DEACON FOR LIFE

Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Pro-Life Group Blasts Philadelphia Inquirer's Anti-Catholic Abortion Cartoon

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 22, 2007

Philadelphia, PA (LifeNews.com) -- The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper is coming under fire for a cartoon it ran following the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the federal partial-birth abortion ban. The cartoon entitled “Church and State” features the five Catholic members of the high court wearing bishop miters.

Joseph Cella, the head of Fidelis, a leading Catholic pro-life group, says the newspaper, "has breached the line of reasonable editorial commentary. This cartoon is venomous, terribly misleading and, blatantly anti-Catholic."

"We call on the Inquirer to repudiate the cartoon’s anti-Catholic sentiment," Cella told LifeNews.com in a statement.

Cella says the cartoon suggests that the Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion was a result of the Catholic Church influencing the votes of the five Catholic Justices on the Supreme Court, who are portrayed as Catholic Bishops.

"The Supreme Court did not ‘follow marching orders’ from the Vatican or the Bishops in the United States. Instead, the Court deferred to deliberative judgment of the people's elected representatives protected by the Constitution,” Cella said.

“By exposing this outrageously intolerant cartoon, we hope to contain future attacks on judges of faith, particularly during any future confirmation hearings which will likely prove to be the most contentious in history," he added.

Cella said the Inquirer's cartoon resembles the attack on Judge Bill Pryor, who was mocked for having “deeply-held” religious beliefs as a Catholic. Pryor faced sharply abusive rhetoric before he was finally confirmed to the federal bench in 2003.

"The Inquirer’s insinuation that a Catholic judge cannot act dispassionately and apply the law is an affront to all judges of faith, and smacks of anti-Catholic bigotry and elitism of the worst kind," he concluded.

Printed from: http://www.lifenews.com/state2243.html

LIFE IS SACRED

An example of the traditional magisterial teaching which indicates that it is never morally licit to intentionally kill a child through abortion in order to “save the life of its mother” comes from the teaching of Pope Pius XII:

“Every human being, even the infant in the mother's womb, has the right to life immediately from God, not from the parent or any human society or authority. Therefore, there is no man, no human authority, no science, no medical, eugenic, social, economic or moral ‘indication’ that can show or give valid juridical title for direct deliberate disposition concerning an innocent human life-which is to say, a disposition that aims at its destruction either as an end in itself or as the means of attaining another end that is perhaps in no way illicit itself. Thus, for example, to save the life of the mother is a most noble end, but the direct killing of the child as a means to this end is not licit.”