The redoubtable bishop of Knoxville (TN) said Friday that, as a pro-life Catholic, he will not vote for anyone who supports abortion “in any way.”
The issue of abortion is “no different” from slavery, continues Bishop Rick Stika on Twitter, noting that a mother “does not own her child” and “70 million aborted children will agree.”
He also takes issue with Catholics who are willing to vote for pro-abortion politicians, specifically mentioning Jesuit Father James Martin, insisting that a true Christian puts “Church before Party.”
“Sorry all you pro choice people but, I have no doubt that abortion will be the downfall of this country,” the bishop declares. “It involves, racism, attacks on the poor, human rights violations and the ultimate child abuse.”
It is, therefore, “the preeminent issue” of the day, he wrote.
Fr. Martin, a well-known LGBT advocate, “has caused enough scandal and I don’t want to contribute to that in any way,” the bishop states. “And he is sad about my statement. It is called leadership and not striving to be popular.”
All other liberties start “with the freedom to live and not be killed in the womb,” he observes. “That is why abortion, especially this year, is the preeminent issue.”
Bishop Stika suggests that the biblical story of King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents at the time of Christ has special significance in our age of legal abortion.
“Perhaps the story of the Holy Innocents and how their lives were taken from them is a story directed to our day and age,” he writes. “They however, were able to experience fresh air, the warmth of the sun and the beauty of creation,” whereas aborted babies are not.
As he has done on other occasions, Stika takes issue with politicians who claim to be Catholic but then flout the Church’s most fundamental teaching on the sacredness of innocent human life.
I think it is sad “that both Mr. Biden and Mrs. Pelosi enjoy touting their Catholic faith in public and proclaim that they are ‘faithful Catholics,’” the bishop wrote. “How about practicing what they preach[?] And Mrs. Pelosi loves to lecture people on the faith.”
“Many people believe that faith leaders should not comment about those who support abortion. It is too political,” he notes. “I guess they would have also said they same about slavery and the opposition to lynching’s [sic], segregation and Jim Crowe [sic]…. too political.”