September 3, 2008

Obama invokes American spirit, echoes ‘Faithful Citizenship’ themes

WASHINGTON (CNS)—Appealing to America’s spirit of decency and Americans’ respect for each other, Sen. Barack Obama has set the tone for the final two months of his historic presidential bid by urging the country to embrace personal responsibility and the fundamental belief that everyone is “my brother’s keeper ... my sister’s keeper.” In accepting the Democratic nomination for president on the final night of his party’s convention in Denver Aug. 28, the junior senator from Illinois introduced his blueprint which offered what he called a way into the future. The 42-minute speech to 85,000 people at Invesco Field and an international television audience echoed several themes from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 2007 “Faithful Citizenship” document, which calls for individual voters to form their conscience around a variety of social concerns based on Catholic social teaching. Missing from Obama’s discourse, however, was an extensive discussion of life issues, which the bishops have made a primary focus in their document that is being distributed during the 2008 election cycle. His comments on the issue were limited to two lines near the end of his speech. Obama said that, while people may disagree on whether abortion should remain legal or not, “surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”