NCR Today

Yesterday, the "Morning Briefing" contained a link to an article by Frances Kissling, in which she takes on the "common ground" approach to abortion in general and Chris Korzen, the executive director of Catholics United in particular. She writes, "I am very curious about what makes Chris tick; what he thinks and believes and how two people with somewhat similar politics and the same access to knowledge and information -- possibly an ethics professor in common -- could come to such different conclusions on critical social justice issues." These are the words of someone incapable of seeing the other side of an argument.

Well, it is not my place to speak for Mr. Korzen as to what makes him tick, but let me venture a guess. He, unlike Ms. Kissling, takes the church's unambiguous teaching seriously when it sees abortion as a social justice issue, a point reiterated by the magisterium as recently as last week's encyclical Caritas in Veritate. But, Kissling has made a career out of arguing both that the church should be silent on the issue and that a Catholic can, in good conscience, ignore the church's teaching.