No one doubts the official position of the Catholic Church on abortion, but since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision there has been a palpable silence among some Catholics, even members of the clergy, willing to publicly denounce the practice that has now claimed the life of 50 million innocent babies. Poll after poll documents significant numbers of Catholics who admit to supporting “abortion rights” even while knowing the doctrinal opposition of the Church.
Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is different. He has become one of the most outspoken defenders of life and the Church’s non-negotiable position on the subject. In his recently released book, Render Unto Caesar, Chaput calls Catholics to task to live within Church teaching, including when choosing candidates to support in elections.
At an October 3, 2008 meeting of a group of Catholic women known as ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women), Chaput was his characteristically crystal clear self. In a speech titled “Little Murders” he addressed the upcoming elections as well as the fact that some Catholics have tried to rationalize voting for Barack Obama as consistent with Catholic teaching.
Professed Catholic politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have recently created an up roar over their attempts to spin their support for abortion and Obama as somehow acceptable with Catholic teaching. Ken Salazar is in the same category. In reference to Catholics and Catholic groups supporting Obama, Chaput said, they “have done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress pro-lifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn.”
“To suggest — as some Catholics do — that Senator Obama is this year’s ‘real’ pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse,” Chaput said.
Of Catholic acquiescence of abortion, Chaput said, “We need to remember that tolerance is not a Christian virtue, and it’s never an end in itself. In fact, tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of evil.”
The Archbishop spoke very directly about the upcoming presidential election and Barack Obama, who has voted against providing life saving medical assistance to babies born alive in failed late-term abortion procedures. “I believe that Senator Obama, whatever his other talents, is the most committed ‘abortion-rights’ presidential candidate of either major party since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973.”
Chaput also blasted the Democrat Party platform adopted last summer in Denver. He said, “the party platform Senator Obama runs on this year is not only aggressively ‘pro-choice;’ it has also removed any suggestion that killing an unborn child might be a regrettable thing. On the question of homicide against the unborn child — and let’s remember that the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer explicitly called abortion “murder” — the Democratic platform that emerged from Denver in August 2008 is clearly anti-life.” (emphasis added)
Charles J. Chaput has made a career of spreading the “Good News” of the Gospel. For those of us Catholics who have longed for courageous leadership and moral clarity from our Church bishops and priests he is as a true gift from God.