What are your thoughts on Labor Day in light of Cardinal Bernardin’s teaching?
Catholic social teaching is really a seamless garment, as Cardinal Bernardin was often quoted as saying. Where we do find some confusion today in the area of the dignity of the human person and respect for life, is that there is a wholeness in how we see life from its conception to a natural death. And that means that in the promotion of work life and a good economy we are concerned about the housing of people and the education of God’s sons and daughters, and the health care they receive, but we’re also concerned about life from its conception; God has given children to us, they are foreigners in a foreign land, and we treat them with respect, so abortion is always wrong. People wrongly infer from the “seamless garment” metaphor that abortion is just one issue among other social issues. Cardinal Bernardin was staunchly pro-life. From the womb we pass into the period of education and adult life and work life, retired life, to the point of death. A good unionist understands this and the
