Our bishop, Thomas John Paprocki, has publicly objected to the Chicago Archdiocese’s rewarding Senator Dick Durbin for his years of service in government because Senator Durbin has publicly advocated a “pro-choice” position regarding abortion.
Catholic belief that abortion is evil goes back centuries
and continues today. Prolife defenders say that opposition to abortion is “natural
law.” That means that everyone, regardless of religious belief, should be able
to see the evil of the action. People who do not see it are unreasonable, and
must be acting in bad faith.
There is a difference between believing that abortion is
evil and believing that the government should make “procuring” an abortion a
crime, punishable by law. Catholic canon law uses the unusual term “procure,” probably
because the decision in favor of abortion is not exclusively the woman’s
decision. Men can be equally guilty.
Canon law excommunicates anyone who procures an abortion. It
does not excommunicate anyone who murders. People who oppose murder are
considered reasonable. People who oppose making the government punish abortion are
not unreasonable. I can only speculate that the reason for the special
punishment must be that the lawyers believe that more stringent punishment will
discourage it.
Something like eighty percent of the population, including
eighty percent of Catholics, think that abortion should be legal under some
circumstances. That is evidence that allowing abortion legally is not against natural
law.
Believing that abortion must be punished by law is a
denominational belief, and the Second Vatican Council said that Catholics should
respect other people’s denominational beliefs and not require the government to
impose those beliefs by law.
I respect Senator Durbin’s statement that he is personally
opposed to abortion. That does not make him a hypocrite. As a professional
politician, he must believe that making it punishable by law goes beyond what
natural law requires and that as a Catholic he is not required to make it a
crime.
People who equate procuring any abortion with killing a
child late in pregnancy poison political discourse. Contentious issues should
be approached with respect and sensitivity to others’ feelings. That is what it
means to love one’s neighbor as oneself.
Brother Joe Zimmerman, OFM
