Bishop Vasa: Pro-Abortion Candidates are "Disqualified" - Clarifies "Faithful Citizenship"

LifeSiteNews ^ | 9/12/08 | John-Henry Westen

[wagglebee]

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, September 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - During the opening day of the Catholic Leadership Conference yesterday, Baker Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa clarified the teaching of the US Bishops Conference regarding voting in favor of pro-abortion politicians. The question of whether Catholics may remain in good standing with the Church while voting for pro-abortion politicians was raised.

Bishop Vasa responded referencing the document of the United States Catholic Conference titled "Faithful Citizenship", noting a pro-abortion stance disqualifies candidates from consideration by faithful Catholics.

LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Bishop Vasa after the session. Describing the deliberation among US bishops over the "Faithful Citizenship" document, he said: "When we were working on the document 'Faithful Citizenship', and the issue of whether or not a person's adamant pro-abortion position was a disqualifying condition, the general sense was 'yes that is a disqualifying condition'."

However, during the discussions mention was made of the document by Pope Benedict just prior his elevation to the pontificate which noted that Catholics may in good conscience vote for a politician who supports abortion in the presence of "proportionate reasons."

Bishop Vasa explained the notion of proportionate reasons, saying, "The conditions under which an individual may be able to vote for a pro-abortion candidate would apply only if all the candidates are equally pro-abortion."

He added: "And then you begin to screen for the other issues and make a conscientious decision to vote for this pro-abortion candidate because his positions on these other issues are more in keeping with good Catholic values." In that case, he said, "It doesn't mean that you in any way support or endorse a pro-abortion position but you take a look in that context at the lesser of two evils."

Speaking of politicians with a pro-abortion stand he said, "When we have someone who has that stand on a disqualifying issue, then the other issues, in many ways, do not matter because they are already wrong on that absolutely fundamental issue."

Only when taken to a level of insanity could a 'pro-war' candidate be considered on par with a pro-abortion candidate in the Bishop's view. "If we had a candidate in favor of a war in Iraq in which we decimate the entire population and we kill as many civilians to impose as much terror on everybody as possible to make sure . . . If that was in opposition to a pro-abortion person then I'd have a real conflict of conscience because you'd have a direct and intentional killing of innocent persons on one hand and the direct and intentional killing of persons on the other hand, said the Baker Bishop.

"But we don't have that issue with capital punishment, we don't have that issue with the war in Iraq we don't have that issue with the present Administration," he added.

Bishop Vasa explained that as a man from the Midwest, the analogy of a combine worked well to describe how a sifting of candidates could be undertaken. He described a combine as having a series of sieves, the first of which eliminates the largest and most obvious refuse. In the analogy the first screen would eliminate pro-abortion candidates, "to weed out the greatest evil," he said.

He concluded saying, "Abortion needs to be in our country a defining issue and we ought not be afraid to make it a defining issue because when we do that we will have an end of abortion in this country."

[wagglebee]

He concluded saying, "Abortion needs to be in our country a defining issue and we ought not be afraid to make it a defining issue because when we do that we will have an end of abortion in this country."

Amen!

[wagglebee]

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[narses]

Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[narses]

Obama Doesn’t Want His Daughters Punished with a Baby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNzmly28Bmg

CNN on Obama’s Infant Born Alive Act Rejection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZCXcTwZPY

Jill Stanek on Obama and Born Alive Infant Protection Act (MUST SEE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIdbYjmbFzo

Obama Cover-up Revealed On Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Bill

http://www.nrlc.org/ObamaBAIPA/ObamaCoverup.html

Explosive Audio Found Obama arguing against BAIPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypDwNpgIUQc

Babies left to die!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIdbYjmbFzo

[narses]

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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[GCC Catholic]

Is a transcript available? This will be useful for my campus Students For Life group and the campus Catholic faith-sharing group.

[polymuser]

[Salvation]

You might check out the USCCB.org website or the Catholic Sentinel site in Oregon!

