Two seemingly unrelated news stories that dominated headlines and social media in the US this spring serve to demonstrate the moral schizophrenia of American moral and political life. Reactions to these stories, among Catholics and non-Catholics alike, serve to demonstrate why so many public questions in the US and other liberal societies resist coherent resolution.
The first story is of two mass murders by gunfire: on May 14 at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and injuring three; and on May 25 at an elementary school, killing 21 people, including 19 young children. The crimes were committed with legally purchased AR-15 style semiautomatic rifles. The second story is of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone declaring that Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (a confessed Catholic), shall be barred from receiving Communion because of her well known facilitation of abortion.
