By Matt Viser. dioceses and orders covering 64.7 million Catholics have released lists. A first-century document called the Didache states, You shall not procure abortion, nor destroy a newborn child (2:1-2). Last week in a YouTube video, Father James Altman of St. James the Less Catholic Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin, denounced Mr. Biden over his pro-choice voting record when he represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate. The 2024 presidential race begins: Will it be a repeat of 2020? Please submit a letter to the editor. One of the movement's landmark moments came when New York Archbishop John O'Connor criticized vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro shortly before the hotly contested presidential election of 1984 for having signed a letter from CFFC that said the Catholic position on abortion wasn't monolithic. We need to know the reasons behind what we claim to believe. McQuillan christened herself Pope Patricia to bring attention to a new organization of pro-choice Catholics that she founded, Catholics for a Free Choice, at a time when it was assumed that most Catholics reflected the view of their leadership and opposed legal abortion. But Ratzinger noted additional steps to take in deciding how to vote. A push to deny Communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians is symbolic of denial of care in other forms. Source: ProPublica reporting, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Sources: U.S Catholic dioceses and religious orders, ProPublica reporting, Pontifical Yearbook (2019), Data entry by: Tatyana Bellamy-Walker, You can find him on Twitter:@daviddecosse. Now, someone could say, No it doesnt. MCCAMMON: Ruiz lives in Bend, Ore., and she says her Catholic faith is one of the reasons she was drawn to her work as a labor organizer. Instead, it is about power. All rights reserved. It is used because it implies an association with freedom and liberty. Basil the Great, who said in the fourth century, The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. Whether intentional or not, he's trying to usurp our authority.". Some people claim that everyone should be free to answer for himself the question of when life begins and that it should not be legislated. When the first congressional hearings were held in March of 1974 on a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, the four main witnesses -- and the only witnesses seen on the televised portion of the hearing--were Catholic cardinals, including the head of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, who asserted that only a complete ban on abortion was acceptable to Catholics. Catholic He also serves as the Director of the Office of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. WebCatholics for Choice is an old group that's unfortunately had some priests, nuns, and university theologians in their ranks. Its an American value that each one of us can choose where our life is going. Maybe you ran out of green shirts and in a panic threw on the only thing you thought you had. We want to hear what you THINK. Pro-choice activists hold signs in response to anti-abortion activists participating in the March for Life, an annual event to mark the anniversary of the 1973 With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed (First Canonical Letter, can. First, it helped excavate and publicize an alternative Catholic theology that contradicted the narrative of the hierarchy that the church had always taught -- that abortion was murder and that Catholics could never support it. ], Select any of the newsletters below, then enter your email address and click "subscribe", Stories of climate, crisis, faith and action, Mission and ministry of Catholic women religious around the world, Help us deliver independent, lay-led Catholic journalism, in his recent speech for the Republican National Convention, states things in absolute if incorrect terms, Faithful Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, Pope's cathedral 'regrets' Anglican ceremony on main altar, Catholic mothers, scholars urge US bishops to listen to women on abortion, Cardinal Tobin calls for unity, not just inclusion, in synod process. "The Catholic Church's stand on abortion is only 100 years old, is strictly political and has nothing to do with religion as taught by Jesus," declared McQuillan. The The bishops' posturing is also unnecessary. 78% of Catholics believe health insurance companies should be required to offer health plans that include birth control. The only logical explanation for why adults and infants equally possess a right to life is that both belong to a rational kind, or the human species. That's not how nature works. First, Catholics are reasonable people, and the most reasonable position on abortion is to outlaw it. The Catechism states that although we must always obey the certain judgment of [our] conscience, its possible our conscience can make an erroneous judgment due to ignorance or even blindness caused by sin (1790-1791). The mere fact that a lawwhether it is a ban on lynching or a ban on abortionhappens to align with a widely held religious belief does not mean that such a law is unconstitutional. Sign Here Many viewed Catholicism in a negative way at the time. At bottom, it's not even about abortion. The good news is that the door is always open. Finally, the state is clearly not neutral to the question of when life begins, having accepted birth as the correct answer (which is why infanticide is illegalfor now). It may surprise many Catholic voters to know that church teaching does not prohibit a Catholic from voting for a pro-choice candidate. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. Theyve made us do the hard work that doesnt boil down to some kind of political algorithm., Other Catholics have been more stinging in their criticism of support for President Trump. And pro-choice people of faith matter more than ever, as debates over reproductive rights are increasingly fused with religious rhetoric and claims of religious freedom, as evidenced by the Hobby Lobby case. A question of faith: Biden, Catholicism and the presidency