Vatican official attacks U.S. Democrats as “party of death”
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Vatican officials seldom single out political leaders who differ with the Church on issues like abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research. But now that the Vatican’s highest court is led by an American, the former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, we can expect things to get more explicit in Vatican City — at least when when it comes to U.S. politics.
Burke, who was named prefect of the Vatican’s Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature in June, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the U.S. Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on bioethical issues.” He then attacked two of the party’s most high profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.
He said Biden and Pelosi, “while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have presented Church doctrine on abortion in a false and tendentious way.”
Pelosi drew U.S. bishops’ scorn for saying in a television interview last month that the Church itself had long debated when human life begins. Biden is a practicing Catholic who also supports abortion rights and analysts have said he could help woo wavering Catholics into Obama’s fold. Both argue that they cannot impose their religious views on others.
Burke said pro-life Democrats were “rare” and that it saddened him that the party that helped “our immigrant parents and grandparents” prosper in America had changed so much over the years.
Burke made headlines as archbishop of St. Louis for his public attacks on public figures who strayed from Catholic teaching. He suggested during the 2004 presidential campaign that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic, should be denied communion because of his views on abortion. Several bishops said at the time they would not give him communion and the media staked out churches where he attended Mass to see if he received it.
“Lately, I’ve noticed that other bishops are coming to this position,” Burke told Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a letter in 2004 to American bishops restating the Church position that a priest must refuse to distribute communion to a Catholic politician who supported abortion rights. But Burke lamented that the letter was never distributed.
Burke’s criticism isn’t limited to Democrats. Last year, he accused singer Sheryl Crow of being “a high profile proponent of the destruction of innocent lives” for defending a woman’s right to have an abortion and for being a proponent of stem cell research. He resigned as head of a children’s medical charity that featured the singer for a benefit concert.
Pope Benedict has been encouraging Catholic bishops to speak out more openly on public policy issues to make the Church’s voice heard. Any bets on when we’ll hear from Burke next?
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There you go, I totally believe that the Dems are not the Dems of the past, these are socialists, that are taking advantage of the American people. We have to wake up, they are criminals, corrupt, Hollywood garbage, emotional disturb who are out for themselves, and don’t really care about anyone else. The are for abortion and Obama should be ashamed of himself for allowing partial birth killing of innocent babies. This is not right, where are their values. I was a Democrat for many years, until I grew up and became mature. I could not agree with a party, that had loose morals, and whose values lay in the gutter. GO MCCAIN and PALIN, millions of us our praying for you…..
Well, it’s a bout time. The Democrats are so fixated on abortion….for them it’s almost a sacrement.
So just because somebody is a political leader they are supposed to never speak out about their beliefs? What has happened to the world today? There are people actually standing up for the right to slaughter babies? There are people that actually say it is wrong to speak up for God just because of your position in society? I feel sorry for all of you the day you stand in front of the judgment seat and have to explain why your words lash out in blasphemy. Woe to those who speak such trash. Your day will come. Repent now or suffer for eternity by the hand of the King of kings.
The Catholic Church and all other faiths or non-faiths have every right to instruct and correct those who lay claim to the membership. In this case, the Catholic Church was simply correcting two members – Pelosi and Biden – who claim membership in the Church and yet, deliberately speak IN ERROR as if they are scholars in church dogma.
Furthermore, Church officials have the right to speak in a cautionary tone as an example to the rest of the faithful. They have the right to “instruct” the faithful.
For those of you who react so vehemently against anyone “legislating their faith,” you really should be INTELLECTUALLY HONEST and disagree with the position or opinion stated rather than rant & rave about people who live what they believe.
Violent advocacy of abortion, is repugnant to God. That’s not negotiable, nor can any pseudo-intellectual drivel change that.
Take away these people’s tax exemption. They’ve become even more annoying than the FLDS. And the FLDS pays taxes! The Catholic Church rapes children. We need to shut these super-clowns up.
Religion has no place in politics until it starts paying taxes. I am tired of hearing what this bishop or that mininster has to say about it. Put up or shut up, thats your choice.
