THE SILENCE OF THE SHEPHERDS

By Michael Chapman

(Christian Gallery News Service, March 10, 2002)

Catholic Bishops Wink At Sin

            Many “Catholic” members of Congress support abortion.  They also back birth control, homosexuality, and other practices contrary to the Faith. As a result, these public leaders engage in objectively mortally sinful behavior. They also spread scandal and confusion, which hurts the faithful and the Church.

            And yet America’s bishops largely are silent. Most do nothing as error spreads. A bishop rarely rebukes a Catholic public figure who is spreading error and poisoning young souls. Thus, it is not unfair to say that by their silence many U.S. bishops help foster scandal, false teachings and sin.

            The bishops, as a group, may issue a letter (usually under Vatican pressure) calling Catholic politicians to task.  But such letters are rare. Many people don’t read them.  And prelates and priests do not read them in public or from the pulpit in church, where the faithful need to hear it.

            When did you hear Cardinal Bernard Law, for instance, publicly chastise Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) for his public support for abortion and contraception?  Never.  And Edward Cardinal Egan, when he headed the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., did he ever publicly—and firmly and clearly—condemn the pro-abortion and anti-Catholic positions of Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.)? No. Does Egan, now Archbishop of New York, say anything in public about the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual actions of New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani? No. Or has Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, head of the Washington Archdiocese, publicly called on any pro-abortion Catholic member of Congress to mend his ways, go to confession, and practice the Faith, lest he risk losing his immortal soul? No.  McCarrick is silent.

(Maybe McCarrick and his fellow prelates write letters to wayward Catholic congressmen. But such passive and private resistance does nothing good for the Church Militant. In fact, such “diplomacy” allows evil teaching to dominate the public square. In turn, the unchallenged errors of pro-abortion Catholic politicians may influence clergy and laity alike.  It may lead one to conclude, for example, that, “If the bishop says nothing about Congressman X’s pro-contraception views, then they must be all right.”  Or,  “Why should I not practice birth control?  My Catholic senator supports it, and he’s a good friend of my bishop. He even receives Communion from my bishop.”  Evil may indeed triumph when good men do nothing.)

            Some Catholic clergy and religious have spoken out and publicly chastised pro-abortion Catholic politicians.  Mother Teresa is an example.  Mother Angelica is another. As are Fr. Paul Marx and Cardinal John O’Connor. Also, some Catholic laymen have spoken up.  They have criticized the pro-abortion Catholic politicians and the weak-kneed bishops.  But they shouldn’t need to.  It is a bishop’s job (and that of his priests) to ensure that the Truth is taught and error condemned. 

            Critics complain that Pope Pius XII did not do enough to save the Jews during World War II.  He did not speak out enough, they say.  He did not publicly condemn the criminals in charge in Berlin, claim critics.  Yet today, America’s bishops do little—if anything—to publicly condemn the criminals in Washington who support abortion. They stand by while Catholic politicians continue to vote for pro-abortion laws. They are silent as, metaphorically, the trains chug along to the abortion mills. All the while, pro-abortion Catholic politicians provide the funding and the “legal” sanction to keep those trains running and to keep the abortion “showers” operating. More than forty million babies killed since Roe v. Wade—an American holocaust.  Do the bishops say enough? (In enduring the public silence of today’s Catholic shepherds, who can criticize Pope Pius XII?)

            “American Catholics must be committed to the defense of life in all its stages and in every condition,” says Pope John Paul II. “Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.... ‘We must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).... In case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law or vote for it.”

            Catholics—whether in public life or not—may never obey or lend support to any pro-abortion “law.” Such laws are, as Pope John Paul says, “crimes.” God’s law is higher than man’s law, even in the democratic United States. On a related note: After a prayer meeting at Georgetown University’s Dahlgren Chapel in the early 1990s, I was standing next to Fr. Richard McSorley, SJ, who was telling a woman that he planned on voting for Bill Clinton.  The woman was shocked and asked Fr. McSorley how he, a Catholic priest, could support a presidential candidate who was pro-abortion.  McSorley answered, to paraphrase, “There are lots of issues. Abortion is just one of many.  Clinton wants to do good things for the poor. We have to look at the big picture.”  McSorley’s comments on abortion are in direct contradiction to Church teaching, and by stating them in public he was spreading scandal and error. 

Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians

            To procure an abortion is a “moral evil.” That is the teaching of Holy Mother Church.  “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable (2271),” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “...[A]bortion and infanticide are abominable crimes (2271).... Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.” Those who assist in the procurement of an abortion, financially or morally, and even those who only “believe” that abortion is licit are as objectively guilty as the person who has the abortion.  As a result, they also are automatically excommunicated—in the objective order.

            Thus, it is fair to say that every pro-abortion Catholic in Congress is objectively guilty of a “moral evil” and has objectively been excommunicated.  In a rare moment of clarity, the U.S. bishops said in a 1998 letter: “Catholic public officials who disregard Church teaching on the inviolability of the human person indirectly collude in the taking of innocent life....

            “We urge those Catholic officials who choose to depart from Church teaching on the inviolability of human life in their public life to consider the consequences for their own spiritual well-being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin.  We call on them to reflect on the grave contradiction of assuming public roles and presenting themselves as credible Catholics when their actions on fundamental issues of human life are not in agreement with Church teaching. No public official, especially one claiming to be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support direct attacks on innocent life.” (Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics)

            Such a statement was long overdue.  The Vatican, at the Pope’s insistence, reportedly had urged the U.S. bishops to issue the letter.  Thirty U.S. bishops voted against the document, while three bishops abstained.  Bishop Howard Hubbard (Albany, NY) said the letter “will fuel the anti-Catholicism latent in our culture and put us on the defensive.” Rembert Weakland, Archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisc., said the letter “didn’t address imperfect legislation—legislation that achieved good, but still contained a flaw that conflicted with Catholic teachings,” reported the Detroit News.  And Thomas Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, complained that the letter talked a lot about abortion and euthanasia but said nothing about weapons of mass destruction.

            The document did not name any pro-abortion Catholic politicians. The laity was not told the names of the politicians directly responsible for the state-sanctioned killing of children. Nor was one pro-abortion Catholic public leader chastised by name in the letter or told that he was de facto excommunicated. Yet from the public record, as one example, we know the following:

* In 1995 the U.S. House voted (288-139) to ban partial-birth abortion: This is a Nazi-like procedure whereby a baby is delivered feet first all the way up to his neck. With the head almost protruding from the vaginal opening, an abortionist punctures the back of the baby’s skull with pliers and removes the baby’s brains. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat from New York (now retired) who backs contraception and abortion, has called the partial-birth abortion “procedure” close to “infanticide.” He does not support it. Nonetheless, in that House vote on Nov. 1, 1995, at least 26 “Catholic” representatives voted in favor of partial-birth abortion.  They were:

            Then, on Dec. 7, 1995, the U.S. Senate voted  (54-44) to ban partial-birth abortions. At least eight “Catholic” senators voted against the ban and, thus, in favor of partial-birth abortions.  They were:

Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-SD), now Senate Majority Leader

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.)

Sen. Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa)

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

Sen. Barbara Milkulski (D-Md.)

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)

The following Catholic senators also have voted in favor of partial-birth abortion:

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.)

Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.)—retired

            Based on their votes—and their long-standing public support for abortion and “family planning”—the Catholic congressmen above are objectively guilty of a “moral evil” and have been, objectively, excommunicated from the Catholic Church. (The same holds for the “Catholic” politicians listed in the Sidebar A.)

            And yet when have these Catholic leaders been publicly called to account by their bishops or their parish priests? 

