USCCB: George issues blunt challenge to Obama on abortion
Print Friendly VersionBy JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore
Cardinal Francis George, speaking this morning as president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, said all Americans should “rejoice” that a country which once tolerated slavery has elected an African-American as president – and, in the same breath, he issued a blunt challenge to the new administration on abortion.
“If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, that African Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons, were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be President of the United States,” George said.
"Today, as was the case a hundred and fifty years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good," he said.
“The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,” George said, drawing sustained applause from the bishops.
George said that while efforts to end racism and to promote economic justice are “pillars” of Catholic teaching, so too is opposition to abortion. His address drew a standing ovation from the bishops.
George’s comments, and the reaction from the floor, offered the first indication that the election of a pro-choice Democrat to the White House is unlikely to induce the bishops to soften their emphasis on abortion and other “life issues.”
George said that the election of Barak Obama represented, among other things, a “vindication” of those Catholic priests, religious, laity and bishops who worked against racism and on behalf of civil rights over the years in light of Catholic social doctrine.
Yet, George suggested, other aspects of the church’s social teaching – particularly its message on the defense of unborn life – have yet to be vindicated.
“We are perhaps at a moment when, with the grace of God, all races are safely within the American consensus,” George said. “We are not at the point, however, when Catholics, especially in public life, can be considered full partners in the American experience unless they are willing to put aside some fundamental Catholic teachings on a just moral and political order.”
George issued a strong call for unity in the church.
“Those who would impose their own agenda on the church, those who believe and act self-righteously, answerable only to themselves, whether ideologically on the left or right, betray the Lord Jesus,” he said.
In his lone direct reference to Catholic politicians, George prayed that “the Catholic faith will shape your decisions so that our communion may be full.”
George also appeared to encourage individual bishops to be bold, almost apart from whatever consensus positions may come out of the bishops’ conference.
“As we all know, the church was born without episcopal conferences, as she was born without parishes and without dioceses, although all these structures have been helpful pastorally throughout the centuries,” George said.
“The church was born only with shepherds, with apostolic pastors, whose relationship to their people keeps them one with Christ, from whom comes authority to govern the church,” he said.
Finally, George offered a joking reference to the mounting challenges he said are facing bishops these days.
“Sometimes,” he said, “I’ve been tempted to think that bishops should be given, at their consecration, not crosiers but mops!”
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is meeting Nov. 10-13 at Baltimore’s Marriott Waterfront hotel. It’s the first gathering of the American bishops in the wake of the recent elections.
A long 50 years ago as a
A long 50 years ago as a nursing student at Georgetown University, I was taught the moral principle of "double victimization" as the foundation for carrying out hospital therapeutic abortions when the life of the mother was in danger as a result of her pregnancy. The principle was thoroughly discussed and dissected and I learned to understand that sometimes a pregnancy can represent a threat to 2 lives--mother and baby--and that moral decisions have to consider both persons. Later during the early 60's, I frequently heard the feminist declaration that "A woman's life is a human life". Both of these experiences came to be very important when, as director of a State sexual assault treatment center, I met my first pregnant incest victim child of 11 years. My subsequent 15 years of dealing with hundreds of women and children pregnant as the result of sexual assault, domestic violence,extreme poverty and ignorance has made me very impatient and intolerant with my Church's consistently incomplete position on abortion. Not only do they not have a clue about the reality of women's lives but they don't even care! May God have mercy on them all!
I totally agree with you,
I totally agree with you, torrimar. They do not care about women, and they do not have a clue about the reality of women's lives.
I've come to the conclusion that they HATE women.
God bless you, Torri, for
God bless you, Torri, for the work you so. You shame me for all the talking I do.
You make the world a better place for the broken and bruised. I am going to try harder.
I find several comments
I find several comments posted here very disrespectful and dismissive of not only Cardinal George, but the Bishops in general. That, unfortunately, is behavior becoming all too common with people who have already separated themselves, if not officially, at least spiritually, from the Catholic Church. The pattern of attack is, if the Bishops say something we don't like, then simply say, "How can those child abusers say anything, they need to get their own house in order." How long can you honestly continue to say that? Face it, you want the Church to say that abortion, homosexual marriage, contraceptives, and Masses focused on people rather than Christ are alright. Well, I don't think it is trending that way. The liberal movement is providing few seminarians, whereas conservative and Traditionalist seminaries are overflowing. Cardinal George is absolutely correct, and if anyone does not GET it, it is the so-called members of AmChurch.
