From the Bishops Greetings from San Diego

Jun 13, 2013

Greetings from San Diego, where I have joined with my brother bishops from across the country for our annual Spring meeting. I spent last evening catching up on the news from back home, and came across a few items I’d like to share.

Yesterday, the online edition of “USA Today” ran an op-ed column from me, as president of the USCCB, expressing our support for the immigration reform bill now before the U.S. Senate. Let me share an excerpt with you:

"Immigration reform is an issue close to Catholic hearts. America has wonderfully welcomed generations of immigrant families, and our parishes, schools and charitable ministries have long helped successfully integrate immigrants into American life.

Congress will soon debate the most comprehensive overhaul of our nation’s immigration laws in almost 30 years. With the stakes so high, it’s important that Congress craft legislation that balances the legitimate needs of security with our heritage of welcoming immigrants and the gifts they bring to our country."

You can read the whole column here.

This past weekend, I asked that a letter be shared in the parishes of the Archdiocese of New York on two very important issues: immigration reform, and, here in New York, the provision in the Women’s Equality Act that would expand abortion.

There were also two well-written pieces on the Women’s Equality Act. The first opinion piece was written by Greg Pfundstein in the “New York Post.” Pfundstein examines the problems with the abortion provision of the bill. Here is an excerpt from his op-ed:

"Gov. Cuomo is trying to sell New Yorkers a bill of goods about his abortion legislation – claiming it would just codify federal law. That’s a lie.

The governor and his allies say the bill would merely align state law with Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision.

Yet Roe – which effectively constitutionalized abortion on demand up until birth – is no longer the governing federal case on abortion. In 1992, Casey v. Planned Parenthood substantially altered the landscape by explicitly allowing states to impose some sensible restrictions on abortion."

Click here to read his whole op-ed.

The second piece that I came across is an editorial published in the “New York Daily News” questioning Governor Cuomo’s decision to promote this abortion expansion bill at this time. Here is an excerpt:

"The governor triggered the fight by proposing a bill that, he says, is intended only to clarify a woman’s legal right to terminate a pregnancy in New York. But in so doing, he is addressing an issue that has long been settled in both law and practice.

This state can rightly be called the abortion capital of America, thanks to the city’s extraordinarily high rate of pregnancy terminations.

Women in the city have abortions at a rate more than three times that of the U.S. as a whole, while women in the rest of the state surpass the national average by a small margin."

You can read the editorial here.


Reprinted with permission from the Cardinal's blog, "The Gospel in the Digital Age."

|