"I must remind you of your duty to uphold what is necessary for the common good of the country. Those who defend abortions whether legalized or not, or who refuse to make a clear commitment to defend the rights of the unborn or the aged and the ill, or who in other ways promote the corruption of family life, disqualify themselves from public office, no matter what their other qualifications may be. Conscientious citizens may not support such politicians any more than they could support racists, hate peddlers, opponents of true social justice, or anyone else who, in a similar manner, threatens the common good". (Bishop James Mahoney, Diocese of Saskatoon, Pastoral letter, march 19, 1977)

"First, we must vote for candidates and parties that uphold the right to life for all Canadians and for all human beings everywhere. Second, we must vote for candidates and parties who recognize that a family is "a man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children"(12); who will enact policies that recognize that children are the responsibility and duty first and foremost of their parents and not of the state; and who will enact policies that assist and do not hamper parents in raising their children". A Canadian Catholic Voters Catechism, Nov. 2000, Office of Life and Family of the Archdiocese of Vancouver (Archbishop Adam Exner)

PRIESTS FOR LIFE

NEW YORK, July 24, 2000 (LSN.ca) Speaking about the necessity to vote pro-life if you are Christian, Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life said "don't claim to be a believer if you don't act like one, and don't claim to be a member of the Church and then misrepresent its teachings." Moreover, he warned politicians: "To supporters of abortion who profess Christianity, of any denomination, we say stop being a scandal to the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

U.S. BISHOPS

ARLINGTON, VA, Jan 15, 2001 (LSN.ca)"What disturbs me, then, is the politician, man or woman, who wants to have it both ways." "They say, 'I'm a Catholic,' then espouse all sorts of things that the Catholic Church says are wrong," said Bishop Thomas J. Welsh, the founding bishop of the Arlington Diocese in an interview with the Arlington Catholic Herald. "If you say the Church is wrong about one serious issue like the pro-life stance, then you're undermining the whole nature of the Church. The Lord didn't say, 'I'm with you all the time, except on some major issues.' .... The Church is supposed to be guiding people on a day-to-day basis on how to get to heaven ... We are saying this (abortion) is intrinsically evil. There's no time for anybody at any place to have an abortion and say, 'this is right.' It's always, always wrong.

DENVER, Colorado, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver addressed participants at the Colorado Right to Life March and Rally, held last Saturday on the west steps of Colorado's State Capitol Building, telling them Catholics must vote pro-life. "We can't simultaneously commit ourselves to human rights, while voting for people and policies that attack the weakest among us. Nor can we practice a commitment to the sanctity of human life only as a private piety. People of religious faith must live their pro-life witness courageously, as a matter of public record and civic
responsibility - or we'll lose it even as a matter of private principle," he said.

VATICAN, Dec.1, 2000 (LSN.ca/CWNews.com) At a Rome conference, U.S. Cardinal Bernard Law stated that Catholic laity must "not separate the Gospel from their daily life." That separation is "a great menace" for contemporary society, Cardinal Law said; he cited the posture taken by lay Catholic politicians who claim to be "personally opposed" to abortion and yet vote to allow the procedure. This attitude, he said, advances the "culture of death," which can only be overcome "by the unambiguous affirmation of the inviolability of every human life."

"I will give no support by word or action, that could in any way be construed in favour of any politician, or any political party who professes either a pro-abortion position or takes refuge in a so-called pro-choice position. I categorically reject the evasion, I am personally opposed to abortion, but…" (Cardinal John O'Connor, Archdiocese of New York, 1984)

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY, Oct 6, 2000 (LSN.ca) - Bishop James T. McHugh of Rockville Centre, Long Island, NY has sent a letter to all the priests in his diocese laying out a policy regarding pro-abortion politicians. In his Sept 21 letter, obtained by LifeSite, the Bishop writes that "The policy... means that no pro-abortion public official or candidate is to be invited to address Catholic agencies or organizations, school or parish groups, even if he/she does not intend to express their pro-abortion views." The bishop explains, "The reason for this is that it would be foolish and counterproductive to provide a platform to those who favor or support a public policy of abortion on demand or of euthanasia or assisted suicide. It would also be extremely misleading to provide such persons a platform to promote their views, even on other issues, lest they claim that the Church somehow implicitly tolerates their rejection of Church teaching on pro-life issues."

Catholic citizens especially should affirm a personal stance that respects and sustains human life and makes it unmistakably clear to all candidates and officials that this will be a determining factor in their choice of candidates. -- Bishop James T. McHugh, Bishop of Rockville Centre, NY ("Voting the Gospel of Life," Columbia Magazine, September 2000).

BOSTON, Oct 23, 2000 (LSN.ca) - The Bishops of the four Roman Catholic dioceses in Massachusetts have issued an election statement calling on Catholics to exercise their "moral obligation" to vote and to recognize the "absolute centrality" of the protection of human life when choosing candidates on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7. According to the Bishops' statement, Faithful Citizenship in Massachusetts: "It is our responsibility to vote for candidates who will promote life and the culture of life over the culture of death." The statement emphasizes that support of abortion and euthanasia by any candidate "is always wrong and can never be justified."

Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss of Omaha, in an August 2000 column in the diocesan newspaper wrote "Catholic Democrats have an obligation to do everything they can to reverse the pro-abortion policy of their party and to support those candidates who will protect life in the womb ... You can be assured that I will challenge any Catholic in Northwestern Nebraska who claims to be a member of the Church and at the same time supports abortion. It is not a liberal cause that is being supported but an elitist, anti-Catholic one. There is no place for discrimination against pre-born or partially born babies in the Catholic Church. Catholics who are against the Church on this...are in serious dissent....They and everyone else need to be clear about this breach with the Church. It is not a liberal cause to support abortion. It is anti-life and anti-Church".

Cardinal James A. Hickey, Archbishop of Washington, Catholic Standard newspaper, October 26, 2000 (Many issues) "require careful consideration on the part of all voters. But there is one issue that rises above the others. When you vote on November 7, I hope and pray that you will not forget the most disenfranchised citizens in this land - the unborn. Truly they have no voice but ours."

Bishop William Murphy, Archdiocese of Boston, Pilot Column "The four areas of public issues that the bishops propose for our reflection in this election year are human life, family life, social justice and solidarity. Of these four areas the most fundamental and the most important is human life. Defense of human life is the only foundation on which all else must be built, or else, all else is eventually going to collapse. .."

"Every vote will count and every voice matters.... we urge our fellow citizens to see beyond party politics to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest.."(US Bishops, Living the Gospel of Life 1998, N.34).

[Abortion is] a defining issue not only personally but also socially. Poverty can be addressed incrementally, but the death of a child is quite final. -- Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago, October 2000

It is impossible to advance human dignity by being "right" on issues like poverty and immigration, but wrong about the most fundamental issue of all -- the right to life." Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., Archbishop of Denver, American and Catholic: thoughts on responsible citizenship, October 11, 2000

Many Catholic leaders both clerical and lay have urged that citizens not vote for anyone who does not have a strong pro-life position. I do not see how a disciple of the Lord could ignore the fundamental importance of public policy protecting human life.To support candidates who would continue or even expand the possibilities for more people to die by human choice is seriously wrong. -- Bishop John Myers, Bishop of Peoria, October 17, 2000

Abortion is the issue this year and every year in every campaign. .The taking of innocent human life is so heinous, so horribly evil, and so absolutely opposite to the law of Almighty God that abortion must take precedence over every other issue. I repeat. It is the single most important issue confronting not only Catholics, but also the entire electorate.-- Bishop James C. Timlin, D.D., Bishop of Scranton, "The Ballot and the Right to Life" Fall 2000

I fail to understand how any Catholic can support a candidate who is outspokenly and unambiguously "pro-choice", who supports the idea that the child in the womb is the property of the mother to be disposed of at will, and will make appointments to the Supreme Court that will reinforce the tremendous error of Roe v. Wade.-- Bishop William Murphy, Auxiliary Bishop of Boston

"Obviously, protecting human life is the most basic of these four priorities, since the other three would be rendered meaningless without the first. If we do not uphold and protect human life in its beginning at conception, there will be no life to uphold and protect thereafter. . . . To be a faithful and serious Catholic necessarily means that one is pro-life and not pro-choice. To be pro-choice essentially means supporting the right of a woman to terminate the life of her baby either pre-born or partially born. No Catholic can claim to be a faithful and serious member of the Church while advocating for or actively supporting direct attacks on innocent human life." Reverend Paul S. Loverde, Bishop of Arlington, statement on Oct. 30, 2000

INTERNATIONAL BISHOPS

KAMPALA, Jan. 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Emmanuel Cardinal Wamalastated in a pastoral letter, "We deserve leaders who will not condone immorality such as corruption, abortion, homosexuality or any other forms of behaviour which are contrary and offensive both to God's law and to our own culture." He said "We should give our votes to candidates who we think are serious in their intentions, honest and capable of working for and with us."

SALZBURG, Dec 11, 2000 (LSN.ca) - "The abortion law has a common denominator with the spirit of the Nazis and of communism: We may kill," said auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg Andreas Laun in an interview with an Austrian magazine News. Speaking about the law which allows women to abort "severely disabled" babies up to the ninth month of pregnancy he said that "Hitler would have been pleased" with it.

Referring to Dr. Heinrich Gross, an ex-Nazi physician charged with murder this year for killing
disabled babies and children in West Vienna during the Nazi era, Laun added, "Dr. Gross as
a Nazi doctor killed disabled children -- only four weeks later than we do. Must Dr. Gross go
to prison just because he was too late? We do it too. That's pure hypocrisy."

VATICAN

VATICAN CITY, Oct 3, 2000 (LSN.ca) - Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family has just emphasized that Catholic politicians must according to the principles of their faith and that, "everything collapses without respect for life." The Cardinal said, "Politicians must have the defense of the right of life in their own heart and mind to offer it to the community. Without this defense, instead of contributing to the construction of society, the politician destroys it."

ROME, Oct 12, 2000 (LSN.ca) - A new Vatican document prepared by the Pontifical Council for the Family for the Jubilee of Families to be celebrated this weekend in Rome includes "legislators who have promoted and approved abortion laws" as bearing "responsibility" for the "abominable crime" of abortion - which the document describes as "murder".

POPE JOHN PAUL II

ROME, Oct 17, 2000 (LSN.ca) - Addressing some 300,000 pilgrims for the Jubilee of Families on Saturday, Pope John Paul II urged Catholics to vote pro-life. He asked that all "people of good will who believe in these (pro-life) values remain united and strong. . . in political selection." He also pleaded with the families to "defend with all your might family values and respect for human life, right from the moment of conception."