Bishops from Texas and Illinois discuss Obama’s ‘Catholic’ appointments
WASHINGTON, February 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - With the controversy over pro-abortion Catholic politicians in the limelight thanks to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, it’s a good time to review some relevant interview material that we were not able to use in a story due to lack of time.
While it is true that the Vatican has been clear in its insistence on the denial of communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians, it is also true that the vast majority of US bishops have shied away from that approach.
Most, however, have not however refused to voice their disappointment with Catholic politicians who buck the faith on the matter of abortion.
At the March for Life in DC this past January, LifeSiteNews spoke with Dallas Texas Auxillary Bishop Mark Sites and Illinois Bishop Joseph Siegel from the Joliette Diocese about Obama’s appointment of Catholics who oppose the Church’s teaching on life.
Bishop Sites, who could boast of more than 100 members of his diocese who made the long trek to DC for the March, said that the Church’s pro-life teachings are indispensible. “We have to continue to evangelize our Catholics also so that they can understand this isn’t an optional teaching of our Church,” he said. “That it is not something we can set aside but it is the very heart of social justice that Jesus proclaimed.”
Bishop Siegel, suggested that the many Presidential appointments of Catholics who oppose the right to life is a “very sad” situation. It is, he said, “Not living out faith authentically. Not witnessing in the public forum to their faith”
“Can’t have it both ways,” he added. The Church must, he said continue to “point out our teaching, keep it firm, saying this is what it means to be a faithful Catholic.”
“If you’re not abiding by that, not legislating that way, not supporting that, then it’s hard to play yourself as a faithful Catholic,” added Bishop Siegel. “If you’re not following something essential as the Gospel of life and the teachings on life.”
Those lessons need to ring loud and clear as the numbers of politically prominent but dissident Catholics increase dramatically in the United States setting the stage for scandal.
In the news today two prominent Catholic politicians - the Governor, the House Speaker and the Senate President - have all acted in favor of the bill to redefine marriage to include homosexual couples.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, although he boasts of Mass attendance even beyond Sundays has said he will sign the bill. House Speaker Michael E. Busch said he’d support the legislation in the House.
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