St. Patrick’s Church in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin / St. Patrick’s Facebook page
St. Louis, Mo., Apr 3, 2023 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
The Diocese of Madison clarified late last week that the Church does not endorse nor oppose specific political candidates after a Wisconsin pastor urged parishioners in his weekly parish bulletin message to vote against state Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz, who is openly pro-abortion.
“The Catholic Church’s involvement in public life doesn’t extend to endorsing candidates for election to public office nor calling for their defeat and thus refrains from partisan political activities. The Church does encourage voter registration and encourages Catholics, as citizens, to vote and to be civically engaged,” the diocese said in a statement sent to CNA.
“However, the Church also has both a duty and a right to call attention to the moral and religious dimensions of public issues, measuring social policies and political activities against the natural moral law and Gospel values. Since the first century, the Church has consistently affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law in its respect for all human life.”
The diocese’s response comes after Father Brian Dulli, pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, urged his parishioners to vote against the pro-abortion candidate in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election, a race that observers say could have major effects on the legality of abortion in the state.
As reported by Wisconsin Public Radio, an attorney with the activist group Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is based in Madison, wrote to the IRS last week to complain about the bulletin, asking the IRS to revoke St. Patrick’s 501(c)3 nonprofit status.
The April 4 election is between former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly and current Milwaukee judge Protasiewicz. Protasiewicz has spoken openly about her pro-abortion views while insisting that she has made “no promises” to pro-abortion groups that she will seek to overturn the state’s current abortion ban.
In a March 26 parish bulletin, Dulli urged Catholics not to vote for Protasiewicz, saying she has “tried to make this race entirely an effort to legalize abortion in the state of Wisconsin.”
“Abortion is the intentional taking of a human life. It is murder. Our Catholic faith is clear that this is grave sin. It should never be controversial among Catholics to say that you can never intentionally take any action that knowingly will help in the taking of a human life. You cannot publicly support abortion or abortion advocates and remain a Catholic in good standing,” Dulli wrote.
“As a Catholic, I urge you, for the salvation of your soul; do not vote for her [Protasiewicz] in the Supreme Court race on April 4,” he continued.
“I encourage you to study the race carefully and form you [sic] conscience correctly in accordance with the truths of the Catholic faith.”
In his April 2 bulletin message, Dulli acknowledged that the March 26 bulletin “got much more exposure than usual” and reiterated that “given a choice between any two people, we must say ‘absolutely not’ to the person who says abortion should be on the table.”
“We need to say no to a system that demands human sacrifice of the unborn be on the table. Jesus said that we will be judged by what we do to the least among us. Babies are the littlest and least. If someone consents to the killing of unborn children, they will not stop at the destruction of you or your family,” Dulli wrote.
“Haven’t we seen enough destruction now to know it?”
Reached by CNA on Monday, Dulli declined to comment further, saying he believes the situation has been “talked about enough.”
What’s Tuesday’s election all about?
The 2023 Wisconsin judicial race, which might have remained obscure in other years even within Wisconsin, is garnering national media attention and record fundraising numbers for the candidates. The reasons have to do with a prediction — both among pro-life and pro-abortion groups — that the winner of the election could tip the scales in Wisconsin when it comes to the state’s current abortion ban.
Wisconsin is the only state in the nation with a pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban in effect, at least on paper. Wisconsin’s ban, which is contained in Section 940.04 of the Wisconsin Statutes and dates to 1849, allows abortion only to save the life of the mother. The state’s Democratic governor and attorney general have said they will not enforce the ban and are currently suing in an attempt to have it overturned.
The law was previously unenforceable following the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, but Roe’s overturning last year allowed the statute to come into effect. So far, it has not been blocked in court, as has happened with pre-Roe bans in West Virginia and Michigan.
Pro-abortion groups within and outside Wisconsin have identified the state Supreme Court race as the key to getting 940.04 overturned. Gov. Tony Evers, along with Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, announced a lawsuit last year to attempt to overturn the law, arguing that it has been superseded by subsequent legislation and cannot be enforced.
The lawsuit is likely to be ultimately decided by the state Supreme Court, which has had a 4-3 conservative majority for the past decade and a half. The current election will determine who will sit in the open seat being vacated by retiring conservative justice Patience Roggensack. The winner will serve a 10-year term.
Pro-life advocates worry that should the state Supreme Court obtain a pro-choice majority, the state’s pre-Roe ban could be declared unconstitutional, as happened last year in neighboring Michigan.
Who are the candidates?
Kelly is a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who served on the court from his appointment by then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2016 until he was voted out in 2020. He describes himself as a “constitutional conservative” and on his campaign website charges that his opponents are “judicial activists who seek to impose their own political agenda on our state.”
Amid a contentious campaign, Kelly has earned the endorsement of three statewide pro-life groups — Wisconsin Family Action, Pro-Life Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Right to Life. He said during a recent debate that his numerous endorsements from pro-life groups came about after having conversations with them about his pledge to uphold the Constitution, not because of any promise to keep the abortion ban in place.
In contrast, Protasiewicz has garnered endorsements from numerous top Democrats in Wisconsin as well as from pro-abortion groups such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and EMILY’s List. Protasiewicz currently is a judge for Branch 24 of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in Wisconsin, having been elected to that court in 2014.
