["Life, liberty and the pursuit of illegal immigrants?"]
Arkansas bishop: right to life, religious liberty, immigration most important issues
CWN – October 31, 2012
Bishop Anthony Taylor of Little Rock said in a recent homily that “some of the moral and social issues to keep in mind this year are, in descending order of what I consider to be their importance and urgency: 1) the right to life, 2) religious liberty, 3) immigration, 4) marriage and family, and 5) economic justice.”
“Human life is sacred and must be protected from conception to natural death … no abortion, capital punishment or euthanasia, no embryo-destroying research or cloning,” he said. “Remember also that many on the Supreme Court are elderly and the next president may have a big role in deciding who will sit on the Court in the future and judge issues of great importance to us going forward.”
“Government cannot licitly require us to do what conscience forbids!” he added. “The Health and Human Services mandate requiring all employers to provide health insurance that includes free artificial contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs is a direct attack on our practice the Catholic faith, with which Catholic employers cannot in good conscience comply. And not just Catholic institutions, which is all we hear about in the news.”
“We have the right to immigrate when circumstances so require and to participate fully in the society in which we live,” he continued. “Our current laws deny people these God given rights, exposing 12 million current residents to economic exploitation and fear of deportation. As you decide how to vote, consider also justice for immigrants.”
“Those of us who can vote must keep in mind the needs of those who can’t. Immigrants and babies in the womb have no voice in our elections, but they will be affected profoundly by the decisions of our legislators, as will the poor in other countries.”
Additional sources for this story: Five Priorities for this Presidential Election (Facebook, Diocese of Little Rock) www.facebook.com/notes/catholic-diocese-of-little-rock/five-priorities-for-this-presidential-election/514255715254226
Why is it that capital punishment is lumped in with abortion as a moral issue? It’s been argured (and i wish i could remember where I read this) that to be for the just application of the death penalty does, perhaps counter intuitively, support the sacredness of life.
Are Catholics bound to accept this (apparently new) teaching that capital punishment is inherently morally evil?