Archbishop Burke: USCCB “Faithful Citizenship” Document Contributed to the Election of Obama

Election of “Most Pro-Abortion President”

Also says Bishops’ Catholic News Service needs to be given "some new direction"

By Hilary White, Rome Correspondent

ROME, January 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A document of the US Catholic Bishops is partly to blame for the abandonment of pro-life teachings by voting Catholics and the election of the “most pro-abortion president” in US history, one of the Vatican’s highest officials said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com. Archbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, named a document on the election produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that he said “led to confusion” among the faithful and led ultimately to massive support among Catholics for Barack Obama.

The US bishops’ document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion because of "other grave reasons," as long as they do not intend to support that pro-abortion position.

Archbishop Burke, the former Archbishop of St. Louis Mo. and recently appointed head of the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church, told LifeSiteNews.com that although “there were a greater number of bishops who spoke up very clearly and firmly ... there was also a number who did not.”

But most damaging, he said, was the document “Faithful Citizenship” that “led to confusion” among the voting Catholic population.

“While it stated that the issue of life was the first and most important issue, it went on in some specific areas to say ‘but there are other issues’ that are of comparable importance without making necessary distinctions.”

Archbishop Burke, citing an article by a priest and ethics expert of St. Louis archdiocese, Msgr. Kevin McMahon, who analysed how the bishops’ document actually contributed to the election of Obama, called its proposal “a kind of false thinking, that says, ‘there’s the evil of taking an innocent and defenceless human life but there are other evils and they’re worthy of equal consideration.’

“But they’re not. The economic situation, or opposition to the war in Iraq, or whatever it may be, those things don’t rise to the same level as something that is always and everywhere evil, namely the killing of innocent and defenceless human life.”

Archbishop Burke also cited the work of the official news service of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference, that many pro-life observers complained soft-pedalled the newly elected president’s opposition to traditional morality.

“The bishops need to look also at our Catholic News Service, CNS, they need to review their coverage of the whole thing and give some new direction, in my judgement,” he said.

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For some reason, I am unable to link this to the LifeSiteNews site at this time.

I also found it sad to see that the Catholic On Line report headline completely ignored the heart of the matter, Archbishop Burke's statement on the document. Instead they titled it Archbishop Burke: Catholic News Service (CNS) Needs 'New Direction'. That criticism is only the last line of the article. It is almost like they are taking their cue from the Main Stream Media. (Actually the MSM would probably ignore it completely.)

So far, I don't see anything about it on the Catholic News Service website. But then why would they put up anything critical of them?

Several of my posts have had concerns about how the Bishops have handled the issues of the past election. & yes, even some criticism, as well as congratulating those Bishops who have stood up. It is heartening to know that what I am seeing isn't just me, or a few of us. When someone that high up in the Vatican sees it, then there must be some strong basis for my concerns. Especially when the person saying it has 1sthand experience with the USCCB.

Archbishop Burke's comments make the article by Franl Rega that I posted Wednesday (Well USCCB, Are You Up to This Challenge? ) all the more timely.