Quotes by Leaders of
'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC)

NOTE

       If you are looking for a particular category of quote, you can search for them by using the keys below. For example, if you are looking for pro-homosexuality quotes by leaders or members of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice, just search for the symbol [HOM].
       Asterisks [*] mean a particularly outlandish example of the category of quote. So, if you are looking for an extremely stupid quote by 'Catholics' for a Free Choice, search for [STU*].
       If you have any quotes by members of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice that are not listed here, please send them to the following address so they can be added to this list. Be sure to include documentation.
Brian Clowes
Human Life International
4 Family Life
Front Royal, Virginia 22630
Telephone: (540) 622-5241
E-mail: bclowes@hli.org

QUOTE CODES

ABO
Pro-abortion quotes
ADO
Anti-adoption quotes
ADU
Pro-adultery, pro-fornication and pro-prostitution quotes
BIG
Bigoted quotes
COE
Quotes advocating forced abortions, sterilization and contraception
EUG
Pro-eugenics quotes
EUT
Pro-euthanasia quotes
FAM
Anti-child, anti-marriage and anti-family quotes
HIS
Quotes that lie about history
HOM
Pro-homosexual quotes
HYP
Hypocritical quotes
ILL
Quotes advocating illegal activities
MAS
Pro-masturbation quotes
PED
Pro-pedophilia quotes
POR
Pro-pornography quotes
RAC
Racist quotes
REL
Anti-religious quotes
SBC
Pro-sex education and pro-school-based clinic (SBC) quotes
SEX
Sexist quotes
SIT
Pro-situational ethics (moral relativism) quotes
SLO
Sloganistic quotes
STU
Just plain stupid quotes
VIC
Quotes seeking the victim status
NOTE:  Quote codes supplemented with an asterisk denote extreme examples. For example, a quote marked [ABO*] is an extreme case of a pro-abortion quote.

QUOTES FROM 1982

[ABO][HIS][STU]       "I think that the Church's position on abortion is just bad Catholicism. It practically defiles the Declaration on Religious Freedom, is certainly inconsistent with any concept of social justice, and is effectively a prescription for mother death."
—
Joseph P. O'Rourke, former President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice, quoted in William McGurn. "Catholics & 'Free Choice'." National Catholic Register, February 14, 1982, 1, 6 and 7.

[ABO][BIG]       "On the sidewalk in front of the NCAN [National Coalition of American Nuns] offices in Chicago, anti-abortionists painted in yellow, "Sister, abortion is murder." Sister Traxler was unabashed, "I don't think those people can read beyond the predicate of a sentence," she said of the graffitists. ... Sister Traxler, in a phone interview, stressed that NCAN is not the first group of nuns to take an affirmative position on free choice for abortion. Both of the other significant organizations of women religious in the U.S., the Leadership Conference and the National Assembly of Women Religious have gone on record opposed to the notion of anti-abortion legislation."
—
"Nun-Sense." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1982 [Volume III, Number 4], pages 1 and 6.

[HIS][MAS]       "I was a practicing and communicating Catholic until I discovered that 15% of tax-exempt church funds are used for lobbying on anti-abortion issues. That's when I joined NOW and also the League of Women Voters. I am currently legislative chair and handle women's issues. My turn-off from attending church was accomplished by a priest preaching against birth control — and masturbation! I walked out of Mass and have put much of my anger to good use. I have two female children, four and 12 years, and an understanding, tolerant husband (he'd better be!) who was also raised Catholic."
—
Letter from Natalie Babinski of West Springfield, Massachusetts. Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1982 [Volume III, Number 4], page 2.

[STU][VIC]       "It [Federal Abortion Funding Restriction Bill] would appear to allow any individual to hail into court the girl next door who was looking a little bulgy and now is slender on suspicion of having had an abortion. Could this be possible? It smacks of the technique of Hitler, who taught children to inform on their parents for political views, which has been adopted by Iran's super-conservative religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
       "But such is the fervor and the litigious disposition of the super-conservative religious anti-abortionist in America, that it appears to be entirely possible from this passage in Hatfield's bill.
       "What is this passion for minding other people's private lives that occasionally obsesses this nation? It didn't work in the case of prohibition of alcohol, as we found out during the great deterioration of society and the entrance of organized crime to provide the illicit booze.
       "Organized crime no doubt stands ready to activate abortion opportunities, as soon as the procedure is made illegal once again. ... Surely, it is not in character for such a distinguished senator as Mark Hatfield to offer legislation so abusive to half the population — The half that gets pregnant."
—
"Hatfield, Hatch, Helms: The 3-H Club." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1982 [Volume III, Number 4], page 3.

[ABO][HIS]       "One philosopher wonders what would happen to people's positions on abortion if a mutation or technology make it possible for them to see a developing fetus in the womb, even perhaps to observe and to fondle it. The idea created the sort of unease we feel when a beggar threatens to unwrap his ulcerated leg, and the discomfort points to the uniqueness of the issue [NOTE:  This shows in what contempt CFFC holds the preborn child, God's greatest creation — by comparing it to an ulcer]. ... To compare abortion to murder is a best naive. And yet there is no other human act to which it comes closer. ... The [pro-life] movement tends to attract those whose lives reflect extremes and reactions against those extremes. ... Pro-lifers do not debate issues or answer criticism. Abortion is wrong because they believe it is wrong" [NOTE:  More history revisionism. If this is true, why is it that the pro-abortionists are invariably the ones who refuse to debate?]
—
Mary Gordon and Rudi Gannascoli. "Summer Reading: Catch Up and Look Ahead." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1982 [Volume III, Number 4], pages 4 and 5.

