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TYLER, Texas, August 4, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – On Wednesday Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas exhorted Catholics to vote “with a well formed conscience” for candidates who “respect life, morality, marriage, family [and] our basic freedoms.”
July 29, CATHOLICS PLEASE VOTE with a well formed conscience & choose candidates who respect life, morality, marriage, family & our basic freedoms. It is critical that we keep eternal truths at the forefront as we vote. Study the issues & choose candidates who respect FAITH.
— Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) July 29, 2020
“It is critical that we keep eternal truths at the forefront as we vote,” he wrote. “Study the issues & choose candidates who respect FAITH.”
In a recent interview with LifeSiteNews, Father Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, said that he felt compelled to speak out as the Democratic Party has “allied itself with evil.”
“The Democrat Party has made a covenant with evil. They are in bed with the abortion industry. They want absolutely no restrictions on abortion,” he continued. “They consider it a basic right, and they want us to pay for it.”
“This is a party now that does not respect the freedom of the Church,” Pavone added. “So if a party doesn't respect the freedom of the Church, how can the Church be neutral?”
Pavone told LifeSiteNews that “not only can Catholics not vote for [Joe] Biden in good conscience, but they can’t vote for Democrats, period.” Despite claiming to be Catholic, Biden’s pro-abortion and LGBT decisions have put him in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching.
He has made taxpayer-funded abortion on demand and enshrining into law the many demands of the LGBT lobby a key part of his 2020 presidential platform.
He has said that if he wins election, he will direct the Justice Department to “do everything in its power” to block state laws that place any restriction on abortion, including parental notification requirements, ultrasound laws, and waiting periods.
After the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, when restrictions were placed on various medical services, Biden said abortion is an “essential health care service” and that it is necessary “to ensure that women have access to all health services during this crisis.”
Earlier this year, Biden said on social media that “transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.”
As vice president, Biden officiated for two men attempting to marry each other.
The Obama-Biden administration notably tried to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to participate in the provision of abortion-inducing drugs and contraception and threatened schools with the loss of federal funding if they wouldn’t let boys in girls’ bathrooms and vice versa, among other things.
As president, Donald Trump has reinstated and expanded the ban on foreign aid to abortion-involved groups (including International Planned Parenthood Federation), banned groups that commit or refer abortions from Title X family planning funds, overturned Obama-era regulations that barred states from defunding Planned Parenthood, and issued rules protecting Americans from being forced to subsidize abortion in government-mandated health insurance plans.
The president has also forcefully denounced abortion, calling attention to Democrats’ opposition to anti-infanticide legislation and calling on Congress to send him a ban on late-term abortion to sign. Most of his judicial nominees have pleased pro-lifers as well.
In addition, the administration has consistently worked to defend life and oppose abortion at the United Nations, from resisting pro-abortion agenda items and resolution language to affirming that abortion isn’t a human right and promoting abstinence education. Trump also cut U.S. ties with the pro-abortion World Health Organization (WHO) due to its mishandling of the coronavirus crisis.
This year, Trump declared January 22, the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision imposing abortion on demand across the country, to be “National Sanctity of Human Life Day.” A few days later, he became the first U.S. president to attend the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
In a proclamation issued prior to the march, Trump declared that “every person — the born and unborn, the poor, the downcast, the disabled, the infirm, and the elderly — has inherent value” and said the U.S. “proudly and strongly reaffirms our commitment to protect the precious gift of life at every stage, from conception to natural death.”
Pavone said that although there have been morally questionable things about President Trump’s personal life, he still has the capability to be a good president.
The priest likened choosing a president to choosing an auto mechanic: “When we’re making those kinds of choices, we’re not looking into the person’s personal history or virtues. I don’t ask the auto mechanic how many times he’s been married. I ask him if he knows what’s wrong with my car and if he can fix it at a reasonable price and in a reasonable time frame.”
President Trump, Pavone said, has defended the unborn and “fixed so many of the problems in our country unlike any other president has done.”