They do need to get their
They do need to get their house in order. They have for too long been attacking and disrespecting women and gays. They deserve correction for their sexism, homophophia, elitism, tyrannical authority, and for hiding pedophiles and allowing them to molest children. How long, you ask, can we honestly continue to say what we are saying? We'll go on saying it forever, if necessary.
Are you suggesting that
Are you suggesting that Caridinal George's opposition to "abortion, homosexual marriage, contraceptives, and Masses focused on people rather than Christ" make his protection of child predators (as recently at 2006!) somehow excusable?
As long as the bishops
As long as the bishops continue to lie to us, I for one will continue to speak out. As long as the bishops continue to ignore the basic teachings of the church, I will continue to speak out. As long as the bishops continue to be deceitful, I will speak out against their deceit.
Pillars versus
Pillars versus Foundations
While "efforts to end racism and to promote economic justice are “pillars” of Catholic teaching," Life is a foundational issue to God and our country. The first right stated in our Declaration of Independence is Life and it is the first gift given by God.
Cardinal George is right,
Cardinal George is right, the Church was born without episcopal conferences and all the rest of the beaurocratic trappings that now exist. So when will the episcopal conferences learn? Stay out of the political battles. Stop caring so much about getting laws passed. Stop spending so much time and money on lobbyists. Stop publicly announcing who in their opinion are the greatest sinners and saying that these sinners are not eligible for the Eucharist. Start shepherding as Jesus did. Go after one heart at a time. Help to lessen sinful behavior by working for those things that will change the minds and hearts of the people. If you want to fight abortion, don't pay attention to the law that says it is okay. Work hard so that not one person who is pregnant and afraid will not know where to turn. Work hard so that there is some place available for every person to go for help without a bunch of red tape. Work hard and challenge people to open their homes. Build places for pregnant girls and women to go to feel safe and loved. Spend as much money, time and effort on getting the information out about where they can turn as you do on trying to eliminate a law. Work hard and make the law obsolete by creating an atmosphere where no one will doubt that help is available - with no strings attached. Sure there will still be abortions. But let's not kid ourselves, even if the law is changed tomorrow, there will still be abortions.
Even if you manage to get the Supreme Court ruling reversed, how does that weaken the responsibility to care more about doing something positive in this issue. Would it be a victory to make abortion illegal and not provide for the needs of pregnant girls and women? Sure the CHurch does some good in the area of providing for the needs of some of those who want to have their baby and don't know where to turn. But there are still those who have no idea where they can turn. And there are some places that either can not handle all the requests or are not so ready to so so.
Did Jesus work to overturn one bad law? Did Jesus organize protests? Did Jesus hire lobbyists to work to change the governing authority's mind? NO! Jesus worked to change one heart at a time. The Church needds to stop trying to be powerful and influential in government and instead be influential in giving witness to the model of life offered by Jesus. That's real power! Yes, as Cardinal George said, even though he was joking, bishops should be given mops instead of croziers. It may remind them of their true calling. Not as rulers but as servants to the servants of God.
We have two hundred bishops
We have two hundred bishops with blinders on. I'd like to tell them to shut their mouthes and teach by example.
Can't wait for the public
Can't wait for the public reaction of a Biden or Sebelius to be denied communion. Chris Matthews and the like will be playing Hardball with that bishop, too. I say let these men who are completely out of touch with regular people who seek to end abortion through education rather than fiat give it their best shot. When donations dry up, they'll eventually figure it out.
Try as they did with their faithful citizenship document, these guys just don't or won't get it.
I can see it already. An
I can see it already. An actor on SNL dressed up as Cardinal George standing in front of a State of California flag, waxing eloquently:
“If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, that African Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons, were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be President of the United States,” George said.
http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com
colkoch! Help me out here!
colkoch!
Help me out here! Why do we give people like this a forum and why do "the faithful" still support them? Are their really lay people who think like this scowling howlie? I've not been "around" the church for a long time! I've been looking and reading and thinking and this mans rhetoric is so akin to that of the clergy, during the rise of the nazi regime! Malicious, inciteful, and blatantly ignorant! The descriptive that came immediately to mind was crass! I looked it up! It means "grossly ignorant"! I guess my primary confusion is; How can anyone so crass, rise to such a level, unless those above him and with him, are equally so? What does that say about Catholicism? I think I know the answer, but I trust neither my character nor my intellect to belive it so!
I do know that God loves us all! And I'm really trying!