[HIS][BIG][ABO]       "One of the first things that these ["right-wing"] movements try to do is gain power over people through control of their sexuality. There is a long historical tradition of involvement by right-wing factions in sexuality questions. Look at fascism in Europe. To raise the German birth-rate, the Nazis promoted a pro-motherhood ideology. ... A characteristic of Catholicism is that, like Judaism, it absorbs the dominant values from the society in which it exists. ... Parishes are local. They are supposed to be in touch with people, with reality, with what is actually going on in each life. Yet here was a parish priest taking his stand on dogma. I saw how one can get so carried away with theory and principle that one loses touch with reality. ... The Church has an elaborate intellectual edifice that is built on a notion of natural law. There is an aesthetic appeal to natural law that is dangerous, because it supposes that everything fits together. It eliminates the sloppiness of reality. ... I no longer accept the notion of natural law [NOTE:  This is sort of like saying "I no longer accept the notion of gravity"!] ... Ideology hides behind natural law; note the political leverage won by the Church when it waves the flag of "absolute." It protects itself from the basic fact that there are certain things that we, as individual human beings, will never know. Those things have to remain open to discussion and dissent. It is the arrogance of the New Right that they expect somehow to crack the mystery of life, which is, when does it begin?" [NOTE:  Of course, it never occurs to CFFC that it is arrogant to proclaim that we can never know when life begins].
—
An interview of a naturally anonymous 'Catholic' man who was allegedly an instructor at the University of Maryland and an activist with the Reproductive Rights National Network, printed in CFFC's booklet "I Support You But I Can't Sign My Name" [because my story is made up and I am too big a coward to stand up for my principles]. Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1982 [Volume III, Number 4], page 6.

QUOTES FROM 1983

[ABO][SEX]
"1.
In making moral judgements about abortion, it is important to avoid rigid and negative attitudes toward sexuality itself.
2.
The decision to abort can be a moral decision justified by many circumstances; the decision can also be unjustified.
3.
Abortion must be legal for women to even begin to make a moral choice with real freedom.
4.
The abortion decision involves intrinsic values. These values include, but are not limited to, the value of a woman's life and her life plan and the value of the fetus.
5.
We all have an obligation to work actively to create a society in which women will not need to choose between the value of their own well-being and that of the fetus.
       It is important to understand that while abortion does involve the taking of a human life — because all life that is in and of a human being is human life — in order to call it murder we would have to believe that prenatal life in the early stages of pregnancy is a human person and that there were absolutely no reasons that justified the taking of that life. ... [However], you may feel you have reasons that justify abortion regardless of your beliefs about personhood."
       "Nor is [abortion] a question of the man's rights. You have no moral obligation to consult him or to consider his desire that you continue the pregnancy. ...
       "Thus, the Catholic Church, when considered in its rich diversity, teaches that some abortions can be moral and that conscience is the final arbiter of any abortion decision. Unfortunately, the Catholicism that is taught in many Catholic parishes does not reflect the richness of the Catholic faith."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire and Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Abortion: A Guide to Making Ethical Decisions." 'Catholics' for a Free Choice," September 1983 [NOTE:  Obviously, Maguire and Maguire believe that parishes that are liberal on abortion are "mature," "diverse," "open," and "rich." Those that uphold authentic Catholic teaching on abortion are "narrow," "punitive," and "impoverished." Notice how they slyly 'compliment' the Church while asserting that pro-life priests and laity are not part of the "real" Church].

QUOTES FROM 1984

[ABO][REL]       "Personhood begins when the bearer of life, the mother, makes a covenant of love with the developing life within her to bring it to birth. It is in the nature of things that woman creates the 'soul' just as much as she nourishes the body of developing human life."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire, in the March/April 1984 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC) newsletter Conscience. Also quoted in Mary Meehan. "The Maguires Bring Abortion Issue to a Turbulent Boil." National Catholic Register, May 27, 1984, pages 1 and 7.

[ABO*]       What are the real 'hard cases' for pro-abortionists? Try Daniel and Marjorie Maguire. Daniel said of his wife; "She is anti-abortion, as you would know, but allows for tragic moral exceptions." What are these "tragic moral exceptions?" She says "Such factors as your age, health, financial ability to care for yourself and a child, the health of the fetus, whether you are married or single, the kind of emotional support you have from family or friends, and your plans for your own future need to be considered in deciding if your reasons are justifiable."
—
Daniel Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors) and Marjorie Reiley Maguire, quoted in Mary Meehan. "The Maguires Bring Abortion Issue to a Turbulent Boil." National Catholic Register, May 27, 1984, pages 1 and 7.

[ABO]       "The assumption that the fetus is a person, currently a matter of lively debate in Catholic theological journals, is by no means a constant moral teaching. Even the Vatican Declaration on Procured Abortion, published in 1974, states that "there is not a unanimous tradition on this point, and authors are as yet not in agreement."
—
Frances Kissling. "Bishops and Abortion." Boston Globe, August 17, 1984.

[ABO*]
A DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS
REGARDING ABORTION EXISTS
AMONG COMMITTED CATHOLICS.
A CATHOLIC STATEMENT ON PLURALISM AND ABORTION.

