Looking at 2005
by
Christopher Dodson
Executive Director, North Dakota Catholic Conference
December 2005
News organizations like to compile lists of the
year’s top stories for publication in late December.
The lists provide readers an opportunity to reflect on the
year’s highs and lows and can help put events in
perspective.
With the same purpose in mind, I thought it might prove
worthwhile to list some of the big events of 2005 from the
perspective of the Catholic social teaching and the work of
the North Dakota Catholic Conference.
The Death of Pope John Paul
II Pope
John Paul II shaped every aspect of Catholic life,
including the Church’s social teaching. Before
elected pope he lived, taught, and preached the Gospel
under Nazi occupation and communist oppression, and he
played an important role in the drafting of the Second
Vatican Council’s key document on social
doctrine, Gaudiem et
Spes. As pope, he wrote the
“social” encyclicals Laborem Exercens,
Sollicitudo rei Socialis, Centesimus Annus,
and
Evangelium
Vitae,
which addressed the dignity of work, social conditions, the
Church’s social doctrine, and the Gospel of Life. The
Catechism of the Catholic Church issued under his papacy
contains hundreds of references to social issues and, if
that was not enough, he requested the completion of a
“compendium” of the Church’s social
teaching. Meanwhile, he played a significant role in the
peaceful end of oppressive regimes in his native Poland,
eastern Europe, and the Philippines. His outspoken
criticism of the death penalty during a visit to the United
States marked the start of a shift in public opinion in
this country away from support for capital punishment. He
was, as it states in the dedication of the
Compendium of
the Social Doctrine of the Church, a “Master of Social
Doctrine and Evangelical Witness to Justice and
Peace.”
The Death of Terri
Schiavo The tragic death of Terri
Schiavo brought unprecedented attention to questions about
health care decision-making, the state’s role and
limits in protecting human life, the administration of
nutrition and hydration, and the use of advance directives.
Catholic Health Care Directive The North Dakota Catholic
Conference, acting at the direction of Bishop Samuel Aquila
and Bishop Paul Zipfel, produced the first health care
advance directive for North Dakota Catholics.
The War in
Iraq. The war, of course, started
before 2005, but the fact that it goes on will continue to
shape who we are as a nation and all Catholics, no matter
how they felt about going into Iraq in the first place, are
obligated to work for peace.
O’Connor Resigns,
Rehnquist Dies, Roberts Confirmed, Alito
Nominated. It may take some time before
we know the full impact of the changes on the Supreme Court
that began this year. We can hope, however, that we have
started down the road to restoring justice in matters of
religious liberty, the death penalty, and especially
protection of unborn human life.
More Catholics on the
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
became the fourth Catholic sitting on the Supreme Court. If
the Senate confirms Samuel Alito, a majority of the
court’s justices would be Catholic. Whether or not it
means a change in the court’s decisions, it does
signal that Catholics have come a long way in a country
with a long history of anti-Catholicism. The verdict is
still out as to whether America is shaping its Catholics or
Catholics are shaping America.
Attorney General Says No to
Assistance for Religious Schools and Hospitals.
Within a two-month
period in 2005, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne
Stenehjem issued two opinions that denied state assistance
to sectarian institutions. The first concluded that setting
aside financial aid incentives for students at private
colleges and universities violated the state constitution.
The second concluded that money assessed for community
hospitals could not assist sectarian hospitals. Don’t
blame the Attorney General, however. He was only
interpreting state laws that have been around for decades,
and in one case, since statehood. These laws are vestiges
of the anti-Catholicism so much a part of our history. The
Supreme Court may change, but the laws may not.
Abortion Alternatives
Legislation Passes. After years of trying, pro-life
advocates finally convinced the state legislature to
provide assistance to those giving positive alternatives to
abortion. Several other states passed similar legislation
in 2005.
Release of Compendium of
the Social Doctrine of the Church Although completed in 2004, the
English version of this important publication did not come
out until 2005. Like the Catechism, it is a “must
have” for those who make a study of the
Church’s social doctrine.
Tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina
and Wilma, Pakistan Earthquake, Bird Flu
The natural
disasters of 2005 – and these are only some of them
– serve as reminders of the fallen state of Creation,
the call to charity, the need for justice in the
distribution of goods and services, the scandal of poverty,
and our interconnectedness.
