Links for 1/17/19

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-11719
It is good to know the history, but there are a few steps in modern history that need to be noted as well, such as Ecumenical Patriarch Melitios and their Synod recognizing the validity of Anglican orders, which implies their status as a Church and not a Sect and their practice of ordaining not only female deacons, but female and married priests. One trip to their Communion line is enough to see that such Orders are valid as well. The question needs to be not if but when. The deeper question is might elected Lay Deacons (non-celibate, non-sacred continent, obedience only to parish or diocesan organization) might be better and more historic, with these deacons and priests together electing the local ordinary.

I would rather the DC Federal Magistrates not get the flu and that Mueller present any evidence of probably cause to arrest the Citizen Trump to him for a warrant to have the protective detail move him to a more secure location for our protection. A 90 day psychiatric hold will also do. It seems our President has and Adderall problem.

Lindsey is easy. He anticipates both Trump and Pence being removed and a Democratic Speaker being the 2020 nominee. This puts him in a good position to become the Republican nominee.

At this point, Theissen and his ilk in the vast right-wing conspiracy make it more, not less, likely that Trump will be removed, and even arrested first. They empower their opponents more than their base.

Strobe is correct. The relationship between Trump and Putin is different. It is also espionage. Usually spies are arrested before they are indicted. Then we can send the Trump family back to Russia, where I don't think they will be treated well. They don't look kindly upon spies who are caught.

Speaking of tyrants, Erdogan as Hitler is a correct meme. The question is whether the NATO Charter requires us to come to the assistance of the Kurds in both Turkey and Syria and the Turkish people generally? His association with a known Russian Asset provides another justification for action.

My views on the politics and legality of abortion are known to most NCR commentators and Facebook followers, but they bear repeating as this issue still comes up. The March for Life needs to forget about repealing Roe v. Wade and pick another date, say during Cherry Blossom season, for their annual gathering. With six documented pro-Roe justices (Chief Roberts, Breyer, Ginsberg, Kagan, Sotomayor and Alito) and two others that are likely (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh), there is no longer a reason to believe a Republican president can or will appoint a pro-life justice. Anyone young enough to be appointed from an Ivy League law school knows why privacy is a real right of due process and equal protection and why 14th Amendment jurisprudence forever makes state action on abortion an impossibility. Changing hearts and minds on abortion itself is fine, as long as changes in law are no longer a goal.

The negative right to life means the government cannot execute a pregnant woman or force an abortion. That right is already recognized. Protecting the child from its mother is a positive right, which only the US Congress can impose. This is more unlikely than changing the Court - and much more than a pro-life Amendment. There is no way the state can use police power to investigate first trimester pregnancies and not investigate every miscarriage.  It is why the Life Amendment was proposed. Supporting such amendment is code to donors that nothing will happen on this issue - ever.

There is no justification, therefore, for Republican bishops or laity to consider supporting legal abortion to be at all sinful. It is simply impossible not to without both self-delusion and selling one's soul the Republican Party. The only way to really limit abortion is what Pius XI demanded, a living wage sensitive to family size, which if it cannot be required of employers, as to be provided by the government. Few Republican right to lifers would ever stand for such communism, thus dooming most of the unborn to death. Reversing this opposition must be the focus of pro-life Catholics.