Catholics cooperating with evil

As Election Day approaches, more Catholic bishops have been acting like true shepherds and courageously speaking out on the inescapable fact that large numbers of Catholic voters will consciously cast their votes for openly pro-abortion politicians. Of course, the most evident of these is presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Dallas & Fort Worth. Two bishops who recently issued a strong statement on this are Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas and Bishop Kevin Vann of Forth Worth, who stated plainly that to vote for a pro-abortion candidate when there is an alternative available is to cooperate with evil. In a joint statement the bishops stated, "We cannot make more clear the seriousness of the overriding issue of abortion -- while not the 'only issue' -- it is the defining, moral issue, not only today, but of the last 35 years...This electoral cycle affords us an opportunity to promote the culture of life in our nation...As Catholics we are morally obligated to pray, to act and to vote to abolish the evil of abortion in America, limiting it as much as we can until it is finally abolished."

The bishops went on to say that, although voters must examine candidates' positions on many critical issues, "...let us be clear: Issues of prudential judgment are not morally equivalent to issues involving intrinsic evils. No matter how right a given candidate is on any of these issues, it does not outweigh a candidate's unacceptable position in favor of an intrinsic evil or the protection of 'abortion rights.'"

And that's not all. In the event Catholic voters didn't fully understand the above, the bishops said, "To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or 'abortion rights' when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil -- and, therefore, morally impermissible." They concluded their statement by reminding voters that their decisions may affect their individual salvation.

To read the bishops' complete statement, click here.

Denver. In a recent speech Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver made some very blunt comments about Barack Obama and the Democrat Party platform. Speaking as a private citizen and author, the archbishop stated, "...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 [who was murdered by Hitler in the final days of World war II] explicitly called abortion 'murder' -- the Democrat platform that emerged from Denver in August 2008 is clearly anti-life." The archbishop also called Senator Obama the "most committed 'abortion rights' presidential candidate...since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973."

To read more about Archbishop Chaput's comments, click here.

Kansas City-St. Joseph Missouri. Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, in his column in the diocesan newspaper, has asked the people of his diocese to join him in prayer in advance of the upcoming election.

Bishop Finn begins by quoting the choice Moses offered God's People (Deut 30:19): "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live." He then goes on to quote Pope Benedict XVI: "The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right - it is the very opposite. It is 'a deep wound in society.'"

The bishop asks his flock to pray, to pray for the protection of human life. He asks them to pray the Rosary and to invoke "the Guardian Angels of 47 million babies lost through abortion in our country in the last thirty-five years." He asks them not only to pray but to "make some sacrifices for our country." To read Bishop Finn's entire column (Oct. 24), click here.

Our bishops are finally speaking out strongly in defense of life. Perhaps they have come to realize they have nothing to fear, that their task as bishops is to work for the salvation of those under their care. Bishop Finn in his latest column (Oct. 31) states this clearly when he writes, "What is at stake in this battle is our immortal soul, our salvation. My responsibility as bishop is with the eternal destiny of those entrusted to my care. My total energies must be directed to the well being of those who otherwise may come under the spell of a radically flawed and fundamentally distorted moral sense, at odds with what our Mother the Church teaches. There are objective and transcendent truths. There is such a thing as right and wrong. There is a legitimate hierarchy of moral evils, and the direct willful destruction of human life can never be justified; it can never be supported. Do you believe this firm teaching of the Church?"

Pray for our Holy Father and our bishops, that they continue to speak out courageously in defense of life.

God's peace...