Posted on 04/26/2009 8:03:14 PM PDT by kellynla
KENNER, La. (CNS) -- President Barack Obama is a "very gracious and obviously a very smart man" but he is on the "wrong side of history" when it comes to his fervent support of abortion rights, Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George told the 2009 Louisiana Priests Convention April 21.
Cardinal George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told 200 priests from the seven dioceses of Louisiana that, while he wants Obama to succeed in his efforts to right the economy, enhance world peace and help the poor, the president needs to understand that the Catholic Church will not allow the life issue to be abandoned.
In a question-and-answer session that followed his keynote speech to priests on offering compassionate ministry to people who are hurting, Cardinal George offered a candid assessment of his 30-minute meeting with the president at the White House March 18.
"I think on the life issue he's on the wrong side of history," the cardinal said. "I think he has his political debts to pay, and so he's paying them."
Cardinal George said his conversation with the president was polite but substantive.
"It's hard to disagree with him because he'll always tell you he agrees with you," he said. "Maybe that's political. I think he sincerely wants to agree with you. You have to say, again and again, 'No, Mr. President, we don't agree (on abortion).' But we can agree on a lot, and we do, and that's why there is so much hope. I think we have to pray for him every day."
Cardinal George said he told the president he was concerned about his decision to rescind the Mexico City policy, which resulted in providing taxpayer money to fund abortion overseas.
"He said we weren't exporting abortion," the cardinal said. "I said, 'Yes we are.' He would say, 'I know I have to do certain things here. ... But be patient and you'll see the pattern will change.' I said, 'Mr. President, you've given us nothing but the wrong signals on this issue.' So, we'll see, but I'm not as hopeful now as I was when he was first elected."
The church and the president find common ground on supporting social programs that lift up the poor, but Cardinal George said on the issue of abortion, "I think we're up against something a little bit like slavery."
"These are members of the human family, genetically individuated, (with) a human father and a human mother," he said. "What their legal status is, of course, you can debate, and we have. ... John Paul II says you cannot simply live comfortably with an immoral legal system, any more than you could live comfortably with slavery, and therefore you have to work to change the law.
"It's a society-dividing issue, and on this issue, we're with Abraham Lincoln and he's with Stephen Douglas, and he doesn't like to hear that, but that's where he is."
The cardinal was referring to the seven debates held in 1858 between Lincoln and his opponent for an Illinois seat in the U.S. Senate. Slavery was the main issue discussed in all of the debates.
If even the incremental restrictions on abortion -- such as the ban on partial-birth abortion or parental notification laws -- are rolled back, Cardinal George said pro-life advocates could feel desperate because they fear "abortion will be a human right, and of course, if it's a human right, it can't be qualified."
Cardinal George said Pope John Paul II, with the help of Muslim and Latin American countries, successfully fought the Clinton administration's efforts to declare abortion a fundamental "human right" at the 1994 U.N. population conference in Cairo, Egypt.
"Whether or not the present pope will be able to do this a generation later, I don't know, because we're going to be faced with it again," the cardinal said. "But you can't go on indefinitely. For 80 years we were a slave republic, and it took a terrible war to end that. And now for 40 years we're in an abortion regime, and I'm not sure how that's going to end."
END
ping
Good graphic. LOL!
