Posted on 05/20/2004 6:19:23 AM PDT by NYer
Edited on 05/20/2004 8:46:00 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Forty-eight Roman Catholic members of Congress have warned in a letter to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington that U.S. bishops will revive anti-Catholic bigotry and severely harm the church if they deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights.The letter's signers, all Democrats, include at least three House members with strong antiabortion voting records.
"For many years Catholics were denied public office by voters who feared that they would take direction from the Pope," they wrote. ". . . While that type of paranoid anti-Catholicism seems to be a thing of the past, attempts by Church leaders today to influence votes by the threat of withholding a sacrament will revive latent anti-Catholic prejudice, which so many of us have worked so hard to overcome."
The three-page letter, dated May 10, was sent to McCarrick because he heads a task force of U.S. bishops that is considering whether, and how, the church should take action against Catholic politicians whose public positions are at odds with Catholic doctrine.
McCarrick's spokesman, Susan Gibbs, said he would not comment on the letter. She said the seven-member task force is "listening to many different voices" and will grant the 48 House members' request for a meeting. "They will be heard. It just hasn't been arranged yet," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Steve Lynch of the MA 9th district is pro-life; Joe Moakley, who held the seat until he died, was also pro-life.
I don't think you're being fair to Caligula.
Let's get to the record, Sinky. Even the AP release modifies "pro-life" with "heavily."
Well, which IS it?
Stenholm is pro-life; he is not a Catholic (or at least I'm stunned to find out that he is). Stupak is pro-life. I stand corrected on an overly broad statement I made: there probably are one or two other pro-life Catholic Dems left. (Maybe a Pennsylvanian or something like that.)
SPeak for your own situation, Sink.
I fully expect that 40% of the Milwaukee-area priests will openly or quietly rebel if Dolan makes a pronouncement similar to Burke's.
But I already KNEW that those priests would resist orthodoxy. Tough. They will meet a Judge who is willing to listen to their pleas....
Stupak is a pro-life Catholic. Or, do you doubt that?
You're "Exhibit B" of why we cannot win hearts and minds with a hammer.
Why hasn't Dolan imitated Burke? Is it because he knows his directive will be flaunted?
Or because he's a bit more politically astute than Burke?
The truth is the truth, whether it's spoken by someone with "moral credibility" or not. If the bishops speak with the voice of Christ from the mind of Christ, they will be listened to.
The more the Catholic bishops in the US actually and fearlessly speak the truth, the greater will grow their "reservoir of goodwill." Nobody admires phonies like Mahoney.
We don't have the luxury of knowing ahead of time where our donations go. Same thing when we give to Catholic Charities or The Paulists. I solve it by simply NOT giving to any political party and making my donations to charities I know I can trust. Believe me, if enough people did this, the political parties would begin to LISTEN to their membership. If you don't care where your money goes, give to the party of your choice. But if you DO prefer to know what your money will purchase, I suggest you present it to someplace like EWTN or Pro-Life Across America. There's no excuse for the kind of ignorance that leads people to donate willy-nilly just because there is an elephant on the envelope.
Well, we'll see. Christ was also wise in his admonitions, as opposed to the clumsiness of some of the statements coming from our shepherds.
No. There are enough pharmacies around these days that one doesn't HAVE to patronize one who supports abortion.
Exactly! That will be comforting to all those Catholics married outside the church... as long as it's done in "good conscience," go ahead and receive communion? Same with missing mass... hey, if you only go once a year, but in "good conscience," then go right ahead. That makes it all so much easier....
Stupak's a weasel. He HAS to be prolife for that district or he's toast. It's Michigan's UP, and part of the NE and Northernmost Lower Penn. It's a rural district and socially conservative(but a lot of yellow dogs - "Democrats for the workin' man" types). The district is pro-gun, pro-life, and very populist.
Stupak talks about how pro-gun he is and sometimes votes that way, but also cosponsors HR693 during the 01-02 congressional season that bans all non smart guns. No press attacked him on that, and few even know about it.
I can see him doing the same here on life issues if it takes him to leadership positions. David Bonior sold out as well on life issues.
Do I sin by doing business with a pharmacist who distributes RU-486, for instance?
I just want to see how far you're going to go with this.
Many people have given their lives to sin and will not turn away. By not telling the truth you have commited a sin too!
Democrats who voted to ban cloning (*likely Catholic):
Stupak*, Dingle* (2 from MI), Doyle*, Holden*, Kanjorski*, Murtha (last 4 from PA), Costello*, Manzullo*, Lipinski* (3 from IL), Baca*, Dooley*, Thompson (2 from CA), Edwards, Green*, Reyes*, Rodriguez*, Sandlin, Stenholm, Turner (7 from TX), Kaptur*, Ryan*, Strickland* (IN), Carson (OK), Kaptur*, Ryan*, Strickland (3 from OH), Larsen (WA), Bishop, Scott (2 from GA), McINtyre (NC), Boucher (VA), Cooper, Ford, Gordon, Taylor (TN), Lucas (KY).
As you can see, there were plenty of Ds who voted pro-life, but dozens of pro-death Republicans. Its the Ds who made this a partisan issue, not the bishops; the bishops only warned "pro-choice" Catholics, not Democrats.
MOST of them don't, assuredly, thanks to their wishy-washy stands on the things we are discussing and their ability to be compromised and blackmailed. Surely you are not saying that the bishops who speak out on behalf of Life and the doctrines of the Church aren't morally credible?
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