Louisiana archbishop urges public officials to protect human life

Published: 2004-01-20

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- The archbishop of New Orleans said in his archdiocesan newspaper column that while public officials sometimes have to support "imperfect" legislation on issues such as abortion they should still be acting to help protect human life at all stages. In a Jan. 14 column in the Clarion-Herald, Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes said sometimes public officials "have to make a prudential judgment that at a given time in human history only imperfect legislation is possible." Catholic public officials faced with legislation on abortion, physician-assisted suicide, homicide, the destruction of human embryos in artificial fertilization, stem-cell research and cloning have a clear-cut moral responsibility, he said. "We cannot do what is wrong even for good purposes." Archbishop Hughes said the Louisiana bishops were sending to Catholic elected officials in the state copies of the "Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life," issued a year ago by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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