And, thank God, at least one major denomination agrees:
While President Obama’s special envoy tries to broker peace in the Middle East and the White House dangles an olive branch before a near-nuclear Iran, a new foreign policy confrontation is in the making … with the Vatican.
After he ended a ban last week on federal funding to international groups that perform or promote abortions, Obama is taking heat from a political powerhouse overseas: the Roman Catholic Church.
Vatican officials said last weekend that they were disappointed by the president’s decision to reverse the so-called Mexico City policy.
“Among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead chose the worst,” said Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, a top official with the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life.
“If this is one of President Obama’s first acts, I have to say, in all due respect, that we’re heading quickly toward disappointment,” said Monsignor Rino Fisichella, who heads the Academy.
How this will affect Obama’s appeal to Catholic voters remains to be seen. According to exit polls, the president got 53 percent of the Catholic vote in November — 13 percent more than John Kerry, a Catholic, got in 2004.
Considering that this was pretty predictable, I can’t help wondering why Obama got 53% of the Catholic vote.
Because maybe, like me, they aren’t one issue voters. I don’t think that there is the political will to do anything about abortion on the Republican side, either. Bush II didn’t do a whole lot about it in his eight years in power.
Kate,
I’m not a single issue voter either, but I think this issue is so important that it deserves priority.
Bush actually did do more than any recent president to attempt to stem the tide of what I think is the predominant shame of Western civilisation. Obama, otoh, has already started to reverse the legislation that was there to protect the innocent.