It was a one-liner response when I responded.
I see nothing in that catechism that dictates how individual Catholics are to vote or advocate, or their political beliefs about replacing a pluralist system with a theocracy following Catholic preferences.
You might have a leg to stand on, were you facing people urging all women to have an abortion. However, you are not. The vast majority of all pro-choice people state that it should be up to the woman herself, regardless of her religion. If she reads and follows this catechism, she will choose not to have an abortion, or to leave the Catholic church. If, however, she is not a Catholic, she will follow whichever religious or personal creed she feels is binding on herself,
taking into account her own personal position in life as a pregnant woman, a perspective that often illuminates such a decision in the individual's life, and one that is unavailable in the personal experiences of the authors of the catechism.
I am not pro-abortion; I have never been faced with the decision, but I believe that those who do should have the choice to follow such a catechism or to have the abortion.
I see nothing here that would ban me from the Catholic church.
As to your slavery analogy, it may be valid within that set of Catholics who are not what you call "cafeteria Catholics" - that is, a small minority within the Catholic church, if they exist at all. After all, capitalism itself is built on coveting; and though that is from the actual decalog rather than your sunday school lessons, I am sure that Catholicism has retained some of the commandments in its instruction to the faithful, particularly among the Top 10. I think it would be difficult
not to be a "cafeteria Catholic" to one extent or another, were one a Catholic.
However, for those of us who are
not Catholics, cafeteria or otherwise, it's irrelevant.
It's as if I were to say to you, "Sure you can not root for the Jets, just like you can not
personally hold a slave... but if you don't lobby for the Jets to be declared illegal for all time... (emoticon ->
)
Even within your best shot from the catechism, there is no "black-letter law" that one cannot be pro-choice.
PFnV