USCCB: Statement on Obama, politics, abortion

BISHOPS, OBAMA, AND ABORTION
The Catholic Bishops recently voiced their concerns regarding Obama’s views on abortion; these comments must be seen in their social and historical context.
Catholic religious leaders are still smarting from their moral failures in the priest sex abuse crisis. Their ethical weaknesses in dealing with this problem are too numerous to recount. Here in the USA they have had to close churches and Catholic schools due to financial problems and a prolonged priest shortage. Church attendance is down. When Catholic reformers try to get bishops to ordain married men and begin to promote women into significant leadership roles, the men in red and black say no. When bishops and Cardinals worldwide say the Vatican should allow the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, U.S. bishops suffer from cat-got-your- tongue syndrome.
With their moral authority now the size of a fig leaf, these church leaders select a ethical problem that they all can agree on: let’s oppose the killing of babies. Although many of us agree with the bishops so far, where do we go from here? Most Catholics I talk to are in agreement with the bishops and oppose the idea of ever having an abortion themselves. So far so good. Now comes the sticking point: should we take our personal anti-abortion morality and impose it on those who do not agree with our ethics? For example, many religious people do not subscribe to the bishops’ view that human life begins with conception. Neither did St. Augustine who held that the infusion of a soul could not be connected with mere fertilization. Theologian Daniel McGuire of Marquette University likewise has reservations about the bishops’ stand on abortion. An acorn is not an oak tree. When does human life begin? Many argue that the fetus must be viable outside the womb before it can be considered a human life and therefore protected. Terminating a pregnancy is therefore not always the killing of a human being in the view of some. The bishops will not stand for this kind of reasoning and condemn any Catholic that thinks otherwise. They condemn Obama who is not a Catholic for not seeing the light they shine in the dark cave of abortion politics. They think Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden (Catholics) are wrong in supporting public policies that allow abortion.
With regard to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) that Obama may sign as president, the bishops oppose this proposed federal law which would limit the right of individual states to restrict abortions under certain circumstances. The bishops say this law will increase the number of abortions in the U.S. and they are opposed to it. But here is a problem: many religious groups and others do not accept the view that human life begins at conception. Thus, they believe such a federal law would be appropriate in the case of rape or when a woman’s life is in danger. But ultimately this whole issue comes down to the question of privacy, namely, that such matters are personal and must be the decision of the pregnant women and no one else. The Catholic church makes up only about 25% of the population but it wants its view of reality imposed on all of America. That is not going to work.
The Catholic bishops are within their rights when they encourage all their members to respect life. They can have everyone on their payroll teaching that to their constituents. The problem is when they seek to impose their view of reality on those who reject their fundamental doctrine: life begins at conception. That includes Catholics and non-Catholics alike. They can excommunicate all they want and condemn as moral low-lives all who oppose their notion as to when human life begins. But sooner or later the bishops must face the fact that sincere Americans can come to conclusions that differ from theirs and that dissidents are not just plain evildoers. We should remember that in this heated debate—which the bishops say is their war on abortion—there could erupt numerous attacks on clinics that serve women who want to terminate a pregnancy. We all know that radical, fundamentalist Christians have, in the past, taken the law into their own hands and killed doctors, nurses, and secretaries who provide abortion services. Are the bishops stoking the fires of radical anti-abortionists who will stop at nothing to impose their moral will on pro-choice advocates? The statement of St. Louis bishop Robert Hermann is apocalyptic: “Any one of us bishops would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring an end to abortion.” The radical right has spoken.
If despicable acts of violence emerge after the bishops pubic rage against abortion, they will have to take some responsibility for such lawlessness.

Dr. John Kinkel, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, kinkel@oakland.edu

With what should we compare the USCCB letter and Cardinal O’Malley’s distribution at all Sunday masses this weekend. Perhaps the servant who hid his talent in the ground! The bishops have had thirty-five years to have a decisive impact on Roe v. Wade and have accomplished nothing! “Pro-choice” Catholics in their flock are indifferent to eternal risk to their souls, as they see that the public scandal of “pro-choice” politicians in the flock suffer no religious rebuke for their legislative actions. Abortion and gay rights, the only two things that Obama was very clear and specific about supporting fully, were not lost on the electorate. Obama counted on the “pro-choice” Catholic vote and he got it. For the USCCB to suddenly request that the Catholics in the pews do something effective, to counter their own ineffective 35 years is simply ludicrous. Obama promised F.O.C.A. to his followers and financial supporters and he and his handlers knew ahead of the election that the USCCB was simply not a threat. The USCCB received exactly what it deserved, a president-elect fully committed to be the commander in chief of the ruthless war against the sanctity of life in the womb and morality.
The president-elect is alleged to hate war, but is apparently honored to be the Democrat Commander in Chief of a ruthless war waged against the most innocent and most defenseless of Americans, our unborn progeny. Support the work; you are the work, every bit as culpable as the actual practitioner, an abortionist! America, affirming 35 years of deadly violence against innocent life that it creates, has chosen to make it permanent. There is no love for women, born and unborn, in abortion and evil hearts have no tolerance for dissent. Americans, rejecting the strangers they never knew, have made a fatal choice, rejecting the source of all America’s grace, Almighty God.
The president-elect is the self-professed commander in chief of the ruthless and deadly war against the sanctity of Unborn Americans’ lives and the gay right assault on the sacredness of marriage. Violent spirits, having no tolerance for dissent, are emboldened that their leader will soon occupy the white house and complete their mission, forced submission to their demands. Those who hoped for change will receive it. The USCCB, IMHO, will not. Frank K. Porter Jr.
PS: Sadly, all denominations, “Church” have failed their flocks. They have failed to instruct them that the cavalier attitude toward the innocent human lives that they create would lead to an obvious conclusion. Having accepted the “State” declaration that any “inconvenient” innocent human life could be exterminated, the cavalier citizens, useful idiots, have placed themselves at firm risk. Politicians with an “extermination-problem-solving” authorization could turn on any of the rest of us in a heartbeat. Violent spirits, have no tolerance for dissent. History, for those asleep, always repeats itself and wakes them up, to late.

I am just flat astounded at the degree of willfull blindness being displayed by our bishops. Every single anti abortion initiative failed, and the one in Colorado failed by 73%. You know, the one that tried to define a full human person from the instant of conception.

Whether or not the bishops want to see this, the US is a pluralistic society in which most people don't think a full human person exists from the moment of conception. Blaming Obama for this fact is myopic as well as blind.

FOCA has been introduced four times and never made it out of any committee. It won't this time either, so it's a moot point as to whether Obama will ever be faced with signing it into law. FOCA is just an excuse to keep fomenting division and threatening Catholic politicians.

http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com

This is a nice attempt to suggest that Catholic voters haven't finally stopped listening to the bishops when it comes to their reasons for voting the way that they do. Here on the ground, I say they are wrong. The vote is now dispersed and won't be one they will capture again. And why? Because people now understand that they can vote their conscience and the bishops/pastors don't know they did it and can't do anything about it in any case. The most they can do is harrass catholic politicians with threats and wrongful vengeance, and tell everyone else the twaddle about "self"-excommunication and such. Their own words state the truth: that there can be many reasons for people to vote the way that they do in good conscience with God.

These Bishops will drive a person crazy. What's a convert to do? It's a church made up of humans who are imperfect, in an imperfect world, full of imperfect people. Yet, I have faith, because I'm in love with Christ. I just wish the Bishops would worry more about those dying on the streets of starvation all over the world, or those being forced out of their homes and onto the streets. When does the already born human begin to count for something?

Steve