Abortion and the Catholic Factor

Catholic World News ^ | 4/14/04

[Polycarp IV]

Abortion and the Catholic Factor

The Kerry Communion Capitulation has renewed discussion about the respective role of bishops, politicians, and lay voters in implementing Catholic teaching on abortion. It is all-too-commonly believed that the Supreme Court's Roe-v-Wade decision of January 1973 caught the Church by surprise, and the (primarily Democratic) Catholic politicians never fully recovered from their pre-Roe unpreparedness. Historically, nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is that, long before Roe v. Wade, Catholic politicians were being carefully coached by theologians, mainly Jesuits, in a disingenuous vocabulary of pluralism that would not only permit them to tolerate liberalized abortion laws but would make them the prime movers in legislating abortion-on-demand.

Following is an excerpt from "Theological Ethics, Moral Philosophy, and Public Moral Discourse," by former Jesuit Albert Jonsen, published in the Kennedy Istitute of Ethics Journal, Vol 4, #1, 1994:

In July 1964, Fr. Joseph Fuchs, S.J., a renowned Catholic moral theologian and a professor at the Gregorian University in Rome, was among the guest faculty of an ethics course I was teaching at the Summer School of the University of San Francisco. Walking across campus one morning, Father Fuchs hailed me and told me that he had, on the previous day, received a phone call inviting him to join several other leading theologians in a meeting with Senator Ted Kennedy and Robert Kennedy at Hyannisport. Robert Kennedy was running for the New York Senate seat, and the Kennedy family and their political advisors wished to discuss the position that a Catholic politican should take on abortion.

Father Fuchs then astonished me by saying that since he knew nothing of American politics, he wanted me to accompany him. If I would agree, he would acept the invitation on the condition that I come as his companion. I agreed and they agreed. Two days later, the distinguished German theologian and the American novice travelled to Cape Cod to join Catholic theologians Robert Drinan, then Dean of Boston College Law School; Richard McCormick; Charles Curran; and a bishop whose name I do not recall; as well as Andre Hellegers, an obstetrician and a fetal physiologist who was to be the technical advisor. ...

Our colloquium at Hyannisport, as I recall it, was influenced by [Fr. John Courtney Murray, S.J.'s] position and reached the conclusion that Catholic politicians in a democratic polity might advocate legal restriction on abortion, but in so doing might tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances, if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order. This position, which, of course, is much more nuanced than I have stated, seems to have informed the politics of the Kennedys.

Curran is not a Jesuit, but Fuchs, Drinan, and McCormick (now deceased) are, and between them they worked in the political and academic arenas simultaneously to undercut Catholic doctrine on sexual morality in general and on abortion in particular. A second glimpse can be had from the following, excerpted from a talk by another ex-Jesuit, Giles Milhaven, given at a breakfast briefing for Catholics for a Free Choice, on September 14, 1984:

Having been asked to make a presentation this morning on Catholic options in public policy on abortion, I cannot but recall the last time I was invited to do so. It was fifteen years ago [note: at least 16, since Robert died in 1968]. I remember vividly. Other theologians and I were driving down Route 3 to Cape Cod, with Bob Drinan at the wheel. We were to meet with the Senators Kennedy and the Shrivers at their request. I remember it vividly because the traffic lanes were jammed and halted, presumably because of an accident ahead, and Bob Drinan drove 60 miles an hour down the breakdown lane. Despite my misgivings each time we swept around a curve, we theologians arrived safely at the Kennedy compound.

The theologians worked for a day and a half among ourselves at a nearby hotel. In the evening, we answered questions from the Kennedys and the Shrivers. Though the theologians disagreed on many a point, they concurred on certain basics. These include statements which I will make shortly. What was striking then and remains striking today is the difference between what Catholic theologians say about abortion and what the Catholic hierarchy say on the same subject

According to Milhaven, one of the "basics" on which all these theologians concurred is that, "in flat contradiction to the Pope and the bishops … in certain situations abortion is morally licit and may even be obligatory."

There we have it, from the mouths of men who crafted the policy: abortion was not thrust on unsuspecting Catholic leaders from outside, it was these very leaders who were maneuvering in the background to effect the change a decade before the Supreme Court did most of the dirty work for them. With Fr. Drinan in Congress from 1970 to 1980, voting the extreme pro-abortion position and enjoying the fervid support of prestigious Jesuits in so doing, the fractured Catholic opposition was effectively neutralized and -- in terms of elected officials -- it never regained force. Although many Catholic pols justified their pro-abortion stance by claiming that it was their democratic duty to represent their constituents' views instead of their own, in fact it was the overwhelmingly anti-abortion convictions of voters (early in the game) that prevented their showing their true pro-abortion colors until public sentiment had turned in their favor.