       "Continued confusion and polarization within the Catholic community on the subject of abortion prompt us to issue this statement.
       "Statements of recent Popes and of the Catholic hierarchy have condemned the direct termination of pre-natal life as morally wrong in all instances. There is the mistaken belief in American society that this is the only legitimate Catholic position. In fact, a diversity of opinion regarding abortion exists among committed Catholics.
•
A large number of Catholic theologians hold that even direct abortion, though tragic, can sometimes be a moral choice.
•
According to data compiled by the National Opinion Research Center, only 11% of Catholics surveyed disapprove of abortion in all circumstances.
       "These opinions have been formed by;
•
Familiarity with the actual experiences that lead women to make a decision for abortion;
•
A recognition that there is no common and constant teaching on ensoulment in Church doctrine, nor has abortion always been treated as murder in canonical history;
•
An adherence to principles of moral theology, such as probabilism, religious liberty, and the centrality of informed conscience; and
•
An awareness of the acceptance of abortion as a moral choice by official statements and respected theologians of other faith groups.
       "Therefore, it is necessary that the Catholic community encourage candid and respectful discussion on this diversity of opinion within the Church, and that Catholic youth and families be educated on the complexity of the issues of responsible sexuality and human reproduction.
       "Further, Catholics — especially priests, religious, theologians and legislators — who publicly dissent from hierarchical statements and explore areas of moral and legal freedom on the abortion question should not be penalized by their religious superiors, church employers, or bishops.
       "Finally, while recognizing and supporting the legitimate role of the hierarchy in providing Catholics with moral guidance on political and social issues and in seeking legislative remedies to social injustices, we believe that Catholics ;should not seek the kind of legislation that curtails the legitimate exercise of the freedom of religion and conscience or discriminates against poor women.
       "In the belief that responsible moral decisions can only be made in an atmosphere of freedom from fear or coercion, we, the undersigned, call upon all Catholics to affirm this statement."

CATHOLIC COMMITTEE ON PLURALISM AND ABORTION

•
Anthony Battaglia, Ph.D., Associate Professor, California State University
•
Roddy O'Neil Cleary, D.Min., Campus Ministries, University of Vermont
•
Joseph Fahey, Ph.D., Professor, Manhattan College
•
Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Ph.D., Professor, University of Notre Dame
•
Mary Gordon, M.A., author of Final Payments and Company of Women
•
Patricia Hennessey, J.D., New York City
•
Mary Hunt, Ph.D., Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)
•
Frances Kissling, Executive Director, Catholics for a Free Choice
•
Justus George Lawler, Executive Editor, Academic Bookline, Winston-Seabury Press
•
Daniel C. Maguire, Ph.D., Fellow in Ethics and Theology, Catholics for a Free Choice
•
J. Giles Milhaven, Ph.D, Professor, Brown University
•
Rosemary Radford Ruether, Ph.D., Professor, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, IL
•
Thomas Shannon, Ph.D., Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA
•
James F. Smart, Ph.D., Professor, Indiana University
OTHER SIGNERS

