Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput puts the Smackdown on Obama
October 21, 2008 8:19 pm 2008 Race, ObamaBy Wendy Norris 10/20/08 3:08 PM
In a speech titled “Little Murders,” Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Archdiocese of Denver delivered a scathing critique of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, his Catholic running mate Joe Biden and liberal Catholic groups at a dinner Friday.
Raising the false specter of an Obama administration promoting abortion on demand, Chaput said, “To suggest — as some Catholics do — that Senator Obama is this year’s ‘real’ pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse.”
AP’s religion reporter Eric Gorski described Chaput as “one of the most politically outspoken Catholic prelates in the nation.” The Denver religious leader did not disappoint on that score during Friday’s remarks at the Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women dinner.
Chaput, without getting into much detail, called Obama the “most committed” abortion-rights major-party presidential candidate since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion in 1973.
“To suggest — as some Catholics do — that Senator Obama is this year’s ‘real’ pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse,” Chaput said, according to his prepared remarks, titled “Little Murders.”
The archbishop continued with a controversial call to deny communion to Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, because of his support for reproductive freedom, abortion and contraception. That hard-line perspective has created a schism among lay Catholics who tend to view the church’s “pro-life” teachings much more broadly to include opposition to war and the death penalty and support for the “Catholic worker movement” tenets of eradicating poverty, promoting social justice and personal worship.
Chaput also took the opportunity to criticize liberal Catholic groups as well as Catholic legal scholar Douglas Kmiec, legal counsel to the Reagan administration, who recently endorsed Obama.
According to AP’s report on the dinner speech:
Kmiec wrote a book making a Catholic case for Obama. He argues the Obama campaign is premised on Catholic social teaching like care for working families and the poor and foreign policy premised on peace over war. Democratic efforts to tackle social and economic factors that contribute to abortion hold more promise, Kmiec said, than Republican efforts to criminalize it.
While applauding Kmiec’s past record, Chaput said: “I think his activism for Senator Barack Obama, and the work of Democratic-friendly groups like Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, have done a disservice to the church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress pro-lifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn.”
Pro-Obama Catholics “seek to contextualize, demote and then counterbalance the evil of abortion with other important but less foundational social issues,” said Chaput, who wrote a book this year, “Render Unto Caesar,” about Catholics and politics.
Catholics United fired back with a strongly worded statement arguing that Chaput’s comments, even made as a private citizen, would have a chilling effect on the much-needed dialogue among Catholics on how to address the abortion controversy aside from an outright repeal of Roe v. Wade, which is both politically unlikely and unsupported by the American public:
“During the past eight years we have watched a president rise to power on a ‘pro-life’ platform only to pursue other priorities: perpetrating an unjust war, opposing expanded health care coverage for pregnant women and children, promoting the intrinsic evil of torture, deregulating the financial markets, and mortgaging the future of America’s hard-working families on tax cuts for the rich and powerful. Scant, if any, progress was made toward ending or reducing abortions — quite the contrary, we fear that the looming economic crisis will impel more women to have abortions as people lose their jobs and their homes. This experience serves as poignant reminder of the need for Catholics and other pro-life Americans to look beyond campaign rhetoric and elect candidates who will deliver real results on the issues that matter most.”
Unlike some of his evangelical counterparts promoting Pulpit Freedom Day, Chaput was sure to point out that his remarks were offered as a private citizen and not as a representative of the diocese at the dinner for Catholic women. The Internal Revenue Service has been cracking down on clergy for breaching the law that prohibits tax-exempt religious groups from making statements supporting or opposing political candidates.
Excerpts of Archbishop Chaput’s remarks are posted at Catholic Online.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am
What Ardent Practicing Catholics Do (1)
By Fr. John De Celles, 9/1/2008
“Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is … a grave and clear obligation to oppose them … [I]t is therefore never licit to … “take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it.”
In other words: it is always a grave or mortal sin for a politician to support abortion.
Now, some will want to say that these bishops-and I- are crossing the line from Religion into to politics. But it was the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) who started this. The bishops, and I, are not crossing into politics; she, and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians, regularly cross over into teaching theology and doctrine, And it’s our job to try clean up their mess.
But there’s something more than that here. On Sunday, before the whole nation, she claimed to be an “ardent, practicing Catholic.” Imagine if someone came in here and said “I’m a mafia hit man and I’m proud of it.” Or “I deal drugs to little children.” Or “I think black people are animals and it’s okay to make them slaves, or at least keep them out of my children’s school.”
Are these “ardent practicing Catholics”? No, they are not.”
And neither is a person who ardently supports and votes to fund killing 1 to 1.5 million unborn babies every single year. Especially if that person is in a position of great power trying to get others to follow her. Someone, for example, like a Catholic Speaker of the House, or a Catholic candidate for Vice President of the United States, or a Catholic senior Senator who is stands as the leading icon his political party. Like the proud and unrepentant murderer or drug dealer, they are not ardent Catholics. They are, in very plain terms, very bad Catholics.”
But the reason I say all this is not because I want to embarrass them or even correct them — they’re not even here. It’s because of you. Because back in the 1850’s when Catholic bishops, priests, and politicians were either silent or on the wrong side of the slavery debate, they risked not only their souls, but the souls of every other Catholic they influenced. I cannot do that, and I won’t do that.
Some would say, well Father, what about those people who support the war in Iraq, or the death penalty, or oppose undocumented aliens? Aren’t those just as important, and aren’t Catholic politicians who support those “bad Catholics” too?
Simple answer: no. Not one of those issues, or any other similar issues, except for the attack on traditional marriage is a matter of absolute intrinsic evil in itself. Not all wars are unjust — and good Catholics can disagree on facts and judgments. Same thing with the other issues: facts are debatable, as are solutions to problems.”
———–
Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) “stated succinctly, emphatically and unambiguously as follows”:
“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.” (2)
(1) “What Ardent Practicing Catholics Do: Correcting Pelosi”, National Review Online, 9/1/2008 6:00AM
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTY1MzAwOTc5MmViMzUyYzM5YmY3OWFkYzdkMzY0YzM=
(2) “More Concerned with ‘Comfort’ than Christ?”, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick: Catholic Online, 7/11/2004 http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php NOTE: Ratzinger was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and delivered this with guidance to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
ALSO:
Cardinals, Bishops and Congressmen Slam Pelosi on Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082601.html
New York Cardinal - Pelosi Not Worthy of “Providing Leadership in a Civilized Democracy”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082605.html
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thank you, F3 and Dan Ezell for re-printing excerpts from AP’s coverage, and for adding enlightening comments. We must attack the Culture of Death on all fronts. How can ANYONE compare killing children in the womb with casualties of war. Mothers killing their own children–LEGALLY–is the most reprehensible evil in this world. God help so-called Catholics, so-called Christians and any human being for putting any other matter ahead of protecting the unborn. Insidious evil has blinded Democrats. Only God and His Christian Soldiers (those who have a vigorous, personal relationship with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit–daily proclaiming Truth on the highways–and byways–on this earth)–empowered with His Holy Spirit can overcome evil with Love.