James Edward
James, at it's core the
James, at it's core the entirety of the spectrum of life issues is an attempt to rein in individual choice, and the biggies are centered in personal sexual expression.
There is no other place of such intimacy in which to flex authoritative muscle. Rule the bedroom and you rule the person. Assert family values over individual rights and you have an insidious wedge in which to chop at private individual rights.
The object is to maintain the ascendancy of masculine dominance by using a specious sacramental argument concerning gay civil marriage and attacking female reproductive rights across the board. The male God of the Old Testament says so. Our entirely male clergy says so.
I happen to think it's an energy and ideation in it's death throws. The proponents of this may still rule our pulpits, but not our politics. Those swords they use have become so dull they'd have a tough time cutting butter.
When people stop listening, turning up the volume is pointless. Something I guess you need to be able to see. That's tough when you're willfully blind.
http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com
I think it's interesting
I think it's interesting that Cardinal George would use slavery as an argument for enforced pregnancy. As slaves African women were treated like brood mares to increase the wealth of the plantation owner. There is a book about slavery called "Bullwhip Days" in which a woman is ordered by the master's wife to sew her own mouth closed. That extreme assumption of control over a woman's body makes me shudder, but in fact it is less extreme than enforced pregnancy.
If the Cardinal wishes to point to the Black experience in America to bolster the cause of life, let him rather speak to the African understanding of the continuity of life and the responsibility the present generation has toward both ancestors and future generations. Abortion violates this responsibility and ruptures the flow of life through the family.
Law made black folk slaves, but spirit kept the hope of freedom alive. Law can return pregnant women to a condition of servitude, but helping pregnant women to embrace the spirit of faith in life, faith in the future can transform the culture. Cardinal George needs to decide which side the bishops are on.
Isn't this the same Cardinal
Isn't this the same Cardinal George that stalled the investigation of pedophile priest Joseph Bennett for four years, despite the warning of the Chicago Archdiocese's lay review board?
Isn't this the same Cardinal George who yet again rejected the advice of the review board by letting another priest-predator, Daniel McCormack, transfer from one parish to another to another?
Isn't this the same Cardinal George who tried to get the convicted criminal Fr. Norbert Maday's prison sentence reduced?
Are we living in some sort of an alternate dimension where just a couple of years ago in 2006 Cardinal George wasn't still protecting pedophiles?
Here's a "blunt challenge" to Cardinal George: RESIGN.
"Life issues" remain an
"Life issues" remain an unyielding core of Catholic (episcopal) policy. I trust that includes respect for all human beings, including those born "intrinsically disordered."
And what sense are we able to make of this astonishing sentence - “The church was born only with shepherds, with apostolic pastors, whose relationship to their people keeps them one with Christ, from whom comes authority to govern the church,” [Cardinal George] said. Your Eminence, please convince us, if it isn't already too late.
“Those who would impose their own agenda on the church, those who believe and act self-righteously, answerable only to themselves, whether ideologically on the left or right, betray the Lord Jesus,” There are some Bishops whose names come to mind in this regard, one of whom has publicly repudiated the relevance of the USCCB document on Faithful Citizenship in his Pennsylvanian diocese. Of course he's not the only one who thinks/thought that way. But no one is "answerable only to [him/herself]." And those who from a position of present authority declare that their directives are not open to debate, discussion or exploration let alone evaluation attempt to encroach upon the human responsibility for personal conscientious appraisal and response. This is a totalitarian position, and not worthy of any Christian, leader or led.
I get the impression that
I get the impression that some of the dissenters in these comments claim to be Catholic. As a convert to Catholicism this is very difficult to understand. A foundational principle of Catholicism is the acceptance of the authority of the Church hierarchy to teach on matters of faith and morals. If you don't accept this authority then you are in practice a Protestant -- after all the one and only thing all Protestants agree on is the rejection of the Catholic church's authority (that's what they are protesting against!). If you don't believe this then why be Catholic? If you are against the hierarchy, then why don't you leave the church and start reading your Bible to derive your own infallible private moral code -- at least then you wouldn't be a hyprocrite for claiming to be Catholic.
I suppose some Catholics think the bishops lost their authority with the recent priest scandal. The Church has never claimed that the authority of the bishops is derived from their holiness - after all the Pope goes to confession regularly. However, the Church does claim that these men in union with the pope are protected by God from teaching error, but they are NOT protected from not practicing what they teach/preach! Again, if you don't believe this foundational principle then why be Catholic?