A couple weeks ago, there was a well-read diary about a letter that the Bishop of the Scranton PA area ordered read to all of the parishes in Northeastern PA at every mass. It basically said that abortion should trump over any other issue in voting.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Here's a follow-up to this same matter:
October 22, 2008
"An unexpected visit by the bishop of Scranton, PA to a parish forum on the upcoming elections, has resulted in a small firestorm of controversy, after the bishop forcefully repudiated the idea that Catholics can vote for pro-abortion politicians....Parishioners of St. John’s church in Scranton were discussing a statement that had been produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that some argue lends itself to the interpretation that Catholics can vote for pro-abortion candidates under certain circumstances. They were taken aback, however, when Bishop Joseph Martino arrived at the forum unannounced and told his flock, "No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese...The only relevant document ... is my letter ...There is one teacher in this diocese, and these points are not debatable."
"Bishop Martino was referring to a pastoral letter he issued earlier this month that rejected a trend in the US Catholic Church, sometimes bolstered by official USCCB statements, that claims that abortion and euthanasia are moral equivalents to other issues such as war and economic injustice. According to this theory a Catholic can in good conscience vote for politicians who are pro-abortion but hold acceptable views on other "peace and justice" issues. In his letter, Bishop Martino called legal abortion "injustice of the worst kind" and ...no person of conscience should support it."
Bishop Martino specifically cited and strongly refuted the common argument that says while abortion is wrong, it is not "the only relevant ‘life’ issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote." ... However, while health care, education, economic security, immigration, and taxes "are very important concerns," he said, "the solutions to problems in these areas do not usually involve a rejection of the sanctity of human life in the way that abortion does."
A statement from the diocese later confirmed the Bishop’s comments ...."Certain groups and individuals have used their own erroneous interpretations of Church documents, particularly the U.S. Bishops’ statement on Faithful Citizenship, to justify their political positions and to contradict the Church’s actual teaching on the centrality of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research," the statement said. In recent years, Catholics have received conflicting messages from their Church’s leadership over whether it is permissible to vote for a politician who, while supporting abortion, is supportive of efforts to help the poor, or of other "peace and justice"
causes."
This above excerpt came from an anti-abortion website:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/...
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Here's excerpts from a Oct. 22, 2008 article in the Standard Speaker newspaper
www.standardspeaker.com (direct link is absurdly long)
"Tagle said the bishop criticized the resident pastor, Rev. Martin Boylan, for holding the forum and "seemed to justify his presence there by stating that he owned the building."
He also described the bishop’s tone as "angry and admonishing" and said his words created a surprising level of emotion in the audience.
"When he left it was chaotic," Tagle said. "He incited his supporters to wild applause and shouting. And some individuals were castigating others for supporting pro-choice candidates. It was pretty wild there for a while."
The bishop left shortly after his remarks and many audience members — some put the number at two-thirds of the group, others say a quarter — left after him."
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Read the full text of Bishop Martino’s letter:
http://www.catholic.org/...