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

["E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"]

It's infringement.




On 01/27/13 4:08, David Johnson wrote:
> " common-sense reforms "
>
> I would not nor would most gun owning Working class Americans be 
> opposed to " common sense reforms " like background checks. But the 
> differences of opinion will of course be what else ?
>
> David Johnson
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Naiman" 
> <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> To: "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2013 10:35 AM
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT: "pro-life" Catholics called out 
> overopposition to gun control
>
>
> 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.”
>