Archbishop Raymond Burke, speaking at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington last Friday May 8th, strongly criticised the anti-life, anti-family direction of the current US Administration. The Archbishop expressed the view that the US is arrogantly turning its back on its foundation and violating fundamental human rights. Our nation he said, which had its beginning in the commitment to safeguard and promote the inalienable right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" for all, without boundary, is more and more setting arbitrary limits to her commitment.
Those in power he said, now determine who will or will not be accorded the legal protection of the most fundamental right to life. First the legal protection of the right to life is denied to the unborn and, then, to those whose lives have become burdened by advanced years, special needs or serious illness, or whose lives are somehow judged to be unprofitable or unworthy.
Those in power, he said, propose to force physicians and other healthcare professionals to participate, contrary to what their conscience requires, in the destruction of unborn human lives, from the first or embryonic stage of development to the moment of birth. US laws he said may force healthcare professionals and institutions who wish to uphold the natural moral law to withdraw their services and close their doors. US laws he said may soon force those who have dedicated themselves to the care of the sick and the promotion of good health to give up their noble life work, in order to be true to the most sacred dictate of their consciences. See LifeSite news.com for the full text of Archbishop Burke’s address
"With unparalleled arrogance”, the Archbishop said “our nation is choosing to renounce its foundation on the faithful”. He also said, "The path of violation of the most fundamental human rights and of the integrity of marriage and the family which our nation is travelling is not accidental”. "As Catholics”, he said, “we cannot fail to notice with the greatest sadness the number of our fellow Catholics who cooperate fully to the advancement of a national agenda which is anti-life and anti-family."
Archbishop Burke told his audience that President Barack Obama's pro-abortion policies have damaged the fundamental society that is the family and cited issues such as the President's repeal of the Mexico City Policy, which permits funding for organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas; the proposed repeal of conscience protections for pro-life medical workers; and support of the United Nations Population Fund, which supports China's one-child policy.
In a wide ranging address Archbishop Burke also objected to President Obama's professed support for the Freedom of Choice Act, which would further enshrine permissive abortion policy into U.S. law and told his audience that it is "the source of the greatest scandal" for the University of Notre Dame to grant an honorary degree to President Obama, who is "so aggressively advancing an anti-life and anti-family agenda."
The Archbishop also noted that the contraceptive mentality is at the root of the error and confusion, "At the root of the confusion and error about marriage is the contraceptive mentality which would have us believe that the inherently procreative nature of the conjugal union can in practice be mechanically or chemically eliminated while the marital act remains unitive," he explained. "It simply cannot be sold."
