Last week Father Richard McBrien from the University of Notre Dame attacked the late Holy Father John Paul II and accused the US Bishops of “a dearth of pastoral leadership” because of their strong stand against pro-abortion politicians. Now, again in the pages of the National Catholic Reporter, Boston College theology professor Lisa Sowle Cahill has published an article accusing outspoken US bishops of damaging the “rich faith tradition” of the Catholic Church.

“It is dissident theologians, not the U.S. bishops, who have damaged our ‘rich faith tradition’ for 40 years,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “We should be thanking the bishops for standing in defense of the unborn, not detracting from their witness.”

Cahill rightly notes that Catholics are a highly contended voter constituency this presidential election season. In the article she appears to join the ilk of Catholic professors Douglas Kmiec and Nicholas Cafardi who have made headlines by publicly endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president and downplaying the primacy of the right to life in Catholic tradition.

Like Cafardi and Kmiec, Cahill blurs the distinction between the non-negotiable issue of abortion and other moral issues, which although important, do not carry the same moral weight from the Church.

Cahill takes issue with bishops who have placed the issue of abortion on center stage during the election season. She says that some bishops have made “tacit endorsements” of political candidates. Cahill argues that “when the Catholic Church is perceived to be cheerleaders for one political party, a rich faith tradition is badly damaged and loses its prophetic voice.”

“Catholic voters in several battleground states may once again be the decisive factor in this election,” writes Cahill. “Catholic clergy should reaffirm their essential role as moral leaders, and leave partisanship behind.”

“The US bishops realize that there is no Culture of Life that continues to slaughter innocent babies,” Reilly said. “It is not partisanship to raise the alarm when innocent life is threatened. Thank God for leaders who encourage Catholics to follow their consciences when voting and to end the massacre of the unborn.”

Cahill is currently the J. Donald Monan Professor of Theology at Boston College. Her faculty profile lists “feminist theology and sex and gender ethics” as a research interest. She has also been a visiting professor at Georgetown University.