By Tim Waggoner
BALTIMORE, November 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – During today’s address at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) 2008 Fall General Assembly, Francis Cardinal George received a standing ovation from America’s bishops for candidly contrasting the significance of a black president in the US with President-elect Barack Obama’s radical support of abortion.
Cardinal George expressed his deep satisfaction with the American people’s capacity to vote for a black president in light of a history marred by racism and slavery.
“We can also be truly grateful that our country’s social conscience has advanced to the point that Barrack Obama was not asked to renounce his racial heritage in order to be president,” said Cardinal George. “We are, perhaps, at a moment when, with the grace of God, all races are safely within the American consensus.”
“If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision that African Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be president of the United States,” he continued.
The President of the USCCB then reflected on the fact that even if a nation affirms certain rights, by failing to uphold the fundamental right of all human rights – the right to life – it fails to uphold the common good.
“In working for the common good of our society, racial justice is one pillar of our social doctrine. Economic justice, especially for the poor both here and abroad, is another.
“The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice. Today, as was the case a hundred and fifty years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good,” said Cardinal George, to applause from the bishops.
This is not the first time Cardinal George has challenged Obama on his pro-abortion position. In his public official congratulation to the President, Cardinal George said, “Our country is confronting many uncertainties. We pray that you will use the powers of your office to meet them with a special concern to defend the most vulnerable among us and heal the divisions in our country and our world. We stand ready to work with you in defense and support of the life and dignity of every human person.”
Pro-life groups have for years used the comparison of abortion to slavery as a pro-life tool. Roe vs. Wade and the Dred Scott decision, which legalized slavery in the US, both justified the removal of the right to life from a particular class of human beings by labeling them both as non-persons.
However, while Obama’s election to the presidency is being hailed as a huge step forward in stamping out any remaining racist tendencies in the US, some commentators have observed that, ironically, the African American population may have great reasons to worry under an Obama presidency.
Currently the greatest killer of the US black population is abortion, with over one third, or 13 million blacks in America having been aborted. Obama’s radical position on abortion, including his promises to increase federal funding for abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, which routinely target black neighborhoods for their abortion centers, is likely to increase the number of black unborn babies being murdered in utero during Obama’s tenure as president.
For Cardinal George’s full address see: https://usccb.org/meetings/2008Fall/address_george_plenary.shtml