Drinan, Kennedy, Dodd, Leahy, Mikulski, Murray, Kerry, Biden -- these aren't thoughtful pluralists reluctantly obliged to compromise with radical colleagues, they are red-in-tooth-and-claw full-throttle NARAL-celebrating ideologues. Far from comprising a threat to abortion rights, communicant Catholics were a necessary condition of their triumph. Long planned, hard won, fiercely defended, abortion-on-demand is the Catholic gift to American public life, perhaps our Church's only enduring political achievement. Small wonder the bishops are terrified of communion-rail catechesis.

[Polycarp IV]

Long planned, hard won, fiercely defended, abortion-on-demand is the Catholic gift to American public life, perhaps our Church's only enduring political achievement. Small wonder the bishops are terrified of communion-rail catechesis.

Wow. One of the most brutally honest examinations of Abortion and the Catholic Factor I've ever seen anuywhere!

[visualops]

By "Catholic gift" is he meaning Catholic politicians and those who aided and abetted them- theologians who obviously have more interest in leftist social engineering than morality?

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

What I have always found amazing and bizarre is how anyone could manage to keep a straight face while having to admit they were actually associated with something called The Kennedy Institute of Ethics.

Shows you that at least Satan has a wicked sense of humor when dealing with liberals from Massachusetts and the American modernist masonic Jesuits who worship them.

[nickcarraway]

BUMP

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Ouch, if I had access to my ping list from this computer, I would use it. I think the author goes to far, for it wasn't the gift of Bishops, though certaily, they did nothing to stop it. Rather it was the gift of heretics and dissenters who the Bishops allowed to remain within the Church. But then, I guess that is the Church's gift.

[Cicero]

Robert Drinan; Richard McCormick; Charles Curran.

All famous names. Drinan was the public point man on abortion. McCormick and Curran were two of the most famous dissenters. I hadn't known about Joseph Fuchs, but evidently he was an emissary from the core of troublemakers in Rome.

Curran and McCormick were disciplined for their dissent from Humanae Vitae, but Rome leaned on the Archbishop of Washington to let them off the hook. That was the moment when the whole church went off the rails.

What's evident now, from articles like this, is that dissent didn't just happen. It was planned, and some of the planning took place among the inner circles in Rome. People like Cardinal Bugnani and this fellow Fuchs, evidently.

[TOUGH STOUGH]

Bump!

[ventana]

The floor of hell...

[cpforlife.org]

"One of the most brutally honest examinations of Abortion and the Catholic Factor I've ever seen anuywhere!"

Yes indeed, and I believe on the mark.

IMO--what makes it worse is that abortion was “legalized” in the Soviet Union in 1920. China followed suit about a decade later. Great Britain “legalized” the murder of children waiting to be born in 1954. Nineteen short years later, our own Supreme Court decided that it is “legal” for a woman to hire her “doctor” to destroy her own unborn child.

The Vatican was fully aware of what was spreading throughout the world, and had 50+ years of advanced warnings leading up to Roe v Wade.

The obvious fact that the heretics were allowed to continue unchecked can only be the fault of the hierarchy. The apostates should have been removed long before they reached levels of influence. Spineless bishops who are more politician than shepherd simply did not do the right thing--bishops who can easily see the cause and effect of allowing a true and obvious cancer to spread unhindered. Even to this very day they do NOTHING but pay faint lip service.

The floor of hell indeed ventana!

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke 1790

[cpforlife.org]

PING

[cpforlife.org]

Please let me know if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

[dsc]

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke 1790

Ummmm...if one does nothing in the face of evil, is one a good man?

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

The obvious fact that the heretics were allowed to continue unchecked can only be the fault of the hierarchy. The apostates should have been removed long before they reached levels of influence. Spineless bishops who are more politician than shepherd simply did not do the right thing--bishops who can easily see the cause and effect of allowing a true and obvious cancer to spread unhindered. Even to this very day they do NOTHING but pay faint lip service. 10 posted on 04/15/2004 12:06:31 AM PDT by cpforlife.org

The bishops have their fair share to be held accountable for. "Catholic liberalism" is also the fault of many lay people. All those Kennedy types and their worshippers. The enslavement of vast sections of the Catholic population to the Democratic Party is also the result of machinations by anti-Catholic forces. Now, long after the Dems embraced the culture of death, there are still idiotic morons calling themselves "Catholic" while supporting a political ideology and a demonic organization (the Democratic Party) which aspires to make all of us slaves to the culture of death. This is CLEARLY immoral and in grave conflict with being "Catholic." It is worse than the Nazis because it parades around in the guise of being fair and working for "social justice" and equality. It is Nazis in bluejeans.

