Statement to U.S. Catholic Bishops, By Randall Terry, from St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Paul MN, Concerning Bishops and the U.S. Presidential election of 2008:Your Excellencies, given the “concrete situation” of America’s current election, according to the clear dictates of Evangelium Vitae, duty demands that you clearly and courageously state; “No Catholic can vote for Obama/Biden with a clear conscience because of their support of child-killing by abortion.” John Paul II said in Evangelium Vitae:
Given the histories and intentions of Senators Obama and Biden to continue the legalized killing of the unborn, to vote for Obama/Biden is to knowingly share in their evil intention, and in a very real way, to vote for abortion itself. You do not need to endorse Senator John McCain, or Dr. Alan Keys, or Rep. Bob Barr, but you have an inescapable duty to “form the conscience” of your flock on this life and death vote, and to guide them away from cooperation with child-killing. No amount of false logic claiming “the common good…” can justify a vote for Obama/Biden. The “common good” fallacy is here exposed. John Paul II further declared in Evangelium Vitae:
People can disagree with a clear conscience on whether or our current
war is a just war; we can debate the means and manner of helping the poor,
or improving health care and education, or of sheltering immigrants, but
none of these human dramas rise to the level of child-killing. Without
protecting human life from murder, concerns for the conditions of human
life become a mockery.
I leave it to your Excellencies and to history to judge the level of guilt we incur as accomplices when we vote for candidates who are champions of child-killing. For any Bishop who suggests it is not the place of Bishops to “name names,” or “choose sides,” I remind you of our saints and martyrs. John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Elijah, Justin Martyr, and a host of other saints and martyrs publicly named tyrants, heretics, and malefactors. Your Excellencies, silence at this moment in history aids in this holocaust; not naming names is a failure of duty to unborn babies as well as Catholics. Alas, 35 years of elections since Roe vs. Wade has proven that most Bishops do not possess clarity and courage equal to this clash between “good and evil, the culture of death and the culture of life.” But many lay Catholics do. And we will not join you, your Excellencies, in your silence. So, during the weeks before the election, a devout and courageous group of us will uphold the teachings of the Church, and urge our brothers and sisters to not “cooperate” with evil of abortion or become “accomplices” to child-killing by voting for the Obama/Biden ticket. We will fulfill our duty as Catholics, and exercise our rights as Americans by handing out flyers at Cathedral parking lots, such as “Is it immoral to vote for Obama for President?” I beg you in the name of Christ – and the name of our Lady of Guadalupe who brought the end of human sacrifice in Mexico centuries ago – tell your priests, deacons and staff to not interfere with our peaceful literature distribution. It is our duty as Catholics; our right as Americans. Please do not put yourself in the unhappy and unholy place of harassing or arresting faithful Catholics who are heralding the Gospel of Life and upholding Catholic teaching; Catholics who are handing out Catholic literature, in a Catholic parking lot – to help end this abortion holocaust. “John Paul the Great - pray for us!” Randall Terry |