Wilmington, Del., Bishop Francis Malooly Corrects Joe Biden’s Faulty Church History
Winfield Myers • October 27, 2008 • Uncategorized
Joe Biden joined Nancy Pelosi recently in doing his best to confuse Catholic voters on Church teachings on abortion. Various U.S. bishops, to their credit, leaped to clarify Catholic doctrine, which holds unambiguously that abortion is always an intrinsic evil. Biden, Pelosi, and some other high profile Catholics are pro-abortion, and as such it’s in their interest to claim that the Church leaves room for politicians to ignore its doctrines on this most important issue.
The Wilmington News-Journal yesterday published a letter-to-the-editor by Bishop Francis Malooly in which he corrected a statement made by Biden in the October 19 issue (now archived and available only for pay) in which he said: “I know that my church has wrestled with this for 2,000 years.”
This is of course baloney, and it is to Bishop Malooly’s credit that he responded with a strongly-worded correction that states Catholic teaching clearly and unambiguously. Below is the text of his letter.
Catholic Church has made no exception regarding abortion since ancient times
In his interview with The News Journal published Oct. 19, Sen. Joe Biden presents a seriously erroneous picture of Catholic teaching on abortion. He said, “I know that my church has wrestled with this for 2,000 years,” and claimed repeatedly that the Church has a nuanced view of the subject that leaves a great deal of room for uncertainty and debate.
This is simply incorrect. The teaching of the Church is clear and not open to debate. Abortion is a grave sin because it is the wrongful taking of an innocent human life. The Church received the tradition opposing abortion from Judaism. In the Greco-Roman world, early Christians were identifiable by their rejection of the common practices of abortion and infanticide.
The Didache, probably the earliest Christian writing apart from the New Testament, explicitly condemns abortion without exceptions. It tells us there is a “way of life” and a “way of death” and abortion is a part of the way of death. This has been the consistent teaching of the Church ever since.
It was also the position of Protestant reformers without exception. It was the teaching of Pope John XXIII as well as Pope John Paul II. It is the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops of the Church, including me as shepherd of this diocese.
Some ancient and medieval theologians did see a difference between early abortions and ones that occurred later in term because with the limited medical knowledge of the time they did not know then what we scientifically know now: that a fetus is a living human being from conception.
Nevertheless, they universally condemned all abortions.
Of course, we now know that a fetus is a living human being from the very start. Thus, abortions take innocent human lives no matter when they occur. Since there is no gradation in the Church’s teaching on abortion, there is no way the medically obsolete division of pregnancy into three trimesters by Roe v. Wade can have any bearing on the rightness or wrongness of abortion. Taking an innocent life in the womb is wrong at any stage of pregnancy.
The Declaration of Independence lists life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as God-given rights. Life is listed first, and it is the principal function of the state to protect the lives of citizens. This understanding of the state’s primary obligation to protect human life is also fundamental to Catholic social doctrine to which the senator points. Without life all other rights are meaningless.
This Sunday, all the parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington will pray the Litany of St. Thomas More, martyr and patron saint of statesmen, politicians and lawyers. We will ask St. Thomas More to intercede so all statesmen and politicians may be courageous and effective in their defense and promotion of the sanctity of human life. We hope Sen. Biden will carefully listen to the Church’s 2,000 years of testimony on abortion and that he will join in the defense and promotion of the sanctity of life.
Most Rev. W. Francis Malooly, bishop, Catholic Diocese of Wilmington
Comments
6 Responses to “Wilmington, Del., Bishop Francis Malooly Corrects Joe Biden’s Faulty Church History”
Leave a Reply
I’d point out that the Most Reverend Francis Malooly became Bishop of Wilmington less than two months ago, succeeding the retiring Most Reverend Michael Saltarelli, so this is quick action on the part of a new bishop.
Yes it is, Dana–quick and to the point. It’s a good sign that he is determined to be a pastor of souls and not a politician.
Bishop Francis Malooly should follow the instructions of Pope Benedict XVI and not only deny Holy Communion to Joe Biden, but publicly excommunicate him. In Florida we are forming a coalition of American Catholics to contact every pro-life group in our 50 states and request that they write letters to the Pope demanding that these pro-choice “so-called” Catholic politicians be excommunicated. Just to think that over 50% of Catholics voted for a man who stated that he wouldn’t “punish his daughters with a baby” if they became pregnant before marriage means that he would abort his own grandchild!! You Catholics out there who voted for Obama should be ashamed of yourselves. You will have to answer to God!
It is the time for all “good” clergy to come to the aid of their flock, which, I might add, is in a total state of confusion, due to the accepted heretical teachings of it’s so called theologians. The biggest mistake of Pope Paul the 6th was trying to avoid a schism after Vatican 2. He should have let all the disidents go to start their own church. Then the obedient followers of the Holy Father and the true Church would not have to suffer their Catholicism being spun, disected and watered down
So W. Francis Malooly’s letter sets the record straight on the Roman Catholic Church’s position on abortion. Glad that’s settled.
Now – my question to Malooly is what is the Church’s position on the obscenely numerous decades of brutal and repeated rape, sodomy and murder of little boys and girls by their spiritual mentors and brethren, specifically committed by the priests, brothers, nuns, sisters, church leaders, etc.?
Please answer the above with as much conviction that you responded to the prior abortion issue letter.
Sincerely,
OD Clark
Paducah, Kentucky
Time to Excommunicate Bishop Malooly and Joe Biden. Biden applauded Sandra Fluke. (Fluke is the would be lawyer who fornicated so frequently that she required government paid contraception. )
Several months ago Biden claimed to be completely comfortable with homosexual unions as an acceptable substitute for traditional marriage.
IF Catholics don’t send Malooly packing, then they deserve the #1 crime city in the nation. Wilmington is the place where 40 years of Roe vs. Wade and liberal anti-Catholic government have brought us to the crime ridden hell hole we have now. The Wilmington Cathedral church is surrounded by streetwalkers. The area is stained with the ghosts of murder and desperate prostitutes. Evil is overrunning the luke warm Catholic apostates.