By
Jonquil Frankham
Friday,
October 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com)
- In these final weeks before
the American election, many
US bishops are working hard
to leave Catholics no doubt
of where they must stand on
the abortion issue when it comes
to the ballot box.
Bishops
Robert W. Finn of Kansas City,
Robert Hermann of St. Louis,
and Edwin O'Brien of Baltimore
have all penned strongly worded
columns on abortion in the last
few days, calling
on their flocks to vote pro-life
and to support the pro-life
cause more generally, describing
the November election as one
that comes down to "saving
our children or killing our
children."
"This," says Bishop
Hermann in the St. Louis Review,
"is the overriding issue
facing each of us."
The
letters provide no room for
equivocation or rationalization.
"All
other issues ... have to take
second place to the issue of
life,"
writes Bishop Hermann, whose
article particularly targets
"so-called good Catholics,"
regular church-goers who receive
the Eucharist but "are
quite ready to vote for a pro-abortion
candidate under almost any circumstance."
The
bishops agree that everything
is on the line.
They
are unanimous in their approach
to the coming election. "Do
some of our so-called good Catholics,
who may go to Mass every Sunday
and receive the Holy Eucharist,
really believe that voting for
a pro-abortion candidate, when
there is a clear alternative
and therefore no justifiable
reason for so doing, is really
not voting to have children
killed?" questions Bishop
Hermann. "This
election is all about saving
our children!"
Bishop
O'Brien, whose column did not
specifically address the question
of voting, nevertheless had
strong words for those who would
support abortion. "Those
who claim we have a 'right'
to take innocent life usurp
God’s dominant claim on
every human being," he
said.
O'Brien
urged professedly pro-life politicians
to begin putting their beliefs
into action. "To our elected
officials who value innocent
human life in the womb, a reminder
and a plea: there are any number
of ways within our Constitution
to advance the protection of
innocent human life. Is it not
reasonable and honorable to
take some steps, however small,
to pursue that goal?" he
said.
Some
Catholics have expressed concern
that neither John McCain nor
Barack Obama are worthy candidates,
due to the former's support
for intrinsically evil embryonic
stem cell research, and the
latter's support not only for
embryo research, but also for
abortion. Bishop Finn responds
to the concern by declaring
that, when faced with two "imperfect"
candidates, "we should
choose the candidate whose position
will likely do the least grave
evil, or whose position will
do the most to limit the specific
grave evil of abortion."
It
is the duty of all members of
the Church, writes Bishop O'Brien,
to fight "in defense of
innocent human life."
The Church "has no choice,
but with love and compassion
for all, to speak out"
because "she sees the right
to life as the basis of all
other rights."
Bishop
Finn tells Catholics firmly
that to vote for a candidate
for whom the unborn child is
not to be protected under law
is to disregard "the lessons
of history by which African
Americans ... were once regarded
as non-persons; or the Jews
in Europe were once marked for
genocide or racial purification."
Bishop Hermann also drew the
comparison of abortion to past
genocides.
"Our
country," warns Bishop
Finn, "is at the edge of
the precipice concerning the
protection of the life and dignity
of the human person. A
significant new attack on innocent
human life will likely send
us into a moral freefall that
would rival any financial decline.
The price for such a 'walk over
the cliff' is millions more
human lives for many more years
to come."
To
read the three columns see:
Archbishop
Edwin O'Brien of Baltimore
Bishop
Robert Hermann of St. Louis
Bishop
Finn of Kansas City