Andrew Greeley has weighed in on the bishops’ document on “Faithful Citizenship” and, as always, he has some provocative points:

If we are to believe the media, the Catholic bishops warned American Catholics that if they voted for a candidate who supported abortion, their eternal salvation might be in jeopardy. I don’t think that’s what they really said, but, alas, the bishops generally have a hard time making clear what they actually are saying. The media don’t do nuance very well, and bishops have a hard time conveying their intent in words that fit into a 750-word story or a 90-second TV clip. Hence, they add confusion upon confusion, and many Catholics simply dismiss them with a snide comment about the sexual abuse of children.

Yet, let us assume that it is mortally sinful to vote for an abortion rights candidate. What happens, then, when the three New York candidates show up on the ballot next year — Sen. Clinton, Mayuh Giuliani and Mayuh Bloomberg?

The only conclusion I can come to is that Catholics should not vote at all under those circumstances. Is this what the Vatican and the American bishops are telling us? In effect, American Catholics, faced with the New York choice, must withdraw from the political system?

To many Americans it seems that the Catholic leadership is trying to use its political muscle to impose Catholic morality on that majority of Americans who do not accept Catholic teaching. Abortion, the response comes, is against the natural law. Everyone knows what the natural law is, and therefore abortion is self-evidently wrong. To which those who disagree will say that they don’t think it is self-evident at all. Then the Catholic crusader will reply that if you don’t admit that, then you are in bad faith and you are baby-killers. It is difficult to see what is accomplished by such an exchange.

I subscribe to the position that abortion, no matter how nearly universal in human history, is morally unacceptable (as is infanticide, which was far more frequent). But I wonder if it is proper or prudent to try to impose this Catholic moral view on a whole society that does not agree with us, especially when we cannot even persuade most of our own people. Might it not be a wiser strategy to strive to persuade the Catholic faithful, four-fifths of whom do not believe that it is always wrong, before trying to make Catholic morality the law of the land?

There’s more, with other arguments and questions, at the link.