•
Agnes P. Alber, M.S., Chestnut Hill College, PA
•
Everet Bellmann, Minnesota State College, ND
•
Michael H. Barnes, Ph.D., University of Dayton, OH
•
Barbara Bemache-Baker, Ph.D., Loomis Institute, CT
•
Kathryn Bissell, Wider Opportunities for Women, MD
•
Mary C.I. Buckley, S.T.D., St. John's University, NY
•
Ronald Burke, Ph.D., University of Nebraska at Omaha, NB
•
Mary J. Byles, Ph.D., Maryville College, MO
•
Ann Carr, Ph.D., University of Chicago Divinity School, IL
•
Rev. Joseph M. Connolly, S.T.L., pastor, Archdiocese of Maryland, MD
•
Margaret Cotroneo, Ph.D., University of Pennsyvania, PA
•
Patty Crowley, Chicago Catholic Women, IL
•
Barbara A. Cullom, Ph.D., Quizote Center, VA
•
Maryann Cunningham. S.L., Colorado
•
Mary Louise Denny, S.L., MO
•
Daniel DiDomizio, Marian College, WI
•
Mauriece C. Duchaine, S.T.D., San Francisco, CA
•
Emmaus Community of Christian Hope, NJ
•
Margaret A. Farley, Yale Divinity School, CT
•
Darrell J. Fasching, Ph.D., University of South Florida, FL
•
Barbara Ferraro, Sisters of Notre Dame, WV
•
Maureen Fiedler, Ph.D., S.L., Catholics for the Common Good, MD
•
Silvia E. Fittipaldi, Ph.D., Pastoral Institute of Lehigh Valley, PA
•
George M. Frein, Ph.D., University of North Dakota, ND
•
Lorine M. Getz, Ph.D., Somerville, MA
•
Kevin Gordon, Director, Consultation on Homsexuality, Social Justice and Roman Catholic Theology, CA
•
Jeannine Gramick, School Sisters of Notre Dame
•
Christine E. Gudorf, Ph.D., Xavier University, OH
•
Terry Hamilton, Woodstock/St. Paul Roman Catholic Community, NY
•
Jack Hanford, Th.D., Ferris State College, MI
•
Kathleen Hebbeler, Dominican Sister of the Sick Poor, OH
•
Patricia Hussey, Sisters of Notre Dame, WV
•
Caridad Inda, Council of Women Religious, MD
•
Dorothy Irvin, S.T.D., Dunbar, NC
•
Fr. Jerry Kaelin, O.F.M., Cincinatti, OH
•
Janet Kalven, Loveland, OH
•
Elizabeth Nelson Keating, Yale University, CT
•
Pat Kenoyer, S.L., Loretto Women's Network, MO
•
Joseph E. Kerns, S.T.D., Center for Christian Living, VA
•
Paul F. Knitter, Th.D., Xavier University, OH
•
Joseph A. LaBarge, Ph.D., Bucknell University, PA
•
Eleanor V. Lewis, Ph.D., Baltimore, MD
•
Wayne Lobue, Ph.D., Gilmour Academy, OH
•
Agnes Mary Mansour, Ph.D., Lansing, MI
•
Roseann Mazzeo, S.C., NJ
•
Bro. Ray McManeman, F.S.C., Lewis University, IL
•
Kathleen E. McVey, Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary, NJ
•
John A. Melloh, S.T.L., Milwaukee, WI
•
Joe Mellon, M.A., University of Notre Dame, IN
•
Diane Neu, M.Div., S.T.M, Co-director, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER), Washington, DC
•
Jeanne Noble, National Assembly of Religious Women, MD
•
Sr. Margaret Nulty, Sisters of Charity of New Jersey
•
Kathleen O'Connor, Marynoll School of Theology, NY
•
Margaret A. O'Neill, Ed.D., Sisters of Charity of New Jersey, NJ
•
Ronald D. Pasquarlello, Ph.D., Marist Brothers, Washington, DC
•
Richard Penaskovic, Ph.D., Auburn University, AL
•
Gerald A. Pire, M.A., Seton Hall University, NJ
•
Stanley M. Peton, S.T.L., Franklin Pierce College, NH
•
Dolly Pomertess, Catholics for the Common Good, MD
•
John E. Price, S.T.L., Evanston, IL
•
Donne Quinn, National Coalition of American Nuns, IL
•
Jill Raitt, Ph.D., University of Missouri, MO
•
Maureen Reiff, Chicago Catholic Women, IL
•
John Q. Rusnak, Ph.D., Phoenix, AZ
•
Mary Savage, Ph.D., Albertus Magnus College, CT
•
Jane Schaborg, Ph.D., University of Detroit, MI
•
Mary Jane Schutzius, Federation of Christian Ministries, Association of the Rights of Catholics in the Church, MO
•
Ellen Shanahan, Ph.D., Rosary College, IL
•
Emil Ann Staples, University of Minnesota, MN
•
Marilyn Thie, Sisters of Charity of New Jersey, Colgate University, NY
•
Sr. Rose Dominic Trapasso, Lima, Peru
•
Sr. Margaret Allen Traxler, National Coalition of American Nuns, IL
•
Marjorie Tuite, Church Women United, NY
•
Alan F. Turner, Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church, Valley Forge, PA
•
Judith Vaughan, National Assembly
•
of Religious Women, CA
•
E. Jane Via, Ph.D., J.D., University of San Diego and Superior Court of San Diego, CA
•
Gerald S. Vigna, Ph.D., Pennsauken, NJ
•
Ann Patrick Ware, M.A., National Coalition of American Nuns, NY
•
Sallie Ann Watkins, National Coalition of American Nuns, CO
•
Mary Jo Weaver, Ph.D., Indiana University, IN
•
Virginia Williams, S.L., MO
•
Arthur E. Zannoni, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame Extension Program, IN
—
Complete text of the October 7, 1984 New York Times statement entitled "A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion," signed by 97 theologians and members of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice and other dissenting groups [emphasis in the original].

[ABO]       "CFFC really was just kept alive for years because the mainline pro-choice movement wanted a Catholic voice."
—
Joseph O'Rourke (former Jesuit priest and former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors), quoted in Mary Meehan. "Foundation Power." Human Life Review, Fall 1984, pages 42 to 60.

QUOTES FROM 1985

[POP][REL*]       "I could hardly tell her [a nun] that my devotion to Mary was something less than my devotion to far more powerful females I knew: Isis, Athena and Artemis. ... The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease in the human population. The flourishing of non-human life requires such a decrease."
—
1985 interview with U.S. Catholic by Rosemary Radford Ruether (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Rosemary Radford Ruether Unmasked." HLI Reports, November 1994.

[REL*]       "As Women-Church we repudiate the idol of patriarchy... Our God and Goddess, who is mother and father, friend, lover and helper, did not create this idol and is not represented by this idol ... this idol blasphemes by claiming to speak in the name of Jesus and to carry out his redemptive mission, while crushing and turning to its opposite all that he came to teach ... all social reforms superimposed upon our sick civilization can be no more effective than a bandage on a gaping and putrefying wound. Only the complete and total demolition of the social body will cure the fatal sickness. Only the overthrow of the three-thousand-year-old beast of masculist materialism will save the race... . No token accommodations will satisfy us. What is required is the total reconstruction of God, Christ, human nature, and society ... we know we will die unless a WomanChrist pops up (like a rabbit out of a hat) between breasted mountains ...
       "... we see the death of Baal, overwhelmed by the forces of drought and death ... [the goddess Anath] buries him with rites of mourning ... From her sowing of the new wheat in the ground, Baal rises. With a cry of exaltation, we rejoice at the close of the drama: The Lord has arisen, is seated again on the throne. He reigns! Alleluia!"
—
Rosemary Radford Ruether (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). Womanguides: Readings Toward a Feminist Theology. Beacon Press, 1985.

