Reflection of Bishop Robert J. McManus,
Diocese of Worcester, MA, on the June 2004 USCCB statement "Catholics in Political
Life", June 2004
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
I just recently returned from the Spring Special Assembly of the
Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that was held from June 14-19, 2004,
in Denver, Colorado. It was a moment of grace
and fraternal support for all of us bishops.
The primary purpose of the special assembly was to reflect
prayerfully on the nature and role of the office of bishop in contemporary American
society. During this assembly, the bishops
drafted a document entitled, “Catholics in Political Life.” The immediate background for this statement was the
national discussion within the Catholic community in the United States about whether
Catholic public officials who manifestly and consistently contradict Church teaching on
fundamental and moral and social issues should be denied the reception of Holy Communion.
As the discussion among the bishops progressed, it became quite
evident that this controversial matter raised a broader moral discussion concerning the
ever-present danger for all of us, but in particular Catholic public officials, of
cooperating with evil in a morally relativistic and secularist society. This moral reflection also raised the related
matter of the moral problem of causing scandal and the spiritually significant question of
who is worthy to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist.
The document the bishops overwhelmingly approved is found below. I want to make it eminently clear that the
publication of this document is not intended to be a political manifesto to the benefit or
detriment of any political candidate or party. In
this statement, we bishops speak as spiritual and moral teachers. Our sole purpose is to help form properly the
conscience of Catholics, especially those who hold public office and therefore, possess
the very important duty and responsibility of affecting through their executive,
legislative, and judicial powers the moral fabric of society and its common good.
No one, neither private citizen nor public official, can separate his
or her moral convictions from his or her political responsibility for crafting public
policy that is morally sound and just. The
perplexing and socially divisive issue of legalized abortion is the paramount case in
point in today’s American society. Abortion
is the deliberate and intentional killing of innocent human life. It is not a sectarian, religious or peculiarly
Roman Catholic moral issue. Abortion is an
immoral act that involves an unjust attack on a human being’s fundamental right to
life. Every person, especially those who are
in a position of public trust to protect and foster basic human rights such as the right
to life must work diligently to ensure the legal protection of defenseless human life in
the womb.
The following statement of the bishops of the United States is yet
another attempt for us bishops to teach with one, undivided voice that all human life is
sacred and demands legal protection from the moment of conception until natural death. Any law that legislates otherwise is morally flawed
and must be overturned or at the very least, limited in its lethal effect to the greatest
extent possible. Catholic public officials
have a grave political and moral responsibility to work in the public realm toward
achieving this moral end. Not to do so or,
even worse, to promote vigorously the so-called “pro=choice position” is to
involve themselves in grave sin and to weaken seriously their communion with the Roman
Catholic Church.
I hope that all Roman Catholics in the Diocese of Worcester will
prayerfully read this statement on “Catholics in Public Life” and will
appropriate it as an occasion to inform well their conscience so that they will work to
protect, through the political process, the inalienable right to life from conception
until natural death.
Asking God’s grace and blessing upon you and your families as we
work together to promote a culture of life in our contemporary American society, I remain
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Robert J. McManus, Bishop of Worcester
Original availabe at http://www.worcesterdiocese.org/bishopsoffice/pol-lf-ltr.pdf
Massachusetts Catholic Conference http://www.macathconf.org