OWS And Dorothy Day

I've read a number of articles lately on the OWS phenonema, and find myself disconcerted that some Catholics are taken up with the hysteria, to varying degrees.

In the National Catholic Register there appeared this piece by Mark Shea.  This is a piece that sounds like it would be found in the Reporter rather than Register, with its chanting of the "social and economic justice is what it's all about" and "rich folks get all the breaks and poor folks get none" mantras.  I quote, "a good working definition of American justice in the present hour is that things which are sins when ordinary people do them are not sins when rich and powerful ones do them."  That is simply incorrect, particularly with abortion.  The fact is that our heathen culture looks upon abortion for the rich and for the poor as being equally laudible.  The defining attributes of American injustice are the ways in which core moral principles are being savaged today, vis-a-vis:

• The murder of children in abortion
• The widespread acceptance of contraception
• The acceptance of euthanasia (even involuntary euthanasia)
• The various forms of abuse of embryoes (cloning, embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization)
• The acceptance and even celebration of homosexual behaviors

Shea's article continues.  I quote, "In the same way, incest, like most other grave crimes and sins, is only a crime and a sin for poor people in the US. When rich and powerful people in big business and government do it ...this is hailed as 'synergy'."  Here he is monkeying around with the definition of incest.  When he uses the term for "poor people", he is using the correct and common meaning as "sexual relations between related indiviudals.  However, for the latter class, he's referring to cronyism between governmental and/or corporate entities.  That's quite clear from the context of  the NCR article.  I too find those latter relationships to be of dubious moral quality, but I wouldn't equate them with the horrible violation of young women.  In short, cronyism and incest are NOT synonyms!