            Back when he was governor of New York, Mario Cuomo was criticized by John Cardinal O’Connor.  Cuomo claims that Catholics must follow their consciences.  He also argues that a Catholic politician may personally oppose abortion but publicly support it because it is the law of the land.  “Morality is something between you, your conscience and your God,” Cuomo told the New York Post in December 2000.  Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro has made the same claim. 

            But the U.S. bishops finally refuted that argument in their 1998 letter:  “...[S]ome Catholic elected officials have adopted the argument that, while they personally oppose evils like abortion, they cannot force their religious views onto the wider society. This is seriously mistaken on several key counts. First, regarding abortion, the point when human life begins is not a religious belief but a scientific fact—a fact on which there is clear agreement even among leading abortion advocates.  Second, the sanctity of human life is not merely Catholic doctrine but part of humanity’s global ethical heritage.… Most Americans would recognize the contradiction in the statement, ‘While I am personally opposed to slavery or racism or sexism, I cannot force my personal view on the rest of society.’”

Most Americans also would reject the claim of a German politician in 1941 who said, “While I personally oppose exterminating the Jews, I cannot impose my views on the rest of German society.”

In a letter released to the public in 1990, Cardinal O’Connor, in reference to the positions of Cuomo and Ferraro, wrote that Catholics who oppose the Church’s teaching on abortion by “advocating legislation supporting abortion, or by making public funds available for abortion …must be warned that they are at risk of excommunication. If such actions persist, bishops may consider excommunication the only option.”  However, no bishop, including O’Connor, has publicly excommunicated a pro-abortion Catholic politician.  Tough words, but no action—not in 1990 and not after the 1998 letter.

Today, the new Archbishop of New York, Edward Cardinal Egan, has the chance to take O’Connor’s views one step further.  But it’s unlikely he will.  Egan apparently is another silent shepherd.  For instance, Rudolph Guiliani, the Catholic mayor of New York City, supports contraception, abortion, partial-birth abortion and homosexual “rights,” i.e., the social acceptance of homosexuality as normal behavior. Egan has said nothing publicly to correct the errors Guiliani is spreading or to warn him that he risks losing his eternal soul. 

Meanwhile, Guiliani, who has two children, is going through a nasty divorce and has allowed his mistress, Judith Nathan, to “visit” Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence.  This scandal is all over the New York media.  Egan says nothing.

In northern Virginia, Rep. James Moran (D) is a Catholic who supports contraception, abortion, and other anti-Catholic ideas and practices.  Moran also recently underwent a nasty divorce.  And the media have reported on the exploits of his alleged mistresses.  Bishop Paul Loverde has said nothing publicly about Moran’s very public scandals. Yet Loverde is the same bishop who, according to Roman Catholic Faithful, removed the vocations director of the Arlington Diocese because of that priest’s opposition to allowing a homosexual into the seminary.  In other words, Loverde apparently looks the other way when it comes to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.  But Loverde apparently punishes good Catholic priests who oppose a potential seminarian with a long homosexual history.

The silence of many U.S. bishops is deafening.  They say little—or nothing at all—as pro-abortion Catholic politicians spread error and enshrine evil into law.  As researcher Robert Kendra said:  “The main reason for this deplorable situation [in America] is the failure of the U.S. Catholic bishops to publicly rebuke Catholic pro-abortion voters and legislators. Their silence sends the message to Catholics and other Americans of goodwill that voting for pro-abortion legislators is no big deal, and that abortion has nothing to do with the Fifth Commandment.”

Ironically, as pro-abortion Catholics are invited into parishes and into Catholic colleges to speak and to ask for support from voters, the anti-abortion and traditional Catholics are shunned.  They are chided and told to get with the program.  What’s happening is an inversion, and its craftsman is not Christ.

Michael Chapman is a free-lance writer.

What about your denomination?  Do you have evidence proving that the Catholic leadership is not alone in collaborating with baby butchers?  Send that evidence today to the Christian Gallery News Service.  We plan to run a series of exposes on every so-called “Christian” denomination in the USA [editor].

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