[STU]       "I've never felt that by taking money from someone indicates that we support them."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), when questioned about Playboy Magazine funding of CFFC. Quoted in "Playboy Funds Pro-Abortion Group." National Federation for Decency Journal, February 1985, page 16 [NOTE:  Kissling also stated that CFFC would never accept money from Hustler magazine, because, as she put it, "There are boundaries of good taste"].

[ABO][HYP][STU]       "The right to choose abortion is not all that different from other constitutionally protected individual rights. Both free speech and the rights to choose provide unequalled opportunities for people to become responsible thinking citizens" [NOTE:  Notice the extraordinary level of self-deception here: Killing preborn babies leads to responsible citizenship? This from the same people who say that pro-lifers have no right to free speech outside abortion mills]. ... We argue that minor girls must be free to choose abortion without consent or notification so that may have opportunities for growth into free and independent women and citizens."
—
Lynn M. Paltrow. "Religious Freedom and Family Life: Reflections on the Right to Choose." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), November/December 1985 [Volume VI, Number 6], pages 1, 3 and 12.

[ABO*][STU*][SEX][SLO][VIC]       "Those moral theologians who condemned abortion were almost all males, and great many of them were celibate. They also had no direct experience of sex as an expression of mutual love rather than simply for procreation. They had no connection with the realities of childbearing — their methods and thus their ability to perceive the complex realities of reproduction and the necessary choices were defective and limited. ...
       "Clearly, no decision can be made simply. The more serious and substantial the decision, the more complex the process. ... No simple guidelines can be given, and none should be looked for [NOTE:  Notice how complicated the writers try to make the act of killing. They would never consider rape to be so complicated].
       "Theologically, the basis for maintaining that abortion must remain legal rests on the acknowledgement that the woman is a fully human moral agent. If this is granted, then enforced pregnancy is reprehensible. ... We can assume then that the revelation of God's will is available to human reason. Since abortion will occur whether it is legal or not, is it reasonable to make such a simple, safe procedure painful, degrading, dangerous and even fatal by making it illegal? Particularly, is it reasonable to impose this burden on those who would suffer the most — the young and the poor? ... Therefore, for any church to recommend that one particular doctrine or dogma, to which others of different faith do not subscribe, be enforced by law, such as making abortion illegal, would certainly be coercive and therefore unacceptable [NOTE:  Then why do pro-abortionists insist that such acts as female genital mutilation, which some religions support, be made illegal? Once again, we have an extraordinary level of inconsistency in these statements]. ... We submit that any statement by our church that would persuade by religious pressure or would recommend by legal sanction against abortion would be "unworthy of the Gospel" [NOTE:  Then would these good ladies condemn fornication, sodomy, divorce and adultery, which are all repeatedly and directly condemned by the Gospels? Of course not! Once again, they are being very selective in their allegiances].
       "Any interference in the abortion decision is an attempt to come between a woman and God. This is in our understanding a direct contradiction of the Gospel. ...
       "If one uses the genetic definition of person one would have to regard every body cell as a human being since each cell has the potentiality for becoming another person through cloning. Think also of the implications of this definition for surgery or the excision of cancer cells from the body! [NOTE:  This statement shows how incredibly ignorant of both basic biology and basic Christian dogma these writers are]. ...
       "It is estimated that there are as many natural miscarriages as there are live births. Many of these occur because the fetus is defective. It seems a thin line between the natural and the induced miscarriage in cases of fetal deformity [NOTE:  This is like saying that there is a thin line between strangling your wife and letting her die naturally after a long life]. ...
       "There is no doubt that if abortion should become illegal, safe, dignified, appropriate medical care would no longer be available to many women who are too young and/or too unsophisticated to know about such care. One does not need to subscribe to liberation theology's "preferential option for the poor" to realize the immorality of forcing such inequality and suffering on those least able to afford it. There is a law on the books at present which does enforce such inequality. This is the law that prohibits funding for abortion for women who depend on the Federal Government for their health care. ... This policy, which allows payment for pregnancy care and birth but not for abortion, is unfair on its face. For women on welfare it means that they often have to resort to crime or prostitution to get the needed money. ... For some it means a resort to the back-alley or lye-douche abortion which is responsible for so much morbidity and mortality. ...
       "An ethical issue is also raised by the make-up of the committee and of the House of Bishops. As neither group has any women, we believe it could be considered sexist for such a group, none of whom will ever be unwillingly pregnant, to make any statement other than one which unequivocally supports the woman's right to follow the dictates of her own conscience before God and choose abortion if that appears as the most responsible decision [NOTE:  This tired old pro-abortion slogan is sexist on its face. It is like saying that women cannot speak against war, that those not affected directly by racism or apartheid may not speak about it, and so on. This slogan is an attempt by these sexist women to deprive men of their voice and strip them of their First Amendment rights, while all the time hollering about their rights]. ..."
—
Patricia Wilson-Kastner and Beatrice Blair. "Biblical Views on Abortion: An Episcopal Perspective." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), November/December 1985 [Volume VI, Number 6], pages 4 to 8.

