Mayor Giuliani, will you be at tonight's Ball for Life at the
Racquet and Tennis Club in Manhattan? When asked by reporters
about your donations to Planned Parenthood, you said you support
choices that pregnant women face when considering whether to give
birth or abort. But William Donohue of the Catholic League wants
to know if the only choice you believe in is abortion.
In a press release issued Wednesday, he writes: "If helping
pregnant women make choices is the supreme issue for Rudy
Giuliani, then he should be able to document all the checks he's
written to support Crisis Pregnancy Centers - not just Planned
Parenthood. If he can't, it is logical to conclude that the only
real choice he thinks is worthy of his money is the one which
results in the death of innocent human beings. And that would
make him a fraud."
When I spoke to Mr. Donohue, he told me that when he was on CNN's
Larry King show, he had spoken in favor of Mr. Giuliani in spite
of the former mayor's abortion stance because he believed that he
would appoint conservative judges if elected. However, the recent
reports that Mr. Giuliani had donated to Planned Parenthood
several times and Mr. Giuliani's statement that government should
fund some abortions have caused him to reconsider how sincere Mr.
Giuliani is on this issue.
Mr. Giuliani, like many Catholic politicians, is finding it very
difficult to deal with the abortion issue while still claiming to
be a member of a church that condemns it in all cases unless the
health of the mother is at risk. But make no mistake, it's going
to become even more difficult since Pope Benedict has warned
Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church
and should not receive Communion if they support abortion.
Pope Benedict was en route to Brazil when reporters inquired if
the Mexican priests that had threatened to excommunicate the
leftist parliamentarians who voted for abortion legislation were
within their rights. "Yes, this excommunication was not an
arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon law, which says that the
killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving
Communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.
But politicians aren't the only ones finding this issue
difficult; so are many priests who are reluctant to wage a battle
that will inevitably alienate even more American Catholics. While
left-wing pundits like Bill Maher feel free to call the religious
right movement a move toward the creation of a theocracy, a
crackdown on Catholic politicians would seem to confirm that
opinion.
When John F. Kennedy was campaigning in 1960, critics charged
that he would be under the Pope's thumb if elected president, but
moral issues such as abortion and gay rights were not as
high-profile then, so it's pointless to compare his responses to
that of today's politicians.
Frankly, I find many of today's Catholic clergy as cowardly and
faith-wavering as the Kerrys, Pelosis, Kennedys and Giulianis of
politics. It is becoming hard to find a priest who will risk the
loss of an endowment to uphold the teachings of the church.
I commend my own pastor, Father Peter Byrne, for doing exactly
that. A woman who had long been on the parish council was a very
generous benefactor to our financially strapped parish and to its
school, which had been at risk of closure. This woman was also
well known in the Staten Island community as a philanthropist,
and the decision of Father Byrne to remove her from the council
because of her outspoken pro-choice stance took a great deal of
courage. She left the parish, as did other liberal parishioners
who took their donations with them.
Father Byrne may be just a small parish pastor, but he has
remained faithful to church dogma, unlike many past princes of
the church who feared losing the support of high-profile nominal
Catholics. These clergymen continued to administer the sacraments
at their baptismals, weddings, and funerals regardless of their
public flaunting of church laws.
What would happen if all these Catholic Democrats and Republicans
who support abortion on demand were suddenly told by their
bishops that they could no longer receive the sacraments as long
as they continue to support abortion or gay marriage? Not much, I
daresay, and even if they were all excommunicated, the only ones
to be affected by that procedure would be the church officials
who finally realized the reason for their vocation.
The Ball for Life tonight benefits two crisis pregnancy
organizations, and I join Mr. Donohue in wondering whether Mayor
Giuliani has ever supported the women who choose life not death
for their child.