To: greenspirit who wrote (7264 ) 6/9/2000 9:13:00 PM From: Dayuhan Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 9127
I think you might be very surprised, and more than a little shocked, at the way the institutional Catholic Church behaves in countries where it has real political influence. I'm not suggesting that these countries would be better off without the church, but I think the church should take a serious look at some of its positions and activities, and at their practical results. An example: the Catholic Church in the Philippines has succeeded in keeping divorce illegal. This has not stopped families from breaking up, but it has made it almost impossible for women and children to make any enforceable claims on the men who leave them. The result is quite predictable. I understand the church's position that the bond should be eternal. But it is the church's place to deal with absolutes, and the State's to deal with practical realities, and it seems more than a bit churlish for the church to use its political clout to prevent the State from addressing the issue of broken families. I do not see how returning a child to his father constitutes jumping into bed with the leader of the country where the child's father lives. If the Germans returned the children of that American father, would they be jumping into bed with Clinton? If anything, Castro came out the loser. Every Cuban has seen that even a Communist father can get a fair hearing in an American court, and don't think that won't provide some food for thought. It would have been much better for Castro, from a propaganda perspective (and what else is this all about?) if we had said "screw you, the kid stays". Castro would have been able to whip up enough hate over that to distract attention from domestic issues for a good long time.