Feb 15, 2007 / 13:37 pm

Bishop Samuel Aquila, the Bishop of Fargo, has issued a strong challenge to Catholic politicians, reminding them that they have a responsibility to ensure that their actions reflect their Catholic faith.

In his diocesan newspaper column posted today on the Diocese of Fargo Web Site, the bishop reminds politicians that, “every act of violence that attacks an innocent human person from the moment of conception to natural death is against the will of God and rejects the inherent dignity of the human person.”

Therefore, the Bishop said, “every Catholic politician must recognize and act upon this truth to be a faithful Catholic.”

The column is an edited version of the homily Bishop Aquila presented at the Jan. 18 Legislative Mass celebrated at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck. It will appear in New Earth, the newspaper for the Diocese of Fargo, which will be printed Feb. 15.

“We cannot leave God at the door when we walk into the legislature,” the bishop tells Catholic politicians, “but rather we must allow the truth of God and the truth of the dignity of the human person to guide us in every decision we make. With each law or bill we consider, we must be, first, a people who recognize that there is the inherent dignity of human life that is bestowed by God and that can never be violated.”

“Once we begin to be the ones who determine what is good or what is evil, once we begin to be the ones who determine which human person has dignity and which one doesn’t, we will see…what happens to a society,” the prelate continues.

In his column, Bishop Aquila also refers to the recent movie “Blood Diamond,” saying, “In that society the lust for power, the lust for money, the lust for control overtakes and guides the human heart, with the result that violence and murder govern the society.”

In addition to the unborn, the column addresses the dignity of illegal aliens and those sentenced to the death penalty. The bishop questions how people who believe in God can express hatred for illegal aliens or “cheer when a capital punishment sentence is given.”

Finally, the bishop emphasizes that there are certain offenses against life which the Church considers most grave.  “As faithful Catholics, we acknowledge that the gravest attacks against the dignity of human life are those that destroy innocent human life, as in abortion, euthanasia and genocide.”

The full column can be found at www.fargodiocese.org.