FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, NOV. 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- There’s a new wind blowing in the college of bishops, and it’s strong and courageous, says the director of Human Life International.
Father Thomas Euteneuer drew attention to the more than 50 bishops who have issued pro-life voting guidelines in this election year in his weekly newsletter, published Friday.
“Faithful Catholics in the United States have been both stunned and gratified by the recent show of episcopal strength in dealing with the heretical nonsense of ‘Catholics’ in public life who clearly misrepresent the Church’s teaching on vital issues,” he said. “The trend is truly heartening. Let’s pray that it continues.”
Father Euteneuer made special mention in his letter of two California bishops: Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, and Auxiliary Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Diego.
Addressing a September conference of the National Association of Diocesan Gay and Lesbian Ministries, Bishop Soto gave a presentation of Church teaching that reaffirmed sex as an act between a man and a woman within the context of marriage.
“When sexual intercourse is taken out of this iconic, sacramental context of the complementary, procreative covenant between a man and a woman,” he said, “it becomes impoverished and it demeans the human person.”
“Married love,” the bishop added, “is a beautiful, heroic expression of faithful, life-giving, life-creating love. It should not be accommodated and manipulated for those who would believe that they can and have a right to mimic its unique expression.”
Father Euteneuer said the “organizer of the conference actually apologized to the attendees for the talk,” although “Bishop Soto made no apologies.”
The president of Human Life International praised Bishop Cordileone for being “the strongest champion of the legal effort to define marriage as between one man and one woman to combat the radical homosexual lobby in California.”
Voices heard
Father Euteneuer also mentioned the “strong pro-life stances” of Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature; Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver; Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Oregon; Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas, Texas; Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth, Texas; Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Bishop William Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware.
He said they are “representatives of a group of other bishops who have made their voices heard forcefully on the Catholic voting issue.”
The wind of courage is not just blowing in the United States, continued Father Euteneuer. He pointed to statements made by bishops in Canada, Kenya and the Philippines as signs that prelates around the world are “applying their authority in an astonishing fashion.”
In Canada, the bishops criticized the move to bestow of Canada’s highest honor, the Order of Canada, on Henry Morganthaler, a known promoter of abortion.
“Cardinal Turcotte of Montreal actually returned his own Order of Canada medal as a sign of protest to this mockery,” the priest said.
He noted that Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi, Kenya, recently issued a “marvelous, hard-hitting pastoral letter to his archdiocese concerning the efforts to legalize abortion in that pivotal African country which to date has been such a stronghold against the culture of death.”
And in the Philippines, the bishops “came out forcefully against the U.S.- and U.N.-inspired Reproductive Health Bill.”
“There seems to be a new wind blowing through the College of Bishops all around the world these days,” said Father Euteneuer. “Perhaps that wind is originating from Bavaria, but whatever its origin, let us continue to pray for our bishops and priests who are always on the firing line between the culture of life and the culture of death.”
