More Tired Equating of Socialism with Christian Morality

John Boehner was given an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of America.

Some Roman Catholic bishops and theologians objected, saying that Boehner's budget policies oppress the poor in ways that violate the Magesterium of the Church.

No one paid attention.

E. J. Dionne said it's because the bishops and theologians were too civil.

We, with American Spectator's George Neumayr, disagree. We think that the public thinks and journalists quietly realize that the objectors were engaged in a worn out version of special pleading.

Here's Neumayr:

It is an old and crude attempt to identify left-wing politics with Catholic "Social Justice," a claim in a time of massive deficits that most people don't find terribly convincing anymore. The letter to Boehner is an obvious abuse of the concept of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church by academics who normally pride themselves on violating it. And these self-proclaimed champions of the poor aren't doing them any favors by trying to pressure Catholic lawmakers into clinging to policies that will eventually bankrupt government programs. As the poor in Spain are finding out, where welfare programs are being severely scaled back after years of prodigal spending, socialists take a knife to the safety net once they start to go bankrupt.

There's nothing more muddle-headed than equating leftism with compassion. Except that the left must love the poor, because their policies assure that we'll always have so many of them.