Teach

Monday's P-G included an article by Ann Rogers on the position Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., has taken in the debate on whether Catholic public officials who are not pro-life should be denied the Eucharist.

The article was timed to coincide with the former bishop of Pittsburgh's first occassion to preside over the huge Masses at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that precede the annual March for Life.

Whispers in the Loggia also has coverage.

(The archbishop is pictured above seated at the Basilica in an AP photo via the P-G.)

From Ann's article:

In a talk last week in a small chapel on Washington's K Street, the heart of the lobbying community, Archbishop Wuerl distinguished between doing nothing and teaching.

He had said Mass for an overflow crowd, most of which stayed for his talk on a renewed openness to Catholic teaching that he said he sees among young people.

When he took questions, a woman asked how be would respond to Catholic politicians who support legal abortion.

His response was "teach."

"That is what Jesus did," he said. "Did everyone accept that teaching? No. ... But he didn't stop teaching. We are in this for the long haul."