Abortion was on the back burner during this election cycle but U.S. Catholic Bishops are a gathering force determined to pit Catholic faithful against Barack Obama. Obama’s extreme pro-choice stance is forcing many Catholics to take a second look.
The U.K’s
Sunday Herald discussed “The Battle for the Catholic vote.” The article noted that Catholics make up a third of the electorate in the key states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri.
According to the Sunday Herald,
Obama, aghast at his party's abandonment of religious voters in a country where 92% of the population believe in God, has reinforced existing efforts to redress this, stressing his Christian beliefs at every opportunity . . .
Sunday the
Star-Ledger News reported that last week Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson N.J denounced Barack Obama for his stance on abortion. Serratelli said that Obama’s “first presidential act would be to sign the "Freedom of Choice Act." A law that would forbid interference with women's access to abortion.
Serratelli wrote this about Obama in his weekly column last week:
"If this politician fulfills his promise, not only will many of our freedoms as Americans be taken from us, but the innocent and vulnerable will spill their blood . . .”
Star-Ledger News also noted that the bishop of Scranton, Pa, and the bishop of Wilmington, Del, as well as two other prominent bishops, have criticized Biden for his stance on abortion and have questioned whether Biden should be eligible to receive Communion.
Additionally, several prominent bishops have released a statement saying that Speaker of the House, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has misrepresented the Catholic church’s stance on abortion. Pelsoi said that the Church’s teachings on abortion had changed but the Bishops contend that the church has always condemned abortion.
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput accused Catholics for Obama of “using his words in a misleading way.”
The group had quoted Chaput saying, "Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates, if they vote for them despite -- not because of -- their pro-choice views." Chaput complained the group omitted his next sentence saying those Catholics "also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it."
The
Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday that Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Diocese of Dallas and Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Fort Worth had written a letter to parishioners that says that voting for a candidate who supports “the intrinsic evil of abortion” is morally impermissible.
According to a spokesperson for the Bishops, the letter was not an endorsement of any political candidate. The letter sought to clarify Catholic teachings, “particularly a document issued by U.S. bishops called "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship."
Part of the letter calls on Catholics to remember.
"As Catholics, we must treat our political choices with appropriate moral gravity and in doing so, realize our continuing and unavoidable obligation to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, whose destruction by legal abortion is the pre-eminent intrinsic evil of our day. . ."
According to the
Catholic News Agency, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput spoke as a private citizen to a group dedicated to promoting the “genius of women.” He emphasized that he was not speaking on behalf of “the Holy See, or the American bishops, or any other bishop, or even officially for the Archdiocese of Denver.”
Chaput said, “I believe that Senator Obama, whatever his other talents, is the most committed ‘abortion-rights’ presidential candidate of either major party since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973.”
He went on to say,
“ . . .the party platform Senator Obama runs on this year is not only aggressively ‘pro-choice;’ it has also removed any suggestion that killing an unborn child might be a regrettable thing. On the question of homicide against the unborn child – and let’s remember that the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer explicitly called abortion ‘murder’ – the Democratic platform that emerged from Denver in August 2008 is clearly anti-life.”
Archbishop Chaput suggested that his audience read Prof. Robert George’s essay “Obama’s Abortion Extremism,” published earlier this week at
The Witherspoon Institute. Princeton University Professor Dr.George offers an explanation of a candidate for President of the United States abortion positions which he believes must be exposed and understood “at this crucial time.”
Father John Corapi, SOLT has issued a call for a Rosary Novena between October 27th and Election Day, November 4th in hopes that Catholics will vote for candidates who will defend human life against the “holocaust” of abortion.
