Cardinal Bernardin himself said, "You can't vote for pro-abortion politicians!"
You can't vote for pro-abortion politicians!
That is what the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago told the National Catholic Register -- and all the way back in 1988, yet.
The Register (click on this post's title), in a May 31, 2009, post on its daily blogspot, says Dr. Elizabeth Lev, daughter of Prof. Mary Ann Glendon, has found the quote from Cardinal Bernardin as it appeared on the front page of the Register of June 12, 1988.
Here is how Elizabeth Lev quoted what Cardinal Bernardin said in the Register:
"I don't see how you can subscribe to the consistent ethic and then vote for someone who feels that abortion is a 'basic right' of the individual." He went on to say, “I know that some people on the left, if I may use that label, have used the consistent ethic to give the impression that the abortion issue is not all that important anymore, that you should be against abortion in a general way but that there are more important issues, so don’t hold anybody’s feet to the fire just on abortion. That’s a misuse of the consistent ethic, and I deplore it.”
Cardinal Bernardin came up with his "seamless garment" "consistent ethic of life issues" idea in 1983. Ever since then, pro-abortion Catholic politicians have used it over and over to excuse their multiple political and legislative betrayals of preborn babies and their right to life.
Millions of Catholic voters, too, use the "consistent ethic" to excuse their voting for pro-aborts.
So do many Catholic bishops, priests and religious use the "consistent ethic of life" to excuse their being inconsistent with Catholic morality and doctrine about innocent babies' lives.
Maybe you have experienced it: It is shocking when you talk to a cleric about politicians and the little preborn babies, and he objects, "It's only one issue."
No wonder the "seamless garment" is often called the "seamy garment."
Why didn't Cardinal Bernardin drum it into Catholics' heads through the years that, as he said plainly in 1988, don't misuse the "consistent ethic" to justify voting for pro-aborts?
That is what the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago told the National Catholic Register -- and all the way back in 1988, yet.
The Register (click on this post's title), in a May 31, 2009, post on its daily blogspot, says Dr. Elizabeth Lev, daughter of Prof. Mary Ann Glendon, has found the quote from Cardinal Bernardin as it appeared on the front page of the Register of June 12, 1988.
Here is how Elizabeth Lev quoted what Cardinal Bernardin said in the Register:
"I don't see how you can subscribe to the consistent ethic and then vote for someone who feels that abortion is a 'basic right' of the individual." He went on to say, “I know that some people on the left, if I may use that label, have used the consistent ethic to give the impression that the abortion issue is not all that important anymore, that you should be against abortion in a general way but that there are more important issues, so don’t hold anybody’s feet to the fire just on abortion. That’s a misuse of the consistent ethic, and I deplore it.”
Cardinal Bernardin came up with his "seamless garment" "consistent ethic of life issues" idea in 1983. Ever since then, pro-abortion Catholic politicians have used it over and over to excuse their multiple political and legislative betrayals of preborn babies and their right to life.
Millions of Catholic voters, too, use the "consistent ethic" to excuse their voting for pro-aborts.
So do many Catholic bishops, priests and religious use the "consistent ethic of life" to excuse their being inconsistent with Catholic morality and doctrine about innocent babies' lives.
Maybe you have experienced it: It is shocking when you talk to a cleric about politicians and the little preborn babies, and he objects, "It's only one issue."
No wonder the "seamless garment" is often called the "seamy garment."
Why didn't Cardinal Bernardin drum it into Catholics' heads through the years that, as he said plainly in 1988, don't misuse the "consistent ethic" to justify voting for pro-aborts?
posted by Quintero at 1:47 PM
8 Comments:
I think it is a bit disingenuous to ask "Why didn't Cardinal Bernardin drum it into Catholics' heads...?"
I work in the church of Chicago, and it was no secret to us, the flock that he taught most directly, what he felt about the issue of abortion and the place it holds in the consistent ethic of life.
Also, the quote was from 1988, which I think is a great example of the Cardinal teaching. He died in 1996 (having been quite ill for almost two years prior to that.) That brings us to 1994, before his diagnosis of cancer, only six years after that interview and fifteen years ago.
You might ask, "Why don't other bishops drum it into Catholics' heads?" Um, they try to make the point, I think we will all agree. Whether it is heard is one question. Whether what they say is heeded is another. Whether it is misinterpreted is yet a third. All things to consider when looking at what Joe Bernardin had to say.
St. Charles Lwanga & companions, pray for marriage!
Dear Anonymous 3:57 p.m.,
Thank you for writing. I understand your loyalty to Cardinal Bernardin, but may I offer the following suggestions?