[ABO*]       "A Catholic candidate for vice-president, Geraldine Ferraro, was being characterized by Cardinal John O'Connor of New York as a politician for whom Catholics could not vote because of her mildly prochoice position on abortion [NOTE:  Notice that CFFC calls support for any abortion, at any time, for any reason throughout pregnancy a "mildly prochoice" position on abortion. We wonder what a "radically prochoice" position would be!] ...
       "In the months following the [1984 New York Times] ad's appearance, however, its admonition that dissenters should not be penalized has not been heeded. Threats and penalties have rained thick and fast upon priests, religious and theologians from religious superiors, church employers and bishops. ...
       "The ban on contraception means that the Catholic Church is willing, in practice, to see fetuses and their mothers die for the sake of the principle that women should submit to "nature" and "God" in matters of reproduction. ... An effort to declare the ban on contraception "infallible" would have the immediate effect of focusing Catholic dissent on the doctrine of infallibility itself. ... A storm of dissent, and even ridicule, directed at infallibility itself would ensue from such a declaration."
—
Rosemary Radford Ruether. "Catholics and Abortion: Authority vs. Dissent." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), November/December 1985 [Volume VI, Number 6], pages 9 to 11.

[SEX]       "How long can male celibates ignore the voices of women and dare to speak about sexuality and reproduction?"
—
Deb Barret, executive director of the pro-abortion group 'Catholic' Women for Reproductive Rights, quoted in "Women-Church Convergence Demonstrates at Bishops' Conference." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), November/December 1985 [Volume VI, Number 6], page 15.

[HYP]       "Hamer is misusing his authority by threatening to have women religious dismissed from their communities for exercising their powers of conscience in signing The New York Times advertisement published on October 7, 1984. ... "He is incapable of resolving issues between U.S. religious women and Rome" [NOTE:  The reference is to Jean Jerome Cardinal Hamer, the Vatican Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes. The reason he cannot "resolve issues" is because the U.S. religious women obstinately refused to cooperate with him. Notice the pro-abortion tendency to cause all kinds of strife and problems and then blame everyone else for them].
—
"NCAN Calls for the Dismissal of Hamer." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), November/December 1985 [Volume VI, Number 6], page 16.

QUOTES FROM 1986

[REL]       "[Radical leftists] should stay in the Church and use whatever parts of it they can get their hands on. This way they will have far more impact, both on the Church and on the world ... than they could possibly gain if they separated from it."
—
Rosemary Radford Ruether (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). Quoted in "Crises and Challenges of Catholicism Today." America, March 1, 1986, page 152. Also quoted in "War on the Faith: How Catholics for a Free Choice Seeks to Undermine the Catholic Church" [New York City: Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute], White Paper Number One, 2002, page 33.

[REL]       "In October 1984, at the height of the presidential campaign, twenty-four women religious signed a full page advertisement in The New York Times entitles [sic] "A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion." A Vatican demand that each sister recant of face dismissal from her religious community precipitated one of the most complex and well-publicized cases of the abuse of church power in modern times. This panel will provide insight into the Vatican action by comparison with McCarthyism at home and right-wing dictatorships abroad."
—
Description for the panel entitled "The Ethics of Resistance: A Case Study of the Vatican," one of the events at the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice conference entitled "Ethical Issues in Reproductive Health: Religious Perspectives." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], outer front cover.

[ABO]       "Supposing that the fetus is sentient, could its suffering in the abortion process be qualitatively or quantitatively much worse that the suffering of, say, a mouse being mauled by a cat? And with all due respect to the fetus, and the mouse, are we adult human beings obliged to shape our future, our professional careers, our whole lives, around the avoidance of that suffering? ...
[STU]       If two healthy, fertile people, very much in love but ignorant of the ways of contraception, are sexually active for a year or more, the probability that a child will be conceived is quite high. It follows that if the two remain chaste for that period of time, the probability that a potential child has been lost is equally high. One can condemn abortion or the prevention of implantation because each results in the sure loss of a potential child, therefore, only if one is prepared to condemn chastity for the same reason. ... If those who tolerate abortion are said to trample on the rights of the unborn, then those who praise chastity may with equal justification be said to trample on the rights of the unconceived."
—
David Randall Luce. "Potential Personhood and the Rights of the Unconceived." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], pages 2 to 5.

[HIS] "The Question

       "Do Catholics employed as directors of clinics or administrators of hospitals in which abortions are preformed incur the latae sententiae excommunication provided by cannon 1398 of the 1983 Code of Cannon Law? ... Might they incur the penalty as accomplices? Administrators manage clinics or hospitals, carry out their policies, oversee their activities, including the hiring and firing of personnel; but they cannot be described as "necessary collaborations" in their institutions. The operations take place whether or not a given administrator is at work on a given day or is removed from that office and replaced by someone else.
       "Moral theologians, too, when treating of the canonical penalty for abortion, seem to envision procurers and necessary cooperators as those directly implicated in the abortive act. And, whatever might be said concerning the moral implications of any other species of cooperation, close or remote, slight or grave, the penal canon is inapplicable to the case in question [Mary Ann Sorrentino, a Planned Parenthood clinic director]. ... Serious moral responsibility exists at all of these levels (e.g., Support staff, counselors, medical assistants, managers, executives, trustees, donors, licensing agents, lawmakers, etc.) but none of them fall under the canonical sanction of canon 1398.
—
"Canon Lawyer Disagrees on Excommunication." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], pages 5 to 7 [emphasis in original] [NOTE:  Administrators and directors of concentration camps during World War II argued that they had no "direct hand" in the killing of prisoners, either — but this defense was not held viable by the Nuremberg Tribunal].

