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The Center for American Progress is a "progressive" think tank, which offers well executed, if predictably partisan talking points and messaging for left-leaning politicians and activists.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that . . .)  What is perhaps more surprising, though, is the confidence with which this political-action organization opines on the content and implications of Catholic teaching.  In this "fact sheet", the CAP explains that and how the health-funding measures currently winding around Congress "measure up to Catholic social teachings."  As Ramesh Ponnuru notes, though: 

You'd never guess it from the "fact sheet," but the bishops have repeatedly affirmed that Catholic teaching considers abortion and euthanasia particularly grave injustices and warned against treating them as items on a checklist. That's why the bishops' first and most specific comment in their statement is about abortion and euthanasia. . .

The fact sheet simply assumes that the Reid and Pelosi bills will improve the quality and affordability of health care and suggests that they therefore comport with Catholic teaching. It is certainly true that a Catholic may in good faith believe these things and support the legislation. But a Catholic might also reasonably conclude that the Pelosi and Reid bills will reduce the quality and raise the cost of health care and oppose them on that basis. . . .

One hears often the complaint that Catholic Social Teaching has been hijacked and distorted by Theocons and other undesirables -- even bishops -- in service of a right-wing political agenda.  (The complaint is misplaced, I think, but one hears it anyway.)  I would assume that those who level this charge would, at least, recoil similarly from the CAP's effort to baptize its question-begging and simplistic political advocacy.

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