NEWS STORY: Catholic Priests Vow to Make Abortion an Issue in 2000 Elections

c. 2000 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ A national group of Catholic priests led by a fiery New York curate is vowing to shake up the 2000 elections with a $1 million campaign to focus attention on abortion and hold pro-choice politicians accountable, especially Catholic ones. “They have become false prophets,” the Rev. Frank Pavone, […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ A national group of Catholic priests led by a fiery New York curate is vowing to shake up the 2000 elections with a $1 million campaign to focus attention on abortion and hold pro-choice politicians accountable, especially Catholic ones.

“They have become false prophets,” the Rev. Frank Pavone, head of the Staten Island-based Priests for Life, declared at a recent press conference here with some two dozen Catholic clergymen from around the country.


Pavone stressed that the campaign would stop short of denouncing specific elected officials and challengers. “We are not naming names. … We are not taking part in any partisan (activities),” Pavone said.

But he acknowledged that individual pro-choice politicians would feel pressure. Having heard the message from the Priests for Life initiative, “we can trust the voters to put two and two together,” he explained.

Pavone indicated that the purpose of the campaign would largely be to challenge politicians who, by running for office as “pro-choice Catholics,” convey the impression that support for abortion rights is acceptable for members of the church.

“There is not more than one Catholic teaching on abortion,” he said. “Furthermore, this is not just a Catholic issue, but one of fundamental human rights.”

“To supporters of abortion who profess Christianity, we say, `Stop being a scandal to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Pavone added.

The Priests for Life effort immediately drew fire from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “I believe this is a tainted campaign,” said Barry Lynn, director of the church-state watchdog group.

Lynn said the priests were “very close to falling over the forbidden line” restricting tax-exempt religious organizations from taking part in partisan politics. “I believe that it is clear that they are targeting specific races,” he said.


Lynn cited news reports that members of Priests for Life had sought meetings recently with a number of prominent pro-choice elected officials, including members of Congress and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who is reportedly under consideration as GOP presidential contender George W. Bush’s running mate.

With an eye toward filing a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, Lynn said, Americans United would be “watching very closely the placement of ads” produced by Priests for Life over the next few months. Pavone denied seeing Ridge, but said that his group was “ready to talk to anybody.”

In a full-page ad in Friday’s (July 21) New York Times, Pavone’s group said, “We will not be intimidated, nor frightened into complacency, by those in the government and the media who would prefer us to keep silent behind the walls of the church sanctuary.”

Pavone said his group’s campaign will feature three television commercials to be made later this month and aired at the end of August. One of them will reportedly feature Pavone quoting from a recent bishops’ statement that warned pro-choice lawmakers to “consider the consequences for their own spiritual well being, as well as the scandal they risk.”

Another ad will seek to raise the profile of abortion in the elections by labeling it “the most important issue.”

Pavone signaled that some of the material in ads could be graphic. “Abortion is the most frequently performed operation in America today and yet it has never been seen on television,” he said.


Now the full-time director of Priests for Life, Pavone started forming the group in the early 1990s at the direction of the late Cardinal John O’Connor. The group has about 6,000 priests and 40,000 lay people as members. It is also supported by a number of pro-life Protestant and Jewish organizations.

Priests for Life’s campaign will also consist of $250,000 in print advertising and the establishment of a telephone bank to encourage priests across the country to use their pulpits for the anti-abortion cause and to discuss the issue with local elected officials, Pavone said.

He said his organization was prepared to spend more than the $1 million currently allocated for the crusade, and that it would be financed from contributions sent in by backers of the group, including viewers of its regular cable television program, “Defending Life.”

He indicated that another main purpose of the campaign will be to awaken Catholic voters to the vehemence of the church’s opposition to abortion. He said they “had an obligation to vote” and did “not cease to be believers when they enter the voting booth.”

“The eyes that read the Word of God are the same eyes that read the names of the candidates on the ballot,” he said. “The hands lifted up to God to say `Amen’ … are the same hands that push the lever down in the voting booth. We don’t have four hands, a pair for the church and a pair for the voting booth.”

KRE END KIVLAN

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