Archbishop Chaput Speaks Out about "Catholic" Politicians

From the Denver Catholic Register

How to tell a duck from a fox
Thinking with the Church as we look toward November
Some Excerpts:

We've all heard that saying, or some version of it, a thousand times. The reason is simple: It's true. Our actions prove who we are. If a gulf exists between what we say, how we look and what we do, we're not living in a spirit of truth. A fox, even if he quacks, is still a fox. Sooner or later, it becomes obvious.

I remembered this last week as I read yet another news report about candidates who claim to be Catholic and then prominently ignore their own faith on matters of public policy. We've come a long way from John F. Kennedy, who merely locked his faith in the closet. Now we have Catholic senators who take pride in arguing for legislation that threatens and destroys life — and who then also take Communion.

The right to life comes first. It precedes and undergirds every other social issue or group of issues. This is why Blessed John XXIII listed it as the first human right in his great encyclical on world peace, Pacem in Terris.

Candidates who claim to be "Catholic" but who publicly ignore Catholic teaching about the sanctity of human life are offering a dishonest public witness. They may try to look Catholic and sound Catholic, but unless they act Catholic in their public service and political choices, they're really a very different kind of creature.

And real Catholics should vote accordingly.

And then there is this from the Denver Post.
Catholic politicians scolded
Chaput rips backers of abortion rights

Chaput's admonition to voters also is a notable volley in Colorado politics.

The three front-runners in the state's pivotal U.S. Senate race - Democrat Ken Salazar and Republicans Peter Coors and Bob Schaffer - all are Catholic.

Chaput's stance likely poses the greatest challenge to Salazar, the only one of the three to support abortion rights. Salazar fired back Wednesday, saying he respects Chaput but thinks the church should stay out of such debates.

Great! A John Kerry wannabee!

In a signal that those words are just the beginning, archdiocesan spokesman Sergio Gutierrez said Chaput and his assistant, Bishop Jose Gomez, plan to bring up the issue again in the coming months, including talks with the Senate hopefuls about how their faith affects their public lives.

Will he follow Archbishop Burke and join with Bishop Bruskewitz?

Gutierrez said Chaput respects bishops in St. Louis and Boston who have made those statements, but Chaput has not decided whether to take a similar stand if Kerry were to campaign in Colorado.

Salazar, who grew up in a devoutly Catholic family in Colorado's San Luis Valley and once studied for the priesthood, said Wednesday that abortion is an issue to be settled "between a woman and her God."

"If I were in a position today where my wife and I had conceived a child, I would not want my wife to have an abortion," he said. "But I would forever defend her right as a woman to make that decision. I do not believe it is right for me or any other political figure to impose my religious morality on other people."

But the attorney general, who said he attends Mass every week, does not believe he must agree with the church on all matters to be a Catholic.

"I believe the Catholic Church is an institution where it is men that create the doctrine of the church," Salazar said. "I don't agree with 100 percent of the positions that are taken by the Catholic Church. ... I do not believe the litmus test for being a Christian or a Catholic is one that is proclaimed by the archbishop."

This must some of what he learned in the seminary. He admits in so many words, though he does not appear to understand, that he is NOT Catholic. He denies the teaching of Christ and His Church - he is, for all intents and purposes, a material heretic. He is one of the foxes about which the Archbishop spoke.

May God have mercy on him and bring him, and others like him, back into the light of His eternal Truth!