Pro-Life Group Prez Says RC Bishops Let Politics Trump Life
June 23, 2004
(AgapePress) - Just days after America's Roman Catholic bishops declared that Catholic politicians have an obligation to support church teachings, Senator John Kerry has declared his support for research that destroys human embryos. Meanwhile, the spokeswoman for a Catholic pro-life group is denouncing the bishops for not taking a strong enough stand.According to an Associated Press report, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says he has "full faith that our scientists will go forward with a moral compass -- with humane values and sound ethics guiding the way." Echoing former first lady Nancy Reagan's support for stem-cell research, he claims, "We must push the boundaries of medical exploration so that researchers can find treatments that are there, if only they are allowed to look."
Kerry also told supporters in Denver, Colorado, that he, if elected president, will make science policy in a different way than George W. Bush has done. President Bush has blocked government support for embryonic stem-cell research out of concern that it means the death of the embryo, and has also acknowledged the growing scientific evidence that suggests adult stem cells may provide answers that will ultimately help cure Alzheimer's disease and other serious ailments.
The issue of stem-cell research has been tied to the issue of abortion because, as many pro-life conservatives note, both have to do with the sanctity of human life. Many conservative Catholics have been pressuring the church leaders to withhold communion from politicians like Kerry whom they see as violating church canon by supporting stem-cell research and abortion on demand.
Mixed Message from Bishops
At a recent meeting, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops affirmed the official pro-life position of the church, "founded on her understanding of her Lord's own witness to the sacredness of human life, that the killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified."
However, although they jointly warned Catholic public officials that "acting consistently to support abortion on demand risks making them cooperators in evil in a public manner," the bishops decided not to take a unified stance on whether to ban "pro-choice" Catholic politicians from the sacrament of Holy Communion, also known as the Eucharist. Instead, the conference voted to let each diocese decide the issue for itself.
That decision angered Judie Brown of the American Life League, a Roman Catholic pro-life group. She contends that church leaders did not go far enough in dealing with politicians who claim to be members of the church but who violate its teachings by supporting "abortion on demand" or embryonic stem-cell research.
The American Life League president says the biggest problem her group has with what the bishops said in their statement is that "they have equated election-year politics with the reality of Christ present in the Eucharist and the reality of the fact that every abortion kills an innocent human being."
The Catholic bishops explained the reasoning for their decision as the concern that forcing the issue could lead to misunderstandings or "circumstances in which Catholic teaching and sacramental practice can be misused for political ends." They claim their choice was made out of "respect for the Holy Eucharist."
Brown, however, calls that excuse "baloney," and says it is decisions like this that have allowed more than 30 years of abortion in America. She laments that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops "had an opportunity to provide strong leadership on the question of Catholic public figures who favor legal abortion" but missed the mark and allowed election year politics to trump the right of the innocent unborn to life.
