He's not trying to tell you how to vote, but...

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Archbishop Jose Gomez complained Wednesday about plans for a rally by Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, an abortion rights supporter, at a Catholic university.

The archbishop released a statement noting that Clinton and some other presidential candidates' support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research were not in line with Catholic values. The Rev. Pat Rodgers, an archdiocese spokesman, said Gomez was responding to telephone calls and e-mails from concerned Catholics.

Clinton held a rally at St. Mary's University, the oldest Catholic college in the city, on Wednesday evening.

"I was neither advised nor consulted by the university before the decision was made to have Senator Clinton speak at the university," Gomez said in the statement released by the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

Gomez said he was not trying to tell people how to vote, but he noted that U.S. Catholic bishops have affirmed a statement calling on Catholics not to honor or give platforms to political candidates and officeholders "who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."

The school issued a statement saying it does not endorse political candidates and acknowledges fundamental differences between the teachings of the church and the positions of political candidates.

The school is an independent liberal arts college with its own president and board of directors but is under the spiritual leadership of the archdiocese.

Clinton spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod said in a statement that the campaign respects the archbishop's point of view and appreciates the invitation to speak at the school.

Source

The USCCB statement says, in regard to those who act in defiance of our moral principles, that "...they should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." (Italics mine)

I'm not sure that having a candidate speak at a university during an election year actually suggests support.  Rather it appears to me more of an opportunity to hear first hand information--an important part of making an informed choice.  Certainly an "independent liberal arts" institution has an obligation to its student body to present an unbiased and objective range of information.  If they are able to get candidates to appear in person, all the better.  I would think also that having Clinton speak would give students the opportunity to challenge her on what they deem as immoral.

Blackballing a candidate, regardless of what he or she stands for, is not the best way in my opinion to make a statement about what we value.

For information on how to make an informed and responsible voting choice click here (.pdf)

Comments

[JustMe]

If only the Church had gotten a hairier-chested act together long ago and told Catholic politicians privately and then privately with a friend, and then if they didn't listen, told them publicly and even more publicly that they weren't fit for an office that's supposed to be about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we'd not be nearing 50 million abortions -- inarguably forced death upon pre-born American citizens, but far more important, inarguably forced death of pre-born eternal beings -- every hidden death of which is accepted more easily than a pink-barretted child floating face-down near a wall in New Orleans, but from which there is no difference at all, except in visibility.

C'mon, Bishops all -- tell your priests and us what horrors to blackball indeed, and help us shut down this vile spreading beast of apathetic confusion, the same that prevailed over Terri Schiavo's forced death, lest when we answer to Him as a nation, we many will each have to go to the goat side.