He and two other panelists had their say on a number of matters, the President chiming in about church and state working together on social issues. Robert Royal commented:

People will have differing reactions to all this. But over and above the mixture of dark and bright spots, Catholic institutions like Georgetown have settled into a quite comfortable stance. Prominent politicians who are pressuring the Church and promoting grave moral evils are welcome.

Don’t think people inside and outside the Church don’t notice. If the Church truly believed that the nation was killing over one million innocents in the womb yearly, would it coexist happily with those promoting that holocaust – just because they’re thoughtful on poverty?

As Flannery O’Connor once said, you can’t be any poorer than dead.

He had earlier provided context:

The Catholic Church in America sometimes looks as if it’s on a suicide mission. Individual bishops or institutions don’t seem able to tell friend from foe, invite enemies into their midst, ignore threats, give the impression that the best they can hope for is that people won’t be too angry at the Church. Which they would rather be thought of as doing nice, uncontroversial things like providing social services, and not overemphasizing more difficult moral matters.

As the hard-ball player Leo Durocher said, “Nice guys finish . . . ” Where?