Chaput: No Unity Among U.S. Bishops on Sanctions for Abortion Support

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NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput gave a frank response when asked why there is so much disunity among Catholics on the question of Catholics in political life standing clearly with the church on major moral issues such as abortion.

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" There is unity among the bishops about abortion always being wrong, and that you can’t be a Catholic and be in favor of abortion – the bishops all agree to that
– but there’s just an inability among the bishops together to speak clearly on this matter and even to say that if you’re Catholic and you’re pro-choice, you can’t receive holy Communion. **"**Archbishop Chaput said.

Abp’s statement in quotes above is absolutely true.

Mortal sins to pick from:
Supporting abortion,
Scandal,
Sacrilege (receiving Holy Communion while in state of Mortal sin),
heresy,
schism,
voting for pro-abortion politicians (when a pro-life candidate is available).

While there are a few good Bishops taking their primary responsibility seriously - teaching the Faith - where are the rest of them?
 
If an archdiocese invites a pro-abortion rights politician to speak at either an archdiocesan sponsored event or on the grounds of the archdiocese itself, then we shouldn’t be surprised when there is still confusion among the flock on whether its okay to vote for a pro-abortion rights candidate over a pro-life candidate. This has happened at both the Seattle archdiocese and the L.A. archdiocese. The message, instead of being resolute and clear in forbidding any support for an abortion rights politician, is weak and vague.

Ishii
 
ishii said:
If an archdiocese invites a pro-abortion rights politician to speak at either an archdiocesan sponsored event or on the grounds of the archdiocese itself, then we shouldn’t be surprised when there is still confusion among the flock on whether its okay to vote for a pro-abortion rights candidate over a pro-life candidate. This has happened at both the Seattle archdiocese and the L.A. archdiocese. The message, instead of being resolute and clear in forbidding any support for an abortion rights politician, is weak and vague.

Ishii
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You are right, but there is something that each of us can do.

Send an email to your own Diocese Bishop, and quote the pertinent parts from the
“Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition”.
If there is no response, forward it to the Pope.

Yes, since the CCC contains the Doctrine of the Faith - on all matters of Faith and Morals, and is from the Magisterium of the Church - - - even Cardinals and Bishops must adhere to it. 😃
 
Catholic_Press said:
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput gave a frank response when asked why there is so much disunity among Catholics on the question of Catholics in political life standing clearly with the church on major moral issues such as abortion.

More…
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It would be nice if the bishops could all stand as firm on this subject.

I can’t really go much more on this, due to the requirement to be respectful of our prelates. Anything further could be deemed by some as not giving the proper deference.
 
ANNE_2 said:
You are right, but there is something that each of us can do.

Send an email to your own Diocese Bishop, and quote the pertinent parts from the
“Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition”.
If there is no response, forward it to the Pope.

Yes, since the CCC contains the Doctrine of the Faith - on all matters of Faith and Morals, and is from the Magisterium of the Church - - - even Cardinals and Bishops must adhere to it. 😃
Click to expand...
The Archbishop isn’t saying that the bishops of the USCCB don’t all agree that abortion is always wrong, and Catholics should never support it. But, just that they’re not vocal enough.

My response is… how many people depend on their bishops being vocal to understand that abortion is morally wrong? I’m confident that my Bishop is strongly opposed to abortion, in fact he actually made some news for it awhile ago. Yes, I just checked, and all the way back in the 2004 election, Bishop Robert Baker said he would refuse to give pro-abortion politicians Communion.

That being said, whether Bishops do that or not isn’t the issue here. Let’s not beat around the bush, the issue is that A LOT of Catholics don’t give a rip about the Bishops at all. It’s our duty to tell fellow Catholics, and Christians alike that voting for a pro-abortion candidate is against our faith. In my opinion, let’s say EVERY Bishop caused a firestorm over abortion in the 2012 election… would pro abortion Catholics really change their mind?

Certainly you can argue that some would. But, in my opinion :twocents:, I think that Catholics who vote against their faith really don’t care that much about their faith to begin with. I mean… why else would they reject doctrine on an action that is Always and everywhere evil: malum semper et ubique .

I may be rambling a bit but, come election season I will do do everything I can to get people to vote for pro life candidates (if it means yelling near polling stations potentially :okpeople:). The Archbishop said himself that none of the Bishops believe abortion is right or acceptable in any circumstance… so I think a lot of letters to the hierarchy saying Bishops aren’t following the CCC is unnecessary. At the end of the day, faithful Bishops and laity won’t be able to convince Catholics who are their own source of moral authority, as opposed to the Bible, CCC, and the Church.
 
Semper_Zelare said:
The Archbishop isn’t saying that the bishops of the USCCB don’t all agree that abortion is always wrong, and Catholics should never support it. But, just that they’re not vocal enough.

My response is… how many people depend on their bishops being vocal to understand that abortion is morally wrong? I’m confident that my Bishop is strongly opposed to abortion, in fact he actually made some news for it awhile ago. Yes, I just checked, and all the way back in the 2004 election, Bishop Robert Baker said he would refuse to give pro-abortion politicians Communion.

That being said, whether Bishops do that or not isn’t the issue here. Let’s not beat around the bush, the issue is that A LOT of Catholics don’t give a rip about the Bishops at all. It’s our duty to tell fellow Catholics, and Christians alike that voting for a pro-abortion candidate is against our faith. In my opinion, let’s say EVERY Bishop caused a firestorm over abortion in the 2012 election… would pro abortion Catholics really change their mind?

