By DEXTER DUGGAN
Members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy took differing approaches to the issue of intrinsic evils like abortion advocated by some politicians during the recent campaign season.
Some prelates forthrightly condemned these evils in their guidance to Catholics. Others in the hierarchy, generally thought to be liberals, deemphasized them in a laundry list or fudged.
In an October 24 letter to the people of his Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., Bishop William Murphy stated the gravity of these issues plainly, and why voting for a politician who supports them is inadmissible for Catholics.
“Many issues are very important in our society today. But none of them can eclipse the centrality of human life, especially innocent human life in the womb or at the end of life,” Murphy wrote.
“Above all and over all, the number-one issue more fundamental and crucial than any other is abortion — that is the direct taking of innocent life, which is financed by government funds — the diversion of our tax dollars to abortionists like Planned Parenthood, as well as government insistence that we Catholics like the Little Sisters of the Poor violate our consciences to advance such programs,” he wrote.
“Support of abortion by a candidate for public office, some of whom are Catholics, even if they use the fallacious and deeply offensive ‘personally opposed but…’ line, is reason sufficient unto itself to disqualify any and every such candidate from receiving our vote. Let me repeat that,” Murphy wrote, then repeated the same sentence for emphasis about candidates disqualifying themselves.
On the other hand, Bishop Robert McElroy, leader of the Diocese of San Diego, who is regarded as a political liberal, said in a November 4 statement:
“Catholic teaching points to the importance of several major issues in this presidential election year: abortion, poverty and economic justice, the environment, euthanasia, immigration, religious liberty, and solidarity within society. This final issue of solidarity has a particular importance at this moment because the very democratic impulse which is the foundation for our national unity is being eroded by partisan venom and personal attack.”
McElroy issued his statement after a front-page article in the area’s major newspaper, The San Diego Union-Tribune, used a predictable media slant.
The online version of the article, posted November 2, was headlined, “Catholic parish’s bulletin says Democratic voters are doomed to hell, Clinton is satanic.” This was accompanied with a photo of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a place of honor right next to New York’s Timothy Cardinal Dolan at the October 20 Al Smith Memorial Foundation dinner.
The San Diego news story focused only on Immaculate Conception Church in the city’s historic Old Town neighborhood, where St. Junipero Serra celebrated his first Mass in California in 1769. The pastor, Fr. Richard Perozich, is highly regarded by local orthodox Catholics.
A flier highlighted in the story had been distributed at area Catholic churches contrasting the opposing stands of the Republican and Democratic parties on “the five non-negotiables,” abortion, homosexual “marriage,” euthanasia, human cloning, and embryonic stem-cell research.
A few sentences in the flier preceded the list of non-negotiables:
“According to the Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics, published by Catholic Answers Press, these five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those that fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances.
“It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no Catholic candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues,” this preface concluded.
So far, so good. However, the flier was titled flatly, “How to vote like a Catholic — It is a mortal sin to vote Democrat!” After the list of non-negotiables, the flier also exceeded prudence with a similarly flat statement about it being “a mortal sin to vote Democrat,” then concluded with remarks by Pope Francis condemning abortion.
The flier didn’t endorse or condemn any candidates by name.
The misleading part of the San Diego newspaper’s headline about Clinton being “satanic” referred to a column by the pastor in the October 30 parish bulletin that mentioned Satan as a deceiver in the world who works “through the tactics outlined by Saul Alinsky.”
Allyson Smith, a local pro-life activist, told The Wanderer: “Fr. Perozich never said it is a mortal sin to vote Democrat. That statement was part of the October 16 flier, which was written by a loosely affiliated group of lay Catholics, Ecclesia Militans San Diego, and distributed at many churches throughout the San Diego Diocese, not just Immaculate Conception. Father did not review, endorse, or approve that flier, but he has been severely and unjustly persecuted for it.”
As to the San Diego bishop, Smith said: “Since Pope Francis appointed Bishop McElroy as ordinary of our San Diego Diocese in March 2015, it has become increasingly obvious that he adheres to a liberal worldview that advocates the ‘seamless garment’ theory, putting issues such as immigration, racism, poverty, and the like on par with life and marriage issues.
“He seems overly concerned that the Church not appear to take a partisan stance in elections, even though it is increasingly clear that the Democrat Party is a gravely sinful structure, and Catholics who knowingly and deliberately vote Democrat endanger their immortal souls,” she said.
“We pray that our bishop and clergy would speak out more forcefully on the five non-negotiables, as Fr. Perozich has done, that they would disregard the threat of losing 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, and that they would call out parties and candidates, and their stances on the five non-negotiables, by name,” Smith said.
The San Diego Diocese simply could have clarified Catholic teaching to the newspaper about going to Hell and intrinsic evils. Instead, a diocesan spokesman was quoted so as to add to the confusion.
The Union-Tribune article said: “The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego…said the messages in the flier and bulletin do not reflect Catholic teaching or diocese policies, are inappropriate, and that voters should use their conscience to determine which candidates to support.
“ ‘It’s not a mortal sin to vote for Democrats, number one. And number two, the Church doesn’t take positions on this, and we’re not going to,’ diocese spokesman Kevin Eckery said,” the newspaper said.
McElroy’s statement putting issues such as “the environment” on the same level as protecting unborn babies wasn’t the first time he tried this approach. For example, a year ago, on November 20, 2015, LifeSiteNews.com reported that at the annual fall meeting of the U.S. bishops, McElroy advocated prioritizing other issues.
“Ahead of a vote on a revision to the bishops’ Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship . . . McElroy made a pointed argument that the document was out of step with Pope Francis’ priorities — specifically, by putting too much emphasis on abortion and euthanasia, and not enough on poverty and the environment,” the pro-life news service said.
It added that Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, of Galveston-Houston, won applause from many bishops when he “responded with a frank criticism of McElroy’s use of Pope Francis to push his argument.”
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