WASHINGTON, DC, January 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One year ago yesterday, President Barack Obama appointed pro-abortion Catholic Leon Panetta to head the CIA. Today, Obama announced the appointment of yet another pro-abortion Catholic to take a top position in his administration – this time as Chief of Staff.
The appointment of William Daley is the latest in a long line of appointments by Obama of Catholics who openly oppose their professed faith’s position on the fundamental issue of life.
Thomas Peters, the popular commentator CatholicVote.org, pointed to Obama’s propensity for appointing dissident Catholics saying, “Once again, the President has elevated a dissenting Catholic to the highest level of his administration. As I’ve said before, in the President’s mind, the only (worthy) Catholic is a ‘bad’ Catholic – one who publicly disagrees with the teaching and bishops of the Church.”
Peters added, “At least, that’s the only sort of Catholic he trusts with significant power.”
In 2009 Daley publicly slammed Chicago Cardinal Francis George over his criticism of Notre Dame’s award to the pro-abortion president. Daley wrote that “as a Catholic,”
I believe that Cardinal George’s stand is an embarrassment to Chicago Catholics, and furthers the divide between the church, its members and the rest of America.
… the fact is that American Catholics are divided over the difficult moral issues of stem-cell research and abortion.
… To imply that the president should not be invited to speak at Notre Dame because he disagrees with the church on two specific issues promotes a very narrow view of what constitutes morality.
… Beyond the specific case of the Notre Dame commencement, Cardinal George’s position continues a worrisome pattern in which the Catholic hierarchy in America is mixing religion with politics. It has seemingly lost sight of the difference between a moral nation and a religious one. The United States is not a theocracy, and does not hold one religion above the others.
In addition to Panetta, whose Catholic but pro-abortion credentials were solidified by his support for President Clinton’s veto of the partial-birth abortion ban, Obama has appointed many other pro-abortion Catholics to top positions, including:
– Joe Biden – Vice President
– Tom Daschle – Secretary of Health and Human Services – The appointment was scuttled, however, due to Daschle’s tax scandal.
– Kathleen Sebelius – Secretary of Health and Human Services
– Democratic Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine – Democratic National Committee chairman
– Ken Salazar – Secretary of the Interior
– Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson – Commerce Secretary – Richardson refused due to a looming corruption scandal.
The Obama appointments add to the already existing scandal of prominent Catholic politicians who support abortion, such as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The Catholic pro-life organization American Life League has been on a campaign for over a decade to have the Catholic Bishops of the United States deny communion to pro-abortion Catholics in politics. ALL President Judie Brown told LifeSiteNews that Daley is “another one of those examples of pro-abortion Catholics constantly spitting at the church while the church turns the other cheek. We have bishops unwilling to protect Christ from sacrilege, therefore Daley’s going to get a free pass.”
Brian Burch, President of Catholic Vote told LifeSiteNews, “The appointment of Bill Daley by President Obama to serve as his new Chief of Staff confirms President Obama’s indifference at best, or callous disregard at worst for the sensibilities of Catholic voters.”
Burch said that Daley “represents the epitome of the downfall of the Democratic Catholic where sadly political interests are placed ahead of the Faith.”
“Daley has made clear that he abhors the movement of Catholic orthodoxy in America, especially among our bishops, and is the embodiment the political struggles for the Church in America,” he said.
Drawing on his experience in Canada, where pro-abortion Catholic politicians are commonplace, Jim Hughes, president of the Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com that the growing collection of dissident Catholics in the U.S. national spotlight is likely to harm the face of American Catholicism unless bishops take action to reclaim it.
“From the Canadian experience, it’s clear that having dissident Catholics in top leadership positions creates an atmosphere of dissent within the faith,” said Hughes. “The only remedy is for the bishops to either excommunicate them or at the very least publicly refuse communion to them so as to communicate loud and clear that this anti-life Catholicism is simply unacceptable.”