Clinton targeted on partial-birth ban
By Liz Trotta, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
NEW YORK-- Roman Catholics across the country are being asked to pray and
fast -- even write their congressmen -- as cardinals and bishops accelerate
their campaign to express "moral repugnance" at President Clinton's veto of a
ban on partial-birth abortion.
At the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington and at churches in
five surrounding Maryland counties, bells are expected to toll today in
anticipation of a congressional attempt to override the president's veto of a
bill that would criminalize the procedure, in which an infant's brain is sucked
out through a tube when all but its head has been delivered through induced
labor.
"Let this small sacrifice of our day of prayer and fasting move us to defend
that child who is about to die," James A. Hickey, archbishop of Washington, said
in a prepared statement.
After playing defense for much of the abortion debate, the church hierarchy
is using a dramatic strategy to influence the nation's Catholic voters,
deploying a deluge of an estimated 27 million postcards aimed at Congress,
drawings that starkly depict late-term abortion, and an exhortation to priests
across the nation to press the church's pro-life message from the pulpit.
Today's " Day of Prayer and Fasting" is the latest signal from the American
Catholic bishops that President Clinton may have awakened a sleeping giant. In
recent months, Mr. Clinton has vigorously courted the Catholic vote, an
estimated 30 percent of the electorate, mindful that for the first time in
history a majority of Catholics voted Republican in the 1994 midterm election.
George Weigel a syndicated Catholic columnist, recently wrote that "Operation
Catholic Seduction sets something of a record in campaign chutzpah."
But the courtship is over, and Mr. Clinton's April veto has drawn fire from
Pope John Paul II and highlighted the chasm between the Catholic Church and
state on moral issues. Mr. Clinton's position on partial-birth abortion has also
changed the mind of more than one of the overwhelmingly Democratic American
bishops who felt reassured by Mr. Clinton in private conversations with him.
"My God, there is absolutely no give here, no flexibility, not even a
willingness to listen to an argument," said one source close to the bishops.
Late last month, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops rebuked Mr.
Clinton for his action, equating it with infanticide. At stake for the president
are the precious votes of Catholic Democrats in the industrial Northeast states,
a traditional swing zone for both parties.
"In his typical way of serial sincerity, the president had reassured the
bishops," said the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, president of the Institute for
Religion and Public Life, a Washington-based public policy organization. "Now
there is an unprecedented confrontation."
Borrowing from 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson, he added: "You might say
that of the prospect of being hanged in a fortnight, 'it has wonderfully
concentrated the mind.' "
This concentration, a sharp shift into offense, is nowhere more apparent than
in the Archdiocese of New York, where Cardinal John O'Connor has unleashed a
37-year-old priest to be point man in the abortion battle. The Rev. Frank
Pavone, a short, slight man, preaches the pro-life gospel with the fervor of a
crusader and oratorical skills that have begged comparison with the legendary
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen of 1950s television fame.
One recent gray Sunday morning in an ornate wedding reception hall in Wood
Ridge, N.J., Father Pavone celebrated Mass at a makeshift altar for a crowd of
about 200 and then conducted a strategy session.
"Never let people forget that there is not one shred of, or one speck of,
evidence that partial-birth abortion is ever necessary to preserve a woman's
life or health. There is no such situation."
In an interview, he characterized the church's leadership style before the
presidential veto as one that emphasized persuasion rather than thunderous
public denunciations. Now, he said, there is a shift to church leaders speaking
out more vigorously about exactly what abortion procedures entail and what the
role of people in government is and should be.
The Clinton veto, as he and many others in the pro-life movement hold, may be
a blessing in disguise, a unifying force for those Catholics who have thought of
abortion only as an expression of a woman's right to assert her independence.
Father Pavone felt his "burning urgency" to stand up to abortion even before
his ordination eight years ago. From a parish on Staten Island, he caught the
eye of Cardinal O'Connor, who has made him the official attack dog on the
abortion question. As national director of Priests for Life, the charismatic
priest travels the country preaching, appearing on Mother Angelica's EWTN
cable-television show and encouraging priests to take on the life question.
As he sees it, abortion, especially partial-birth abortion, will be the
undoing of society. "It is like slavery. In the end, America knows what is
right. If not, the government will not survive," he said.
As for his critics within the church, Father Pavone dismisses them as false
prophets to whom he pays little attention.
The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest and former Democratic congressman
from Massachusetts, made clear his support for the president's abortion stance
in a recent article for the New York Times. Cardinal O'Connor blasted him in a
written response that ran in the Archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic New York.
Father Drinan, who teaches law at Georgetown University, refused to comment
beyond his article or the cardinal's return fire.
"I don't fault anyone with a moral point of view," he said, "like the
environmentalists." Pressed on whether he also would include the pro-life
movement, he said "Yes," although he added that he does not favor
"decriminalizing" abortion.
Priests for Life in the News