Protasiewicz has insisted she has made “no promises” to pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood and EMILY’s List but also has made no bones about her pro-choice views. “My personal opinion is that [it] should be the woman’s right to make the reproductive health decisions, period,” she said during a March 21 debate.
What have Catholic leaders said?
At least two of the state’s bishops, including Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, have reiterated to Catholics that the right to life is a foundational issue that should form their consciences as they decide how to vote on Tuesday.
“Without the right to be born and to live, every other right is worthless,” Hying wrote in a March 30 letter.
“Do we want to live in a country that welcomes the wonder of every human life, supports marriages and families, helps the needy and suffering, seeks justice for all, and builds a civilization of love, or, do we want a society which aborts its children, leaves struggling parents without support, and lives a radical autonomy with no reference to the dignity of life and the common good? Do we elect civic leaders who stand on the unshakeable moral principle that every human life is sacred and of immeasurable worth, or, do we elect those who disregard the fundamental dignity of life and advocate for taking the life of the most innocent in the womb? Such questions we should ask ourselves as we exercise our moral and civic duty to vote.”
Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee also issued a letter, dated March 28, urging Catholics to vote for candidates that uphold the right to life.
“The killing of the innocent has never been supported by Catholic Church teachings. As citizens, we have an obligation to support the laws that protect the innocent. We must take our responsibility, as citizens before God’s judgment, for the times we have supported the destruction of the innocent. We must also take responsibility for the lack of support for the protection of the innocent when we vote for candidates and laws that liberalize abortion laws,” Listecki wrote.
“There is nothing enlightened about an individual who fails to realize that the denial of the right to life for the most vulnerable among us is an attack on the dignity and personal value of every citizen. I could not and would not support a candidate whose position on life is contrary to the teachings of the Church — a position contrary to the teachings and love of Jesus.”
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Homelessness in the USA asks, who will take care of and how will the children of homeless families be raised?
The United States spends near two thirds of a Trillion on arms to murder, exterminate, Genocide Millions of Humans military budget, much of used to exterminate Yemen alone, defiant to the Catholic Religion in every regard, in by Genocide, Unjust war. Defiant to prolife.
Who will educate the children, when orphanges across the US are closed as a cost savings, defiant to Pro Life, Education.
Yet the US has 5% of the world population, and 25% of the World prisoners..
Will women be jailed, if they have an abortion, as a punishment by the governemnt if they are illegal again?
What will be the fine, consequence in illegal abortion again?
Yet our government contributes to the Genocide of Millions in Yemen?
What about the genocide of 1 million defenseless and helpless humans aborted each year in the US? And our new president wants to have taxpayers contribute to that genocide as well.
from human rights watch website: According to the Yemen Data Project, more than 17,500 civilians were killed and injured since 2015
Stop with the repetitive stupidity and false accusations lyle. How many times do we have to remind you about this?
Lyle,
The fines and consequences of feticides if made illegal again will probably resemble the previous fines and consequences. Those affected the physicians or others who assisted, not the mother.
I think there were a few exceptions but it’s generally the party who performs the feticide who has broken the law.
If a women gives birth, puts the child in a garbage bag, ties it closed, pitches the bag-with-baby in the dumpster, and the baby dies, the mother will be hauled up on murder charges.
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If she had had an abortion a couple of days sooner, she has committed no wrong.
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Honestly, that does not make much sense to me.
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In neither case, I suspect, does it make any sense to God.
Imagine being so morally bankrupt that the hill upon which you stand and will attack other people at a rally is the right to kill your unborn baby. Let that sink in. As for Lyle, there is such a thing called ADOPTION. I know that personally, because I have two children who I adopted. There are many couples willing to adopt and so to pretend abortion is a woman’s only solution to pregnancy is a lie, flat out. The other option if you absolutely cannot find yourself pregnant is to abstain from sex to begin with. Believe it or not that is a legitimate realistic option and a lot of people are celibate with no problem. Not just nuns and priests but widows/widowers and younger people who chose this option for moral reasons. The media narrative that the alternative to legal abortion/infanticide is dead women in the street was not even true in the 50’s. That was an absolutely rare occurrence even then. Thinking twice before engaging in sex doesnt seem like a bad idea. Ask yourself if it is worse or harder than killing your child??
It’s worth noting that many married women have abortions, not just poor unwed teens, or rape/incest victims. They are usually middle to upper class women. It’s about convenience and materialism. It usually occurs when their contraception failed. And many Catholic women think birth control is just fine, and although they stop short of abortion, it still contributes to the overall decline of respecting life.
Humanae Vitae, anyone?
The number one reason for black murder in the US?
No, not gun shots, stabbings, overdoses.
The number one reason is ABORTION.
For more than 35 years I have put my money where my mouth is – by donating to 2 pregnancy clinics offering an alternative to abortion – last year they saved 134 children from abortion and their mothers a lifetime of regret and loss of the potential. They provide physical, financial, and emotional support to the woman and her family. They also counsel women who have had an abortion to heal them as well. It’s not much on my part – but it is everything for a woman caught up in this situation. I sleep better at night knowing I have made a difference.
Amen, Michael D,
I do the same thing. God bless you.
Our local pregnancy help center’s also a shelter for homeless expectant mothers and their children. The great majority are suffering from addictions and some additionally have been trafficked.