This article is not about the republicans.
This article is not about clergy sex issues.
This article is not about wars, past or present.
This article is not about past practices hundreds of years old.
This article is not even about a specific political figure.
I could check, but I’m pretty sure we do not burn heretics anymore.
It is an opinion piece about respect for life.
When your party/canidate/views are criticized, if your only defense is pointing to other things and going “Oh, yeah? What about….”, then your position is weak indeed. Thou doth protest too much.
Sorry, trying to create guilt for actions in the 14th century really doesn’t constitute an argument.
Obama and his party have moved far away from where any of us should be. His heart may be in the right place, but his views do not mesh with the mainstream, or with Our Faith.
Biden and Pelosi should be excomunicated to make the point perfectly clear.
It is apparent many here posting comments are not Catholic. The Catholic doctrine states “thou shalt not murder”, which when translated from its original text to English, came out “thou shalt not kill”.
Murder has an entirely different meaning than kill and we Catholics need to remember the difference and the ORIGINAL text as it was written.
Abortion is murder. War, and all that goes with it, is a necessary evil on this planet and is in no way at odds with Church Doctrine. Obviously it isn’t praised, but also not condemned either.
So, if you are going to talk about a subject in which you have no knowledge, at least read a little bit before you comment.
The Bishop is right in this statement (although I have disagreed with him on many others). Democrats, with their willful adherence to abortion, are the party of Death.
People have differing views on when life begins, but God doesn’t, and I’m excited to see catholics stand against the killing of helpless children. I’m not catholic, but I support the vatican’s position here – and they’re right for excluding politicians who and pro-abortion. This isn’t about who’s the “party of life;” it’s about the church taking a stand against an unconstitutional, unscriptural, rampant evil that has killed almost fifty million babies since 1973.
Abortion is murder.
Apparently, the irony of the democrat hypocrisy is lost on the democrats themselves:
They support pre-birth abortion of the innocent;
they support partial-birth abortion of the innocent;
but they DON’T support ‘POST-birth abortion’ (aka capital punishment) of a criminal guilty of murder.
Yes, the Vatican is correct on it’s view of the demoncrats.
I don’t consider anyone who has an abortion or someone who performs an abortion to be “sentient”.
We are regressing as a society, yet those who support this barbaric act claim to be enlightened.
Pat’s question:
“What would the political landscape in America look like if religion was totally eliminated from the discussions?”
My answer:
Like Russia. They have done wonderfully in the last few decades. Right.
Who cares? I think it’s laughable that the Church thinks the Democrats are “the party of death” when you consider that abortion rates go up during Republican presidencies and down during Democratic. Let alone the observation that abortions go up in countries that ban it completely. I guess they don’t teach logic in the church anymore.
Funny, the Catholic church burned untold thousands at the stake for heresy. The Republicans start a war with lies and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan. And these hypocrites call the Democrats the party of death because they don’t want to “FORCE” women to have children that they can’t afford. God said to be fruitful and multiply, not destroy the world with over population. No wonder Christ called church leaders “SONS OF VIPERS”.
Archbishop is taking a strong moral stand and I applaud him for that. Killing unborn babies is a lot different than defending ourselves against evil lunatics who would destroy the West. The democrats are the party of death, socialism, whining, victims rights and all the the other bad things that are tearing America apart. Some of them know what they are doing because they want to destroy us, but sadly the masses hear Obama make a speech and think if he is elected they will get a great job and all will be well. It is sad and scary at the same time.
I dunno…the way democrats have turned abortion into a secular sacrament is grotesque enough, I think, to warrant the label “party of death.” If the shoe fits….
The Catholic Church is out of touch and simply does not understand one of the principles the United States was founded on; the free, unfettered, exercise of religion. In order to achieve this religion needs to stay out of politics and out of American laws. A political candidate’s personal religious beliefs or dogma is not an appropriate foundation for law making. In this way, supporting the abortion right is not incongruent from their own personal beliefs. By Sen. Biden and Speaker Pelosi are merely exercising their good professional judgment and keeping their personal religious teachings out of the abortion debate, they are merely fulfilling their role in representing the whole of their constituency be it Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, or any other religion. They have to respect everyone’s rights, without espousing the beliefs of one religion.
