DENVER, July 30, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gradually, more North American Catholic bishops are finally taking seriously their long-neglected pastoral obligations regarding the public scandal of pro-abortion, anti-family ‘Catholic’ politicians.
The latest encouraging news for lay troops in the field comes from Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. In his July 30 Denver Catholic Register column Bishop Chaput rebuked Democrat Richard Durbin for his vicious opposition to the nomination of pro-life Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the 11th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Bishop wrote “According to Senator Durbin (as reported by EWTN), ‘Many Catholics who oppose abortion personally do not believe the laws of the land should prohibit abortion for all others in extreme cases involving rape, incest and the life and the health of the mother.’ This kind of propaganda makes the abortion lobby proud, but it should humiliate any serious Catholic. At a minimum, Catholic members of Congress like Senator Durbin should actually read and pray over the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’ and the encyclical ‘Evangelium Vitae’ before they explain the Catholic faith to anyone.”
He continued that “They might even try doing something about their ‘personal opposition’ to abortion by supporting competent pro-life judicial appointments. Otherwise, they simply prove what many people already believe—that a new kind of religious discrimination is very welcome at the Capitol, even among elected officials who claim to be Catholic.” See the Bishop Chaput’s column at: https://www.archden.org/archbishop/docs/7_30_03_pryor_anticatholic.htm