May 19, 2009

Archbishop Chaput slams Fr. Jenkins for honoring pro-abortion Obama; Cardinal Mahony still silent

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has slammed Fr. John Jenkins of Notre Dame for honoring abortion zealot Barack Hussein Obama at commencement this past Sunday.

You can read the Archbishop's essay at: http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/2081

Archbishop Chaput writes:

"We also have the duty to oppose him [Obama] when he’s wrong on foundational issues like abortion, embryonic stem cell research and similar matters. And we also have the duty to avoid prostituting our Catholic identity by appeals to phony dialogue that mask an abdication of our moral witness...

"...Notre Dame ignored the U.S. bishops’ guidance in their 2004 statement, Catholics in Political Life... There was no excuse – none, except intellectual vanity – for the university to persist in its course. And Father Jenkins compounded a bad original decision with evasive and disingenuous explanations to subsequently justify it."

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Many political pundits and cafeteria Catholics fail to recognize that all of Catholic social teaching is based on a respect for human life from conception to natural death. President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame and the comments of “Your OK, I am OK” religious suggest that promoting adoption, supporting faith-based community organizing, and bringing justice to those in need somehow provides a pass in terms of the right to life itself. If they were to read Cardinal Bernardin’s A Consistent Ethic of Life lecture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes, and the U.S. Bishops’ Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, they would have to conclude that the Catholic Church will always believe that abortion is gravely wrong and intrinsically evil. One cannot justify it. Even Notre Dame’s President Father Jenkins was forced to make this clear in his introduction. To speak in President Obama’s language, Catholics who know their faith see abortion as a direct threat to societal “common ground”. Why? When abortion is permissible, then the ending of innocent life at other stages is also logically permissible (e.g., euthanasia and the killing of non-combatants in times of war). To use President Obama’s commencement words, “the strong too often dominate the weak.” Think of any socially-protected group in our communal life today. What protects them from abortion if they are identified in their prenatal state and declared unwanted? People of every race, gender, orientation and mental and/or physical impairments could conceivably have their lives ended in the womb. Any sense of common ground is quickly lost whenever innocent life is unilaterally destroyed. The utilitarian position of Notre Dame’s administration will only tear apart the seamless garment of life because it denies the unborn a right to life, dignity, and the pursuit of happiness. Father Jenkins and President Obama are liberal elites talking to each other, unwilling to acknowledge that all men and women from conception to natural death are sons and daugthers of God. President Obama may simply be unschooled (but highly doubtful). Father Jenkins has no excuse.

10:49 AM  

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