This is such a revealing comment from Leahy. For crying out loud, I'm a Jew and even I understand Catholic teaching better than Leahy does.
The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty on essentially practical grounds: Life should only be taken when there is no other workable alternative, and in the Church's view, there are workable deterrents short of the death penalty. Support or opposition to the death penalty, just like support or opposition to a war, is thus a matter of judgment and discernment; as long as your opinion is properly grounded on a moral bedrock that acknowledges life as sacred, you can disagree with the official judgment of the Church.
The context of abortion in American politics, however, has moved far beyond this sort of practicality. If we were debating when precisely it's acceptable to let a baby die to save the life of the mother, the matter would be comparable to the death penalty. Catholic teaching is that the doctor must at all times try to save both lives. If pro-abortion American Catholics agreed with this basic teaching, and were merely debating the practical question of when it's tolerable for a doctor to accept defeat and focus his limited resources on saving just one life or the other, that would be a legitimate area to dissent from the official judgment of the Church. But we're way, way beyond that point—pro-abortion Catholics make the baby's entire right to life subject to the whim of the mother. That's not a judgment question, that's rejection of basic moral doctrine of the Church. There's a word for people who do that, and it's called "Protestants." Leahy should just become Episcopalian and stop worrying about what Catholic bishops think of his politics.
hey, hey, hey; Don't come down hard on ALL protestants: I for one am a born-again protestant and I love your new Pope: Congratualtions ;)!
Leahy and the democraps depend on the votes of fellow CINO's to get elected! Must keep up the sham of 'being a Catholic' while serving Satan for the empowerment.
Sehr Gut! But Leahy needs to be joined by the priests who mistaught him, who never told him as you have so eloquently done the authetic teachings of the Church.
Both Luther and Calvin would have lined up far closer to this new pope than they would have to the mainline protestants of today.
If we were debating when precisely it's acceptable to let a baby die to save the life of the mother, the matter would be comparable to the death penalty. Catholic teaching is that the doctor must at all times try to save both lives. If pro-abortion American Catholics agreed with this basic teaching, and were merely debating the practical question of when it's tolerable for a doctor to accept defeat and focus his limited resources on saving just one life or the other, that would be a legitimate area to dissent from the official judgment of the Church. But we're way, way beyond that point—pro-abortion Catholics make the baby's entire right to life subject to the whim of the mother. That's not a judgment question, that's rejection of basic moral doctrine of the Church.
Unlike Leahy, you have no vested interest in misunderstanding it.