[Aliska]

They left wiggle room. A Catholic politician will tell you they are pro choice but personally opposed to abortion or or. So they claim they are not pro abortion. I wish they’d elucidated on that. Maybe they will get to it. But calling them pro abortion (which they are) puts dissidents into irately defiant mode where they will rationalize that they are pro choice, it doesn’t apply to them, and can safely ignore all of it.

[Salvation]

This list will probably be updated after the weekend. I fully expect more Bishops to speak out against Pelosi, Biden et al.

Updated: American Bishops who have spoken against Pelosi

Here is the complete list of American bishops who have responded to Nancy Pelosi's comments so far:

1. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver was the first American bishop to respond
2. ... Bishop James Conley, his auxiliary, joined him
3. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington DC responded twice, first in a press release and second in a statement to The Hill. He has also appeared on Fox News, I am told.
4. Cardinal Justin Regali of Philadelphia, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued this statement through the USCCB website...
5. ... Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, chairman of the Committee on Doctrine, joined him
6. Cardinal Edward Egan of New York publised a strongly worded statement of his own
7. Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo issued a letter correcting Pelosi's claims
8. Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh and...
9. ... Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs have chimed-in
10. Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio, CNA reports has added his voice ...
11. ... Bishop Oscar Cantu, his auxiliary bishop, has joined him
12. Bishop William Murphy of Rockville has published an extensive letter
13. Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa has a detailed response
14. Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas has joined the USCCB's efforts
15. Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin is on-board
16. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston mentions the USCCB on his blog
17. Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando has written at length
18. Archbishop John Nienstedt of Saint Paul/Minneapolis challenges Pelosi's statement
19. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, President of the US Bishops, has weighed-in
20. Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, OR publishes in the Catholic Sentinel
21. Bishop Jerome Listecki of La Crosse, WI responds in a word document
22. Bishop Richard Lennon of Cleveland, OH will comment in his September 5th column (PDF)
23. Bishop Ralph Nickless of Sioux City, IA has one of the very best responses I've read
24. Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco has invited Pelosi to a "conversation"
25. Bishop Glen Provost, LA: "Catholic Church clear on when human life begins"
26. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn: "Judging the Candidates"

{Last updated on September 10th.}

Notes:

• Previous #23 has been removed. Bishop Joseph Gossman of Raleigh, NC is actually the bishop emeritus, and the new bishop, Michael Burbidge has not, to my knowledge, made a personal statement.
• Previous #16 has also been removed, it was an erroneous duplication of current #13.
• #26 was added September 10th, although he published his column September 6th

[Salvation]

**pro choice but personally opposed to abortion **

osymoron

God will be the judge. Life is either black or white, darkness or light.

[Salvation]

If these morons are so against abortion personally, then they should transfer to the Republican party? Correct? LOL!

[Winged Hussar]

If you wish to circulate it, please COPY and don't LINK--linking uses my bandwidth. This needs to be communicated to the pro-life communities in PA, which may well decide the election.

[Aliska]

I would call it both an oxymoron or euphemism, but sometimes I'm not clever with words.

If that were the only issue, yes, it would seem logical that they join the Republican Party, but partisanship runs deep; you have a good portion of your life and psyche invested in your views and political battles even if your political activity tends to be passive. That's why it is so hard to change.

The other factor would be the very many men who are supporting pro choice along with the feminists. Years ago when I was subscribing to the "Wanderer", I read a statement that put it so succinctly, went something like behind every abortion is a man who is relieved of child support.

Generally the homosexual lobby march in lockstep with them, too. Then they turn around and want to adopt children whose mothers or surrogates had to choose to carry them to term. It doesn't make any sense. Another oxymoron as you might say.

The feminists are spewing out such hatred, you know what has to be the source of that.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I would be interested in seeing that idiot Doug Kmiec’s response to this, as it completely dismisses his justification for supporting Barack Obama, Blessed be His Name.

[JohnnyZ]

This is a major smackdown to Douglas Kmiec, among others, who has gone on a campaign to convince Catholics to vote for pro-abortion politicians.

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[Notwithstanding]

It appears that many of the bishops have started taking vitamin B16 supplements.

Amen!

[Notwithstanding]

It appears that many of the bishops have started taking vitamin B16 supplements.

Amen!