Thank you so much for addressing Senator Casey's anti-life vote of January 28th. As your letter to the senator so powerfully explains:
- "Your vote against the Mexico City Policy will mean the deaths of thousands of unborn children. This is an offense against life and a denial of our Catholic teaching on the dignity of every human being. This action is worthy of condemnation by all moral men and women....It is the height of irony that this amendment was defeated while the Senate passed legislation to provide health insurance for children who would otherwise be without it. What hypocrisy offers health insurance to children in one part of the world when children in another part will be deprived, by the stroke of the same pen, of their first breath?....Your failure to reverse this vote will regrettably mean that you persist formally in cooperating with the evil brought about by this hideous and unnecessary policy." <www.dioceseofscranton.org/News/SenatorCaseyVoteOnOverseasAbortionsFebruary5,2009.asp>
I believe that your letter to Senator Casey is a model for how other members of the hierarchy can address similar scandals. Particularly powerful are your citations of the Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the participation of Catholics in Political Life, Christifideles Laici, as well as then-Cardinal Ratzinger's "memo to the bishops of the United States."
Thank you!
