Such a situation is a cause of scandal to many of the faithful. It can happen that the conversations tend to go nowhere, thus leaving it easy for the individual to continue participating fully in the life of the Church. The experience of some of us in Church leadership over many years demonstrates the sad truth that often such interventions can be fruitless. This correction takes several forms, and rightly begins with private conversations between the erring Catholic and his or her parish priest or bishop.
Our responsibility to the rest of the Catholic community is to assure them that the Church of Jesus Christ does take most seriously her mission to care for “the least of these,” as our Lord has commanded us, and to correct Catholics who erroneously, and sometimes stubbornly, promote abortion. Our responsibility to them is to call them to conversion and to warn them that if they do not amend their lives they must answer before the tribunal of God for the innocent blood that has been shed. When public figures identify themselves as Catholics and yet actively oppose one of the most fundamental doctrines of the Church – the inherent dignity of each and every human being and therefore the absolute prohibition of taking innocent human life – we pastors have a responsibility both to them and to the rest of our people. The constant teaching of the Catholic Church from her very beginning, the repeated exhortations of every Pope in recent times up to and including Pope Francis, the frequent statements of the bishops of the United States, all make it clear what the teaching of the Catholic Church is in regard to abortion. SECTION 4: CATHOLICS IN PUBLIC LIFE (continued)īut there is another source of scandal that pertains specifically to Catholics in public life: if their participation in the evil of abortion is not addressed forthrightly by their pastors, this can lead Catholics (and others) to assume that the moral teaching of the Catholic Church on the inviolate sanctity of human life is not seriously held. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
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