[Peace-discuss] NYT: "pro-life" Catholics called out over opposition to gun control

[Robert Naiman]

More than 60 Catholic priests, nuns, scholars and two former
ambassadors to the Vatican sent a letter this week saying that if
marchers and politicians truly want to defend life they should support
“common-sense reforms to address the epidemic of gun violence in our
nation.”

They called in particular on Catholic lawmakers, naming the House
speaker, John A. Boehner, and Representative Paul D. Ryan of
Wisconsin, both Republicans, as well as Senators Joe Donnelly of
Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, both Democrats, who they
said have “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association, to stand up
to the gun lobby. They urged support for legislation limiting the sale
of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, like
those used in the massacre last month at a school in Newtown, Conn.

“We’re addressing life,” said one of the signers, Thomas P. Melady, a
Republican who served as ambassador to the Holy See under the first
President George Bush. “I accept the Catholic teachings, which promote
the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. And certainly
the death of the 20 young kids and 6 adults in Newtown was not
natural. Why can’t we take some steps with regards to these killings?
These sophisticated weapons should be controlled.”
[...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/us/politics/catholics-raise-issue-of-guns-amid-call-to-end-abortion.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130126&_r=0

January 25, 2013
In Fight Over Life, a New Call by Catholics

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

The March for Life in Washington on Friday renewed the annual
impassioned call to end legalized abortion, 40 years after the Roe v.
Wade decision. But this year, some Roman Catholic leaders and
theologians are asking why so many of those who call themselves
“pro-life” have been silent, or even opposed, when it comes to
controlling the guns that have been used to kill and injure millions
of Americans.

More than 60 Catholic priests, nuns, scholars and two former
ambassadors to the Vatican sent a letter this week saying that if
marchers and politicians truly want to defend life they should support
“common-sense reforms to address the epidemic of gun violence in our
nation.”

They called in particular on Catholic lawmakers, naming the House
speaker, John A. Boehner, and Representative Paul D. Ryan of
Wisconsin, both Republicans, as well as Senators Joe Donnelly of
Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, both Democrats, who they
said have “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association, to stand up
to the gun lobby. They urged support for legislation limiting the sale
of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, like
those used in the massacre last month at a school in Newtown, Conn.

“We’re addressing life,” said one of the signers, Thomas P. Melady, a
Republican who served as ambassador to the Holy See under the first
President George Bush. “I accept the Catholic teachings, which promote
the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. And certainly
the death of the 20 young kids and 6 adults in Newtown was not
natural. Why can’t we take some steps with regards to these killings?
These sophisticated weapons should be controlled.”

A theologian who signed the letter, Tobias Winright, an associate
professor of theological ethics at St. Louis University, a Catholic
institution, said that Pope John Paul II promoted the notion of a
“culture of life” that encompassed opposition to abortion as well as
euthanasia and the death penalty.

Professor Winright, a former law enforcement officer, said he was
encouraged when the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi,
recently praised American religious leaders and the Obama
administration for proposals to limit guns.

Jeanne Monahan, the president of the March for Life Education and
Defense Fund, which organizes the march, said that as a Catholic in
the anti-abortion movement, “We absolutely support the idea of being
pro-life from conception to natural death.”

“Really, the difference between the little ones in Connecticut, which
is so heartbreaking, and the little ones in the womb is their size and
their age.”

But asked about the letter from the Catholic leaders, she said: “I
definitely have nothing to say about gun control. That’s so out of the
parameter of what we’re about.”

Since the killings in Newtown, a broad spectrum of religious leaders
have joined Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence to demand controls
on guns, but leaders of evangelical churches have been conspicuously
absent. The National Association of Evangelicals surveyed its board of
more than 100 members in December and found that 73 percent of them
said that government should increase gun regulations. However, the
association has not taken a position publicly.

A poll released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute, a
nonpartisan research group in Washington, found that among the roughly
two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants who say the term
“pro-life” describes them very well, 64 percent are opposed to
stricter gun control laws, while 33 percent favor them.

The picture among Catholics is the opposite. The poll found that of
the 4 in 10 Catholics who say that “pro-life” describes them very
well, 61 percent support stricter gun control laws and 33 percent
oppose them. The survey was taken in January and included more than
1,000 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus four
percentage points.

The nation’s Catholic bishops supported the unsuccessful effort to
renew the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 and recently
reiterated a call to control the sale and use of firearms, said Kathy
Saile, the director of the bishops’ office of domestic social
development.

“It wasn’t a tough call,” Ms. Saile said. “All of our policy work is
rooted in our consistent ethic for life, and our belief in the
sacredness of all life.”

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the president of the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Catholic News Service
this month that he had told Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is
managing the White House response to the recent shootings, that the
bishops would assist in “the fight for greater gun control in the
country.”

But John Gehring, the Catholic program director at Faith in Public
Life, a liberal advocacy group in Washington, said that bishops who
had demanded that Catholic legislators vote against abortion rights
should do the same on gun control.

He said, “Catholic lawmakers who call themselves pro-life and are
pretty cozy with the N.R.A. shouldn’t be getting a free pass.”

-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org