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I agree with the letter from Michael McCarthy, published in the March 30 edition of the Catholic News Herald, that "American bishops must reexamine the contradictions of their alliance with government." I further urge the bishops to rethink the moral consequences of supporting politicians who promote abortion.

A priest recently interviewed on TV said (and I paraphrase) that the social programs of the Democrat Party outweigh the party's defense of abortion. The interviewer had no response. I wish he had replied that abortion is certain murder, whereas many of the Democrat Party's social programs have dubious benefits; they have undermined family values, inhibited self-reliance and created a class of people perpetually dependent on government.

Paul A. Rahe, formerly of Yale University and now a professor of history at Hillsdale College, believes the Catholic hierarchy "have abandoned the moral teaching of the Roman Catholic Church in order to articulate a defense of the administrative entitlements state and the progressive expansion." He suggests that the decline of the Church worldwide can be traced to its embrace of the entitlement state. ("American Catholicism's Pact With the Devil," Ricochet.com, Feb. 10)

This decline could be put on a path to recovery if bishops and priests were to openly support pro-life politicians (instead of abandoning them) and work with them to devise cost-effective social welfare programs that really work. Involvement of the laity, including counseling by the bishops on qualifications for political office from a Catholic perspective, would be essential for success.

Edward A. Destremps lives in Flat Rock.