It’s called Respect Life Sunday

…to start off Respect Life month. Which celebrates and focuses on the ultimate human right. (How can you argue for other rights if a whole class of human beings can be denied the right to live? That would be incoherent.)

The Catholic Church has never changed or wavered in that understanding. But some cultural Catholics don’t see it that way anymore and believe they can decide for themselves what rights are more important than others.

Both presidential candidates are looking for both kinds of Catholic votes. The bishops are coming out like never before clarifying that there is one Catholic Church and one teaching on life and morally informed voters will know that.

The media are still trying to get that.

As the Roman Catholic Church observes its annual “respect life” Sunday in this heated presidential election season, the unusually pitched competition for Catholic voters is setting off a round of skirmishes over how to apply the church’s teachings not only on abortion but also on the war in Iraq, immigration and racism.

In a departure from previous elections, Democrats and liberal Catholic groups are waging a fight within the church, arguing that the Democratic Party better reflects the full spectrum of church teachings.

It is a contest for credibility among observant Catholics, with each faction describing itself as a defender of “life.” The two sides disagree over how to address the “intrinsic evil” of abortion.

Note the quotation marks, as if we can set aside “life” as just….whatever you happen to call it.

In Scranton, Pa., every Catholic attending Mass this weekend will hear a special homily about the election next month: Bishop Joseph Martino has ordered every priest in the diocese to read a letter warning that voting for a supporter of abortion rights amounts to endorsing “homicide.”

“Being ‘right’ on taxes, education, health care, immigration and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life,” the bishop wrote. “It is a tragic irony that ‘pro-choice’ candidates have come to support homicide — the gravest injustice a society can tolerate — in the name of ‘social justice.’ ”

This is true, actually. There is a false dichotomy in the pop culture between the ‘peace and social justice crowd’ and the ‘pro-life crowd’….as if the faithful aren’t both.

There are messages from the bishops en masse out there right now, and most of them issued statements for this observance. Here’s a snip from the one that was inserted in church bulletins in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, by Bishop Peter Sartain. It addresses that dichotomy.

That human life begins at conception is a scientifically observable fact.

(Check out the Acuna v. Turkish case sitting before the Supreme Court, on that very fact…)

Back to Bishop Sartain…

Opposition to abortion, then, is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion…Based on this fundamental and undeniable presmise, Catholic teaching goes much further. Our concern stretches from abortion to euthanasia, to serving the poor, and to the death penalty. Being Pro-Life means that we will respect others and treat them in a way that is consistent with the dignity God has given them. No one can ever be case aside, ignored, or forgotten because they are deformed, sick, elderly, foreign, poor, or in prison. To the contrary, they are the ones who have a claim on us precisely because we are Christian!

The Catholic Church in this country has a proud heritage of demonstrating its commitment to life through outreach to all in need, particularly the most vulnerable. Did you know, for example, that we are one of the largest providers of social services in this country, second only to the federal government? As Jesus told us, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

At the Saddleback Civil Forum, Sen. Barack Obama brought up that scripture in one of his responses. Odd that he doesn’t see the protection of the smallest and most vulnerable human beings as relevant, at all, given his stance on the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, and the Freedom of Choice Act, and his promise of support for Planned Parenthood and NARAL and ‘abortion rights’….

Back to Bishop Sartain…

God’s will is life: the life of the unborn, the full life of infants born to poor mothers and fathers, the nourished life of the hungry, the sheltered life of the homeless, the safe and peace-filled life of the elderly and handicapped, the forgiven and transformed life of those who have done serious wrong, the faith-fulfilled life of people like you and I who see the will of God as the only right choice.

The choice and the issues are being misrepresented.

Here’s how that New York Times article poses the choice:

Conservatives argue that ending legal protections for abortion outweighs almost all other issues, while liberals contend that social programs can more effectively reduce the abortion rate than trying to overturn Supreme Court precedents. They cite a 2007 statement from the United States bishops explicitly condoning a vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights if the vote was cast for other “grave” reasons.

Wrong. Very wrong.

The 2007 document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”, does not say that or condone that kind of vote.

It says this:

At times Catholics may choose different ways to respond to social problems, but we cannot differ on our obligation to protect human life and dignity and help buile through moral means a more just and peaceful world.

Too nuanced? It also says this:

There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor. These instrinsically evil acts must always be rejected and never supported. A preeminent example is the intentional taking of human life through abortion. It is always morally wrong to destroy innocent human beings.

And further…

The basic right to life implies and is linked to other huma rights to the goods that every person needs to live and thrive–including food, shelter, health care, education, and meaningful work.

Under the subtitle ‘Making Moral Choices’, it says this:

This exercise of conscience begins with always opposing policies that violate human life or weaken its protection…

Direct attacks on innocent human beings are never morally acceptable. Within our society, life is under direct attack from abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, and destruction of human embryos for research. These intrinsic evils must always be opposed.

For more clarity, go here, here and here. For starters…