Cardinal Bernardin's saying that the "consistent ethic" should not be used to minimize aborting babies might not have been a secret to you and your friends, but it has been a total secret to countless other Catholics around the USA.
The use of the "consistent ethic" as an excuse for politicians to be pro-abortion, and for Catholic voters to back them, has been a Catholic scandal for 25 years.
For example, Mario Cuomo used it almost right away in his speech at Notre Dame in 1984 -- and Catholic politicians seized upon it and have used it ever since.
So have bishops and priests and religious, not to mention laity.
I would bet that not one in 10,000 Catholics has ever heard that Cardinal Bernardin ever said not to use the "consistent ethic" to minimize the gravity of aborting babies by the millions.
If Catholics in Chicago knew that, then how many of them have voted as if aborting babies is their main issue? Not enough.
Names such as Obama, Durbin, Daley, Blagoevich, etc., keep popping up to remind us that many Catholic voters do not vote as if aborting babies matters to them.
Could Cardinal Bernardin have failed to notice that almost everyone was citing his "ethic" to legitimize voting for pro-aborts?
The U.S. bishops' "Faithful Citizenship" document cited the "consistent ethic" so consistently that it misled some Catholic voters and confused others.
Too many U.S. bishops, by their silence, by their uncertain trumpet, and by their outright intimating that the "consistent ethic" trumps aborting babies, share the major blame.
If millions of Catholic voters have ignored or misinterpreted, for a quarter-century, what Cardinal Bernardin said, then it is clear that he needed to revise his message and speak it louder, more often and more forcefully.
The U.S. bishops today need to do the same thing.
Thank you for listening!
Dear Anonymous 9:38 p.m.,
Thank you for the prayer, and for the reminder that every June 3 is the feast day of St. Charles Lwanga and his Companions, martyrs for the Faith and for resisting a homosexual local potentate.
I wanted to do a post about that feast yesterday (June 3) but just was unable to.
St. Charles Lwanga and Friends, pray for us, our Church, our USA, the West, and all the world!
Wow. Maybe the cardinal's teaching was kept in "hiding" because it was meant to come out at a time such as this. A time when liberals have taken over the dialogue when it comes to Christianity and it's teachings.
Let's not forget that many people on the Left look at Cardinal Mahony as the heir to Cardinal Bernardin. However, Mahony has never said anything as strong as what Cardinal Bernardin said against abortion.
It's all very interesting. We'll see if the Pro-Life movement uses Cardinal Bernardin's great quote on jelly-spined bishops. Perhaps the bishops will grow a backbone and do their duty to impart the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
'Can't hide the Truth all the time. Things will come and go but, the Word of God is forever.
MVH
Dear MVH,
Now is the time, I agree, to publicize what Cardinal Bernardin said. You and I and everyone who stops in at this blogspot can do that by sending his words to all our family, friends and contacts.
Everyone needs to hear it, including Catholic liberals.
Some years ago, Cardinal Mahony did say that abortion is the #1 civil rights issue of our time.
More and more of our bishops are saying similar things. But they need to say them much more often and to back up those words with concrete pro-life actions.
One of the biggest things the bishops could do would be to stop palling around with pro-abortion politicians.
The trouble is, the bishops want the cooperation of pro-abortion politicians on political issues such as immigration.
In that one clearly can vote for a politician, that supports abortion being kept available why us the word can't? Why wasn't shouldn't used, and the reasons why one shouldn't be presented to the voter? My guess is that the leaders of the faithful, and the faithful themselves, have been allowed to force themselves on others who believe differently. After birth that seamless garment becomes a garment full of hole, that those who oppose abortion slip through, when it comes to them, giving up something to protect the lives of the born, living and walking among us. In the enter,left, right moral ambiguity abounds, and that's why we are where we are at today
Dear Doug,
Yes, moral ambiguity can be a big problem.
But the Catholic Church is not ambiguous. She teaches, as Pope Benedict XVI said in January 2006, that the "primary duty" of those involved in public life is "the defense of life -- from conception to natural end -- wherever it is threatened, violated or trampled."
Catholics may not be for aborting babies and may not, except in the rarest of circumstances, vote for any politicians who promote aborting babies.
The U.S. bishops' Faithful Citizenship document gave unclear and confusing verbiage about that, and needs to be revised.
For the Church to defend preborn babies and say the law needs to return to protecting them is not to "force" anything on anyone.
Pro-lifers do not stop caring about the well-being and rights of people after they are born -- that is a myth the pro-aborts want everyone to believe.
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