NY Catholic Bishops: Right to Life Outweighs other Concerns in Voting

[torch621]

lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10101804.html

NEW YORK, October 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New York’s Catholic Bishops are telling the state’s Catholics this year that the right to life must be their first concern when they step into the voting booth in November, not party loyalty or other issues where good people may differ in opinion or judgment.

The pastoral letter “Our Cherished Right, Our Solemn Duty,” signed by New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and seven other New York state bishops, says Catholics must be “cautious” when they cast votes this election, so as “not to be guided solely by party loyalty or by self interest.”

Why is this such a hard concept for people to understand?

 

[bkayw]

Catholics are so like Israel in the Old and in the New Testament. Individual personal opinion mattered more than the Word of God.

 

[torch621]

at least the cafeteria ones are

 

[Hiskid1973]

Cool, I could remember for a long time you could get a pamphlets at churches with voting records so you could find who was pro-life…If I’m not mistaken the
local pregnancy help centers provided them…

 

[OriginalJS]

I’m not sure what this directive means. Does “first concern” mean “only concern?” Or does it mean that other concerns are simply given less weight?

 

[Teelynn]

I’m not sure what this directive means. Does “first concern” mean “only concern?” Or does it mean that other concerns are simply given less weight?

It means (as I understand it) that other concerns are important, but not as important as the right to life…if we will not give humanity the basic human right, what good are the rest of the issues???

 

[Alan55]

The full text of the statement by the NY bishops is available here:

nyscatholic.org/pages/news/show_newsDetails.asp?id=523

The NY bishops clearly single out pro-life issues as most important, but also list other issues for consideration by voters. I think that they are steering Catholic votes to candidates with strong pro-life views, but they declare that they are not espousing any particular candidates.