Abortion is murder, but I’m still hoping that leftists will go extinct so I no longer must suffer such low quality humans. Democrats please continue to abort your young and make homosexual the survivors. In a few generations people will theoretically appreciate life and normalcy again. I do wonder to what extent someone must loathe themselves to encourage infanticide and homosexuality. When will your subcultural suicide be complete?
A WOMAN HAS A RIGHT TO CONTROL HER OWN BODY!!!!
I propose they do a dna test on all babies about to be butchered in the womb. If the test comes back positive that the baby’s dna is identical to the mothers dna then she has a “right” to kill, murder, abort, or choose. If however the dna comes back human and seperate from the mothers dna then it is not her body and she does not have the right to murder(except in the very rare case that the pregnancy could cause the mother to risk her life…not her health…we all know you can’t give a loophole to a dem…they would say “mental health” and then proceed to chop and hack the baby into little pieces)her HUMAN baby!
Party of death is guite apparent. It seems his holliness is coming to this party very late. In any case, 60 million dead babies cannot be wrong. The stats are deploable. It takes one million rapes to produce one pregnancy. Thus sixty million dead children are justified for 60 out of six million occurences. Such stats could easily support the reinstitutionalization of slavery and the dissenfranchising women. This mess did not just become deplorable. Like cord wood, these little bodies have been piling up since the 70′s. Where was Rome when all these fetus were burned and which party do they think sanctioned these deaths?
And this from the Child Rape Central?
To all the so=called Catholics, if you don’t like the laws or beliefs of the church go to another denomination, the priests, bishops, arch=bishops, and Pope have a right and duty to speak out!!!!!
And to all those that say remove the Catholic Church’s taxempt status…there would not be a single black church left in the USA. Do you think Obama’s hate whitie, hate jews, hate the USA “church” should be in existance? Or is their tax exempt position just more political big brother tricks? All you need for “BIG BROTHER” is a polital party in power to be in bed with the media(CBS ABC NBC CNBC CNN NYTimes, LATimes, ChicagoTrib, San Fran rag, WashPost, Hollywood, Television, etc etc etc).
Comments that bring up events that happened 1000 years ago are just laughable. For years, Democrats have been getting away with creepy and ghoulish pro-abortion stance with the logical fallacy that they support a “choice” not abortion. Absurd. Now they’re getting called on it and to judge from the shrill screeching tone of these comments, the Archbishop has hit them right where it hurts. Love it.
The “culture of life” does mean that we respect all life and although we are not single-issue voters, we do recognize that some isssues such as the killing of an innocent baby is different than killing a convicted murderer. Some things are just “intrinsically evil.”
I urge all American Catholics to review the document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States at http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org to enlighten themselves on the truth about the way true Catholics should vote.
His Excellency is preaching the truth! Keep it up
I’M APPALLED AT THE ACTIONS AND ATTITUDE OF SO-CALLED CATHOLICS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR. THE CHURCH SHOULD EXCOMMUNICATE ANYONE WHO WOULD AGREE TO TAKE THE LIFE OF AN UNBORN CHILD THIS DECISION SHOULD ONLY BE MADE BY THE MOTHER TO BE AND HER DOCTOR. JUST AS MANY INNOCENT MEN AND WOMAN ARE EXECUTED EACH YEAR SO ARE INNOCENT BABIES.
it’s never been a secret how the Catholic Church feels about abortion and when life begins. And people who are worried about a Catholic voting from their beliefs, I say people do it all the time whether your a catholic, baptist, muslim or athiest or whatever. I mean hey, you got the Teachers Union and Teachers wearing Obama pins and encouraging teachers to wear blue in the classroom and teaching children to sing Obama messiah songs. Jees, Everybody is a hypocrite!! At least you know where the Catholic Church stands. And if a member doesn’t like it a member can always leave.
