Archbishop Burke says U.S. choosing to renounce ‘faithful foundation’

Washington D.C., May 8, 2009 / 18:50 pm

Archbishop Raymond Burke, delivering an address to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on Friday, said President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion policies have damaged the family and charged that Notre Dame’s invitation to the president was the source of "the greatest scandal."

"With unparalleled arrogance, our nation is choosing to renounce its foundation on the faithful," he said, according to Fox News.

He said several decisions of the Obama administration have damaged "the fundamental society that is the family," Fox News reports. Among other actions, the archbishop cited the President’s repeal of the Mexico City Policy, which permits funding for organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas; the proposed repeal of conscience protections for pro-life medical workers; and support of the United Nations Population Fund, which supports China’s one-child policy.

Archbishop Burke also objected to President Obama’s professed support for the Freedom of Choice Act, which would further enshrine permissive abortion policy into U.S. law.

It is "the source of the greatest scandal" for the University of Notre Dame to grant an honorary degree to President Obama, who Archbishop Burke said is "so aggressively advancing an anti-life and anti-family agenda."

"The path of violation of the most fundamental human rights and of the integrity of marriage and the family which our nation is traveling is not accidental," he remarked. "As Catholics, we cannot fail to notice with the greatest sadness the number of our fellow Catholics who cooperate fully to the advancement of a national agenda which is anti-life and anti-family."

He told the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast audience that a majority of Catholics feely chose a political leadership that is implementing decisions in conflict with the faith. He added that he is grieved to say that elected Catholics’ support for "anti-life legislation" is "so common that those who are not Catholics have justifiably questioned whether the church's teachings regarding the inviolable dignity of innocent human life is firm and unchanging."

Archbishop Burke said that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ appointment to become Secretary of Health and Human Services is "the source of the deepest embarrassment to Catholics and a painful reminder of the most serious responsibility of Catholics to uphold the moral law," which he called the "irreplaceable foundation" of just relationships between citizens.

According to Fox News, the archbishop said loose morals have led to legislation that would recognize same-sex "marriages" and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

"At the root of the confusion and error about marriage is the contraceptive mentality which would have us believe that the inherently procreative nature of the conjugal union can in practice be mechanically or chemically eliminated while the marital act remains unitive," he explained. "It simply cannot be sold."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia also spoke at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.