Statement Regarding
Catholics For A Free Choice
During Pope John Paul II's recent visit to this country, programs about
dissent in the Catholic Church often included a spokesperson for a group calling
itself "Catholics for a Free Choice" (CFFC). Both before and since World Youth
Day, because of the attention the media have paid to the group, many people,
including Catholics, may be led to believe that it is an authentic Catholic
organization. It is not. It has no affiliation, formal or otherwise, with the
Catholic Church.
In fact Catholics for a Free Choice is associated with the pro-abortion lobby
in Washington, D.C. It attracts public attention by its denunciations of basic
principles of Catholic morality and teaching--denunciations given enhanced
visibility by media outlets that portray CFFC as a reputable voice of Catholic
dissent.
CFFC can in no way speak for the Catholic Church and its 59 million members
in the United States. Most of CFFC's funding is from secular foundations
supporting legal abortion in this country and abroad. It shares an address and
funding sources with the National Abortion Federation, a trade association which
seeks to advance the financial and professional interests of abortionists.
Therefore, it is important to educate the public, especially Catholics, about
CFFC's insistence on claiming a Catholic label. This group has rejected unity
with the Church on important issues of long-lasting and unchanging Church
teaching. In fact there is no room for dissent by a Catholic from the Church's
moral teaching that direct abortion is a grave wrong.
Our Catholic position embraces the truth regarding the sacredness of every
human life, before as well as after birth. CFFC endorses the violent destruction
of innocent unborn human beings and regularly issues legal briefs and other
publications endorsing legalized abortion for all nine months of pregnancy and
for any reason. Most Americans do not support its extreme agenda.
Because of its opposition to the human rights of some of the most defenseless
members of the human race, and because its purposes and activities deliberately
contradict essential teachings of the Catholic faith, we state once again that
Catholics for a Free Choice merits no recognition or support as a Catholic
organization.
Administrative Committee
National Conference of Catholic Bishops
Released in Washington, D.C., November 4, 1993
Knights of Columbus
Renounce "Catholics for Free Choice"
Teachings of the
Magisterium on Abortion
