Bishop Corrects Biden’s Error on Life
September 10th, 2008 at 02:11am Mark Noonan
Ah, the troubles a person can get into when he tries to be both Catholic and liberal:
Bishop of Madison Robert C. Morlino and Archbishop of Denver Charles J. Chaput have responded to Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden’s characterization that the point when life begins is a religious belief, criticizing him for “flawed moral reasoning,” confusing the Catholic faithful and confusing the differences between faith and natural law.
In a Sunday interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Biden had said that he is “prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception” but would not impose that belief on anyone through law. He claimed that to do so would be “inappropriate in a pluralistic society.”
Bishop Morlino made impromptu remarks in his Sunday homily, saying he had thrown away his prepared homily “for other considerations.”
Explaining that his point was not “to speak against Democrats,” but to address people who “claim to be Catholic,” he discussed Sen. Joseph Biden and Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s remarks about abortion.
“They are roughly my age… so that means that Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Biden were educated just about the same time I was,” he noted.
Stating he could not speak to the exact details of Pelosi’s Catholic education, Bishop Morlino said “I have to believe that she was taught that abortion was always wrong.”…
…Turning his remarks to Sen. Biden, Bishop Morlino said he and the senator shared as their hometown Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“I am positive of what Sen. Biden was taught in Scranton. And it’s the same thing that I was taught,” he declared.
…Sen. Biden doesn’t understand the difference between “religious faith and natural law.”
“Any human being — regardless of his faith, his religious practice or having no faith — any human being can reason to the fact that human life from conception unto natural death is sacred,” he argued. “Biology — not faith, not philosophy, not any kind of theology — Biology tells us, science [says], that at the moment of conception there exists a unique individual of the human species.”
“It’s not a matter of what I might believe. What my faith might teach me,” he said.
“Sen. Biden has an obligation to know that. And he doesn’t know it.”…
…Again insisting he wasn’t speaking about Democrats or even pro-life issues, he said his focus was upon the “awareness of faith, the catechesis that every Catholic should have.” He asked his listeners to make sure they themselves really understand what the Catholic faith teaches, through the Pope and the bishops.
“Prominent Catholics should not be violating the separation of church and state” by “teaching the wrong thing.” Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Biden, he said, are “doing precisely that.”
“If Republican candidates were doing precisely that, I would speak out with exactly the same determination,” he countered.
The Bishop’s rebuke to Biden (and Pelosi) is necessary as the program of the Democrats is to muddy the issue of Catholic teaching on life issues in order to be able to make a credible bid for Catholic votes, and most especially the votes of Catholics who regularly attend Mass, and may end up deciding the election this year. Democrats have to muddy the waters because a clear and concise statement of Democratic beliefs - ie, support for federally funded abortion on demand - would immediately be identified by devout Catholics as wrong (and you think that everyone already knows this? No, they don’t - go poll your friends and find out how many of them know that prior to the partial-birth ban an abortion could legally be performed right up to the moment of birth…quite a lot of people believe that an abortion is only legal in the first trimester…the Culture of Death is deft with its propaganda and the MSM is not about to really tell the tale of abortion). So, out go Biden and Pelosi to absurdly claim that there is dispute about what pro-life means for Catholics and that belief in life begins at conception is a theological assertion rather than a biological fact.
The Bishop is also correct that this is a massive violation of the separation of Church and State - with two elected officials high up in the United States government presuming to speak authoritatively on Catholic teaching. It is not for elected officials to proclaim Catholic dogma, but for the Bishops of the Church in union with the Bishop of Rome. Everyone should be just as outraged by this as they would be if the Pope were to, say, try to tell us what level of taxation we should impose in the United States. Of course liberals won’t get this at all because the believe that the issue of separation of Church and State is summed up in a ban on the mention of religion in the public square - but take this as a teaching moment, liberals, and understand what is really going on here.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats, Life Issues, Religion, Republicans
5 Comments
1. congressive | September 10th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Palin cannot be a heartbeat away from the ultimate authority on Earth:
“Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed; then Eve. And Adam was not seduced; but the woman being seduced, was in the transgression. Yet she shall be saved through childbearing; if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety.” (1 Timothy 2:11-15)
Catholic viewpoint on stay-at-home dads and female presidents:
“Do you not recognize, My children, the signs of your times? Read and learn: ‘Women will become unlike women. They shall go forth, and seven women will take hold of one man and say to him: Make me as you are. I wish to eat your bread.’ [see Isaias 4:1]
“Know, My child, this simple lesson, that in these days of the latter times, women shall seek to cast off their role as mother and a woman. Woman will cast it off under the direction of satan… Woe to the woman who does not repent of this vile abomination! She has walked the road to eternal damnation and hell. Repent, O woman, or forever be lost!” - Our Lady of the Roses, March 18, 1975
God will not forgive you for this abomination.
2. kmg | September 10th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Palin was raised Catholic, but said she was saved when she rejected Catholicism and became Pentecostal.
Why doesn’t Palin think Catholics are saved?
3. FmrMarine | September 10th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
KMG
>>>>Why doesn’t Palin think Catholics are saved?>>>
I believe MOST ( 99% ) are.
But I can see looking at the likes of pelowsey, biden, kennedy drunk and many more of the “professing” Catholics one may wonder.
They are among the ones who will cry……
“Lord Lord, I healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the poor in your name”
then the Lords answer will be….
“Begone for I NEVER knew YOU “
4. Mark Noonan | September 11th, 2008 at 12:47 am
congressive,
That refers to the rules for holy orders, not for secular government. You really should learn a bit about Christianity, if you are to comment on it.
5. Mark Noonan | September 11th, 2008 at 1:05 am
kmg,
Once baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you’re baptized for good and all. That Governor Palin does not attend Catholic services does not, in and of itself, mean she’s not a Christian - indeed, we Catholics continue to hold her to be a Catholic, and will do so no matter what she says or does. Once in, you’re never out - at least, not while you live in this world. My prayer would be that she will eventually turn towards her baptismal faith community, but whether she does or no is less important than how she lives her life, and as far as I can determine, she lives a Christian life.
As for why we Catholics baptize infants and some Protestant groups don’t - I’m not a good enough theologian to really give the best answer, but I note with great care that when we do baptisms the priest traces a cross on the child’s forehead and announces that he claims the child for Christ. This indicates to me that we are telling the Enemy that this child is ours, and we will fight for it against all temptation to sin. We will do this, naturally, very imperfectly, but we will try…and I do believe that there is power in those words, and I believe - furthermore - that it was this claiming of my self for Christ at my baptism which saved me from a final fall in spite of all my errors and sins in the time between my drifting away from the Church and my joyful return.