To the Editor:
I would like to respond to Loxi Hopkins’ Dec. 20 column. I admire her generous assistance to young women and their unborn babies in their hour of great need.
Where Hopkins is mistaken is her assertion that the “Church is being pulled in two directions by politics rather than Catholic Social Teaching.” I assume this is in response to bishops who spoke authoritatively in regard to voting. Our popes and bishops have clearly stated that abortion is a primary issue when considering candidates.
Pope John Paul II said in his 1988 apostolic exhortation, The Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World: “… the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights is not defended …”.
In addition, 1998 U.S. bishops, “Living the Gospel of Life,” paragraph 23: “Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak and marginalized in all these areas … But being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community.”
Everyone I know of who is active in the pro-life cause looks out for the needs of his or her neighbor. The conflict arises from Catholics — clergy and lay — rejecting Church teaching in regard to responsible citizenship and continuing to align themselves with politicians who don’t respect the most vulnerable among us: the unborn baby.
Eileen Heinold
Davenport
