[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: 89 Bishops now call abortion defining issue of this election

Wed Oct 29 13:53:25 MDT 2008

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 29 Oct 2008 AD #3

*

*89 Catholic Bishops Speak Out: In This Election, Abortion is the 
Defining Issue*

Contact: Sue Cyr, 972-602-1462, Sue_Cyr at juno.com <mailto:Sue_Cyr at juno.com>

DALLAS, October 28 /Christian Newswire 
<http://www.christiannewswire.com/>/ -- "As Election Day nears, more and 
more U.S. Catholic bishops - 89, at latest count - are proclaiming that 
in this election, Catholic voters must make abortion their defining 
issue," says Sue Cyr, head of the Ad Hoc Committee in Support of Our 
Bishops.  "That means not voting for pro-aborts."

"All Catholics need to hear these bishops' voices," says Mrs. Cyr, 
"especially those whose favorite candidates are pro-abortion.  They need 
to listen to the following bishops.  We've provided the bishops' contact 
data for the convenience of the news media."

1) Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the 
Vatican:  "Catholics who support pro-abortion candidates participate in 
a grave evil. They must show a change of heart and be sacramentally 
reconciled or refrain from receiving Holy Communion."

"At this point the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitely 
into a 'party of death.'"  
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0804933.htm
Office telephone:  06.69.88.75.20

2) Bishop Robert Hermann, Administrator, Archdiocese of St. Louis: "Save 
our children! How can a so-called good Catholic vote for a candidate 
that supports laws that take the life of innocent children, when there 
is an alternative?... Save our children! How can a so-called good 
Catholic vote for a candidate that supports laws that justify the 
killing of a child that survived a botched abortion? How can such a 
so-called good Catholic receive the Holy Eucharist?" (column, Oct. 10, 2008)
Archdiocese:  314.633.2222 or 314.792.7000

3) Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas, Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth:  
"...there are no 'truly grave moral' or 'proportionate' reasons, 
singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent 
human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year.  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."
Diocese of Dallas:  (214) 528-2240
Diocese of Fort Worth:  (817) 560-3300

4) Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., of Denver:  "In the United 
States in 2008, abortion is an acceptable form of homicide... If you 
vote this way [for a candidate who supports or promotes abortion], are 
you cooperating in evil? And if you know you are cooperating in evil, 
should you go to confession? The answer is yes."

"So I think that people who claim that the abortion struggle is 'lost' 
as a matter of law, or that supporting an outspoken defender of legal 
abortion is somehow 'pro-life,' are not just wrong; they're betraying 
the witness of every person who continues the work of defending the 
unborn child.  And I hope they know how to explain that, because someday 
they'll be required to."
Archbishop's office:  303-715-3129   shepherd at archden.org 
<mailto:shepherd at archden.org>

5) Bishop Rene H. Gracida, retired bishop of Corpus Christi:  "This is 
Bishop Rene H. Gracida, reminding all Catholics that they must vote in 
this election with an informed conscience. A Catholic cannot be said to 
have voted in this election with a good conscience if they have voted 
for a pro-abortion candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion 
candidate." (radio ad, Oct. 2008))  (Download radio spot in English and 
Spanish at www.RandallTerry.com <http://www.RandallTerry.com>)

6) Kansas Catholic Conference of Bishops:  "[I]t is a correct judgment 
of conscience that we would commit moral evil if we were to vote for a 
candidate who takes a permissive stand on those actions that are 
intrinsically evil when there is a morally-acceptable alternative."  
Office:  913-722-6633

7) Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J.:  "Certainly policies on 
welfare, national security, the war in Iraq, Social Security or taxes, 
taken singly or in any combination, do not provide a proportionate 
reason to vote for a pro-abortion candidate."
Archdiocesan Communications: (973) 497-4190

8) Bishop Robert W. Finn, Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph:  "But, 
again and again, I am asked, 'Can a Catholic vote for the candidate who 
is perhaps the most extreme in favor of abortion, even if they promote 
other policies which we judge to be good?'...

When a candidate supports ready access to abortion on demand, they are 
inviting Catholics to put aside their conscience on this life and death 
issue. Such a candidate is inviting conscientious Catholics to look 
elsewhere for moral leadership."
http://catholickey.org/index.php3?gif=news.gif&mode=view&issue=20081017&article_id=5325 
<http://catholickey.org/index.php3?gif=news.gif&mode=view&issue=20081017&article_id=5325>
Diocese:  Phone: 816.756.1850 | Toll-Free: 800.246.1850

9) Cardinal Edward Egan of New York City:  "Do me a favor. Look at the 
photograph [of a 20-week preborn baby] again. Look and decide with 
honesty and decency what the Lord expects of you and me as the horror of 
'legalized' abortion continues to erode the honor of our nation. Look, 
and do not absolve yourself if you refuse to act."
Archdiocesan Media Relations:  1-212-371-1011 Ext. 2990

10) Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics (A 
Statement by the Catholic Bishops of the United States, 1998): 

Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, 
poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care...But 
being 'right' in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding 
direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect 
and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims 
to the 'rightness' of positions in other matters affecting the poorest 
and least powerful of the human community. (sec. 23) - 
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/gospel.shtml

11) Bishop Robert F. Vasa of the Diocese of Baker, Ore.:  "When we have 
someone who [supports legal abortion] then the other issues, in many 
ways, do not matter because they are already wrong on that absolutely 
fundamental issue."
Diocese:  541-388-4004

12) Bishop Joseph Martino, Diocese of Scranton, Pa.:  "No social issue 
has caused the death of 50 million people [as abortion has].  This is 
madness, people." (to parish forum)

"Our Lord, Jesus Christ, does not ask us to... take up his Cross only to 
have us leave it at the voting booth door... Let us continue to speak 
the language of love and affirm the right of every human being to have 
the value of his or her life, from conception to natural death, 
respected to the highest degree." (pastoral letter, Respect Life Sunday, 
2008)
Scranton Diocesan Chancery:  570-207-2238

Mrs. Cyr says, "This election presents a stark contrast between a 
pro-life candidate and one who is the most pro-abortion Presidential 
candidate in American history.  Barack Obama has pledged that his first 
act as President would be to sign a bill that would undo all the 
pro-life legislative protections for abortion-targeted preborn babies 
that pro-lifers have gained in the last 35 years."

"Barack Obama," she continues, "has also promised to appoint only 
pro-abortion nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.  That would entrench 
abortion on demand for another whole generation.  That would be a 
disaster for our country and a death sentence for millions more innocent 
babies."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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