[tjwmason]

Great Britain “legalized” the murder of children waiting to be born in 1954.

It was 1967, and most importantly was a specific legislative act, rather than a court's judgement. During the 1960s our legislators had a collective fit of insanity during which they legalised abortion, made divorce easier, and ended the death penalty; this could be changed by Act of Parliament (though most unlikely whilst the Labour Party is in power), whereas Roe vs. Wade establishes a 'right' which cannot be overturned by legislation. Also, importantly, technically abortion is permitted only in cases where continuing the pregnancy would have severe detrimental effects on the mother's physical or mental health, or in cases of severe disability of the child; many doctors treat this as abortion on demand, but that is not the legal issue (there is a case before the High Court at present relating to abortion based on a cleft-palate). Also, abortion is normally legal only in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

We are certainly very far from perfect, and there is much work to be done here; but there are several aspects of British abortion law which are far preferable to U.S.

[Mr. Silverback]

ProLife Ping!

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[SuziQ]

I've know for a long time that it was the Jebbies, led by Drinan, who gave Catholic politicians the 'cover' they needed to push through and maintain pro-abortion legislation. Despicable, but true!

The politicians have continued to cling to these misguided ideas in opposition to what John Paul II has taught because they have the notion that the Jesuits have academic superiority which is translated as moral superiority! To Catholic politicians, that is the 'sophisticated' position rather than the Vatican one which they consider reactionary and fundamentalist.

[SuziQ]

Spineless bishops who are more politician than shepherd simply did not do the right thing--bishops who can easily see the cause and effect of allowing a true and obvious cancer to spread unhindered. Even to this very day they do NOTHING but pay faint lip service.

Hubby calls em TOMs; Tired Old Men.

[cpforlife.org]

Thanks for correcting me on the date and the additional great info.

It was the Abortion Act of 1967 (see last part below) that provided such wide exceptions for wholesale slaughter. From: http://members.aol.com/abtrbng/abortl.htm

 

Background

Historically, in Anglo-American law, abortion had been criminalized, at least from the point of "quickening" (c.15-18 weeks) and often severely punished. Liberalization of abortion laws in both countries began to occur in the later 1960's.

English Law

Henry Bracton, (1216-1272) "the Father of Common Law," apparently regarded abortion (at least after 5 or six weeks) as homicide and it seems that at early Common Law abortion was a felony, and, therefore, a hanging offense. Later commentators, Coke and Blackstone, held expressly that abortion after quickening was not the crime of murder, but a separate crime (a "grave misprision"). It is unclear whether pre-quickening abortion was still criminalized. The Miscarriage of Woman Act of 1803 ("Lord Ellenborough's Act," 43 Geo. 3, c. 58.), introduced a statutory abortion scheme in England. Pre-quickening abortion was made a felony and post-quickening abortion was a capital crime. In 1837, with abolition of the death penalty, 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict., c. 85. § 6, the quickening distinction was removed and all abortion was punished as a single felony. In 1861, the Offenses Against the Person Act, 24 & 25 Vict., c. 100, § 59, introduced a replacement statutory scheme, where, as before, all abortions were felonies. In 1929, the Infant Life (Preservation) Act, 19 & 20 Geo. 5, c. 34, was passed. It supplemented the OAPA and included a defense for bona fide efforts to save the mother's life. A common law health exception to the OAPA was introduced in 1938 by Rex v. Bourne, [1939] 1 K. B. 687, 3 All E. R. 615 (1938). Finally, the Abortion Act of 1967, while maintaining the general prohibition of abortion, introduced broad exceptions for genetic defects, and the mental and physical heath of the mother. Under this law, abortion is generally permitted if a pregnancy is unwanted, as childbirth is seen as more of a health threat than early abortion. However, this law does not apply uniformly throughout the U.K., e.g. Man and Jersey.

[cpforlife.org]

Just to clarify a point: "The obvious fact that the heretics (Fr. Joseph Fuchs, S.J., Robert Drinan, etc.) were allowed to continue unchecked can only be the fault of the hierarchy. The apostates (Fr. Joseph Fuchs, S.J., Robert Drinan, etc.) should have been removed long before they reached levels of influence."

Instead, some become bishops themselves.