The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights, saying the church and religious freedom could be under attack in the new presidential administration.
In an impassioned discussion on Catholics in public life, several bishops said they would accept no compromise on abortion policy. Many condemned Catholics who had argued it was morally acceptable to back President-elect Obama because he pledged to reduce abortion rates.
And several prelates promised to call out Catholic policy makers on their failures to follow church teaching. Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., singled out Vice President-elect Biden, a Catholic, Scranton native who supports abortion rights.
“I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he’s learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church,” Martino said. The Obama-Biden press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas said politicians “can’t check your principles at the door of the legislature.”
Naumann has said repeatedly that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic Democrat who supports abortion rights, should stop taking Holy Communion until she changes her stance.
“They cannot call themselves Catholic when they violate such a core belief as the dignity of the unborn,” Naumann said Tuesday.
The discussion occurred on the same day the bishops approved a new “Blessing of a Child in the Womb.” The prayer seeks a healthy pregnancy for the mother and makes a plea that “our civic rulers” perform their duties “while respecting the gift of human life.”
Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is preparing a statement during the bishops’ fall meeting that will press Obama on abortion.
The bishops suggested that the final document include the message that “aggressively pro-abortion policies” would be viewed “as an attack on the church.”
Along with their theological opposition to the procedure, church leaders say they worry that any expansion in abortion rights could require Catholic hospitals to perform abortions or lose federal funding. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago said the hospitals would close rather than comply.
SOURCE: Read more at Fox News
Maybe we should do away with the secret ballets so that the Church would know who the 54 percent of Catholics that voted for Obama! Oh well only 4 years to put up with Obama or will you vote again for him? We Americans never learn when it comes to those lying politicians!
I believe that there was a lot of manipulation in this election, especially by so called “democratic” Catholic associations, masquerading their political agenda instead of matters of church and faith. It is easy. You are either a Catholic or not. You follow the Catholic church, its tenants and principles or not. And if you choose not to follow, then leave the church.
You said the big word “manipulation” and I agree Pat!
Dang. Our current crop of bishops is a stiffer than what we’re used to. Good for them.
And re that 54% who voted O, I believe that Catholics who actually go to mass on Sundays (active duty Catholics) voted McCain. It was the sorta Catholics (unready reserve) who voted for the O.
Too bad these Catholic bishops do not pursue the child molesters, rapists, and thieves in their own midst with the same zeal as they pursue politicians who support abortion. If Catholics are so right for life why don’t they oppose war? If the Catholic churc is so moral why didn’t it do anything about the Nazis?
As far as I am concerned the Catholic Church has ZERO MORAL AUTHORITY for in 2,000 years of history they have been involved in genocide, war, murder, and numerous other atrocities against the very humanity they claim to sheperd and help.
I take it that you’re not a Catholic! CharlesChaputthePedoProtector yopu asked: If the Catholic churc is so moral why didn’t it do anything about the Nazis?
Answer: maybe its the seem way they didn’t totally vote against Obama! I’m not Catholic but I do not think its right to kill babies!
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Even if the anti-Church slanders were true, they’d be beside the point. Abortion is wrong, and the bishops’ duty is to say so. CharlesChaputthePedoProtector is the sort who gives morons a bad name.