First Things: On the Square >> Vote for Real Hope and Change by Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver

This was posted this week, but it bears to be seen again. H.E. Archbishop Charles Chaput has written a book entitled "Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life" which can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com. He submitted this essay to First Things this past week. Here is a portion of it:

Obviously, we have other important issues facing us this fall: the economy, the war in Iraq, immigration justice. But we can’t build a healthy society while ignoring the routine and very profitable legalized homicide that goes on every day against America’s unborn children. The right to life is foundational. Every other right depends on it. Efforts to reduce abortions, or to create alternatives to abortion, or to foster an environment where more women will choose to keep their unborn child, can have great merit—but not if they serve to cover over or distract from the brutality and fundamental injustice of abortion itself. We should remember that one of the crucial things that set early Christians apart from the pagan culture around them was their rejection of abortion and infanticide. Yet for thirty-five years I’ve watched prominent “pro-choice” Catholics justify themselves with the kind of moral and verbal gymnastics that should qualify as an Olympic event. All they’ve really done is capitulate to Roe v. Wade.

Straight talk from a Shepherd...