The bishops who have so far expressed disapproval of Notre Dame's invitation to Obama (in alphabetical order) are:
1. Bishop John D'Arcy - Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN
2. Bishop Samuel Aquila - Fargo, ND
3. Bishop Gregory Aymond - Austin, TX
4. Bishop Gerald Barbarito - Palm Beach, FL
5. Bishop Leonard Blair - Toledo, OH
6. Archbishop Daniel Buechlein - Indianapolis, IN
7. Bishop Robert Baker - Birmingham, AL
8. Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz - Lincoln, NE
9. Archbishop Eusebius Beltran - Oklahoma City, OK
10. Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantú - San Antonio, TX
11. Bishop Paul Coakley - Salina, KS
12. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo - Houston, TX
13. Archbishop Timothy Dolan - New York, NY
14. Bishop Thomas Doran - Rockford, IL
15. Auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty - Scranton, PA
16. Bishop Robert Finn - Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO
17. Bishop Victor Galeone - St. Augustine, FL
18. Cardinal Francis George - Chicago, IL; President, USCCB
19. Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger - Evansville, IN
20. Archbishop José Gomez - San Antonio, TX
21. Bishop William Higi - Lafayette, IN
22. Archbishop Alfred Hughs - New Orleans, LA
23. Bishop Joseph Latino - Jackson, MS
24. Bishop Jerome Listecki - La Crosse, WI
25. Bishop William E. Lori - Bridgeport, CT
26. Bishop Paul Loverde - Arlington, VA
27. Bishop George Lucas - Springfield, IL
28. Bishop Robert Lynch - St. Petersburg, FL
29. Bishop Joseph Martino - Scranton, PA
30. Bishop Charles Morlino - Madison, WI
31. Bishop George Murry - Youngstown, OH
32. Archbishop John J. Myers - Newark, NJ
33. Bishop R. Walker Nickless - Sioux City, IA
34. Archbishop John C. Nienstedt - St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN
35. Archbishop Edwin O'Brien - Baltimore, MD
36. Bishop Thomas Olmsted - Phoenix, AZ
37. Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk - Cincinnati, OH
38. Bishop Kevin Rhoades - Harrisburg, PA
39. Bishop Alexander Sample - Marquette, MI
40. Bishop Edward J. Slattery - Tulsa, OK
41. Bishop Richard Stika - Knoxville, TN
42. Bishop Anthony Taylor - Little Rock, AR
43. Bishop Robert Vasa - Baker, OR
44. Bishop Thomas Wenski - Orlando, FL
45. Bishop David Zubick - Pittsburgh, PA
For a list of contact information regarding the Notre Dame scandal, go to: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032706.html
What the heck does that mean? Does the cardinal think that Obama takes a pro-abortion public stance merely because he has political debts to pay? ...and that deep down he's really pro-life?
>”Whether or not the present pope will be able to do this a generation later, I don’t know, because we’re going to be faced with it again,” the cardinal said. “But you can’t go on indefinitely. For 80 years we were a slave republic, and it took a terrible war to end that. And now for 40 years we’re in an abortion regime, and I’m not sure how that’s going to end.”
Maybe we need a war. Maybe that is what it will take to change the going-ons of DC. Not a pleasant thought, but one which should not be dismissed w/o proper consideration & thought.
With all due respect to His Eminence, Obama isn’t on the side of Stephen Douglas, he’s on the side of John C. Calhoun and Edmund Ruffin.
Duh!
The Cardinal uses a poor phrase to describe O’s pro-death stance. O is not on the wrong side of history, he’s on the wrong side of The Lord’s Commandment that Thou Shalt Not Murder.
Pres. Barack Obama has no idea how funny he is.
He possesses the glibness of Groucho Marx.
On YouTube: Obama + Groucho - The Laws of My Administration
Vote will protect unborn beginning at conception
‘Victory serves as example to other nations’
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95913
46. Bishop John LeVoir - New Ulm, MN
What happened was that LifeSiteNews.com issued a list with 45 names, then UPDATED the very same article on the same day.
In other words, it had the same URL, but the title and content of the article was updated with the 46th Bishop -- Bishop John LeVoir of New Ulm...
The Diocese of New Ulm is an interesting one. In 1998, it was one of the last in the country to have a Bishop that was involved in Call to Action...
Pope John Paul II was finally able to put a good bishop in that diocese that that Bishop retired (the Call to Action bishop)...
Still nobody from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has spoken up. This is why Roe versus Wade still exists. The Catholic Church could have forced the Supreme Court to re-examine this decision right after it was passed, if only they had spoken up. Warren Burger’s court had not kept their intention a secret, and Harry Blackmun had bogus reasoning for his opinion. His opinion stomps on the 10th and 11th amendments. Article X states ‘The powers not designated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, ot to the people.’
If anyone can, please show where the Constitution gives the right of abortion, or where the States have ceded that right to the Federal Government. In this regard, Justice Scalia is right on the money. One day, this is the grounds on which juristiction will be returned to the states when we get Justices who are adherents to the actual Constitution.
Come on Philadelphia, stop being pusillanimous and speak up! I see Scranton and Pittsburgh. Don’t let someone who keeps favoring killing for convenience sully the most famous Catholic University without making some noise.
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