By Tim Waggoner
DETROIT, January 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The newly appointed Archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, has wasted little time in confronting President Barack Obama’s notorious support of abortion, calling for forceful opposition of the new government’s anti-life agenda.
In an interview with The Detroit News, Vigneron addressed several current issues, such as Catholic higher education and the failing economy’s impact on the Church’s social ministries, but indicated that challenging the new US government’s radical anti-life positions is of the highest priority.
“I share the concern of all of the bishops of the United States that the administration has, at least prior to the election, given us indications that they are going to rescind some of the protections of the unborn,” Vigneron said. “And I am very disappointed in that.”
“We are going to have to represent our opposition as forcefully as we can and try to build coalitions to dissuade the administration from moving to that,” said Vigneron, referring indirectly to President Obama’s potential signing of the Freedom of Choice Act, which permits late and partial birth abortions and calls for domestic and international government funding of abortion, among other things.
The newly appointed archbishop was also asked to address the Church’s position on refusing pro-abortion politicians Holy Communion. Canon 915 of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law states that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.”
“I am not going to answer any hypothetical questions like that, especially from this distance,” said Vigneron. “I simply want to affirm that part of being a Catholic is having a conviction that on these moral matters, the church speaks the mind of Christ. And I want to help Catholics, especially Catholics in responsible positions, to maintain the integrity of their professions.”
Vigneron touched on this issue back in 2004, when in an article he stated, “Whenever a politician or political party promotes the acceptance and support of abortion or euthanasia, no matter how morally compelling their stands may seem on other issues, their stand on these crucial life issues must be judged as fundamentally flawed.”
Archbishop Vigneron concluded with a message of hope to Christians in the face of the severe moral and societal problems present today: “But I think that Christianity and the other faiths have some particular contributions to make, and one is to give people encouragement and to remind them that there is a tremendous reason for hope: God is with us, and he has seen us through tough times before.”
The Archbishop is set to be formally installed in the Detroit Archdiocese on January 28.