Splitting faith, politics doesn't apply to abortion, says archbishop

Published: 2004-09-23

DENVER (CNS) -- The argument that Catholic elected officials can divorce their faith from their political actions does not apply in the fight against abortion, said Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. The 1973 Supreme Court legalization of abortion "changed everything," he said in his column in the Sept. 22 issue of the Denver Catholic Register, his archdiocesan newspaper. "Abortion is different. Abortion kills," he said. The archbishop said that after 1973 Catholic officeholders had the choice of trying to reverse the situation "or they could abandon the unborn and look for a way to morally sanitize their decision." The archbishop did not say in his column that Catholic officeholders favoring legal abortion or Catholics who vote for candidates favoring legal abortion should refrain from receiving Communion. The archbishop criticized former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo for reinforcing the position that there can be a split between faith and politics as formulated in 1960 by John F. Kennedy, a Catholic. At the time, Kennedy was the Democratic nominee for president and abortion was illegal and not a campaign issue. Kennedy said he favored strict separation of church and state "where no public official either requests or accepts instructions from the pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesial source."

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