Cardinal McCarrick warns against partisan politics within church

Published: 2006-06-19

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick sharply warned the U.S. bishops June 15 that "the intense polarization and bitter battles of partisan politics may be seeping into (the) broader ecclesial life of our Catholic people and maybe even of our (bishops') conference." The cardinal made his comment at the end of his final report on the work of the bishops' Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians, which he headed for the past three years. On polarization within the church he said: "We are called to teach the truth, to correct errors and to call one another to greater faithfulness. However, there should be no place in the body of Christ for the brutality of partisan politics, the impugning of motives, or turning differences in pastoral judgment into fundamental disagreements on principle."

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