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Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, August 29, 2008
"Congress Catholics want Pelosi to `correct' abortion remarks"
Nineteen Roman Catholic members of Congress have written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to "correct the public record" on remarks she made a week ago on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the Catholic Church's teaching on abortion.
"As fellow Catholics and legislators, we wish you would have made a more honest effort to lay out the authentic position of the Church on this core moral issue before attempting to address it with authority," said the letter, delivered to the speaker on Tuesday.
"Your subsequent remarks mangle Catholic Church doctrine regarding the inherent sanctity and dignity of human life; therefore, we are compelled to refute your error," it added.
Mrs. Pelosi had said the Catholic Church has been divided over abortion and only in the past 50 years has believed that life begins at conception. The remarks were quickly condemned by the bishops of New York, Washington, Denver and Pittsburgh as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic officials have stressed that despite different understandings over 2,000 years about when life begins, their church has always considered abortion a grave moral evil.
The signers of the letter asked Mrs. Pelosi to "rectify your errant claims and apologize for misrepresenting the Church's doctrine and misleading fellow Catholics."
All the signers, including Minority Leader John Boehner, are Republicans. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, who spearheaded the effort, said that was a deliberate decision so as not to put pro-life Democratic legislators in an awkward position.
"We will leave them to act according to their consciences," he said.
(article continues)
"As fellow Catholics and legislators, we wish you would have made a more honest effort to lay out the authentic position of the Church on this core moral issue before attempting to address it with authority," said the letter, delivered to the speaker on Tuesday.
"Your subsequent remarks mangle Catholic Church doctrine regarding the inherent sanctity and dignity of human life; therefore, we are compelled to refute your error," it added.
Mrs. Pelosi had said the Catholic Church has been divided over abortion and only in the past 50 years has believed that life begins at conception. The remarks were quickly condemned by the bishops of New York, Washington, Denver and Pittsburgh as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic officials have stressed that despite different understandings over 2,000 years about when life begins, their church has always considered abortion a grave moral evil.
The signers of the letter asked Mrs. Pelosi to "rectify your errant claims and apologize for misrepresenting the Church's doctrine and misleading fellow Catholics."
All the signers, including Minority Leader John Boehner, are Republicans. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, who spearheaded the effort, said that was a deliberate decision so as not to put pro-life Democratic legislators in an awkward position.
"We will leave them to act according to their consciences," he said.
(article continues)
"Cardinal Rigali Urges Congress To Respect Conscience Rights"
WASHINGTON— Responding to objections to anticipated federal HHS regulations protecting health care providers’ fundamental rights of conscience, Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, today wrote to all members of Congress defending “efforts to reaffirm and implement laws on conscience protection.”
The New York Times on July 15 reported that it had obtained an alleged draft of regulations soon to be issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, to clarify and enforce federal laws on respect for the moral and religious convictions of health care personnel in programs receiving federal funds. Pro-abortion organizations and some members of Congress have already attacked the as-yet-unpublished regulations, saying they are unwarranted and could limit “access” to abortion and birth control.
Reacting to these criticisms, Cardinal Rigali said this “should be a matter of agreement among members who call themselves ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’: the freedom of health care providers to serve the public without violating their most deeply held moral and religious convictions on the sanctity of human life.”
“Congress has passed numerous laws protecting rights of conscience in health care, beginning in 1973,” said the Cardinal, and these laws address sterilization and other issues in addition to abortion. “The critics’ surprise that conscience protection may apply beyond the specific issue of abortion seems based on a lack of knowledge of existing federal law… If the Administration is preparing regulations along these lines, it would simply be performing its proper task in an area of law where that is long overdue.”
Cardinal Rigali said the charge that respect for conscience rights undermines “access” to abortion and other procedures contradicts pro-abortion groups’ longstanding claim that only “a tiny minority of religious zealots” object to their agenda. In any case, he said, “patients with pro-life convictions, including women who require a physician’s care for themselves and their unborn children during pregnancy, deserve ‘access’ to health care professionals who do not have contempt for their religious and moral convictions or for the lives of their children.”
“This issue,” he said, “provides self-described ‘pro-choice’ advocates with an opportunity to demonstrate their true convictions….. [I]s the ‘pro-choice’ label a misleading mask for an agenda of actively promoting and even imposing morally controversial procedures on those who conscientiously hold different views?”
The full text of Cardinal Rigali’s letter may be found at: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/rigali-conscience071808.pdf.
The New York Times on July 15 reported that it had obtained an alleged draft of regulations soon to be issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, to clarify and enforce federal laws on respect for the moral and religious convictions of health care personnel in programs receiving federal funds. Pro-abortion organizations and some members of Congress have already attacked the as-yet-unpublished regulations, saying they are unwarranted and could limit “access” to abortion and birth control.
Reacting to these criticisms, Cardinal Rigali said this “should be a matter of agreement among members who call themselves ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’: the freedom of health care providers to serve the public without violating their most deeply held moral and religious convictions on the sanctity of human life.”
“Congress has passed numerous laws protecting rights of conscience in health care, beginning in 1973,” said the Cardinal, and these laws address sterilization and other issues in addition to abortion. “The critics’ surprise that conscience protection may apply beyond the specific issue of abortion seems based on a lack of knowledge of existing federal law… If the Administration is preparing regulations along these lines, it would simply be performing its proper task in an area of law where that is long overdue.”
Cardinal Rigali said the charge that respect for conscience rights undermines “access” to abortion and other procedures contradicts pro-abortion groups’ longstanding claim that only “a tiny minority of religious zealots” object to their agenda. In any case, he said, “patients with pro-life convictions, including women who require a physician’s care for themselves and their unborn children during pregnancy, deserve ‘access’ to health care professionals who do not have contempt for their religious and moral convictions or for the lives of their children.”
“This issue,” he said, “provides self-described ‘pro-choice’ advocates with an opportunity to demonstrate their true convictions….. [I]s the ‘pro-choice’ label a misleading mask for an agenda of actively promoting and even imposing morally controversial procedures on those who conscientiously hold different views?”
The full text of Cardinal Rigali’s letter may be found at: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/rigali-conscience071808.pdf.
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