Vatican Prelate Says Document of US Bishops Partly to Blame for Election of “Most Pro-Abortion Pres”

LifeSiteNews ^ | 1/28/09 | Hilary White

[wagglebee]

ROME, January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A document of the US Catholic Bishops is partly to blame for the abandonment of pro-life teachings by voting Catholics and the election of the “most pro-abortion president” in US history, one of the Vatican’s highest officials said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, named a document on the election produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that he said “led to confusion” among the faithful and led ultimately to massive support among Catholics for Barack Obama.

The US bishops’ document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion because of "other grave reasons," as long as they do not intend to support that pro-abortion position.

Archbishop Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louis Mo. and recently appointed head of the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, told LifeSiteNews.com that although “there were a greater number of bishops who spoke up very clearly and firmly ... there was also a number who did not.”

But most damaging, he said, was the document “Faithful Citizenship” that “led to confusion” among the voting Catholic population.

“While it stated that the issue of life was the first and most important issue, it went on in some specific areas to say ‘but there are other issues’ that are of comparable importance without making necessary distinctions.”

Archbishop Burke, citing an article by a priest and ethics expert of St. Louis archdiocese, Msgr. Kevin McMahon, who analyzed how the bishops’ document actually contributed to the election of Obama, called its proposal “a kind of false thinking, that says, ‘there’s the evil of taking an innocent and defenseless human life but there are other evils and they’re worthy of equal consideration.’

“But they’re not. The economic situation, or opposition to the war in Iraq, or whatever it may be, those things don’t rise to the same level as something that is always and everywhere evil, namely the killing of innocent and defenseless human life.”

Archbishop Burke also cited the work of the official news service of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, that many pro-life observers complained soft-pedaled the newly elected president’s opposition to traditional morality.

“The bishops need to look also at our Catholic News Service, CNS, they need to review their coverage of the whole thing and give some new direction, in my judgment,” he said.

[mockingbyrd]

I watched our DRE twist Faithful Citizenship into justifying a vote for Obama and to convince young people in her class that you could vote for Obama.

[hocndoc]

Bravo to the Archbishop. How I wish Catholics everywhere would listen and hear.

[TChad]

A PDF of "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship " is here.

From that document:

34. Catholics often face difficult choices about how to vote. This is why it is so important to vote according to a well-formed conscience that perceives the proper relationship among moral goods. A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voter’s intent is to support that position. In such cases a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidate’s opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity.

35. There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate’s unacceptable position may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons. Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamental moral evil.

36. When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods.

[Lou Budvis]

The US clergy are experts at sending mixed messages that green-light voting for pro-abort dims. They seemed to have missed the point that Jesus said nothing about what form governments should take. A Catholic’s duty to give to charity is the same for all time and for all places. Paying taxes is not a charitable act b/c it is mandatory and therefore lacks the ediffying benefit of a truly charitable act.

[ardara]

One of the greatest jobs we as Catholics can do is put the USCCB out of business.

[RetiredArmy]

Catholics and Jews voted big time for Osama Saddam Hussein Obama. Thankfully, we Southern Baptist did not. I have yet to find one person in my church that admits to voting for the messiah Obama.

[NewJerseyJoe]

The bishops have been denying, defacing, or otherwise watering-down doctrine for 40 years.... and now they’re surprised that Catholics don’t follow the teachings of the Church??

[SuperLuminal]

bttt

[livius]

Well, if the meeting did take place, they sure kept it quiet.

[PapaBear3625]

The Pope needs to exercise more care over who gets to be a bishop.

[Patriotic1]

True, but the state of teaching has been dreadful over the last 30 years. Many of the Catholics that I know are personally against it, blah blah blah.

There’s a lack of an idea of Truth, which is an indication of moral relativism.

[TChad]

...an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism,

So since the Democrats are pro-abortion and the Republicans are pro-racism, their is no net moral downside to voting for The Messiah of Choice.

[basil]

If you want a real hoot: I think I was the last person in the world to join the Church under the old Baltimore Catechism! I think they threw it out the day after I was baptized.......

[Notwithstanding]

U northodox
S lippery
C ontemptuous
C ulpable
B ackstabbers

As an organization it often seems that this is what they are, though I realize many individuals are not.

[Notwithstanding]

Paying taxes is not a charitable act b/c it is mandatory and therefore lacks the ediffying benefit of a truly charitable act.

And voting to force others to pay more taxes is, likewise, no charitable act.

[wintertime]

My daughter is a math teacher at a Catholic K-8 school. The principal and nearly every one of the teachers are hard line Democrats.

I simply can not reconcile the concept of “Catholic” school with any teacher or principal being a Democrat.

On Inauguration Day the students all watch Obama ( the infanticide voting president) take his oath of office. What on earth are these Catholic students learning!!!!

UNBELIEVABLE! ( Yes, I am shouting!)

[Jim Noble]

I can tell you this. I've been going to Catholic churches on a weekly basis for the past 15 years. Prior to that, being that all my cousins are Catholic and I worked for an order of nuns, I was reasonably close to many clergy and had plenty of opportunity to listen to their opinions.

When discovering that I was Protestant, a very substantial minority of priests and nuns would take the occasion to share with me how much they disagreed with the Church on various matters, especially those related to sex.

I don't know what percentage of bishops are pro-abortion, but it certainly ain't zero, or anything close to it.

[wintertime]

Sadly, there are a number of aged lefty bishops who love socialism
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6

They **worship** socialism! They **worship** Karl Marx instead of God. They are breaking the First Commandment.

Geeze! Is it any wonder then that 45% of Catholics who attend Mass weekly then vote for Obama? If socialism and Marxism are worshiped instead of God, then no wonder the faithful confuse Obama with the Messiah and pull the Democrat lever in the voting booth.

[markomalley]

Sign seen at MFL09

I agree that our shepherds have fallen down on the job; that can't be doubted by anybody. Their coziness with people who make public their sin against the Church is at odds with their speech in favor of life. Their lack of courage in publicly naming names and using their God-given authority to say "Thus saith the Lord" does not inspire confidence (to put it mildly). They have done so for decades leading up to this point. However, I am reticent to say, this time, that they bear 100% of the blame. (A preponderance, yes, but not all). As Salvation can easily point out, a number of them did actually get up the nerve to start being unambiguous. They do deserve some credit for that.

[markomalley]

ping to #39, sorry.