Editorials
Bishops, Dear
to pander to absolutist abortion-rights groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America and NOW, which insist that the only moral question abortion raises is a woman's right to privacy, and that any limitation...
...Slavery was a great evil, yet not even Abraham Lincoln sought to forcibly abolish it where it was deeply rooted...
...Not everything sinful need be illegal...
...First, it does not reflect the views of most Americans, who continue to think that, while abortion should remain legal, not every abortion should be permitted...
...Presumably, most of you would answer no, agreeing with St...
...As John F. Kavanaugh, SJ, wrote in America (July 19-26), "Some Catholics have wondered whether mortal sins vary according to states and dioceses...
...Catholicism possesses the intellectual and moral re-sources to help craft such a compromise on abortion...
...Others have gone so far as to say that Catholics who vote for a prochoice politician should not consider themselves in full communion with the church and are therefore unworthy of receiving the Eucharist...
...But let's be frank...
...Instead, he embraced an incremental approach, insisting that it not be extended to new territories or states...
...Like you, Senator Kerry, Callahan thinks abortion should remain legal and must, in the end, be a personal decision...
...The give and take of democracy is based on the implicit willingness of adversaries to compromise, even on questions of how best to uphold fundamental morality...
...Nor is it clear what you realistically hope to accomplish, or are willing to tolerate, when it comes to changing abortion law in the United States...
...Complications soon arise, however...
...Simply put, the church's absolutist rhetoric often under-mines your case against abortion, alienating potential allies and placing impossible demands on Catholic politicians...
...Nor is there a consensus for subjecting women or doctors involved in abortions to criminal penalties...
...Thomas that an unenforceable law, or a law that is perceived to be unjust, un-dermines the very idea of law itself...
...In Catholic teaching, exceptions are not allowed even for abortions following rape or incest...
...If criminalization is the goal, what penalties would you think just for the guilty...
...One thing is clear about the abortion debate in the United States: There is no consensus for making all abortions illegal...
...A way must be found to enlist the good will and eventually the con-sent of these women if abortion law and practice are to change...
...So should you...
...He thought that once slavery was contained it would collapse of its own inherent contradictions...
...You have a responsibility to grapple with the practical as well as the moral dimensions of public-policy issues you seek to influence...
...The Catholic Church has waged a courageous, often thank-less fight against abortion...
...Second, as Daniel Callahan wrote in Commonweal years ago ("An Ethical Challenge to Prochoice Advocates," November 23, 1990), "If the prochoice movement presents itself as principally a movement about the rights of women, it is likely to lose in the long run...
...There are at least two problems with this stance...
...The abortion issue is broader, deeper, and more complex...
...Yet too many Americans, including Catholic Americans, think the church will tolerate only one solution to this dilemma...
...Would the father be subject to criminal penalties as well as the mother and doctor...
...Is it your position that this teaching should be enacted into civil law, and that Catholic politicians who do not work vigorously toward this end are not in full communion with the church...
...To be persuasive in the long run, you must show that more than one path is possible...
...DEAR BISHOPS Some of you have told Senator John Kerry and other prochoice Catholic politicians not to receive Communion in your dioceses...
...In a democracy, law must rest on the consent of the governed...
...But he warns that prochoice advocates must move beyond a simplistic defense of private choice to engage the substantive moral questions abortion raises...
...That means living with some evils to avoid greater ones...
...As Archbishop William J. Levada recently wrote, "while bishops have long been engaged in teaching and internal church 'dialogue,' that dialogue has not been effectively engaged for many Catholics in political life and in American culture at large...
...Thirty million American women have had abortions...
...Trust the moral issues to public debate," Callahan wrote...
...As such, it is imperative that you find a better way to make your case...
...If morality and law can-not be separated, they are nonetheless distinguishable...
...What sort of political compromise, if any, are you willing to work for and live with...
...Are the bishops advocating the recriminalization of all abortions—or something short of that...
...Trust will not be restored soon or easily...
...In the aftermath of the sexual-abuse crisis, the credibility of Catholic bishops on is-sues related to sexual morality is greatly diminished...
...Most of you, however, have abjured these tactics, saying you do not want the Eucharist to be used as a weapon...
...It is about those rights, but it is also about the welfare of families and children, about the obligations of males toward women and toward the children they procreate, and about the family and the place of childbearing within it...
...to pander to absolutist abortion-rights groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America and NOW, which insist that the only moral question abortion raises is a woman's right to privacy, and that any limitation of that right is unthinkable...
...The church hasn't figured out how to do that...
...You need to redouble your efforts at dialogue, not because you are wrong, but because you are right...
...Still, you have defended the right of any bishop to exclude prochoice politicians from Communion...
...The church's prohibition against contraception, which is inscrutable to most Americans and unconvincing to most Catholics, also weakens its case against abortion...
...It has been right to do so, and it has provided an invaluable witness to the intrinsic value of life in the womb...
...Why a woman has an abortion matters morally, as does the age of the aborted fetus...
...This is confusing...
...Commonweal 6 August 13, 2004...
...Worse, the church's refusal to con-done the use of condoms for married couples, even when one partner is HIV-positive, is morally obtuse at best...
...The church's position on abortion seems straightforward enough: Innocent life is to be protected from the moment of conception...
Vol. 131 • August 2004 • No. 14
