Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Opinion: This Catholic Will Vote for Life and for the Children

By Deacon Keith A. Fournier
11/2/2008
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The Freedom of Choice Act, supported by Senator Obama, will remove every limiting restriction on the killing of innocent children in the womb. It will entrench abortion on demand through all nine months in the Federal Law.

All one has to do is read the legislation to discover that what I claim about FOCA is not hyperbole, it is fact. It is also why so many of our courageous Catholic Bishops, including Justin Cardinal Rigali and Bishop Robert Finn, have made such a strong effort to bring this fact to the attention of voting Catholics.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - Senator Barack Obama came out swinging Friday. His charged rhetoric was disturbing: "Don't believe for a second this election is over. Don't think for a minute that power concedes anything. It's gonna get nasty, I'm sure, in the next four days…They will throw everything at us like they've been doing, and we're gonna have to work like our future depends on it in this last week. You know what? Because it does, and every single young person here tonight -- I've gotta have every single one of you voting, and you've gotta grab five more, all of you, have gotta vote".

Senator Obama has written two books. One is titled “An audacity of Hope”. He certainly does have audacity to say those kinds of words to his followers. He insinuates that opposition to his candidacy is coming from some perceived class of “oppressors” who want to sort of “keep people down”. Nonsense! I am tired of the charged inflammatory old style class and race based rhetoric which has characterized the closing moments of this campaign. I have spent my entire life opposing the evil of racism. Like abortion, it is rightly called an intrinsic evil in Catholic Social Teaching. My opposition to his candidacy is based on his failure to hear the cry of poor.

I was intrigued by Senator Obama’s candidacy in its early stages. I agreed with his initial opposition to the incursion into Iraq. Because of my commitment to the teaching on economic justice and solidarity offered by Catholic Social Doctrine, I listened with interest to some of his early comments on our economic crisis. I really hope that in my lifetime we will have an African American President to help end the lingering effects of the legacy of racism in this Nation. However, he or she must be correct on the fundamental and foundational human rights issue of our age, the right to life. Without the Right to Life the entire infrastructure of human rights is in jeopardy. I absolutely refuse to support Senator Barack Obama in this election because he fails to hear the cry of an entire segment of the poor, the children in the womb. My opposition has nothing to do with wanting Republicans to “hold on to power”. One irony is that abortion kills a disproportionate number of minority children.

Senator Obama is hailed as a sort of “liberator” of oppressed people. Yet his promised liberation excludes an entire class of persons, our smallest neighbors in the first home of the whole human race, their mothers womb. He has pledged to sign the “Freedom of Choice Act” as his first act as President of the United States. That Act will open up the flow of fetal blood by removing every limiting restriction on the killing of innocent children in the womb. It will entrench abortion on demand through all nine months in the Federal Law and make this evil act enforceable by the Police Power of the State. All one has to do is read the legislation to discover that what I claim about FOCA is not hyperbole, it is fact. It is also why so many of our courageous Catholic Bishops, including Justin Cardinal Rigali and Bishop Robert Finn, have made such a strong effort to bring this fact to the attention of voting Catholics. By the way, all those who have accused the Bishops for not speaking out; I hope you consider giving them an apology! The problem is not our Bishops; it is the plain truth that many of the Catholic faithful are simply not following their clear trumpet sound.
more...

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 8:41 PM