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Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki.

SPRINGFIELD, IL, August 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — The Catholic bishop of Springfield, Illinois, minced no words in his response to Planned Parenthood’s exposure as a trafficker in body parts from the unborn children aborted at its facilities, at the same time condemning inaction from the White House in the scandal.

Dispensing with ambiguity, Bishop Thomas Paprocki used the terms “shocked,” “appalled” and “moral depravity” in his assessment of the evil revealed in the Planned Parenthood videos, and likened the callousness to human life today with the classical world of the Greeks and Romans, where abortion and infanticide were widespread and commonplace.

“Since the moral decadence of our 20th Century western world now rivals the decline and fall of the Roman Empire it should not surprise us that the nationwide abortion-provider Planned Parenthood has been exposed for trafficking and selling the body parts of aborted babies,” he stated in a July 26 video and column. “I say we should not be surprised, but we still should be shocked and appalled at this moral depravity.”

Bishop Paprocki also denounced the Obama administration’s complicity with the nation’s largest abortion provider, pointing out in his message how Barack Obama was the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood, when in 2013 he told the abortion behemoth it had a president who was going to be there with it fighting every step of the way.  

“What have we heard about this expose of Planned Parenthood from the White House, which was illuminated in rainbow colors when the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal throughout the country?” Bishop Paprocki asked, taking great pause. “Silence, deafening silence.”

Bishop Paprocki is among a handful of prelates to issue a particularly strong response to the Planned Parenthood video content.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote in an August 10 column that there was no moral equivalent to abortion, saying as well that the deliberate killing of innocent life is a uniquely wicked act.

Nashville Bishop Richard Stika stated in an August 9 Knoxville News column that if Planned Parenthood's definition of an extremist is one who believes in the sanctity of the unborn and the protection that these vulnerable lives should be afforded, then he, too, is an extremist.

Each successive video released in the weeks since the Planned Parenthood trafficking for profit scandal broke in mid-July has exposed further gruesome details about Planned Parenthood’s practices in its trafficking of human remains.

The sixth video, released yesterday, discloses that Planned Parenthood would steal the remains of aborted babies without their mothers’ consent.

In his message Bishop Paprocki touched on how one of the officials in the videos, abortionist Deborah Nucatola, said Planned Parenthood’s national legal office was concerned about the liability involved in the sale of fetal body parts, and where in another video Planned Parenthood President and CEO Cecile Richards lauds Nucatola's work in making connections for fetal tissue collection.

“She should be concerned,” Bishop Paprocki said, “because the sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.”

Other abortion apologists have used euphemisms to defend Planned Parenthood, the Springfield bishop said, for example that Planned Parenthood was being compensated for costs associated with organ donations.

“What they overlook or intentionally omit is that unborn babies are absolutely unable to consent to donating their organs, and the harvesting of their organs involves the premeditated killing of these babies.”