Boston Cardinal calls Catholics voting for Democrats a "Scandal"
O'Malley draws line with Democrats on backing abortion rights candidates - The Boston Globe
Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, saying the Democratic Party has been persistently hostile to opponents of abortion rights, asserted yesterday that the support of many Catholics for Democratic candidates "borders on scandal."
While there are many issues Republicans are wrong on, none of them is as egregious an error as abortion. How can any party which claims that it stands for the weakest members of our society allow the execution of total innocents? That's all O'Malley is saying. THe Democrats lost all claim to being a noral party when they endorsed the slaughter of innocents for the convenience of others.
Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera defended the party, which he called "a big tent party," and he pointed out that there are 104 Catholic Democrats currently serving in Congress, including two who are vocal opponents of abortion rights, Senator Robert P. Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio.
Which in no way refutes the point Archbishop O'Malley was making: that the Democrats are an unacceptable option for Catholics. Saying that Catholics are elected as pro-abortion Democrats merely shows that Catholics can be sinners as well, which is show by the fact that less than two percent of them support the right of the innocent to exist.
This isn't just a Republican vs. Democrat issue though; while the Democrat party is much more pro-abortion than the Republican Party, there are still many pro-abortion Republicans, especially in Massachusetts:
O'Malley's predecessors as archbishop of Boston were also staunchly antiabortion. Cardinal Bernard F. Law called a news conference to criticize a Republican governor, William F. Weld, for his support for abortion rights, and Law had the lieutenant governor at the time, Paul Cellucci, also a Republican, disinvited from a Catholic high school for the same reason; Law also blasted Geraldine A. Ferraro, the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1984, for her support of abortion rights. Law's predecessor, Cardinal Humberto S. Medeiros, in 1980 tried unsuccessfully to persuade Catholics to vote against two Democratic congressional candidates, Barney Frank and Jim Shannon, because of their support for abortion rights.
Voting for candidates who support abortion, when there is a pro-life alternative, is not an option for Catholics, as the bishops' recent statement on voting affirms:
The document declares that "as Catholics we are not single-issue voters," but says, "a candidate's position on a single issue that involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support."
So, in almost all circumstances, it is not acceptable for a Catholic to vote for a Democrat. I wish it weren't true, but it is.