Kneecapping a Faithful Catholic

One expects Barack Obama to aim his fire at Paul Ryan's responsible budget plan. One would expect the same from the media and a host of other liberal redoubts. Shocking is the best word I can think of to explain the Obama-esque critique of Paul Ryan (a staunchly pro-life and decent Catholic) that came from Bishop Stephen Blaire.

Thankfully, Marc A. Thiessen took up his pen to write an excellent defense of Ryan, which appeared in The Washington Post:

Using Obama’s campaign rhetoric, Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, recently wrote to Congress declaring that Ryan’s budget “fails to meet [the Church’s] moral criteria” because it does not require “shared sacrifice,” which Blaire [like Obama] defines as tax increases and cuts to “unnecessary” defense spending. Some of the proposed spending cuts in Ryan’s budget, Blaire said, are “unjust and wrong.”

Blaire has it backward. What is “unjust and wrong” is this bishop’s attack on a good Catholic layman. ...

This is astounding. One wonders if Bishop Blaire actually read Ryan's budget, or if he just accepted Obama's clichéd, demagogic attacks at face value. It's truly a shame that a bishop, relying on hackneyed talking points culled straight from the playbook of the left, would try to pick a fight with Ryan. Did Bishop Blaire bother to call Paul Ryan to ask him to clarify this or that point in his budget? Has Bishop Blaire released a statement calling out Nancy Pelosi? Further, statements like this are deeply damaging, as they feed the false impression, so rampant among Catholics in the U.S., that "social justice" issues are just as important as the non-negotiables, like abortion, the defense of marriage, etc.

The culture of death is at the gates. Some may argue with good reason that it has already kicked open the doors. So instead of handing liberal Democrats ammunition, every bishop in the U.S. should write to Paul Ryan and thank him for his perfect pro-life, conservative voting record.