Last evening, Chicago's Fox News at Nine aired the segment "Cardinal George Talks About Pope's Visit to America."
Reporter Nancy Pender's interview with Chicago's Cardinal Francis
George included video of Pope Benedict XVI touring the United States as
Ms. Pender provided the voice-over:
"The Cardinal says the visit reinforced his view of the Pope as a
warm, compassionate man, and not the hardline conservative he's reputed
to be."
CARDINAL GEORGE: None of us is totally responsible for
our reputations, it's what you make of it. So if that's the reputation
he had, then it turns out not to be entirely true, because the man I
saw during this visit is the man I've known for the last 20 years since
being a bishop.
In speaking with Ms. Pender, did the Cardinal himself contrast the
"warm compassionate man" with his supposed reputation as a "hardline
conservative"? That we don't know because we didn't hear him use those
words.
What we do know is that Nancy Pender's language advances one of
liberaldom's hoariest myths. that conservatives are by nature cold and
uncompassionate. By contrast, liberals - who for obvious reasons now
often prefer to be called "progressives" - are filled with love and
concern.
They demonstrate this love and concern by using other people's money
to operate huge social-welfare schemes. The fact these programs
usually, if not always, fail is of no consequence. Just the realization
that the original intention was noble is all that matters.
Nancy Pender's statement that His Holiness isn't a "hardline
conservative" might assure some, but I wonder if she asked folks from,
say, the National Abortion Rights Action League - which for obvious
reasons now prefers to be called NARAL - whether they'd concur.