CHICAGO, May 7, 2004 (LifeSIteNews.com) – The Republican National Coalition for Life’s (RNC/Life) National Chairman, in a letter Thursday, rebuked Francis Cardinal George for comments made in April, before the City Club of Chicago. The Chicago Sun Times reported that Cardinal George said, “One could say, as I have, that the Democratic Party has lost its soul. . . One could also argue that the Republican Party never had a soul.” Phyllis Schlafly, National Chairman of RNC/Life wrote a letter in response to Cardinal George, in which she said that his comments caused her and the RNC/Life group “some consternation…the big majority of grassroots Republicans and Republican public officials are pro-life,” she said. “We work hard to hold all Republican officials accountable to the Republican Party’s pro-life principles, and we rejoice that every Republican Platform since Roe vs. Wade has taken a strong pro-life stand.”
Schlafly, in her letter, quotes from the 2000 Republican National Platform, which says, in part, “We say the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. Our purpose is to have legislative and judicial protection of that right against those who perform abortions. We oppose using public revenues for abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.” She contrasts this stance with that of the Democratic Party Platform, “which states that abortion should be legal at any time, for any reason, performed by any one, paid for by the taxpayers.” The letter, copied to Archbishop Burke of St. Louis, is a not-so-thinly veiled admonishment of the Cardinal for his lack of moral fiber in addressing the scandal of so-called Catholic politicians who promote abortion while continuing to receive the Sacraments of the Church. “Our work is not easy,” Schlafly writes, “especially because of the hundreds of so-called Catholic politicians who support pro-abortion public policies and laws and do so with impunity, without criticism from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, with a few notable exceptions.” Visit the RNC/Life web-site at: https://www.rnclife.org/