Catholics Must Keep Open Minds in Abortion Discussion

Hey Luke,

Great opinion piece! I fully agree with your assessment that self-righteous self-ghettoisation is ineffective and denies that the world is more ambiguous and difficult to navigate than an overly monochromatic world view allows for. I wish there were more Catholics who are willing to acknowledge address the fact that there is more grey in the world than there is black or white.

Cheers,

Matt

Luke,

As a Catholic GU alum who considers himself both "pro-life" and "moderate" (and, yes, believes these traits can be consistent), I am going to agree with your opinion piece up to a point.

I agree that if pro-life Catholics want to make any progress today toward reduction of abortions and construction of a culture of life, we need to work with pro-choice political leaders on life-affirming policies on which we can agree. These can and should include policies toward better sex education to reduce crisis pregnancies (including, I personally would add, education that both discourages adolescents from having sex and informs them of birth control options so they can make informed decisions when they do become sexually active). Other policies on which we can agree would include making it easier for qualified parents to adopt children.

I also agree that it is extremely unlikely that any time during our lives we will see most elective abortions outlawed in this country. Until the culture changes, pro-life Catholics should therefore focus their efforts on legally restricting abortion on areas where there is broader consensus: restricting late-term abortions, requiring parental consent for minors, etc.

In this week's America magazine, Ambassador Mary Anne Glendon, a conservative who currently serves as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, made an interesting observation. While I am paraphrasing here, she basically said that it is useless for a government to try to legislate against a predominant culture. If activists want to change people's behavior, she said, they have to engage the culture directly first. Pro-life Catholics should realize this and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Finally, I agree that gestures such as prohibiting pro-choice Catholic public officials from receiving Communion are inflammatory and counter-productive. If we want to make any progress, and especially if we want to influence these public officials, we should respectfully work with them toward compromise--not antagonize them.

However, here is where I disagree with you and Professor Doug Kmiec. While doing all of these things, pro-life Catholics can and should maintain their objection to the lack of legal protection accorded to the unborn. Even if, in a realistic assessment of a political climate, I decide not to focus my primary efforts on changing a law, that does not mean that I need to accept that law in principle. I can reserve my objection and respectfully disagree with my political opponents on the matter, even while working with them on constructive compromises elsewhere. Pro-life Catholics can and should still hope that when America's culture on this matter has changed some day, our children or their children may see a day when the unborn again have legal rights in this country. From some of the things Douglas Kmiec has written this year, it seems that has given up on this point and I am sorry to see that.

Thanks for your well-though and well-stated opinion piece.

Bob

We're talking about ''the Church'' here and not about ''catholics''. Catholics have an infinity of opinions while the Church has a specific amount of morals, by virtue of her Magisterium. Hence the Church speaks in the mouth of Paul VI, who definively states that abortion is a crime against humanity, a most despicable murder. Roma locuta est, causa finita est.

Thank you for your thoughtful commentary. I work for a Catholic social justice organization, and the divisions within the Catholic pro-life community make our work so much harder. When members of the community focus only on overturning Roe v. Wade, the rich tapestry of Catholic Social Teaching and the pro-life message are lost. Especially during election times, Catholics who wish to talk about poverty, violence or access to healthcare – which are all clearly life issues – are often drowned out by those who believe that outlawing abortion is the only issue worth mentioning. We are weary, and people who must live with violence, death and deprivation are not heard.

As faithful Catholics, we can clearly do better than this.

George Patsourakos
For a true Catholic, abortion can be considered nothing less than murder. To believe that the Vatican is becoming more open-minded toward permitting abortions can be described as an abortion advocate's fantasy wish. The Vatican has always opposed abortion in the past; continues to oppose abortion today; and will undoubtedly oppose abortion in the future. As far as discussion of abortion is concerned, there is no room for flexibility or compromise: either one is for abortion or one is against it. Catholics must stop trying to justify their support of abortion for "all the wrong reasons" -- reasons they use just to fulfill their own selfish needs!

http://www.sspxseminary.org/apologetics/crisis/Vatican_II/unity.shtml

Maybe Fr. Leahy could describe why the Vatican II Church has no vocations and what vocations they have had are homosexuals and pederasts in many parts of the world. The blatant disregard for Catholic teaching in the last 40 years by those who came out from us but are not of us can be seen in the number of Catholics who no longer attend Mass or believe the infallible teachings of the Church.

What part of Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell don't you Modernist heretics understand?

Catholics Must Keep Open Minds in Abortion Discussion,homosexuality discussion,transgender discussion,pedaphilia discussion,adultery discussion,fornication discussion,etc, etc....
In the end Catholic minds will be so open, nothing will stick; than all those fall-away Catholics and liberal Christians will love us..both of us, because there will only be a couple of Catholics left. Why belong to a religion where most beliefs are negotiable?