Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Presidential election of 2008: Statement to Bishops, From Randall Terry, at St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Paul MN

Contact: Randall Terry, 904-687-9804

ST. PAUL, Sept. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- Founder of Operation Rescue urges Catholic Bishops to lead their flocks in this Election; asks them to not arrest Catholics on Church Property. Statement Follows:

Your Excellencies, given political facts at this moment in American history, this "concrete situation" demands that you clearly and courageously state: "No Catholic can vote for Obama/Biden with a clear conscience because of their support of abortion."

John Paul II says:

In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to "take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it". 73... Christians, like all people of good will, are called upon under grave obligation of conscience not to cooperate formally in practices which, even if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to God's law... Such cooperation occurs when an action, either by its very nature or by the form it takes in a concrete situation, can be defined as a direct participation in an act against innocent human life or a sharing in the immoral intention of the person committing it. 74, Evangelium Vitae.

Given the histories and intentions of Senators Obama and Biden to protect abortion on demand, and thereby continue the legalized killing of the unborn, to vote for Obama/Biden is to knowingly share in their immoral intention, and in a very real way, to vote for abortion.

You do not need to endorse Senator John McCain, or Dr. Alan Keys, or Rep. Bob Barr, or anyone for that matter, but you have an inescapable duty to "form the conscience" of your flock on this life and death vote, and to guide them away from "cooperation" an "intrinsically unjust law" supporting child-killing.

No amount of false logic claiming "the common good..." can justify a vote for Obama/Biden. The "common good" fallacy (supporting abortion) is here exposed.

John Paul II declares:

Laws which authorize and promote abortion and euthanasia are therefore radically opposed not only to the good of the individual but also to the common good; as such they are completely lacking in authentic juridical validity. Disregard for the right to life, precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve, is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good...72 It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop...101 Evangelium Vitae

People can disagree with a clear conscience on whether or not our current war is a just war; we can debate the means and manner of helping the poor, or improving health care and education, or of sheltering immigrants, but none of these human heartaches rise to the level of legalized child-killing.  Without protecting human life from murder, calls for "the common good" are a hollow mockery of justice.

John Paul II clearly proclaims:

The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder (52) ... "a person who actually procures an abortion incurs automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication". The excommunication affects all those who commit this crime with knowledge of the penalty attached, and thus includes those accomplices without whose help the crime would not have been committed." 62 Evangelium Vitae

I leave it to your Excellencies and to history to judge the level of guilt we incur as accomplices when we vote for candidates who are champions of murder.

Any Bishop who suggests that it is not his place to "name names," or "choose sides," should remember our heroes. John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Elijah, Justin Martyr, and a host of saints and martyrs named tyrants, heretics, and evildoers by name.

Your Excellencies, silence at this moment in history furthers this holocaust; not naming names is a failure of duty to unborn babies as well as the Catholics under your charge. But alas, 35 years of elections since Roe vs. Wade has proven that most Bishops do not possess clarity and courage equal to the "enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the 'culture of death' and the 'culture of life'."

But many lay Catholics do.

And we will not join you, your Excellencies, in your silence.

So, during the remaining weeks of this election cycle, a devout and courageous group of us will uphold the teachings of the Church, and cry out against cooperation with the Obama/Biden ticket.

We will fulfill our duty as Catholics, and exercise our rights as Americans by handing out flyers at Cathedral parking lots, such as "Is it immoral to vote for Obama for President?" (See it at www.humbleplea.com)

I beg you in the name of our Lady of Guadalupe who brought the end of human sacrifice on this continent centuries ago – tell your priests, deacons and staff to not interfere with our peaceful literature distribution. It is our duty, and our right.

Please do not put yourself in the unhappy and unholy place of harassing or unjustly arresting faithful Catholics heralding the Gospel of Life, who are handing out Catholic literature, upholding Catholic teaching, in a Catholic parking lot – for the sake of babies.

To Interview Mr. Terry in St. Paul, Call 904 687 9804