Texas Catholic Bishops Make It Clear: Abortion The Number One Election Issue
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 14, 2008
Dallas, TX (LifeNews.com) — Two Catholic bishops in Texas have released what pro-life advocates there are saying is one of the most direct statements about the upcoming elections. The bishop make it clear that voters should make abortion the number one issue in the elections because it has destroyed and injured tens of millions of lives.
Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell and Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann issued a joint statement to "provide clear guidance on the proper formation of conscience concerning voting as faithful Catholics and to articulate."
They hope to clear up some of the misconception surrounding the Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship that backers of pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama have used to justify voting for him.
"Not all issues have the same moral equivalence," the bishops state — singling out abortion and destructive practices like euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. “We cannot make more clear the seriousness of the overriding issue of abortion – while not the ‘only issue’ – it is the defining moral issue, not only today, but of the last 35 years.”
The bishops call those practices "intrinsic evils" and say, "They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned."
While some pro-life advocates who back Obama cite other political issues or claim that Obama will somehow reduce abortions despite opposing every law that limits abortions, the bishops say otherwise.
"It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop," they write.
"There are no ‘truly grave moral’ or ‘proportionate’ reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year," they write to rebuke those who find such reasons to support Obama.
“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," they added.
The bishops conclude: "As Catholics, we must treat our political choices with appropriate moral gravity and in doing so, realize our continuing and unavoidable obligation to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, whose destruction by legal abortion is the preeminent intrinsic evil of our day."
"With knowledge of the Church’s teaching on these grave matters, it is incumbent upon each of us as Catholics to educate ourselves on where the candidates running for office stand on these issues, particularly those involving intrinsic evils."
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