Certainly you can argue that some would. But, in my opinion :twocents:, I think that Catholics who vote against their faith really don’t care that much about their faith to begin with. I mean… why else would they reject doctrine on an action that is Always and everywhere evil: malum semper et ubique .

I may be rambling a bit but, come election season I will do do everything I can to get people to vote for pro life candidates (if it means yelling near polling stations potentially :okpeople:). The Archbishop said himself that none of the Bishops believe abortion is right or acceptable in any circumstance… so I think a lot of letters to the hierarchy saying Bishops aren’t following the CCC is unnecessary. At the end of the day, faithful Bishops and laity won’t be able to convince Catholics who are their own source of moral authority, as opposed to the Bible, CCC, and the Church.
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Its not a matter of the bishops’ making a sermon officially announcing that they oppose abortion, its about having a consistent message. If you consistently have pro-abortion rights politicians being given platforms at archdiocesan events, you are sending the message that while you oppose abortion, you don’t strongly oppose abortion. If the archbishop in L.A. allows the infanticide supporter Barbara Boxer to participate in an event on archdiocese grounds then I can only conclude that the archbishop isn’t strongly opposed to abortion. Are the archbishops communicating to the pastors of every parish in the archdiocese the necessity of educating every Catholic in the pews the moral duty to oppose pro-abortion rights candidates? There are priests who just plain don’t want to go there in their parishes - preferring instead to give mushy, “I’m ok, you’re ok” homilies. The archbishop needs to hold every priest accountable and the priests need to remind every Catholic of their moral duty. This is not happening.

I agree that it should be a “no-brainer” for catholics that abortion is wrong and to support an abortion rights candidate is wrong. But there are a lot of confused Catholics out there and much of the confusion is due to the lack of leadership and frankly moral cowardice on the part of the heirarchy in the Catholic church in America. Chaput is not one of them.

Ishii
 
Suudy said:
BTW Ishii, do you think Archbishop Sartain will be different? Do you see this as likely to occur again with new leadership?
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We shall see. I think his work is cut out for him - I don’t envy his job. The archdiocese of Seattle is very liberal. As far as Christine Gregoire being given a platform at a diocesan sponsored event goes, I don’t think that the previous archbishop necessarily knew about that, but he certainly didn’t seem too concerned in his response to my letter. There is an entrenched liberal orthodoxy in this archdiocese but it is graying and I have hope that what is replacing it is very solid, orthodox priests. So we should have hope.

Ishii
 
ANNE_2 said:
You are right, but there is something that each of us can do.

Send an email to your own Diocese Bishop, and quote the pertinent parts from the
“Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition”.
If there is no response, forward it to the Pope.

Yes, since the CCC contains the Doctrine of the Faith - on all matters of Faith and Morals, and is from the Magisterium of the Church - - - even Cardinals and Bishops must adhere to it. 😃
Click to expand...
You’re right. If there is no response, or the response is double talk, then forward it to the Pope.

Ishii
 
ishii said:
If the archbishop in L.A. allows the infanticide supporter Barbara Boxer to participate in an event on archdiocese grounds then I can only conclude that the archbishop isn’t strongly opposed to abortion. Are the archbishops communicating to the pastors of every parish in the archdiocese the necessity of educating every Catholic in the pews the moral duty to oppose pro-abortion rights candidates? There are priests who just plain don’t want to go there in their parishes - preferring instead to give mushy, “I’m ok, you’re ok” homilies. The archbishop needs to hold every priest accountable and the priests need to remind every Catholic of their moral duty. This is not happening.

I agree that it should be a “no-brainer” for catholics that abortion is wrong and to support an abortion rights candidate is wrong. But there are a lot of confused Catholics out there and much of the confusion is due to the lack of leadership and frankly moral cowardice on the part of the heirarchy in the Catholic church in America. Chaput is not one of them.

Ishii
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Well, I can agree with you there. Many people rightly suggest that priests give crowd pleasing homilies, because they don’t want to lose parishioners (and their tithes). I think that if priests did have more backbone in more loudly proclaiming ALL the doctrinal truths of the faith (and not just Jesus’ love and sacrifice), it would serve them better in the long run. The priest at my church at least condemns materialism pretty frequently, but he’s never ventured near abortion (maybe he’ll surprise me around election season… but I’m not gonna give my hopes up 🤷).
 
Semper_Zelare said:
Well, I can agree with you there. Many people rightly suggest that priests give crowd pleasing homilies, because they don’t want to lose parishioners (and their tithes). I think that if priests did have more backbone in more loudly proclaiming ALL the doctrinal truths of the faith (and not just Jesus’ love and sacrifice), it would serve them better in the long run. The priest at my church at least condemns materialism pretty frequently, but he’s never ventured near abortion (maybe he’ll surprise me around election season… but I’m not gonna give my hopes up 🤷).
Click to expand...
I would venture that this is why the Catholic Church looses people to Protestant denominations. I think priests give weak homilies and it…
  1. Doesn’t educate people on the faith. Therefore they do not see any difference between Protestant-ism and Catholicism, nor do they understand why the Church teaches what it does and the logic/development of doctorines/dogma.
  2. People are looking for meat and potatoes.
 
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