In Fight Over Life, a New Call by Catholics

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By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: January 25, 2013

The March for Life in Washington on Friday renewed the annual impassioned call to end legalized abortion, 40 years after the Roe v. Wade decision. But this year, some Roman Catholic leaders and theologians are asking why so many of those who call themselves “pro-life” have been silent, or even opposed, when it comes to controlling the guns that have been used to kill and injure millions of Americans.

More than 60 Catholic priests, nuns, scholars and two former ambassadors to the Vatican sent a letter this week saying that if marchers and politicians truly want to defend life they should support “common-sense reforms to address the epidemic of gun violence in our nation.”

They called in particular on Catholic lawmakers, naming the House speaker, John A. Boehner, and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, both Republicans, as well as Senators Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, both Democrats, who they said have “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association, to stand up to the gun lobby. They urged support for legislation limiting the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, like those used in the massacre last month at a school in Newtown, Conn.

“We’re addressing life,” said one of the signers, Thomas P. Melady, a Republican who served as ambassador to the Holy See under the first President George Bush. “I accept the Catholic teachings, which promote the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. And certainly the death of the 20 young kids and 6 adults in Newtown was not natural. Why can’t we take some steps with regards to these killings? These sophisticated weapons should be controlled.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/us/politics/catholics-raise-issue-of-guns-amid-call-to-end-abortion.html?_r=0

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1. Catholics are generally more pro-life on guns then are evangelicals

The end of the story is telling:

The nation’s Catholic bishops supported the unsuccessful effort to renew the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 and recently reiterated a call to control the sale and use of firearms, said Kathy Saile, the director of the bishops’ office of domestic social development.

“It wasn’t a tough call,” Ms. Saile said. “All of our policy work is rooted in our consistent ethic for life, and our belief in the sacredness of all life.”

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Catholic News Service this month that he had told Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is managing the White House response to the recent shootings, that the bishops would assist in “the fight for greater gun control in the country.”

But John Gehring, the Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, a liberal advocacy group in Washington, said that bishops who had demanded that Catholic legislators vote against abortion rights should do the same on gun control.

He said, “Catholic lawmakers who call themselves pro-life and are pretty cozy with the N.R.A. shouldn’t be getting a free pass.”

Good for John Gehring to point out the hypocrisy. If bishops want to deny Communion from Democrats and other liberals because of their public permissive stand on abortion, they should also deny Communion to Republicans and other conservatives because of their public permissive position on guns.

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2. The GOP got what it wanted out of the church...

And the GOP knows that come election time as long as they make the correct noises about abortion, birth control, and LGBT equality that the Bishops will fall over each other to support them, regardless of their bending over backwards to accommodate the NRA. They know that the Bishops will do anything, even violate IRS regs, to get Republicans elected. So they have no problem ignoring those calling for sensible reform on guns.