The religion whose rabid antisemitism promoted the Holocaust, labels the Democrats the “party of death.”
Rich.
Why is it that people who are
pro-abortion live their lives
making excuses for this
brutal, life- ending choice?
The only way to make the Religious zealots happy would be to elect the Pope to be president of the United States. Oh wait…not all religions believe the Pope is the head of their church.
What to do? Maybe we should form a government that seperates the views of Church from the laws made by the State.
JJ,
Christ and the Apostles require us to share our beliefs and Christian values with others. The post-abortion experiences of women are as real as it gets. You would have us all live in a world without Christ. You do not write as a Christian, but as a worldly and selfish, shallow man.
You are far from Christ.
Burke is gutsy and right to do and say what he’s done. It is Pelosi, Biden and other pro-abortion Catholic Dems who are out of bounds, trespassing on Church teaching, and Arch-Bishop Burke is calling them on that.
They don’t get to get away with purposefully misrepresenting Church teaching, unchanged since the 1st Century. And ita simply a fact that the Dems are the party of death – they want more abortions, and more euthanasia. That’s just plain choosing death – period. Everyone knows that.
The reality of the matter comes down to this: People are of a particular faith for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is family history.
Unlike Islamic faiths or the Jewish faith and others which are so distinctly intertwined to the fabric of society in certain parts of the world, faith here in the US is mostly an ancillary item.
That is our societal makeup is so diverse such to mean that no one faith uniquely dictates the policies and actions of our government or citizens.
People have the right to disagree with tenets of their faith. That’s their choice. The same thing is true with regard to party affiliation.
Biden and Pelosi can be Catholics and disagree with the Church’s view on certain issues, just as they could disagree with tenets of their party if their faith dictates they hold a different opinion.
We cannot be terribly surprised to see the Catholic Church decry those who have a counter opinion to theirs in terms of abortion. However, I find their words distasteful and inappropriate.
This is why it’s always funny to me how intolerant many highly religious people are, all while claiming they’re the only ones who care for peace & harmony.
It just shows you that people (including Clergy) are too often only tolerant of views they agree with.
All of you patriotic, suppose to be intelligent and good Americans got your heads still in the sand! Catholics and especially those who serve in the vatican, parishes, and dioceses have abortions. Why haven’t you heard of the stories the reformed nuns tell of the behavior of the rapist an pedophiles who call themselves priest. Their hypocrisies makes me want to vomit. Mr. Burke needs to start right in the position he has been appointed to rid the Whore, Satanic Blaspheming church of its self inbreed sodomites. Further more the catholic church has no right, none whatsoever to speak for the Righteous Lord Jesus Christ. The catholic church sits highly in opposition to the word of God Almighty. It practices what God says THOU SHALT NOT and it does not practice what God says THOU SHALT. GOD–JESUS CHRIST DID NOT LEAVE A SO CALLED SELF MADE HOLY SEE TO SEE AFTER MANKIND. We can go to our FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN FOR OURSELVES,and not by some fake beads called the rosary and confessions.
Hey Obama supporters, the black race is being aborted by black women everywhere at the highest rate of all races. In fact, research it and you will find Planned Parenthood promotes it. Just think another Martin Luther King has probably been done away with in the name of worshipping at the altar of abortion. I guess we all will find out what Our Lord thinks about taking a living human being from the womb when we all meet someday. Is it not better to choose life and let the chips fall where they may? Stop this nonsense and choose life always!! Adoption is a beautiful and wonderful choice, look into this option and see what a wonderful future a child could have.
For the purpose of power and greed, the early Catholic Church emacerated the original teachings of Jesus and started the Christian religion on a trajectory of devastating misinformation. Jesus would not approve of what passes for Christianity today. Everyone owes it to themselves to research the early esoteric/gnostic tenets on their own.
In truth, Life is eternal….beginning-less and endless.
