Thread by @stevenpmillies

1/ Reflecting a while on the #scotusleak, I have a few thoughts for #Catholics about what we lose with the overturning of #RoeVWade.

FIRST While #abortions will continue after #Dobbs, the defense of life will be built precariously on the shaky ground of results-oriented judging.

2/ This reversal of #Roe will be a narrow decision, there will be a lot in a concurrence and dissents for future courts to lean on. And, we all know this will not settle the #abortion question. So the victory here will be rather hollow legally & politically.

3/ Indeed, I would say *forcing* this decision in this way (Garland/Gorsuch, ignoring Kavanaugh's misdeeds, ACB) discredits the cause of life b/c it could not (apparently) be accomplished by persuasion & a political process.

#Catholics concerned for life should worry abt that.

4/ SECOND With #Roe overturned, with our voice for justice in the world compromised & spent on this long #culturewar argument over #abortion, what use are #Catholics in the public square now? We can't even reverse #Roe anymore.

This is a subtle but serious problem.

5/ There is mounting evidence that behaving like an interest group for so long has turned the #CatholicChurch into a partisan front for the @GOP in the minds of many Americans.

chicagocatholic.com/reviews/-/arti…

6/ Among Democrats and independent-minded voters, #Catholics (and other religious groups) have lost our capacity to be heard at all. This will have far-reaching costs for the poor, for those on death row, for the sick, etc. We have lost a lot.

academic.oup.com/socrel/advance…

7/ THIRD AND FINALLY Perhaps most important of all, we have entered a dangerous period not unlike the years of the JP2 papacy that reined in the implementation of Vatican II. We are dealing with what the restraint of linear development means for institutions.

8/ The US, a young country that doesn't have enough history to have changed very much, has something in common with an ancient church that thought it could not change and then discovered it could.

Both deal with a revanchist, restorationist impulse that deprives us of something:

9/ the easy, uncomplicated use of words like tradition and development.

That's not a small problem.

It means institutions cannot claim to protect organic development over time so everything is up for grabs in a tug-of-war that will go on with no authority to tap the brake.

10/ Institutions may frustrate us. But they husband and insulate progress by offering it protection.

Think of the very few years ago that #Roe was a "super-precedent." It is much like the reverse that Summorum Pontificum represented.

11/ We no longer have institutionally regulated progress. It's a toss up with two sides vying for advantage like Lancasters and Yorks.

We really have entered a new era with the #Dobbs decision. Not just in US politics or constitutional law.

12/ At a civilizational level, this will unleash centrifugal social and political forces that have been gathering for many years.

#Catholics will reap this whirlwind right alongside everyone else, and we'll go on feeling it in the church.

13/ Most regrettable of all, though-- we helped this happen.

What #Catholics lose with #RoeVWade will be much greater than whatever we think we have gained for others and ourselves. /END/

CODA. I hear the arguments that #Roe was reasoned badly & I'm not qualified to evaluate the merits for anybody. I can say this.

It reminds me of #Catholic theol arguments abt sexuality & marriage that ignore ppl's lived experiences, as though ideas were better than realities.