Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Diocese of Albany minced no words when reprimanding three Catholic politicians who marched on behalf of Planned Parenthood during the demonstrations that took place on February 11-12.

LifeSiteNews.com is reporting on the rebuke which was issued in the form of a statement from the Bishop’s office. Although he does not name the politicians, they were later identified as Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko and state Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy.

“When individuals, particularly those in political office, gloss over or ignore the core issue of whether or not taxpayers should be funding the world’s largest abortion business by citing Planned Parenthood’s other services, they are engaging in obfuscation that is, at best, confused and, at worst, dishonest,” the bishop states.

Even though it’s true that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, also offers some morally unobjectionable health services to women, “this statement is not unlike saying that a man who beats his wife sometimes gives her flowers,” he says.

And when politicians hold themselves out to be Catholic while defending taxpayer funding of this organization, “their local bishop has a responsibility to offer correction, both for the well-being of the individuals’ souls and to avoid scandal among the Catholic faithful.”

The three politicians in question “not only participated but spoke passionately on behalf of maintaining such funding. And while any judgment of these individuals’ hearts or souls is left only to God, I am entrusted with the solemn duty of reminding them of the unambiguous teaching of our faith on the matter of abortion, informing them that it is inappropriate and confusing to the faithful to hold yourself out publicly as a Catholic while also promoting abortion, and challenging them to embrace the Gospel of Life and to renounce their public support for Planned Parenthood.”

Abortion “is not healthcare,” he points out. “It is the intentional killing of a unique human person in his or her mother’s womb. This is a scientific fact that has nothing at all to do with religion or religious belief.”

Consistent with this scientific fact, “the Catholic Church clearly teaches the objective truth that abortion is a grave moral evil, and that material cooperation in abortion is a mortal sin.”

The local press seemed taken aback by the bishop’s statement. When the Times Union reached out to two of the Catholic politicians, they both expressed surprise.

“It was unfortunate,” Fahy told the reporter. “I was a little taken aback by the comments and the tone.”

Sheehan complained about the way the bishop compared support for the few services Planned Parenthood offers besides abortion to be like supporting an abusive husband who sometimes buys his wife flowers. She found that very poignant analogy to be “profoundly flawed and deeply offensive” and defended herself by saying she was at the rally primarily in support of the abortion giant’s other services.

“I didn’t use the word abortion,” she said. “I didn’t use the term pro-choice.”

Regardless of what she claimed to be supporting, she was still protesting in favor of an organization that murders more than 300,000 children every year. Knowing her to be Catholic, and seeing her among the crowd in support of Planned Parenthood, was clearly a cause of scandal to the Catholic community.

This response is why all of us need to join Bishop Sharfenberger in the need to bring the power of prayer into this unfortunate situation.

“My prayer is that these and other elected officials will come to see the truth that abortion harms women and babies,” he wrote, “and that they courageously fight to defend the right to life of every human person from the moment of conception until natural death.”

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