Time for the Catholic Church’s Inconsistency on Abortion to Stop
Now that the election is over all of the sudden the American Catholic Bishops discovered that abortion is an issue. Many Catholic dioceses in the United States sent out letters which left big moral loopholes prior to the election. Although they said abortion was evil many of the letters said something to the effect that overwhelming moral concerns might override a single issue. To maintain tax exempt status, religious organizations are not allowed to mention candidates by name in giving an endorsement but they are allowed to give guidance to conduct in accordance with belief.
For years now, hundreds of elected “Catholics”, from Senator Ted Kennedy to local aldermen in big cities, have been given a bye on the issue of abortion by the organized Catholic community. The reality is that the Catholic Church in America has for some time given politicians a free hand on abortion in the hopes that other programs like welfare would be preserved.
Thousands of young people raised in the church and loyal church goers have year after year seen the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and numerous others claim to be Catholic and at the same time boldly vote for more abortion funding and less restrictions. Joe Biden even states that he knows Catholic teaching better than the Pope and that Saint Thomas condoned abortion! It is interesting that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi have never studied seriously the catechism of the Catholic Church for if they had they would seen there are ways to challenge the canons which do not involve making speeches for votes.
Is it any wonder that the Catholic Church is losing thousands of members who are leaving to evangelical Protestant groups who do not have any doubt about the protection of the life in the womb. The Catholic Church cannot convince its followers that life must be protected when it has blatantly taken no action to really protect life for years. If this really is the most important issue of our time than SAY IT! Even it means giving up your tax exempt status is that too much a price to pay to protect human life. The Catholic Church was guilty of standing by and saying nothing while Hitler was killing millions of Jews in Europe and now it appears that history is repeating itself in the United States.We should not condone violence of any kind but the right to life movement needs the commitment and the action that was demonstrated by those who fought for civil rights in the 1960s. The Catholic Church’s current practice of supporting so-called Catholic candidates who support abortion publicly and then whispering to a few on Sunday that abortion is wrong is inexcusable. The new Democratic Congress without a Republican veto will surely pass laws that require all health care facilities to provide abortion services including Catholic hospitals. Challenges to the law by pharmacist who did not want to prescribe abortion pills were quickly turned down.
As citizens of a nation, we understand that a majority may not agree that abortion is wrong but religion is a subject of personal moral reckoning. Thousands of Christian martyrs allowed themselves to be tortured and killed without putting up any violence when all they all had to do was to renounce their faith to escape punishment.
If the Catholic Bishops are serious finally about their faith then they now have to go all the way in furthering the cause of life as allowed in a democracy. They may lose the battle in the short run but that should be nothing new to Christians. . The moral authority of the Catholic Church is now at its lowest point ever in history but this may be the moment when that could change. If your faith is wrong than change it. If your faith is right then live it.
See our news story on the Bishops meeting on Contempo Magazine Online.
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