Catholics and Abortion (Again!)

Here is a letter that Bishop Martino requested all his priests to read at all masses this past weekend, as it was Respect Life Sunday.

This is the Bishop of the Scranton, PA diocese who requested that Joe Biden not present himself for communion, and if he did - he should be denied.

http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/Bishop’s%20Pastoral%20Letters/RespectLifeSundaySeptember30th2008.asp

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Catholics support pro abortion on demand candidates.

In response to the polls showing McCain losing ground I have to ask where is the poll showing a general collapse of his Catholic support? When I see that I will believe he is in trouble. Catholics have run away from Obama/Biden. They are on track for the worst Catholic numbers for Democrats ever. Show me the poll internals that have that turned around; show me where the last numbers 57/36 are gone and I will believe. Catholics have backed the last winners.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Catholics support pro abortion on demand candidates.

Habit. The ones who do are the crowd who jump on anything that sounds like it's going to help the poor regardless of consequences or thinking it through. Yes, we are called to help the poor. That's why we have the St. Vincent de Paul Society and any number of other "in the trenches" groups. Charity should be from the heart, not government mandated, and that's what these people miss.

In direct opposition to what both the Vatican has said and what the USCCB has said, some liberal lay Catholics are urging Catholics to vote Democrat because they claim that the Democratic Party reflects Church teaching on social justice more faithfully than the Republican Party. This is the sheerest nonsense. No one would deny the right to life to the smallest and weakest members of society—the unborn—can claim that he or she is promoting social justice. Catholics who are willing to vote for pro-abortion candidates because they like their views on other issues simply are not giving the abortion issue enough weight. They have, in fact, decided that protecting the lives of the unborn isn’t worth the cost of “giving up” the rest of their liberal agenda. For this reason, they are the worst of hypocrites.

Instead of making excuses for the Democratic Party’s support for abortion, liberal Catholics should try to end that support by withholding their votes from the party until it changes it platform. If enough people did that, the party might just change its position. But until and unless these so-called Catholics do what they can to change their own party, they have no right to lecture other Catholics about social justice.

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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

Obama Doesn’t Want His Daughters Punished with a Baby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNzmly28Bmg

CNN on Obama’s Infant Born Alive Act Rejection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZCXcTwZPY

Jill Stanek on Obama and Born Alive Infant Protection Act (MUST SEE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIdbYjmbFzo

Obama Cover-up Revealed On Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Bill

http://www.nrlc.org/ObamaBAIPA/ObamaCoverup.html

Explosive Audio Found Obama arguing against BAIPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypDwNpgIUQc

Babies left to die!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIdbYjmbFzo

The ones who do are the crowd who jump on anything that sounds like it's going to help the poor regardless of consequences or thinking it through.

Those people want the government to help the poor so they don't have to. It assuages their guilt and let's them proudly say that they've done their part to help by paying higher taxes; just look at the Biden's charitable donations for proof. You won't find those people actually rolling up their sleeves and helping the poor though.

A PASTORAL LETTER FROM BISHOP MARTINO
Respect Life Sunday

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

The American Catholic bishops initiated Respect Life Sunday in 1972, the year before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the United States. Since that time, Catholics across the country observe the month of October with devotions and pro-life activities in order to advance the culture of life. This October, our efforts have more significance than ever. Never have we seen such abusive criticism directed toward those who believe that life begins at conception and ends at natural death.

As Catholics, we should not be surprised by these developments. Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI predicted that widespread use of artificial contraceptives would lead to increased marital infidelity, lessened regard for women, and a general lowering of moral standards especially among the young. Forty years later, social scientists, not necessarily Catholics, attest to the accuracy of his predictions. As if following some bizarre script, the sexual revolution has produced widespread marital breakdown, weakened family ties, legalized abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, pornography, same-sex unions, euthanasia, destruction of human embryos for research purposes and a host of other ills.

It is impossible for me to answer all of the objections to the Church’s teaching on life that we hear every day in the media. Nevertheless, let me address a few. To begin, laws that protect abortion constitute injustice of the worst kind. They rest on several false claims including that there is no certainty regarding when life begins, that there is no certainty about when a fetus becomes a person, and that some human beings may be killed to advance the interests or convenience of others. With regard to the first, reason and science have answered the question. The life of a human being begins at conception. The Church has long taught this simple truth, and science confirms it. Biologists can now show you the delicate and beautiful development of the human embryo in its first days of existence. This is simply a fact that reasonable people accept. Regarding the second, the embryo and the fetus have the potential to do all that an adult person does. Finally, the claim that the human fetus may be sacrificed to the interests or convenience of his mother or someone else is grievously wrong. All three claims have the same result: the weakest and most vulnerable are denied, because of their age, the most basic protection that we demand for ourselves. This is discrimination at its worst, and no person of conscience should support it.

Another argument goes like this: “As wrong as abortion is, I don't think it is the only relevant ‘life’ issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote.” This reasoning is sound only if other issues carry the same moral weight as abortion does, such as in the case of euthanasia and destruction of embryos for research purposes. Health care, education, economic security, immigration, and taxes are very important concerns. Neglect of any one of them has dire consequences as the recent financial crisis demonstrates. However, the solutions to problems in these areas do not usually involve a rejection of the sanctity of human life in the way that abortion does. Being “right” on taxes, education, health care, immigration, and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. Consider this: the finest health and education systems, the fairest immigration laws, and the soundest economy do nothing for the child who never sees the light of day. It is a tragic irony that “pro-choice” candidates have come to support homicide – the gravest injustice a society can tolerate – in the name of “social justice.”

