DALLAS - Catholics for Obama has just launched a web site as the Nov. 4 White House race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain enters its final laps.
Catholics, who account for close to a quarter of the U.S. adult population, comprise a key religious group that both sides have tried to woo. In closely contested swing states such as Ohio or Florida the Catholic vote could make a difference.
The web site is sure to stoke controversy in Catholic circles with this statement: “Is Barack Obama really pro-life? The answer is ‘yes.’ Looking through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, Senator Obama has spent his entire career striving for the common good. He supports health care programs that will cover all Americans, a living wage for working families, and solutions that allow distressed families to stay in their homes.”
It goes on to say that Obama, a strong advocate like his party of abortion rights, will reduce the number of abortions by promoting health care for pregnant women and infant care.
Abortion is one of the most polarizing issues in America and official Catholic doctrine on the matter is clear: the church regards it as murder.
Archbishop Raymond Burke, a senior American in the Vatican, recently said the Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death’” because of its choices on bioethical questions and abortion.
Echoing several U.S. bishops, Burke accused the Democratic Party’s most high-profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — of misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.
McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are both staunchly opposed to abortion rights and the Republican Party often does well with conservative Catholics who vote largely on this issue.
But the flock itself is far more divided on the issue which can help Obama build on the leads he already has in most national polls with Catholic voters.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Jim Young. Obama speaks at campaign rally in Miami, Oct. 21, 2008.
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Mary….
- Posted by VittorioYou are not Catholic! You are an OBAMALIC!!
Go back and read your post.”Mothers and their babies will
be helped more with him as president”. Try telling that
to the baby who just had his/her brains sucked out in a partial birth Abortion, or a baby who was left to die alone in a room after a botched partial birth abortion.
Also in your post,”Republican administrations have not done anything to prevent more abortions besides talking about it.” And Mary, my question to you. What have you done about it? …………
The choice for Catholics is SIMPLE!…. Choose LIFE! Choose GOD!….If you are thinking of choosing OBAMA…then you can STOP calling yourselves Catholics…you have turned your backs on your beliefs and allowed innocent lives to be sacrifed for the sake of economy, false freedom, equality etc…. NOTHING is more IMPORTANT than LIFE!!!!
- Posted by rowieYou cannot be pro-choice and Catholic.
You cannot be pro-Obama and Catholic.
Jesus said if you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Either you are FOR God or against God.
- Posted by cokeI am a Catholic for Obama. Although neither candidate is completely pro-life I feel that mothers and their babies will be helped more with him as president. For 30 years mostly republican administrations have not done anything to prevent more abortions besides talking about it. They really don’t want to kill the parents (who partake in abortion) or throw them in jail.
- Posted by MaryTo: “Catholics for Obama”,
- Posted by VittorioSince you are no longer Catholic, What name have you chosen for your new religion? Maybe, “Obamalic”
Care to provide the sources so we can all independently verify those quotes, “Dave”?
“93% of quotes that fail to give a primary source are false.” - Jimmy Carter
- Posted by M. ForrestIf there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an empahtic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office.
-Theodore Roosevelt {REPUBLICAN}
“Religions are all alike - founded upon fables and mythologies.”
–Thomas Jefferson{Principal Author of the Declaration of Independence}
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.” - John Adams{2nd President, yet another Founding Father}
- Posted by DaveOver the last four years, Joe Biden has given an average of $450 to charity. Biden is to charity what Obama is to life. Phony. ned
- Posted by john e wright50 million dead innocent babies later and we still have so-called Catholics voting Democrat. Where would the Democrat’s platform of murder be without the Catholic vote which make up 24% of the American population? The blood is on the hands of Catholics and their 25-year voting record. It’s time you put your egos aside and worry about your own salvation.
- Posted by PatThe Eucharist should be denied to those who support abortion.
Catholics, we cannot support elective abortion that attacks a living human being and continue to call ourselves Catholic. Killing a child for convenience or because the child is imperfect is intrinsically evil in ALL cases, and the “rape” that pro-abortionists whine about is very, very rare.
