Bishops' conference on the morality of trade agreements

The next time somebody tells you that the Catholic Church never does anything but carp about sex and its outcomes, tell them stuff like this goes on all the time. It just doesn't make the news when leaders of banks, governments, and three major faiths meet to discuss the moral issues of international trade. Of course, this happened a tetch late to organize any sustained Catholic opposition to CAFTA, but that, as well, is vintage Catholicism.

I'll be excited to see any episcopal communications that may be the fruit of this discussion: the U.S. bishops generally give us well-educated, pious and most readable reflection. On a more waspish note, I'm sure they'll prepare glossy bulletin inserts on international trade, too, with pictures of adorable babies, that will be available on the very index page of the bishops' web site, because international trade, you see, is a moral issue that the faithful electorate have power over, just like all those sex-and-its-outcomes bugaboos . . . Ah well . . .