Skip to comments.
Bishop Vasa: Pro-Abortion Candidates are "Disqualified" - Clarifies "Faithful Citizenship"
LifeSiteNews ^
| 9/12/08
| John-Henry Westen
Posted on 09/13/2008 10:25:25 AM PDT by wagglebee
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, September 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - During the opening day of the Catholic Leadership Conference yesterday, Baker Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa clarified the teaching of the US Bishops Conference regarding voting in favor of pro-abortion politicians. The question of whether Catholics may remain in good standing with the Church while voting for pro-abortion politicians was raised.
Bishop Vasa responded referencing the document of the United States Catholic Conference titled "Faithful Citizenship", noting a pro-abortion stance disqualifies candidates from consideration by faithful Catholics.
LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Bishop Vasa after the session. Describing the deliberation among US bishops over the "Faithful Citizenship" document, he said: "When we were working on the document 'Faithful Citizenship', and the issue of whether or not a person's adamant pro-abortion position was a disqualifying condition, the general sense was 'yes that is a disqualifying condition'."
However, during the discussions mention was made of the document by Pope Benedict just prior his elevation to the pontificate which noted that Catholics may in good conscience vote for a politician who supports abortion in the presence of "proportionate reasons."
Bishop Vasa explained the notion of proportionate reasons, saying, "The conditions under which an individual may be able to vote for a pro-abortion candidate would apply only if all the candidates are equally pro-abortion."
He added: "And then you begin to screen for the other issues and make a conscientious decision to vote for this pro-abortion candidate because his positions on these other issues are more in keeping with good Catholic values." In that case, he said, "It doesn't mean that you in any way support or endorse a pro-abortion position but you take a look in that context at the lesser of two evils."
Speaking of politicians with a pro-abortion stand he said, "When we have someone who has that stand on a disqualifying issue, then the other issues, in many ways, do not matter because they are already wrong on that absolutely fundamental issue."
Only when taken to a level of insanity could a 'pro-war' candidate be considered on par with a pro-abortion candidate in the Bishop's view. "If we had a candidate in favor of a war in Iraq in which we decimate the entire population and we kill as many civilians to impose as much terror on everybody as possible to make sure . . . If that was in opposition to a pro-abortion person then I'd have a real conflict of conscience because you'd have a direct and intentional killing of innocent persons on one hand and the direct and intentional killing of persons on the other hand, said the Baker Bishop.
"But we don't have that issue with capital punishment, we don't have that issue with the war in Iraq we don't have that issue with the present Administration," he added.
Bishop Vasa explained that as a man from the Midwest, the analogy of a combine worked well to describe how a sifting of candidates could be undertaken. He described a combine as having a series of sieves, the first of which eliminates the largest and most obvious refuse. In the analogy the first screen would eliminate pro-abortion candidates, "to weed out the greatest evil," he said.
He concluded saying, "Abortion needs to be in our country a defining issue and we ought not be afraid to make it a defining issue because when we do that we will have an end of abortion in this country."
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: abortion; catholic; moralabsolutes; prolife
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-28 next last
He concluded saying, "Abortion needs to be in our country a defining issue and we ought not be afraid to make it a defining issue because when we do that we will have an end of abortion in this country." Amen!
1
posted on
09/13/2008 10:25:26 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
To: cgk; Coleus; cpforlife.org; narses; 8mmMauser; NYer; Salvation; Pyro7480
2
posted on
09/13/2008 10:26:30 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; 50mm; 69ConvertibleFirebird; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; ...
3
posted on
09/13/2008 10:27:46 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
4
posted on
09/13/2008 10:29:14 AM PDT
by
narses
(...the spirit of Trent is abroad once more.)
To: wagglebee
5
posted on
09/13/2008 10:29:38 AM PDT
by
narses
(...the spirit of Trent is abroad once more.)
To: wagglebee; informavoracious; larose; RJR_fan; Prospero; Conservative Vermont Vet; ...
6
posted on
09/13/2008 10:30:07 AM PDT
by
narses
(...the spirit of Trent is abroad once more.)
To: wagglebee
Is a transcript available? This will be useful for my campus Students For Life group and the campus Catholic faith-sharing group.
7
posted on
09/13/2008 10:48:07 AM PDT
by
GCC Catholic
(Sour grapes make terrible whine.)
