Letter: Catholic Church, abortion, Obama

• Published: Dec 20, 2008 - Page: 7B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

How can it be that, with all of the information available to anyone about the Catholic Church’s position that all human life is sacred at all stages from conception to natural death, some people present distorted views in the media?

Simply stated, abortion is terrible sin, not only because it is killing a human life, it is also putting self before God.

In Readers’ Views on Dec. 13, Phil Beaver refers to the “Catholic” voters’ majority opinion for President-elect Barack Obama and closes with a question: “Who does the Catholic Church serve?”

What Mr. Beaver fails to mention are some of the true concerns of the Catholic Church. For example, he does not mention two things that Barack Obama promised he would do first:

1) He will again cancel President Reagan’s Mexico City policy that ended taxpayer funding of abortions in other countries. This policy was canceled by Bill Clinton and reinstated under President Bush.

2) He will support the Freedom of Choice Act that would allow abortion at any stage of life and could override any local or state laws regulating abortions, including those protecting doctors, nurses and other state-licensed professionals, hospitals or other health-care providers who decline to provide or pay for abortions. Professionals and hospitals could be punished for not supporting abortion efforts.

Under these two policies, all of us would be supporting abortion. Is this what the majority really wants?

I do not believe most voters (Catholic or others) were fully aware of Barack Obama’s pro-abortion promises due to limited reporting in the media.

Who does the Catholic Church serve?

Who does Phil Beaver not mention? The human child in all stages of development (embryo, fetus), the handicapped, the elderly and people of all ages.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “It is a very great poverty to decide that a child must die that you might live as you wish.”

Bravo for the bishops and priests who remind people that if they commit a sin (supporting abortion by their vote) they need to confess those sins and seek God’s forgiveness.

On the other hand, maybe Phil Beaver is on to something. The Catholic Church could keep track of sins being confessed or popular in the public view and periodically change its teachings accordingly.