In the latest thread on ND below, there is a comment that deserves its own thread by someone named TK: What about torture? The time is now.I have read and contributed to the discussions about this controversy here at the COMMONWEAL blog. As I have read and participated - and as I have watched and read the national news in the last week, I have increasing become dismayed and wonder if I am losing hopeThe reason I write this is that over the few weeks, but particularly this week, we as a people and country are witnessing a particularly salient teaching moment occur before us in the political sphere.With the release of the torture memos and future release of the torture pictures in Maywe have spread before us what must be considered at least a serious sin and participation in evil that if not addressed will continue and lead to - if not spiritual and moral, then our own existential disaster.As I write, I have in mind to posts from yesterday and today, both powerful.Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan, at his Daily Dish website:Here is a passage from the encyclical Gaudium Et Spes:Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.Andrew Sullivan asks - where are the US bishops?This morning (Sunday 4/26), the Washington Post leads with a new national poll where in 52% of all Americans think torture is justified in some circumstances http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/25/AR2009042503120.html?hpid=topnewsIts just great that we as a Catholic Church are making our voice heard about the controversy over ND and Obama. Where are we in making the same kind of life issue arguments over a practice that is/has been developing NOW and has dire consequences for us all.I am as pro-life as anybody But lots of people like me and other Catholics I know would like to know why such energetic condemnations over the issue of abortion (in and of itself as a practice) but less energy and almost no pronouncement on other human dignity concernsas if people who torture or accept torture as public policy would not also in a crunch turn to abortion if it suited their purpose/end.I am losing hope that a church community I love and bishops I respect and accept as my guide and teacher in Christ are nothing of the sort (with an occasional rare exception)Lots of what I have come to expect from the magisterium LOOKS too much like wanting to control uteruses and ovaries and less like implementation of the seamless garment of life. (Are the bishops afraid of women and the men who associate with them) As a Catholic, I know how to read between these lines and see the bishops good intentions. But people who think differently about this and many other issues (and they are a majority in this democracy) are NOT persuaded and that is the ecclesial and political reality the bishops and we face.It seems to me that none of the discussion about abortion that occurs is directed at persuading someone contemplating such an act to not pursue that courseFurther, the bishops have an opportunity NOW to insert Catholic values into the back and forth about torture, but will they?