To: wagglebee
8
posted on
09/13/2008 10:48:21 AM PDT
by
polymuser
(Taxpayers voting for Obama are like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.)
To: GCC Catholic
You might check out the USCCB.org website or the Catholic Sentinel site in Oregon!
9
posted on
09/13/2008 10:53:25 AM PDT
by
Salvation
(†With God all things are possible.†)
To: wagglebee
They left wiggle room. A Catholic politician will tell you they are pro choice but personally opposed to abortion or or. So they claim they are not pro abortion. I wish they’d elucidated on that. Maybe they will get to it. But calling them pro abortion (which they are) puts dissidents into irately defiant mode where they will rationalize that they are pro choice, it doesn’t apply to them, and can safely ignore all of it.
10
posted on
09/13/2008 10:54:31 AM PDT
by
Aliska
To: wagglebee
This list will probably be updated after the weekend. I fully expect more Bishops to speak out against Pelosi, Biden et al.
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:
-
-
... Bishop James Conley, his auxiliary, joined him
-
-
-
... Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, chairman of the Committee on Doctrine, joined him
-
-
-
Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh and...
-
-
-
... Bishop Oscar Cantu, his auxiliary bishop, has joined him
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Cardinal
Francis George of Chicago, President of the US Bishops,
has weighed-in
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
{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
11
posted on
09/13/2008 10:54:50 AM PDT
by
Salvation
(†With God all things are possible.†)
To: Aliska
**pro choice but personally opposed to abortion **
osymoron
God will be the judge. Life is either black or white, darkness or light.
12
posted on
09/13/2008 10:56:10 AM PDT
by
Salvation
(†With God all things are possible.†)
To: Aliska
If these morons are so against abortion personally, then they should transfer to the Republican party? Correct? LOL!
13
posted on
09/13/2008 10:57:39 AM PDT
by
Salvation
(†With God all things are possible.†)
To: wagglebee
If you wish to circulate it, please COPY and don't LINK--linking uses my bandwidth. This needs to be communicated to the pro-life communities in PA, which may well decide the election.
14
posted on
09/13/2008 11:01:38 AM PDT
by
Winged Hussar
(http://moveonpleasemoveon.blogspot.com/)
To: Salvation
I would call it both an oxymoron or euphemism, but sometimes I'm not clever with words.
If that were the only issue, yes, it would seem logical that they join the Republican Party, but partisanship runs deep; you have a good portion of your life and psyche invested in your views and political battles even if your political activity tends to be passive. That's why it is so hard to change.
The other factor would be the very many men who are supporting pro choice along with the feminists. Years ago when I was subscribing to the "Wanderer", I read a statement that put it so succinctly, went something like behind every abortion is a man who is relieved of child support.
Generally the homosexual lobby march in lockstep with them, too. Then they turn around and want to adopt children whose mothers or surrogates had to choose to carry them to term. It doesn't make any sense. Another oxymoron as you might say.
The feminists are spewing out such hatred, you know what has to be the source of that.
15
posted on
09/13/2008 11:21:25 AM PDT
by
Aliska
To: wagglebee
I would be interested in seeing that idiot Doug Kmiec’s response to this, as it completely dismisses his justification for supporting Barack Obama, Blessed be His Name.
To: wagglebee
This is a major smackdown to Douglas Kmiec, among others, who has gone on a campaign to convince Catholics to vote for pro-abortion politicians.
17
posted on
09/13/2008 8:19:19 PM PDT
by
JohnnyZ
(This gun for hire)
To: wagglebee
18
posted on
09/14/2008 4:04:28 AM PDT
by
8mmMauser
(Jezu ufam tobie...Jesus I trust in Thee)
To: wagglebee
It appears that many of the bishops have started taking vitamin B16 supplements.
Amen!
19
posted on
09/14/2008 11:36:18 AM PDT
by
Notwithstanding
(Obama/Biden: the "O" stands for Zero Executive Experience & Zero Accomplishments)
To: wagglebee
It appears that many of the bishops have started taking vitamin B16 supplements.
Amen!
20
posted on
09/14/2008 11:36:33 AM PDT
by
Notwithstanding
(Obama/Biden: the "O" stands for Zero Executive Experience & Zero Accomplishments)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-28 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson