“Our political system appears to be broken, as Republicans and Democrats operate in silos and see more political benefit in intransigence than consensus,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “The result is that both parties reject policies that would fortify what St. John Paul II referred to as a culture of life and instead embrace what Pope Francis has called a throwaway culture that extends even to human beings.”

“Among Republicans, we see it in the refusal to consider even widely popular proposals that would help to increase gun safety,” Cardinal Dolan continues. “Among Democrats, we see it in the frantic drive to expand abortion, even in states where it would be impossible to expand it further.”