Archbishop George Lucas: Abortion remains a preeminent moral concern

BY: Archbishop George Lucas

Professors Miller and Salzman of Creighton University (Midlands Voices essay, Oct. 27) have come to a conclusion about candidates for whom to vote this year. We should each approach this important act of citizenship prayerfully, having formed our consciences according to the age-old beliefs of our faith, before God. I must take exception to the argument Miller and Salzman offered, especially to Catholics, for guiding our voting decisions. Missing from the argument is the righteous intolerance for a clear injustice, and the kind of righteous upholding of human rights, for which Creighton University is often recognized.

Catholic bishops hold that the threat of abortion remains a preeminent priority in this country because our laws and our courts so often fail to protect the basic right to life of a whole class of human persons, the unborn. It is currently legal to directly and intentionally take the life of an innocent human being in the womb. This is a gross injustice that results in the loss of 2,000 innocent lives each day in the United States. The status quo is not worthy of our nation. The right to life is not a “Catholic value.” It is a human right. This right is being violated in a final and personal way in communities across our country. Pope John Paul II reminded us that this injustice is all the more serious because it is “carried out in the very heart of and with the complicity of the family — the family which by its nature is called to be the “sanctuary of life” (Evangelium Vitae, 11).

It is disingenuous to claim that expanded health care will necessarily address this injustice, since many falsely describe abortion as health care, and therefore a basic human right. And we have to be honest, too, in admitting that public officials who commit to expanding access to taxpayer-funded abortion, cannot reasonably be expected to be allies in reducing the injustice of abortion.

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