God Bless the Catholic Church. Barak Obama and Joe Biden offer the most liberal ticket in the history of the American Republic. We need to protect life. Life of the unborn and the lives of those in Iraq and around the world that face the threat of terror.
It’s about time, and where are the American bishops?
After this election Roe v. Wade will be overturned, it is the will of the universal church . Women will know who controls their bodies, men do .Wire hangars are not surgical instruments. Hospital emergency rooms, prepare for the carnage !
I am personally opposed to slavery, but I would never impose my views on the slaveowners.
Life begins at conception, period. Those Democrats who call themselves Catholic and yet endorse ABORTION are not Catholics, for they do not follow the teachings of the Bible and Church. Pelosi, should attend, as a writer above stated the “Church of Satan” in San Francisco, as far as Joe Biden and other Democrats who call themselves Catholics, they lost their way and should be excommunicated. Many of the statements are critical of the Church’s statement. You have that right. However, we Catholics who firmly stand with our Church will follow the church that Jesus Christ himself directed Peter, the apostle to begin, i.e., the rock of which his church will be built upon. Some of the writers, complain about so-called atrocities over the years, and emphasize WWII. Evidently, they don’t realize, the church was operating in secret, saving hundreds of thousands of lives by providing places for all the people Hitler wanted to kill, from Jews to Homosexuals. The church was protecting life, as it does now. Even though homosexuality is sinful, saving the life of the sinner is very important to our Catholic teachings, as every life is a gift from God! Pelosi, Biden, the Kennedys and all Democratics who call themselves Catholics are lying to theirselves.
Isn’t it odd that this Bishop found this the correct time to issue this statement? I guess it’s all about timing. And yet, as some of you pointed out, a deafening silence about the issues of torture and the ongoing war. I left the catholic church about 8 years ago when the Vatican agreed to meet with the the warlord W. Even though John Paul read a statement about the war and torture, no big outcry came from ANY OTHER of the church’s princes. A big change from the parish activism against the Vietnam war.
Just for clarification, The bible in the old testament is written in Hebrew. The commandment, “Thou Shalt not Kill” is the King James translation in middle English. The word used by God in Hebrew is to Murder, not kill. God was telling us not to Murder. Murder is to kill someone for personal gain or satisfaction as in a crime of passion or robbery. War is not Murder.
Everyone is missing the point here. I have more respect for an atheist then a hypocrit first of all. I used to be catholic and no longer am. If you say you are catholic and want that title then be a catholic period! Don’t say you are a member of an organization be it religion or political and not expect them to come down on you for not agreeing to the member rules. You agreed to believe in your church’s view the minute you joined then go on in public about boasting on being catholic to get their votes. The catholic church has every right to come down on any member if you don’t agree with their core beliefs then leave as I did period, but to stay and pretend that you can be a public figure and think you will go uncriticized by your church is stupid, hypocritical and typical of our politicians.
People who try to equate abortion with war clearly have no understanding of Holy Scripture or the personality of the God of the Bible, and they likely don’t care. The God of my Bible commanded Saul in I Samuel 15 commanded King Saul to go and slaughter the Amalekites…”This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, CHILDREN and INFANTS, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
The God of the Bible clearly states that the child in the womb is a living sould. He also, throughout the Bible, authorized war and the killing of “innocent” people in the process. Sarah Palin’s quote has been blantantly ripped out of context (like an aborted infant from the womb). She prayed that we were doing God’s will in Iraq…in other words, asking God that he help us do the right thing. Obviously, war should only be a last resort, and I’m not saying that all the reasons for going to his war in particular were correct.
I would like for someone in the pro-choice camp to give us some Scripture that would authorize abortion. Some example where it happened in the Bible.
I think most of you are missing the point of the Archbishops remarks. I believe his intention is to influence Catholic Democrats to be both, not just Democrats who say they are Catholics.
If life begins at conception, and you believe it, you have an obligation to fight for the life of those who can’t defend themselves. If you don’t believe life begins at conception, you’re rejecting Catholic teaching. That’s okay as long as you don’t represent yourself as a Catholic.