Archbishop Wuerl's comments

Washington Archbishop Wuerl offerred his perspective as the Chairman of the Committee on Doctrine for the American Bishops. It was an attempt to praise the role of women in the Church as a way to soft pedal the recent actions by the Vatican to raise the level of seriousness with which those who illictly ordain women are treated - which was released at the same time that the Church cracked down on viewing child pornography by the clergy and other aspects of how it will deal with sexual abuse by clergy. The timing of these announcements has universally been considered bad. You can find the Archbishop's statement many places. I read it on America Magazine's site, which you can see at http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=3121

My comments, which are yet to be published on the site because they have upped their level of review, are as follows:

Ordination occurs within the confines of the government of the Church. It does not help matters to ordain women outside of this. To disobey this rule is to actively resist the structure of the Church and it is no surprise that the hierarchy will react badly.

Whether ordination of women is invalid does not depend on whether it is illicit. Ancient history indicates that there were women at all levels of the Church in its earliest times, but the counter-cultural nature of this was quickly overcome by the dominant male culture.

It is naive, however, to claim that a valid ordination will ever be accepted as licit without first gaining permission and it actually hurts the cause of female ordination to do so - at least within the context of the Roman Catholic Church. Within the context of a non-Roman Catholicism that seeks its own legitimacy, what Rome says is moot. I am sure we can debate what is more scandalous - strking out on one's own or forcing women into doing so.

The old bulls who insist that female ordination is invalid will retire or die soon enough. Time will not wait for them nor will time end when they are gone. This explains the stridency of their current rhetoric. The fact that A/B Wuerl is joining the chorus is only proof that they are dangling a red hat in front of his face. Whether he maintains the status quo after he receives it and the old bulls have retired will be one of the most interesting questions in the life of the Church.

Focussing on Africa

In the Fiscal Times, my old colleague, Bruce Bartlett, summarizes what has been written recently on economics and development in the motherland. You can read his summary on http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Blogs/2010/07/07/Bartletts-Notations-Focus-on-Africa.aspx Many of the articles he summarized highlighted the population policy impacts on African development, with the usual connotation that development demands controlling population. I commented on the site. What Bruce did not address, and I did, is how this all links to development policy that is made in this town. You may hear an echo between my comments and the Vatican's stance against population control in the recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate. That echo is intentional. You can read the comments there or you can keep reading and leave your comments below.

Africa v. OEDC is largely improving because OEDC is in the crapper. I quarrel with the view that rising populations are a bad thing in a subsistence economy. Indeed, having an excess of people is historically a precursor to industrialization. Eliminating family planning policies would likely help Africa in the long term. Chinese workers are begining to demand higher wages and consumer products. Indian workers will likely soon follow suit, although there is much Indian labor that is still untapped. The global south has much potential for industrialization, particularly Africa. Indeed, Buckminster Fuller's dreams of automated factories and Nicholas Kelso's dream of two-factor income won't be realized as long as there are low wage labor markets which are untapped.

A final note: the other reason family planning policies for Africa should be considered as tenuous is that one day someone will tell the President that they are directed at his relatives and others that look like him - not for their benefit but because they are considered inconvenient. If he gets that message, expect the family planning budget for Africa to sink - especially if Obama shames Gates and Buffett into defunding them - or raises their taxes enough so that they can no longer afford to do so (and takes family planning off of the list of legitimate charities).

Funding Extended Unemployment and Bailout Out the States

For the umpteenth time, funding extended unemployment has been brought up, fillibustered and debated. In the past, the leadership kept Congress going until someone caved. This time, it did not happen, largely due to the pressures of the July 4th recess and to take time out to bury Robert Byrd.

In the interim, people are losing their benefits. At the same time, many states, indeed the vast majority, are facing budget cuts - some draconian - as the new fiscal year begins.

I am not sure that letting Senators and Members go home and face the music is not a bad idea. I would hope that whenever one of them makes a public appearance or holds a town meeting, they hear from local government officials, people who have lost or are about to lose their benefits and those agencies who are providing stop-gap assistance.

Of course, in DC (where this diary is being written), the member is always at home and knows full well how bad the problem is - although joblessness among the poor in DC is not as sexy as joblessness in the hinterlands. Additionally, because she has not vote and there are no voting (or non-voting) members of the Senate, the voice of DC voters on these issues does not matter.

In Virginia and Maryland, this is another matter - although most area members are on the right side of the issue - although it is still a good idea to remind the Democrats that we feel this is important and give them some stories to use in debate when this issue comes up again. E-mail is also a good way to tell your story to your Senator. Go to http://house.gov and http://senate.gov to share your story. You can also make policy suggestions on how to deal with this issue. Here is what I told my Congressman, Jim Moran, and my Senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner (feel free to cut and paste):

It is time to get serious on extending Unemployment Insurance. The Republicans keep demanding that we pay for extending coverage. I say we call their bluff and fully fund extended unemployment on a permanent basis in the only way that it is appropriate to do so, by raising the payroll tax on employer who have layed people off (leaving the base rate unchanged). Indeed, while we are at it, the amount of benefits should also be increased (and funded by an increase to the base rate). Put this proposal front and center and dare the Republicans to vote against incentives to avoid unemployment and the extended unemployed. If this is the only alternative, we will hear nothing more from them again on funding this emergency through deficit spending.

On a related topic, I hope that during this recess you have heard from our local elected officials on their fiscal situation and are ready to come back to work with a stimulus that includes aid to the states.

Finally, let me suggest that a tax rebate that distributes money in November and December will be just in time for Christmas. Indeed, for some families, it will be the only Christmas they see - and for retailers too. This rebate should be for everyone - including people with no tax liability and even for people who owe back taxes to the IRS (normally rebates go to tax debt - this year the merchants need it more).