Turning his remarks to Sen. Biden, Bishop [Robert] Morlino said he and the senator shared as their hometown Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“I am positive of what Sen. Biden was taught in Scranton. And it’s the same thing that I was taught,” he declared.
While Rep. Pelosi may be confused, he said, he claimed Sen. Biden doesn’t understand the difference between “religious faith and natural law.”
“Any human being — regardless of his faith, his religious practice or having no faith — any human being can reason to the fact that human life from conception unto natural death is sacred,” he argued. “Biology — not faith, not philosophy, not any kind of theology — Biology tells us, science [says], that at the moment of conception there exists a unique individual of the human species.”
“It’s not a matter of what I might believe. What my faith might teach me,” he said.
“Sen. Biden has an obligation to know that. And he doesn’t know it.”
Charging that some theologians, priests, and bishops also allowed Biden to become confused, Bishop Morlino then criticized politicians for confusing the Catholic faithful.
“They’re supposed to believe in separation of church and state. They’re violating the separation of church and state by confusing people about what I have an obligation to teach,” he charged, though he did not hold them culpable.
“They themselves were confused after the Council and I don’t blame them for that. Bishops allowed it, theologians did it, some priests did it, and in Canada even some bishops did it.”
Maybe it is just this article, but these bishops appear to be trying to be gracious about this whole matter. Adamant, but gracious.
I am gratified by the response of the American Catholic bishops to the comments of Pelosi and Biden regarding abortion. These two politicians have, as it were, created a “teaching moment,” and the bishops have seized the opportunity. I particularly appreciate the insistence of these bishops that the claim that human life begins at conception is not simply a matter of religious faith but of biological fact. American society, and especially its politicians, need to be confronted with this fact. Hopefully Catholic politicians will come to recognize that if they support pro-choice legislation they have effectively excommunicated themselves from the Church and will thus abstain from communion.