[ABO][REL][VIC]       "We believe that dialogue is essential for the very life of the Church.
       "We regret that male, celibate Church is ignoring and trivializing the experience of women. We regret that the official Church cannot deal with women as full persons and moral agents in our own right. We regret that official Church is neutralizing and negating the serious reflection of Catholic theologians and theologians in other faith traditions on the issue of reproductive rights.
       "We believe that women are to be affirmed in their reproductive decisions on the basis of individual conscience and personal religious freedom. We believe that by the official Church's inability to deal with birth control that in practice, it promotes the high abortion rate it claims to abhor.
       "We believe that dissent on all controversial issues including reproductive right is essential for the life of the Church. We believe that the dissent falls within the rights and responsibilities of all Roman Catholics. The official Church has a responsibility of foster a climate in which faithful dissent is incorporated into the ongoing life of the community.
       "We regret that the official Church is prepared to and has used force, threats and violence to obtain submission.
       "We believe that the hierarchy has given scandal by: their disruption of and intervention in women's religious communities; extracting what amounts to loyalty oaths; attempting to compromise the integrity of many religious signers, and deliberately misinterpreting and miscommunicating nun-signers' statements to the public.
       "The cornerstone of the Catholic tradition is the search for truth. Unfortunately the actions of the official Church thwart that goal and are totally contrary to our "vision of Church as a discipleship of equals."
—
Former nuns Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey. "... A Response." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], page 11.

[VIC*]       "Feminism arises from the recognition that the oppression of women has been universal; it is global and it is derived from structures. And we know that the kind of change feminists want has to take place at a structural, ideological level. Feminism has helped us see the connections among many kinds of oppression. Whether it is racial, military or economic impression, there are connections. And they are all linked to the fundamental domination, the original domination, which is that of male over female in a patriarchal system. It is the basis of our order, our hierarchy. So we are talking not just about the liberation of women or about equality with men, but about a much deeper questioning of society and the typies of relationships found in the hierarchical ordering of society.
       "The feminist struggle is not just anti-capitalist, rather, it is anti-patriarchal in that it proposes to put an end to all inequality. ... Feminists seek a democratic society in which all people have the freedom to choose. ...
       "Without confronting the issues or patriarchy and hierarchy — which continue to oppress people on the basis of race, sex and class — there is little possibility of advancing to a more just society.
       "However, throughout the centuries the Church has maintained control over women and their sexuality as a way of conserving its power. At the same time, it has legitimized sexism within Latin American society. ... The Church has not modified its position or criticized injustices against women because it has been and continues to be a patriarchal institution.
       "But why haven't liberation theologians more emphatically denounced sexism and racism? Why haven't they explicitly denounced the oppression of women within the Church's own structures and in society as a whole? Liberation theologians haven't challenged a church that continues to oppress not only women but all those who suffer the effects of a hierarchical structure. ... Feminists would ask liberation theologians to specifically condemn the sin of sexism and to recognize that the Church has been one of the major oppressors of women throughout the centuries. ... theology has been and continues to be male-dominated. When pressed, any one of these male theologians would have to admit that they have oppressed women in their own lives.
—
Comments by Maryknoll Sisters Rose Timothy Galvin and Rose Dominic Trapasso, and writer Ana Maia Portugal. "Otra Voces: Latina Feminists and the Church." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], page 13 to 15.

[ABO]       "If RU-486 is also used monthly, prolifers would have a hard time convincing the public that the drug isn't just another contraceptive. Indeed, a 1982 New Your Times story on Beaulieu and RU-486 described the drug as "a new birth control pill." Planned Parenthood released a "Fact Sheet" in October that refers to RU-486 as a type of "interceptor (luteal contraception)." If most people hear a new drug described as "birth control," they'll think of the pill and IUD, not abortion. ... If more women come to use RU-486 than traditional contraceptives, abortion would be the preferred method of birth control in the United States."
—
Tony Kaye. "Are You for RU-486?: A New Pill and the Abortion Debate." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], pages 15 to 17.

[HIS]       "The [Human Life] amendment asserts two things: (1) The fertilized human ovum is a person; (2) the fertilized human ovum, like all persons, ought never be deprived of life unless perhaps indirectly in efforts to save the mother's life. Before modern times, neither of these two assertions made up an official position of the Catholic Church. At no point in the past was either assertion made universally by pope and bishops. This is an historical fact that no one denies. ... The fetus is human life, precious and demanding respect" [NOTE:  But never quite enough respect to keep it from being killed for convenience or any other reason, in CFFC's view].
—
J. Giles Milhaven (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "The Problems With an Anti-Choice Amendment." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], page 18.

