"To suggest - as some Catholics do - that Sen. Obama is this year's "real" prolife candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse," said Denver's Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, recent author of "Render unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life," in a talk last night to ENDOW, a Catholic women's group.
The archbishop, who said he was speaking candidly as an author and private citizen, not in an official capacity, particularly singled out Doug Kmeic, a Catholic law professor and former Republican partisan who has come out strongly for Obama because his policies supposedly would do more to further Catholic social teaching despite his support for abortion rights:
"I think [Kmeic's] activism for Sen. Obama, and the work of Democratic-friendly groups like Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, have done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress prolifers 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."
As the archbishop said, the speech is candid. A condensed adaptation of it is posted here.
DISQUS for OSV Daily Take
