So I wrote something about the USCCB meeting and why conversations about how Catholics should vote are always about abortion and never make any real progress.

I hope you'll read the whole piece, but I'll summarize a few points here for discussion. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2019/11/13/should-abortion-be-most-important-issue-catholic-voters-heres-better

1. The main reason this argument goes nowhere is that moral guidance on voting is an intractable problem as long as we don't have any candidates that Catholics can support wholeheartedly.

2. The parties (obviously) fail on different issues and also in different ways. Dems are potentially near the common good on many issues, but implacably opposed to protecting the unborn; Repubs are the only hope for changing law on abortion, but unpersuadable on other key issues.

3. In this trap, the understandable chew-off-your-own-leg response is to try to focus on which issue comes first as the most significant moral question. But this doesn't help. The bishops arguing over quoting Pope Francis is basically about whether or not to do this.

4. The best way to understand this the vote about the paragraph from Gaudete et Exsultate is as a kind of straw poll of U.S. bishops about endorsing Francis' rhetorical style and pastoral strategy for talking about abortion; they declined by a 2/3rds majority.

5. But the bishops _don't disagree with Francis on any moral teaching_. It's ridiculous to think that they do; this conflict was over order and emphasis of things to do, not what things to do.

A good thread w/ more analysis of what this was all about: https://twitter.com/jdflynn/status/1194716065739227138

6. Let's dream about a better response, which would include:
- Admitting that Catholics don't have a real political home base
- Denying that church teaching compels or forbids voting for particular candidates
- Doing more to call all candidates to embrace a full Catholic vision

7. Here endeth the tweet thread. Please read the full piece and let me know what you think.