Boston College symposium

Boston College recently had a symposium entitled "Catholic Politicians in the U.S.: Their Faith and Public Policy." Panelists included James Carville, E. J. Dionne, Ed Gillespie, and Peggy Noonan and was moderated by Tim Russert. A large portion of the discussion focused on abortion. Video and audio files of the 90-minute discussion are available online here.

At about 28 minutes, E.J. Dionne dodges a question from Russert. Russert quotes the then Cardinal Ratzinger writing about how abortion and euthanasia have a greater moral weight than other issues and then asks how Catholic politicians should deal with that statement. E.J. Dionne goes into talking about how we can reduce abortions via contraception, abstinence, better economy and supporting women.

At around 39 minutes, Carville calls himself a "moral relativist" and starts swinging at a bunch of windmills.

I thought Dionne, Gillespie and Noonan did a good job presenting their views overall while Carville left me wondering how he's gotten where he's gotten.