By Scott Tibbs, April 21, 2008
In an article about pro-abortion Catholic lawmakers receiving communion during the Pope's visit to the United States, Fox News quotes a letter signed by 48 Catholic lawmakers (including Nancy Pelosi) when the issue became very heated in 2004:
"If Catholic legislators are scorned and held out for ridicule by Church leaders on the basis of a single issue, the Church will lose strong advocates on a wide range of issues that relate to the core of important Catholic social teaching," they wrote. "Moreover, criticism of us on a matter that is essentially one of personal morality will deter other Catholics from entering politics, and in the long run the Church will suffer."
The arrogant remark about "a single issue" demonstrates that these lawmakers simply do not get it. Abortion is far more than "a single issue". Since 1973, nearly 50 million human lives have been snuffed out by America's abortion industry under the protection of law. During that time, pro-abortion lawmakers have fought against restrictions on abortion, with some of the most radical even opposing bans on partial-birth abortion. The fifty million lives lost to America's abortion industry dwarfs even the brutal inhumanity of the Nazi Holocaust.
Furthermore, abortion is not an issue of "personal morality". Abortion is the killing of an innocent human being. Abortion is no more an issue of "personal morality" than child abuse, slavery, rape or murder. No behavior that harms another person can legitimately be called an issue of "personal morality". The arrogance of complaining that the church's position will "deter other Catholics from entering politics" is amazing. A church does not exist to appease human beings. A church exists to serve a holy and righteous God based on the guiding principles He gave to us in the Bible.
Catholic bishops who said they would deny communion to pro-abortion legislators in 2004 were right then, and they are right now. It is not the role of Catholic legislators to defy church teaching, unless they can demonstrate a clear Biblical basis for doing so. If these legislators truly consider themselves to be "Catholics", they should stand against the grave injustice of legal abortions.
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Proverbs 24:11-12
