October 4, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Faithful Shepherds, a website launched by LifeSiteNews to hold the Church hierarchy accountable for its actions, has chosen to profile Archbishop Joseph Naumann for this week’s “Bishop Report Card.” He currently serves as the chair of the U.S. Bishops' pro-life committee, having beaten out liberal Cardinal Blase Cupich in 2017.
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Archbishop Naumann is the current head of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas. Unlike many members of the Church hierarchy across the globe, Archbishop Naumann has unflinchingly supported Church teaching on many topics, especially abortion and marriage and family life.
Naumann has shown time and again to actively engage in pro-life leadership and stand against “Catholic” pro-abortion politicians. His advocacy for life extends back many decades. In 1984, he served as the pro-life coordinator for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. During his tenure in that role, Naumann helped the archdiocese found a Project Rachel ministry and Lifeline Coalition, an organization that unites Catholic hospitals and pro-life groups with the aim of helping single mothers.
The archbishop was also a founding member of the Vitae Foundation, a pro-life group established to fight against pro-abortion advocates who were working to add the right to an abortion to the Missouri state constitution. For all of his work advocating for the pro-life mission, Archbishop Naumann was awarded the Lumen Vitae award in 2018.
Naumann has also been a long-standing proponent of the Church’s teaching on not giving the Eucharist to obstinately pro-abortion politicians. In 2008, he publicly told then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to refrain from receiving Communion. He directed her to not present herself for Holy Communion until she takes “the necessary steps for amendment of her life which would include a public repudiation of her previous efforts and actions in support of laws and policies sanctioning abortions.”
More recently, Archbishop Naumann defended the Church’s teaching on denying Communion for pro-abortion politicians at the 2018 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. Naumann stated that these pro-abortion politicians need to be held to “accountability.”
In addition to the issue of abortion, Archbishop Naumann has been orthodox in matters concerning “LGBT” ideology and homosexuality. During a 2018 interview with LifeSiteNews, Naumann stated that those who identify as transgender or homosexual face “real obstacles” when it comes to participating in the sacraments. Naumann explained that we cannot “change the gender that we’ve been given, even a person who’s had surgery, that doesn’t change their basic identities.”
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Archbishop Naumann also boasts an extensive history of supporting traditional families. At the Fall 2017 USCCB assembly, Naumann encouraged his brother bishops to support traditional marriage and let married couples know “what they’re doing is so important, not just for them and for their families, but for society and for the culture and for the Church.”
Later in a 2018 interview with LifeSiteNews, Archbishop Naumann denounced the now growing trend of cohabitation. He boldly called cohabitation “dishonest” and stated that couples who cohabitate are not in a position to welcome children into the world. The “optimal circumstance” for child rearing, according to the archbishop, is within marriage where the child’s biological parents have committed to each other in a lifelong bond.
Also in 2018, Archbishop Naumann published a column titled “Pseudo-feminism pits women against their own children.” In this column, the archbishop explained how the sexual revolution and feminism have been a “disaster for children, women and men.” He wrote that because of the sexual revolution, men “have been formed to believe their responsibility to women they impregnate is to pay for a portion of the cost for the abortion of their child,” and they “no longer seem to be needed to be a protector and provider for their spouse and children.”
Archbishop Naumann has proved he is among the loudest voices in the Church defending the unborn. During this time of rampant liberalism infecting many in the Church hierarchy, it is exceedingly important to support the bishops who remain true to the Church’s teachings. Please visit Faithful Shepherds to learn more about Archbishop Naumann’s views and past actions as well as contact him to show your support.