Nun So Blind

President Bush was back in Wisconsin yesterday.

He toured the Allen-Edmonds shoe factory in Port Washington, shoemaker for the leader of the Free World. Then, it was off to a Mark Green fund-raiser at Hilton Milwaukee City Center.

A relatively small group of protesters met the President in Milwaukee. The size of the group surprised me since Bush's visit was the focus of an attack ad put out by the Greater Wisconsin Committee, Doyle's hit squad.

Given the attention placed on Bush's appearance and community awareness of his presence at Green's downtown Milwaukee event, the protest turnout had to be a disappointment to state Dems and other assorted Bush-haters.

Interestingly, of the scanty 150 protesters, 100 were nuns in Milwaukee for a convention.

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- President Bush's motorcade was greeted by about 150 protesters, who milled about in the damp and cool conditions in downtown Milwaukee chanting for peace.

The majority of the protesters were nuns from The Sisters of Saint Joseph.

The organization was holding a convention in Milwaukee and the nuns chanted "No More War" and "We Want Peace" while holding signs shaped like doves.

Mary Anne Rodgers of Albany, New York, says that they are praying for Bush.

From Steve Schultze, JS Online:

"We hope people who see this will understand we need a country that's more compassionate," said Sister Virginia Webb of St. Paul, Minn.

I agree. We need more compassion OVERALL.

The problem that I have with the Sisters of Saint Joseph is the way they cherry pick when it comes to being compassionate.

According to their website, the Sisters of Saint Joseph proudly proclaim their affiliation with NETWORK.

We are linked to NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, which educates, lobbies and organizes to influence the formation of federal legislation to promote economic and social justice. NETWORKS lobbyists, S. Catherine Pinkerton, CSJ, (Cleveland) and S. Mary Elizabeth Clark, SSJ (Philadelphia) have expanded our justice-making capacity in promoting this prophetic and persistent voice for justice on Capitol Hill.

The issues that interest the politically active Sisters of Saint Joseph and NETWORK focus on certain matters of "economic equity" and "global peace and security" but not others.

For instance, search NETWORK's site, and enter the keyword "abortion."

The result:

"No documents matched the query"

Health care is discussed extensively, but not abortion.

Wouldn't you think a Catholic lobby would be concerned with promoting a Culture of Life and advocating for the weakest among us by seeking to protect the unborn?

Try searching "death penalty."

The result:

Five pages of documents with "48 matching the query death penalty."

The group actively works against the death penalty but ignores the abortion death sentence. Where's the justice in that?

These nuns/political activists have an agenda that is decidedly liberal and very selective in terms of the political issues that they choose to address.

As a Catholic, that sort of selectivity is troubling to me.

I expect Catholic nuns to be against the death penalty; but I also expect them to be out-spoken about abortion.

Will the Sisters of Saint Joseph protest at a pro-abortion Democrat's fund-raiser?

I highly doubt it since their own website and NETWORK's site don't refer to abortion or the deaths of over 47 million babies in the U.S. since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

That's disturbingly inconsistent in terms of promoting the consistent pro-life ethic championed by the Catholic Church.

Another inconsistency--

I expect Catholic nuns to be against war and pray for peace.

Unfortunately, I think that the nuns are targeting the wrong figure in their anti-war protests.

They protest President Bush as if he's the enemy and the evil-doer.

What about the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Iraqis who were tortured and murdered or died of malnutrition and disease under Saddam Hussein's reign of terror?

The decades of Saddam's atrocities were not a time of peace in Iraq.

Nonetheless, the mass graves in Iraq holding the bones of women and children are dismissed by the nuns.

It's as if they believe that the suffering in Iraq began when U.S. forces removed Saddam Hussein. That's a ridiculous and disgracefully politically-charged notion.

Of course, the Sisters of Saint Joseph want peace and an end to war; but it's difficult to reconcile that view with conditions in Iraq prior to the U.S.-led coalition's military action.

Were they actually morally at peace with the status quo in Iraq?

Was that their idea of peace and justice?


Would they prefer that Saddam Hussein and his sons were still violating the Iraqi people?

Would they prefer that the UN's Oil for Food scam was still serving to starve Iraqi children while Saddam Hussein and his accomplices pocketed billions of dollars?

The fact is those nuns are not being morally consistent.

If they were, they would protest Democrats for supporting the murder of unborn children and praise Bush for working to protect life.

They would commend Bush for removing the tyrant Saddam Hussein from power and for working to bring a just government to Iraq and, subsequently, a much better life to the Iraqis.

If they weren't so politically-driven and blinded by their liberal agenda, they would pray for the defeat of Islamic neofascists instead of protesting President Bush.