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Lay Catholics Go After Bishop For Support Of Pro-Abortion Politicians

By Hilary White
 
TUCSON, June 14, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a recent op ed in the Arizona Star, the Catholic bishop of Tucson – billed without his title only as Gerald F. Kicanas - listed hunger in Malawi and rebuilding New Orleans and “deep-seated problems of poverty, disease and malnutrition,” in the list of works for which US foreign aid should be allotted.
 
The bishop specifically singled out Republican Congressman, Jim Kolbe, who, he said, “has been a good and faithful advocate of assistance to lift up the poorest of the poor.”
 
This “good and faithful” Congressional advocate of the poor and downtrodden is also well liked by American abortion organizations. His voting record on abortion has been rated 100% by the National Abortion Rights Action League for his abortion advocacy, including in foreign aid.
 
Kolbe has twice opposed banning partial-birth abortion and has voted in favour of human cloning for reproduction & medical research. He voted yes on allowing human embryonic stem cell research and no on making it a crime to harm a foetus during another crime.
 
In May 2001, Kolbe voted against banning foreign aid funding for abortion and sterilization oriented “family planning”.
 
Bishop Gerald Kicanas is among that cadre of US bishops who is himself well liked in Democrat and liberal Catholic communities for his vocal support for left wing and “progressive” peace and justice issues.
 
Kicanas wrote an article for the Jesuit magazine, America titled “Healing Through Bankruptcy” in which he said that the legal proceedings and judge-supervised “reorganization” his diocese had recently undergone had “purified” his local Church.
 
The bankruptcy followed the numerous lawsuit payouts for cases of child molestation by homosexual priests of his diocese.
 
“The Bishop’s deafening silence vis-à-vis pro-choice politicians campaigning in locales under his canonical oversight is fuelling this developing scandal,” says Kelly Copeland, Director of the Holy Family Society of Tucson
 
No response was made by the diocese or the bishop when local politician, Richard Elias said at that meeting, “I think we also protect a woman’s right to choose’; ‘I’m Catholic and I’m pro-choice.”
 
Copeland asks, “Does the Bishop’s tacit consent, and permission given to pro-choice politicians to speak, constitute support for abortion rights and politicians supporting them?”
 
Bishop Kicanas was praised by the aggressively abortion-supporting Governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, for his “softer” approach to pro-abortion politicians using Catholic venues to publicize their positions.
 
Read Matt C. Abbott on Bishop Kicanas and Tucson bankruptcy:
http://renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/050429

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