To All the Catholic Institutions Who Supported Obama: Where’s the Apology?

This is apology aversion in everyday life. Refusal to admit mistakes in matters of public significance is more sinister and equally common. Consider all those journalists and think tank talking heads who helped sell America on the need for the war in Iraq and then, without so much as a word of apology, turned on George Bush for getting it wrong. Think of all those members of Congress — of both parties — who were looking the other way while the economic bubble expanded and now are busy demagoguing the bubble’s collapse at somebody else’s expense. And on and on and on. In a special way these days I’m reminded of those Catholic sources–periodicals like the National Catholic Reporter and Commonweal as well as some individuals claiming special wisdom–who raised their voices often and loudly last year to declare that even if Barack Obama and the Catholic Church didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on everything, the candidate was moderate man, committed to reducing the frequency of abortions and to much else congenial to the Church.