BishopAccountability.org
	Stick to the Point; Avoid Evasion By Lee Wolverton Amarillo.com September 17, 2011 http://amarillo.com/opinion/opinion-columnist/weekly-opinion-columnist/2011-09-17/stick-point-avoid-evasion#.TnUl3Y624u4 Rhetorical evasion, a technique celebrated by political handlers and utilized at their urging by politicians, has seeped from that realm into the one of public discourse. It is not a good thing. Somewhere that ought to be evident in the dust hovering over the skirmish between Amarillo Roman Catholic Bishop Patrick J. Zurek and an apparent wanderer from his ecclesiastical leash, the Rev. Frank Pavone, the noted leader of Priests for Life. Principally, Zurek says, he wants an accounting of the millions of dollars Priests for Life and two affiliated organizations have raised, which Pavone says he has provided and which the diocese says is incomplete. We chronicled the clash in stories last week in the Amarillo Globe-News and on amarillo.com. Rushes followed, to judgment and to the defense of Pavone, whose telegenic style and passionate opposition to abortion have metamorphosed him into a cause celebre. Some among his fans, who stretch from one coast to the other, have sought to depict the bishop's discipline — he ordered Pavone back to Amarillo and directed him to cease his public ministry outside the diocese — as a matter having to do with the cause. Similar cries were heard when two other Catholics, the Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer and conservative priest John Corapi, faced accusations of misconduct earlier this year. In Pavone's case, the California-based Center for Bioethical Reform, a pro-life organization, plan to organize informational pickets in support of Pavone outside the Diocese of Amarillo. The problem, the group asserts, is Pavone's stirring of the political pot over abortion. "There's a philosophical split in the American Catholic Church," said Gregg Cunningham, executive director of the center. "Some want the church to become more involved in combating abortion, and others believe it should be less active in combating abortion. "And the fault line runs right through Amarillo." Whether that's true might be known only to God and the bishop. Nothing we've reported or seen reported elsewhere indicates that Zurek's ire has anything whatever to do with Pavone's opposition to abortion. This leads us back to the aforementioned technique. It is to evade the question. Politicians do this as a function of their involuntary nervous systems, in the manner that you and I breathe. It's more intentional in debates like recent made-for-TV episodes featuring the Republican presidential contenders (and those featuring Democrats four years ago). It happens when a politician ignores a question and instead wanders off on a campaign talking point, usually in an effort to avoid the political difficulty the question posed. Their handlers and even political commentators praise politicians for keeping control of the discussion. Their political fans cheer it. It's all a ruse, all chicanery. An informed society would demand answers to the questions. We should fear what at least a segment if not the whole of society is becoming — one that delights in hearing what it wants to hear while calling everything else noise. Cadres of Pavone supporters are not alone in this practice of plugging ears to everything but their own message. Catholics for Choice, a longtime foe of Pavone's and what it calls "the antichoice movement's extreme, aggressive fringe" similarly framed the bishop's action within the context of the abortion debate, which as the group's name suggests, rages within the walls of the church as well as outside them, despite the church's long-held opposition. "Priests for Life's ultra-right-wing positions on abortion and other issues have alienated many laypeople and priests alike," Catholics for Choice President Jon O'Brien said. Well, even if that's so, so what? That's not the point. Here is the point, and the question: Where have the tens of millions of dollars donated to Pavone's groups gone? This is what Bishop Zurek tells us he wants to know. This does not connote an accusation of mismanagement or malfeasance, as others have reported and we've been careful to avoid saying. Nor does it connote support of legalized abortion. It does connote a need in the mind of Zurek for a full accounting of the money. Absent credible information that indicates something driving this issue outside the parameters of the bishop's letter, the discussion belongs within those confines. The question of finances is critical. Other issues are for a separate debate. The church's position on abortion is plain and long has been. This is about something else. Muddying waters — a political practice that still perturbs many people — pulls us from an issue that warrants attention. Let's resist and stay on point Contact: lee.wolverton@amarillo.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.