I understand Catholics’ desire to support an intelligent politician who supports strong programs for social justice. To that end, if you choose to ignore the abortion issue and vote for Obama, I understand, but you cannot back away from the Pro-Life position and truly be Catholic.
- Posted by connectOn judgement day, what will pro-choice Catholics say to the 40million dead babies when they ask “Why didn’t you protect me?”
- Posted by Joe Stenger48 million lives have been lost to Roe V Wade…there is no other moral issue we face of greater importance than than abortion. Voting for Obama is no different than voting for Adolf Hitler because he promised to improve the economy. We will all have to give an accounting of ourselves one day.
- Posted by Deacon JoeIf you value life…if you believe that ALL life is God’s creation…then you CANNOT vote for OBAMA bacause he does not value the lives of innocent, unborn children. The littlest amongst us who do not have a voice of their own has nobody to protect them …not even their own Mothers! We cannot allow this MURDER of innocent lives to continue! As a catholic, I cannot…in good conscience vote for Obama. So many…billions of innocent lives are at stake here!!!!
- Posted by rowie4njvotes. Our founding fathers NEVER intended there to be a separation between religion and the governed/governor’s. The exact opposite, they very intentionally intended a plurality, which means they expected all religious people to use and take their deep held religious conscience into the voting box, and into their governmental responsibilities. The constitutional provisions regarding religion have more to do with protecting religion from government, not the otherway around. They didn’t want what happened in England, where the government was dictating religious precepts, belief, practice etc… The idea that the founding fathers of this country (U.S.) wanted government to be free ‘from’ religion, is a fabricated concept, and does not hold up to historical scrutiny.
- Posted by DoormanBy the way, IF Sarah is such a regligious person, what was she thinking of when engaging in premarital sex? Isn’t this against the tenents of her church as well?? “Thou shalt not commit adultry”. Guess she chooses and picks which of her church rules she will follow and which ones she won’t. Kind of how she picks and chooses who is American and who is anti-American?? Talk about a hypocrite!!
- Posted by NinaKI do not believe in abortion, however I do believe in birh control. If more women and men, young ladies and young men practiced birth control via the pill, condoms or other methods we would see a huge decline in teenage pregnancies, and an even bigger decline in abortions. Sarah Palin promotes abstinance ONLY. Will it did not work for her and it did not work for her teen-age daughter as both did not practice abstinance. So, what is Sarah’s teaching?? Do as I say and not as my daughter and I do?? She is a hypocrite!! The best way to go is by using the birth contols of your choice. Abstinance is pretty difficult when you are already engaged in sexual activities. Whether we like it or not, people more and more engage in such activity so why not protect yourselves against getting pregnant?? Makes the most sense to me.
- Posted by NinaK“Catholics for Obama”? That’s an oxymoron. Any faithful Catholic, not someone who is simply masquerading as a Catholic, who aids and abets infanticide by voting for Obama and Biden has excommunicated themselves latae sententiae and placed in serious peril the eternal destination of their soul. As Scripture teaches, a person will have to answer for their behavior in this life during their particular judgment and voting for a pro-infanticide Marxist like Obama is not worth an eternity serving Lucifer. God won’t be grading on a curve.
- Posted by AA CunninghamCatholics have tremendous choice in this election if they look at the POLITICAL election - separated from RELIGION - as our founding religious/political leaders suggested.
- Posted by 4njvotesfor all the screaming this country does regarding other countries religious politics we sure do try to engage in an awful lot of religious politics. Once again, the far right living in glass houses throwing stones.
With 3,600 aborations EVERYDAY, show me one war where that many Americans were killed! How can you people use that as an excuse to vote for Obama.
- Posted by Larry CeteraLet us not forget what potential harm he can do to the US with his extreme liberal choices for the Supreme Court. His choices will shape our country for generations to come. If for no other reason, this would keep me from voting for Obama.
“Singer asserts that infanticide is okay because partial birth abortions (which can happen only a few months before birth) are okay.”
Oops, I mean a few “minutes before birth” not “a few hours before birth”.
- Posted by Ronald Devins