Archbishop Burke says bishops’ document helped Obama campaign
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=1812
In an exclusive interview with LifeSite News, Archbishop Raymond Burke has charged that the US bishops’ document on voting responsibilities, Faithful Citizenship, contributed to the electoral victory of Barack Obama in last year’s presidential contest. Archbishop Burke– who was Archbishop of St. Louis before he was called to Rome to head the Church’s top canonical court– said that the bishops’ statement “led to confusion” by suggesting that Catholic voters might, in some circumstances, be justified in voting for a pro-abortion candidate. Those circumstances did not apply, the American prelate said, and mentioning them only clouded a straightforward moral issue. Archbishop Burke argues that the lack of clear moral guidance from the hierarchy was a contributing factor in Obama’s victory, because many Catholic voters supported the Democratic candidate.
They should have read Catholic Answers Action’s document instead.
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I wish to be careful in what I say regarding our leaders, for God has chosen them and given them the authority and responsibility they bear.
One of the things I have felt for a long time regarding the publication of Catholic documents on the Faith is that they are way too wordy and hard to understand. They are simply not written for the average Schmoe in the pew. I felt the same way about the few quotes from Papal Bulls and encyclicals that I read.
I think it would be helpful to all to produce documents that are concisely worded, avoid long sentence structures, and use a simpler grammatical construct.
In other words KISS
Keep
IT
Simple
Sir.
My take on the Faithful Citizenship is the feeling it was written just so many would be confused. How many bishops voted for Obama? You can bet your sweet bippy it was more than a few.
I think His Excellency was absolutely right. I listen to Catholic Answers Live and the number of times the apologists had to clarify the collective Bishop’s statement was about twice a day before the election.
The message was simple, if you have 2 candidates and one is pro-abort and the other anti-abort (or at least not as pro-abort) a Catholic can not vote for the pro-abort candidate. S/he can refrain from voting entirely or vote for the lesser of 2 evils. Unfortunately the “bishop speak” in the document was unclear.
Catholics are generally pretty Protestant these days but a clearer statement would have been appropriate. Barring the always confused Pelosi from Communion would be a good place to start..