’s property and somehow less than persons, were still
settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be President of the
United States,” George said.
"Today, as was the case a hundred and fifty years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good," he said.
“The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society
when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,” George
said, drawing sustained applause from the bishops.
This bit is intriguing:
George also appeared to encourage individual bishops to be bold,
almost apart from whatever consensus positions may come out of the
bishops’ conference.
“As we all know, the church was born without episcopal conferences,
as she was born without parishes and without dioceses, although all
these structures have been helpful pastorally throughout the
centuries,” George said.
“The church was born only with shepherds, with apostolic pastors, whose
relationship to their people keeps them one with Christ, from whom
comes authority to govern the church,” he said.
