Ever thus

On the one hand, Pope Benedict XVI tells Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace:

A profound understanding of the social doctrine of the Church is of fundamental importance, in harmony with all her theological heritage and strongly rooted in affirming the transcendent dignity of man, in defending human life from conception to natural death and in religious freedom. ... It is necessary to prepare lay people capable of dedicating themselves to the common good, especially in complex environments such as the world of politics.

On the other hand, somebody signing himself J.R. tells the readership of CatholicVote.org, that a comment to the effect that "that this pope and his predecessor wrote and spoke against much (most?) of what is on your hero republicans' agenda"

was more about what the modern popes promoted and how their feel-good, WWJD, social justice agenda has pretty much distorted what true Catholicism is all about.

J.R.'s comment has so far earned a net +17 likes from the readership of CatholicVote.org, which describes itself as

a lay movement, foremost, of committed Catholics who are passionate about living out the truths proclaimed by Christ and His Church in the modern world.

Some truths, at least.

UPDATE: A post on the Pope's statement has since been put up on CatholicVote (post hoc, sed non propter hoc) -- along with an unnecessary paraphrase that for some reason adds to and subtracts from the very simple and straightforward words of the Pope.

To be clear, I'm not accusing the people who run CatholicVote of ignoring, much less rejecting, the Church's social teaching. I'm pointing out that they run a website at which others feel free to ignore, reject, and even ridicule it. We'll see whether they notice the disconnect between what the Pope says and what their readers say.

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