Bishop says Obama is the most pro-choice candidate in decades

BY MARK GRAVES
AN AMERICAN archbishop has called Barack Obama the "most committed abortion-rights candidate" from a major party to run for the presidency in 35 years.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. Colorado, said that Catholics who supported Obama were dishonest and doing "a disservice to the Church".
Archbishop Chaput, one of the most politically outspoken bishops in America, made his comments to a Catholic women's group last week.
He stressed that he was only giving his personal views and did not mean to represent the Archdiocese of Denver.
The archbishop said: "I believe that Senator Obama. whatever his other talents, is the most committed 'abortion-rights' presidential candidate of either major party since the Roe vs Wade abortion decision in 1973.
"I do not know any proportionate reason that could outweigh more than 40 million unborn children killed by abordon and the many millions of women deeply wounded by the loss and regret abortion creates.
"To suggest-as some Catholics do-that Senator Obama is this year's 'real' pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse.
"To portray the 2008 Democratic Party presidential ticket as the preferred 'pro-life' option is to subvert what the word 'pro-life' means."
The archbishop strongly attacked Catholic academic Douglas Kmiec, a prominent Obama ally who wrote a book arguing that Catholics should vote for him.
Professor Kmiec. a former legal counsel to the Reagan and George Bush Snr presidencies, frequently cited Archbishop Chaput's own book, Render Unto Caesar, in support of his argument.
But Archbishop Chaput said: "Unfortunately, he either misunderstands or misuses my words, and he couldn't be more mistaken."
The archbishop argued that the professor, along with other Catholic Democrat activists, had done "a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress pro-lifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn".
The archbishop expressed his dismay that so many American Catholics tried to distance themselves from the pro-life movement. "The truth is that for some Catholics the abortion issue has never been a comfortable cause," he said. "It's embarrassing. It's not the kind of social justice they like to talk about. It interferes with their natural political alliances.
"And because the homicides involved in abortion are 'little murders' the kind of private, legally protected murders that kill conveniently unseen lives it's easy to look the other way."
He said it was "wrong and often dishonest... to neutralise the witness of bishops and the pro-life movement by offering a 'Catholic' alternative to the Church's priority on sanctity of life issues".
Archbishop Chaput also lamented that for 35 years the pro-abortion lobby had fought more vociferously than the prolife movement.
"Apparently they believe in their convictions more than some of us Catholics believe in ours," he said. "And I think that's an indictment of an entire generation of American Catholic leadership.
Archbishop Chaput spoke out strongly against the pro-abortion Democrat John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election campaign. He was installed as archbishop Il years ago at the age of 52.
The presidential election is scheduled for November 4 a week on Tuesday. As The Catholic Herald went to press polls showed Obama's lead over McCain widening to eight points in the wake of an endorsement from former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell.