Pittsburgh, Pa., Sep 20, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Religious voices must play a role in shaping public policy, Catholic leaders said Monday at a symposium on faith and politics at Duquesne University. More than 300 people attended.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., and respected writer and intellectual Fr. Richard John Neuhaus separately stated the need for civil and religious voice to share in the creation of public policy, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The two leaders, often depicted on opposite sides of the left-right spectrum, also agreed that partisans on all sides in society need to steer clear of dehumanizing the opposition with ridicule and need to lower their anger level.
Neuhaus, a former Lutheran who was active in the civil rights movement, cited Martin Luther King. "Dr. King used to say: 'Whom you would change, you must first love, and they must know that you love them.' In these great contentions in the public square ... that is how we ought to be perceived, we Christians and Catholic Christians."