{"id":1192394,"date":"2022-01-05T22:35:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T03:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1192394"},"modified":"2022-01-05T22:35:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T03:35:26","slug":"prominent-jesuit-priest-says-good-catholics-can-be-pro-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prominent-jesuit-priest-says-good-catholics-can-be-pro-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Prominent Jesuit Priest Says Good Catholics Can Be Pro-Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fprominent-jesuit-priest-says-good-catholics-can-be-pro-choice%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1192394&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Catholics can support a woman\u2019s right to kill her unborn child in good conscience declared Jesuit Father Pat Conroy in an interview published Wednesday in the <em>Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Father Conroy, who served for a decade as chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/religion\/2022\/01\/05\/insurrection-house-chaplain-abortion-apocalypse-conroy\/\">drew<\/a> a distinction between being pro-abortion and pro-choice, insisting that \u201ca pro-choice Democrat isn\u2019t a pro-abortion person,\u201d and it is an error to judge any pro-choice Democrat \u201cas pro-abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI want to know the American who thinks the government should take away their choice in any area of their life \u2014 any area of their life,\u201d the priest stated in reference to women. \u201cIt\u2019s an American value that each one of us can choose where our life is going. That happens to be a Catholic value, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10611360\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pro-life-march-for-life-washingtondc-supremecourt-getty.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10611360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/pro-life-march-for-life-washingtondc-supremecourt-getty.jpg\" alt=\"Pro-choice activists hold signs in response to anti-abortion activists participating in the &quot;March for Life,&quot; an annual event to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the US, outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, January 18, 2019. (Photo by SAUL LOEB \/ AFP) (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB\/AFP\/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-choice activists hold signs in response to anti-abortion activists participating in the \u201cMarch for Life,\u201d an annual event to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the US, outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, January 18, 2019. (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cChoice is a highly American value and it\u2019s a church value,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cA good Catholic in our system could be saying: Given women in our system have this constitutional right, our task as fellow Christians, or as Catholics, is to make it possible for her to optimize her ability to make the choice,\u201d Conroy asserted.<\/p>\n<p>Calling abortion a \u201ctragedy,\u201d the priest said that, nonetheless, in the end, \u201cshe is the one to make her choice; we should not make it for her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Father Conroy is not the first Jesuit to support pro-choice Democrats. Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, the former editor-in-chief of <em>America<\/em> magazine, the Jesuit\u2019s flagship publication in the United States, famously <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2018\/05\/27\/irish-vote-shows-need-for-new-pro-life-strategy-on-abortion\/\">wrote<\/a> in 2018 that \u201cpro-lifers must consider voting for candidates, even pro-choice Democrats, who will reduce the number of abortions by supporting programs that help mothers and their children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrying to preserve anti-abortion laws or trying to reverse the legalization of abortion is simply not working,\u201d Father Reese contended.<\/p>\n<p>In that essay, Reese further argued against closing Planned Parenthood clinics, insisting that such a move would be \u201cirresponsible and counterproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Not long after the publication of Reese\u2019s article, Cardinal Timothy Dolan <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2018\/06\/08\/dolan-oped\/\">responded<\/a> forcefully, asserting that Father Reese\u2019s strategy constituted \u201ca capitulation to the abortion culture, and a grave weakening of the powerful pro-life witness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis main assertion \u2014 that we give up all efforts to legally protect unborn human life, and work only to reduce the number of abortions \u2014 is an unnecessary dichotomy,\u201d Cardinal Dolan wrote.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_9996783\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/BC-US-Church-Abuse-New-York.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9996783\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/BC-US-Church-Abuse-New-York.png\" alt=\"Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, speaks to reporters during a news conference in New York, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. Dolan helped to announce a new program intended to provide reconciliation and compensation for victims of sexual abuse by clergy. (AP Photo\/Seth Wenig)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, speaks to reporters during a news conference in New York, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. (AP Photo\/Seth Wenig)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cCatholic tradition and basic human rights teach us that every human being has an inalienable right to life that must be recognized and protected in law,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhile the law is not the only means of protecting life, it plays a key and decisive role in affecting both human behavior and thinking. We cannot give up!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dolan went on to compare Reese\u2019s strategy to arguments employed against abolitionists in the mid-19th century.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe ameliorists argued that, sure, slavery was awful, but, really it was here to stay,\u201d Dolan noted. \u201cSo, we should acknowledge that it is constitutionally protected, and simply work to lessen the number of slaves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank God, those who believed that slavery was a moral horror, a cancer on our country, and contrary to the higher values of a lawful republic, could never accept this capitulation,\u201d Dolan added.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most notorious of pro-choice Jesuits was Father Robert Drinan (D-MA), who served in the House of Representatives from 1971 to 1981.<\/p>\n<p>Writing in <em>The Catholic Lawyer<\/em> in 1968, Father Drinan <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarship.law.stjohns.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1673&amp;context=tcl\">argued<\/a> that Catholics \u201cshould move away from any line of reasoning or species of rhetoric which suggests that the proponents of abortion are advocating homicide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Can or should Catholics \u201cbe so entirely certain of their own moral position in this regard that they should insist that their own hierarchy of values with regard to fetal life must be incorporated into the civil law?\u201d he asked rhetorically.<\/p>\n<p>A vocal advocate of abortion rights during his political career, Father Drinan memorably supported President Bill Clinton\u2019s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 1996.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after, the redoubtable archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O\u2019Connor, rebuked Drinan in his weekly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholic.org\/news\/politics\/story.php?id=49666\">column<\/a> in&nbsp;<em>Catholic New York<\/em>: \u201cYou could have raised your voice for life; you raised it for death. Hardly the role of a lawyer. Surely not the role of a priest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tdwilliamsrome?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @tdwilliamsrome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Catholics can support a woman\u2019s right to kill her unborn child in good conscience declared Jesuit Father Pat Conroy in an interview published Wednesday in the Washington Post. Father Conroy, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1192394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}