Posted on 02/12/2008 6:43:57 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Archbishop Charles Chaput left the door open Monday for Catholics to support pro-choice politicians, saying a variety of factors may be weighed when making such a decision.
"If you're a Democrat can you legitimately vote for someone who is pro-choice? I imagine so," Chaput told a crowd of about 150. "But you have to tell them forcefully you want them to change . . . voting is (just)the minimum."
Chaput spoke at the Augustine Institute, a new graduate school of theology and evangelization at the former Teikyo Loretto Heights campus on Federal Boulevard.
The archbishop's talk was to introduce his new book, Render Unto Caesar, which explores "the role of American Catholics in our nation's public life."
The book, to be released this summer, capitalizes on the fact that Denver will be on the national stage as host to the Democratic National Convention, and that Chaput has become a national figure with his message that Catholics - politicians and citizens - should bring their faith into their public lives.
A question-and-answer session quickly turned to the 2008 election and how a Catholic voter should weigh a candidate's record on abortion, which the church teaches is the killing of a human being.
"I'm almost afraid to ask this question," said the first questioner. "If there are no pro-life candidates, are we Catholics not to vote? Or vote for one who does the least harm?"
Chaput began his answer by saying "there's no one Catholic answer to the question," and that some Catholics might not vote at all and others might vote for the lesser evil. He said Catholics who might want to vote with a political party that's pro- choice should "be an active part of (that) community" and work to change the party's message.
(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...
“We ought to obey God rather than man.” (Acts 5:29)...and that includes liberal Democrat archbishops.
The answer is simple: if there is a pro-life candidate you vote the pro-life candidate.
If there is no pro-life candidate, you vote the candidate whose policies are less injurious to life than the others.
"Though shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Ex 20:16)
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Ex 20:16)
If you don't know what the question was, you can't make sense of the answer.
I'd slam the MSM ... but the words in brackets weren't written by the MSM, now were they?
Ahhhhhhhhh......them rascally Catholics again.........
That's not Chaput.
Chaput is anything BUT a “liberal Democrat archbishop”. He is one of the most staunch bishops in the country on the life issues and is one of the more conservative bishops around.
One of the things that disheartens me is the decline of conservative conversation on the web. When I started following and participating in on-line discussions about religion 14 years ago, I found, much to my delight, that the conservative Catholics were better informed, more intelligent, more articulate, and more charitable toward their opponents than their liberal Catholic opponents. That is still true, but one finds more and more instances of shoot-from-the-hip, ill-informed, uncharitable commentary.
Maybe it is a new generation. I guess I am just an old fuddy-duddy who sees decline all around him.
I’ve been on the net in one form or another since the mid 1980s. Flaming idiocy has always abounded. Your observation about “conservatives” is right on ... flaming idiocy and jaw-dropping ignorance was once primarily a feature of the “left”. I am disappointed by the amount of thoughtless ignorance that I see on this forum.
But pigeon-holing Chaput as liberal or conservative hardly gets us anywhere. In fact the hallmark of Catholicism in this country is that no matter what the label, effectively, our leaders are the same, ineffective.
This article is unbelieveable. Didn’t he just give some scorching pro-life sermon about a month ago? If Chaput is going to write a book on American Catholicism, chapter one should be “How to talk out of both sides of your mouth.”
As for the question of voting for someone who is pro-choice, it was then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) who said that this was possible -- provided there was something more horrible than abortion.
Now if one candidate was pro-life but advocated a nuclear war with China/Russia, many more deaths would result.
Basically, nothing can equate (except nuclear war/weapons of Mass Destruction) with abortion -- where there are about 1.2 million abortions a year, and God-only-knows how many in Russia, China, Western Europe and other countries of the World...
If you read his criticism of Golden Compass, you will see why he is a good leader for the US Church... Though Archbishop Burke has been outstanding on pro-life issues...
They thought the Archbishop was pushing to make pro-choice Catholic hypocrites face the music from people within their own party.
I was not at this address, but I have attended functions where Archbishop Chaput spoke and conducted liturgies. I have read his articles and followed him in the news. My take on him is this; he is pro gun control, pro affirmative action, pro illegal alien (he cites the Catechism #2241, but seems to leave out the 2nd paragraph requiring aliens to abide by the law, show gratitude to, and assist in carrying civic burdens in the host country). He is anti-death penalty, though the Church does leave the possibility open in rare circumstances. On doctrinal issues, he seems in line with the pope, though he does not appear to be favorably disposed to Summorum Pontificum. Earlier in this decade, there was some controversy over his allowing some pagan ritual mixed in with a mass he celebrated at his cathedral church. Something involving blessing the altar by people representing an Indian tribe dressed in what has been described as pagan garments and using their ritual. Even if paganism was not involved, it certainly was against the rubrics of mass, which not even a bishop can alter. The seminary in his archdiocese seems to be rather orthodox, and I am told that he show tight control over it. The man seems to me to be quite an enigma.
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