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Biden's Remarks On "Life" Trigger Bishops' Response

By Howard M. Friedman

Catholic bishops around the country have reacted strongly to remarks by Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Biden on last Sunday's "Meet the Press" (full transcript). Asked by interviewer Tom Brokaw what he would tell Sen. Obama if he asked Biden when life begins, Biden replied:

I'd say, "Look, I know when it begins for me." It's a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I'm prepared to accept the teachings of my church. But let me tell you. There are an awful lot of people of great confessional faiths--Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others--who have a different view. They believe in God as strongly as I do. They're intensely as religious as I am religious. They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views...

I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society....

MR. BROKAW: But if you, you believe that life begins at conception, and you've also voted for abortion rights...

SEN. BIDEN: No ... I voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it's a moment of conception. There is a debate in our church, as Cardinal Egan would acknowledge, that's existed.... [W]hen Thomas Aquinas wrote "Summa Theologia," he said ... it didn't occur until quickening, 40 days after conception....

Catholic News Agency yesterday reported on responses to Biden's remarks by Madison, (WI) Bishop Robert C. Morlino and Archbishop of Denver Charles J. Chaput. Bishop Morlino discarded his prepared Sunday homily in order to make impromptu remarks on Biden. He said that Biden does not understand the difference between "religious faith and natural law." He explained: "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."

Denver's Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley issued a statement similarly criticizing Biden, saying that while there may be a debate over when "personhood" begins, there is no doubt that human life begins at conception. They argued that: "Resistance to abortion is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).