by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have once again responded to erroneous public statements made by a Catholic politician about the teachings of the Church.
The latest incident occurred on Sept. 7 when Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) said on Meet the Press that while he believes life begins at conception, this is a “personal and private” matter of religious faith that cannot be “imposed” on others.
This comment “does not reflect the truth of the matter,” said Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William Lori, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, in a Sept. 9 statement.
“Senator Biden did not claim that Catholic teaching allows or has ever allowed abortion. He said rightly that human life begins ‘at the moment of conception,’ and that Catholics and others who recognize this should not be required by others to pay for abortions with their taxes.
“However, the Senator’s claim that the beginning of human life is a “personal and private” matter of religious faith, one which cannot be “imposed” on others, does not reflect the truth of the matter. The Church recognizes that the obligation to protect unborn human life rests on the answer to two questions, neither of which is private or specifically religious.”
The first is a biological question about when human life begins, which today’s science has determined to be at the moment of conception. “The Catholic Church does not teach this as a matter of faith; it acknowledges it as a matter of objective fact,” the bishops write.
The second is a moral question, with legal and political consequences, concerning which members of the human species have fundamental human rights, such as the right not to be killed.
“The Catholic Church’s answer is: Everybody. No human being should be treated as lacking human rights, and we have no business dividing humanity into those who are valuable enough to warrant protection and those who are not. This is not solely a Catholic teaching, but a principle of natural law accessible to all people of good will.”
The bishops go on to remind that this is also the belief of the framers of the Declaration of Independence who spoke about inalienable rights being bestowed on all members of the human race not by any human power, but by their Creator.
“Those who hold a narrower and more exclusionary view have the burden of explaining why we should divide humanity into those who have moral value and those who do not, and why their particular choice of where to draw that line can be sustained in a pluralistic society,” the bishops write.
These narrow views pose a serious threat to the dignity and rights of the more vulnerable members of society, such as the poor, the disabled and the elderly.
“While in past centuries biological knowledge was often inaccurate, modern science leaves no excuse for anyone to deny the humanity of the unborn child. Protection of innocent human life is not an imposition of personal religious conviction but a demand of justice.”
This is the second time the nation’s bishops have had to respond to Catholic politicians who misrepresented Church teaching while speaking in a public forum. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrongly stated on Meet the Press a few weeks ago that the Church has never answered the question of when life begins, dozens of bishops responded with public clarifications of Church teaching.
In the wake of Senator Biden’s comments, Washington’s Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl sent a letter to all of his priests encouraging them to use the pulpit to correct these errors.
“These are teachable moments,” he wrote, “and present an opportunity to highlight the consistency and clarity of our Catholic faith.”
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