Even the Church’s just war theory has moral force because it is grounded in the principle that innocent human life must be protected and defended. Now, a person may, in good faith, misapply just war criteria leading him to mistakenly believe that an unjust war is just, but he or she still knows that innocent human life may not be harmed on purpose. A person who supports permissive abortion laws, however, rejects the truth that innocent human life may never be destroyed. This profound moral failure runs deeper and is more corrupting of the individual, and of the society, than any error in applying just war criteria to particular cases.

Furthermore, National Right to Life reports that 48.5 million abortions have been performed since 1973. One would be too many. No war, no natural disaster, no illness or disability has claimed so great a price.

In saying these things in an election year, I am in very good company. My predecessor, Bishop Timlin, writing his pastoral letter on Respect Life Sunday 2000, stated the case eloquently:

Abortion is the issue this year and every year in every campaign. Catholics may not turn away from the moral challenge that abortion poses for those who seek to obey God’s commands. They are wrong when they assert that abortion does not concern them, or that it is only one of a multitude of issues of equal importance. No, the taking of innocent human life is so heinous, so horribly evil, and so absolutely opposite to the law of Almighty God that abortion must take precedence over every other issue. I repeat. It is the single most important issue confronting not only Catholics, but the entire electorate.

My fellow bishops, writing ten years ago, explained why some evils – abortion and euthanasia in particular – take precedence over other forms of violence and abuse.

The failure to protect life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as ‘the temple of the Holy Spirit’ – the living house of God – then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation [emphasis in the original]. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right – the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, 23.

While the Church assists the State in the promotion of a just society, its primary concern is to assist men and women in achieving salvation. For this reason, it is incumbent upon bishops to correct Catholics who are in error regarding these matters. Furthermore, public officials who are Catholic and who persist in public support for abortion and other intrinsic evils should not partake in or be admitted to the sacrament of Holy Communion. As I have said before, I will be vigilant on this subject.

It is the Church’s role now to be a prophet in our own country, reminding all citizens of what our founders meant when they said that “. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Church’s teaching that all life from conception to natural death should be protected by law is founded on religious belief to be sure, but it is also a profoundly American principle founded on reason. Whenever a society asks its citizens to violate its own foundational principles – as well as their moral consciences – citizens have a right, indeed an obligation, to refuse.

In 1941, Bishop Gustave von Galen gave a homily condemning Nazi officials for murdering mentally ill people in his diocese of Muenster, Germany. The bishop said:

“Thou shalt not kill!” God wrote this commandment in the conscience of man long before any penal code laid down the penalty for murder, long before there was any prosecutor or any court to investigate and avenge a murder. Cain, who killed his brother Abel, was a murderer long before there were any states or any courts or law. And he confessed his deed, driven by his accusing conscience: “My punishment is greater than I can bear. . . and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me the murderer shall slay me” (Genesis 4:13-14)”

Should he have opposed the war and remained silent about the murder of the mentally ill? No person of conscience can fail to understand why Bishop von Galen spoke as he did.

My dear friends, I beg you not to be misled by confusion and lies. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, does not ask us to follow him to Calvary only for us to be afraid of contradicting a few bystanders along the way. He does not ask us to take up his Cross only to have us leave it at the voting booth door. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI said that “God is so humble that he uses us to spread his Word.” The gospel of life, which we have the privilege of proclaiming, resonates in the heart of every person – believer and non-believer – because it fulfills the heart’s most profound desire. Let us with one voice continue to speak the language of love and affirm the right of every human being to have the value of his or her life, from conception to natural death, respected to the highest degree.

October is traditionally the month of the Rosary. Let us pray the Rosary for the strength and fortitude to uphold the truths of our faith and the requirements of our law to all who deny them. And, let us ask Our Lady to bless our nation and the weakest among us.

May Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Lord of Life, pray for us.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D.
Bishop of Scranton

Bingo!

This group is a new name for the Catholic for a Free Choice older group. Ignore them.

Over 56 bishops have spoken out against abortion via Pelosi, Biden et al. This is a partial list.

Updated: American Bishops who have spoken against Pelosi

Here is the complete list of American bishops who have responded to Nancy Pelosi's comments so far:

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver was the first American bishop to respond
... Bishop James Conley, his auxiliary, joined him
Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington DC responded twice, first in a press release and second in a statement to The Hill. He has also appeared on Fox News, I am told.
Cardinal Justin Regali of Philadelphia, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued this statement through the USCCB website...
... Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, chairman of the Committee on Doctrine, joined him
Cardinal Edward Egan of New York publised a strongly worded statement of his own
Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo issued a letter correcting Pelosi's claims
Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh and...
... Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs have chimed-in
Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio, CNA reports has added his voice ...
... Bishop Oscar Cantu, his auxiliary bishop, has joined him
Bishop William Murphy of Rockville has published an extensive letter
Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa has a detailed response
Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas has joined the USCCB's efforts
Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin is on-board
Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston mentions the USCCB on his blog
Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando has written at length
Archbishop John Nienstedt of Saint Paul/Minneapolis challenges Pelosi's statement
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, President of the US Bishops, has weighed-in
Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, OR publishes in the Catholic Sentinel
Bishop Jerome Listecki of La Crosse, WI responds in a word document
Bishop Richard Lennon of Cleveland, OH will comment in his September 5th column (PDF)
Bishop Ralph Nickless of Sioux City, IA has one of the very best responses I've read
Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco has invited Pelosi to a "conversation"
Bishop Glen Provost, LA: "Catholic Church clear on when human life begins"
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn: "Judging the Candidates"

{Last updated on September 10th.}

Notes:

Previous #23 has been removed. Bishop Joseph Gossman of Raleigh, NC is actually the bishop emeritus, and the new bishop, Michael Burbidge has not, to my knowledge, made a personal statement.
Previous #16 has also been removed, it was an erroneous duplication of current #13.
#26 was added September 10th, although he published his column September 6th