From the Bishop's Conference

Catholic bishops will fight Obama on abortion
By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer

BALTIMORE—The nation's Roman Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights, saying the church and religious freedom could be under attack in the new presidential administration.

In an impassioned discussion on Catholics in public life, several bishops said they would accept no compromise on abortion policy. Many condemned Catholics who had argued it was morally acceptable to back President-elect Obama because he pledged to reduce abortion rates.

And several prelates promised to call out Catholic policy makers on their failures to follow church teaching. Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., singled out Vice President-elect Biden, a Catholic, Scranton native who supports abortion rights.

"I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he's learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church," Martino said. The Obama-Biden press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

and from Catholic World News:

Bishop DiMarzio: ‘Faithful Citizenship’ misinterpreted
November 11, 2008

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn-- who oversaw the drafting of the US bishops’ 2007 statement on Catholics' political responsibilities, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,-- said yesterday that the document had been misinterpreted and misused. The statement, which initially won praise for emphasizing the centrality of the defense of human life and distinguishing instrinsic evils from more prudential political issues, was used as the basis for the Dallas and Fort Worth bishops’ October statement that ‘to vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or ‘abortion rights’ when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil-- and, therefore, morally impermissible.’ In recent weeks, however, the document has come under criticism from Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, and from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, who says, ‘It didn’t and doesn’t work.’ Bishop DiMarzio also dismissed the notion that Catholics should simply seek to reduce abortion rather than work to make it to illegal. ‘Would it be OK if we just tried to reduce slavery?’ he asked.

This is quite true. I've spoken to people who vote for the infanticide-enabler Barack Obama based on the "Faithful Citizenship" document.

Rocco at Whispers in the Loggia has much more.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney