Controvery Over Proposition 161

As a Catholic, I read the article on the California bishops and Prop. 161 with a mixture of alarm and amusement. Understandably the bishops would like Catholic thought to influence contemporary culture. Your article, though, suggests sadly they may have more work than they bargained for. If the quoted statistics are accurate and “Catholics polled were almost as supportive” of doctor-assisted deaths “as the population as a whole,” then the bishops have an internal as well as a larger social battle to fight.

Oddly, however, Catholic leadership of other Catholics seems to be something nobody wants to exercise in this time of an “emerging laity.” Instead and less dangerously, campaigns seem to be mounted to combat the non-Catholic behavior of non-Catholics. Consequently, the efforts of the bishops to influence society on this and other issues will be construed to proceed not from a deeply felt and widely understood love but from the rear-guard eccentricities of the long-robed few.

STANLEY NEMETH

Gardena