U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who identifies as Catholic, weighed in this week on Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians, asserting that requiring Catholic legislators to oppose abortion is like imposing sharia law on the nation.
In an essay for the far-left National Catholic Reporter, Kaine suggested abortion is not a matter of the life and death of an unborn child, but merely of norms governing human sexuality.
For bishops to demand “Catholics in public life not only live according to church doctrine but additionally shape the law, even to include the threat of criminal prosecution and punishment, to enshrine church doctrine on sexuality as mandatory for all Americans is contrary to our basic liberty,” he declared.
“Why would government require that Catholic sexuality doctrine, or Sharia law, or Orthodox Jewish rules about Sabbath observance, be followed by all?” he asked.
Following on the same assumption- that abortion has nothing to do with defending human life- Kaine went on to declare that “a decision by U.S. bishops to elevate issues of human sexuality, however important, above all others seems contrary to the Gospel.”
“No reading of the life of Jesus would suggest these issues as his primary, or even secondary, concern,” he states. “His towering message is about love of neighbor as oneself with a special focus on the poor, sick, hungry, marginalized.”
By contrast, a number of U.S. bishops have recently pointed out that Catholic opposition to abortion is important precisely because it seeks to defend the poorest and most marginalized members of society: the unborn. Read more…