[ABO*][ADU][REL]       "What I am doing is not just dealing with the issue of abortion or reproduction, but with the structure of the Catholic Church. ...I do not agree with the Catholic Church's position on sexuality. Nor do I think there is any sense to the position in which a person who chooses not to marry is expected to lead a chaste life. ... I don't think God cares very much about our sexual activity. I think he cares about how we treat each other. ...
       "That's [having children] not part of my personal life plan. [I used contraception] because I knew I didn't want to get pregnant. ... I would arrive at the [abortion] clinic at 8 o'clock in the morning and the parking lot would be filled with cars from Kentucky, Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, with young kids, boyfriends and girlfriends who drove all night because they didn't have any money or families. Most people I saw knew what they were doing. It was a hard [abortion] decision, but given their circumstances, it was the best decision they could make [NOTE:  Notice how Kissling makes this blanket statement, as if none of the thousands of women who aborted in her abortion mill had made a decision that was not the "best"]. ... I felt that what we were doing [opening an illegal abortion mill in Rome] was correct, that abortion goes on whether it's legal or illegal. The question was what kind of abortion is a woman going to get. ...
       "I don't consider myself in any way, shape or form pro-abortion. I think it depends on the circumstances. I think there are women who have been raped — they are few and far between — who would be better off carrying the pregnancy to term. I also think there are many, many reasons for which abortion is justified. ... I don't believe that God created me to bear children. I think that God had a whole other plan in mind for Frances Kissling. ...
       "However, the fact that I value fetal life doesn't mean that the value of the fetus, is absolute, or that I value it in precisely the way as [a grown] women's life [NOTE:  This is an understatement! Kissling and CFFC frequently talk on and on about the "value of fetal life," but this value never rises to the point that an abortion would not be justified. So this statement is pure window-dressing, meant to make her look compassionate]. ...
       "The Catholic religion makes the fetus into an icon, a figure of religious veneration, which I think is sick, really sick. ... I'm challenging the boundaries of the pro-choice movement in the same way that I'm challenging the boundaries of the Church [NOTE:  What nonsense! CFFC and Kissling relentlessly and directly attack Church teachings and call the bishops and even the Pope all kinds of filthy names — but they only gently chide the pro-abortion movement, and then only occasionally. This is an obviously transparent and comically clumsy attempt to paint herself as being "middle of the road"]. ...
       "I'm saying abortion is not an easy decision, there are moral and ethical considerations. ... [The secular media] no longer considers 300 men in dresses as representative of the Catholic Church. ... Jesus Christ didn't come here and say, 'You gotta have a pope, you gotta have cardinals, you gotta have bishops, you gotta have priests [NOTE:  That's true, but He did say, 'You gotta have apostles' (see Matthew 16:18-19), and they would need successors, or the bishops] ... This system is man-made and really modeled upon a European feudal system ... What I am trying to do is to democratize and humanize the Church. ...
       "The people in the right to life movement or the very right wing, authoritarian Catholic groups, feel compelled to say we're not really Catholics. They can't deal with diversity [NOTE:  Yhis is another amazingly stupid remark. In reality, diversity is just fine — we just can't deal with apostasy, heresy and schism]. ...
       "I think the reality is that, first of all, I and many Catholics no longer think in those classic terms [of Heaven and Hell]. My language choices are not dichotomies like Heaven and Hell, good and evil ... I believe in an afterlife. I believe in a personal God. I believe in the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. I certainly believe in Jesus Christ ... In the classic Catholic sense, Hell is that one would be denied the possibility of being united with God; Heaven is being united with God. I'm going to be united with God. I have no doubt about that."
—
Janet Wallach. "The Cardinal of Choice: Frances Kissling's Crusade to Change the Church." The Washington Post Magazine, August 24, 1986 cover story.

QUOTES FROM 1987

[BIG][REL]       "The Catholic religion makes the fetus into an icon, a figure of religious veneration, which I think is sick, really sick. ... It's not the abortion issue that's at question. The question is: How do we get the Church to acknowledge that women can be trusted to make good decisions? That is what we are trying to do on the abortion issue, to trust women."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), quoted in Ron Brackin. "`Sister' Frances Kissling: Cardinal of Death." Liberty Report, January 1987 [NOTE:  Notice the standard pro-abortion attempt to divert attention away from prenatal child lynching. Of course, for pro-abortionists, it is never abortion that's the issue].

[ABO][STU]       "Thereby they [the Catholic bishops of the United States] hope to lay the groundwork for attaining civil rights for the fetus — civil rights the bishops have consistently refused to support for women [NOTE:  CFFC shows how confused its logic really is with this statement. The bishops want the simple right to live for the preborn child, but CFFC treasures abortion so supremely that it considers life not living without its availability].
       "With this obvious overstatement, he made clear the priorities of the bishops' public policy effort — no issue, no interest, no persons are more important than the fetus. Every other public good is to be sacrificed on the "pro-life" altar [NOTE:  Paterson's silly statement obscures the fact that no right can have any meaning without the right to life, without being born first. Of course it is a priority with the bishops!] ... in spite of their words in support of women's rights the fact remains that the bishops have not fully accepted women as equals in either church or society. ... the winds of repression are already being felt by many Catholics in politics and academia. Strictly dogmatic beliefs and behaviour on sexual issues, especially abortion, have become the test of orthodoxy to which all in the university are expected to conform [NOTE:  Oh, those terrible bishops! How could they actually expect professors at Catholic universities to teach Catholic dogma?!] ... The pressure to conform is so widespread and so insidious that Dr. Mary Buckley, associate professor of theology at St. John's University in New York, says it amounts to "friendly fascism." The Catholic media and the academic communities have begun to censor themselves out of fear of reprisal. She says, "They can't allow themselves to think" [NOTE:  Oh, brother!] ...
       "Clearly, the institutional Roman Catholic Church desires to buttress a status quo that includes discrimination against women. Even more dangerous in terms of cherished American freedoms is the rising evidence that it wants to be free to discriminate against people who merely hold unprescribed opinions about behavior related to abortion and sexual issues. The widely-publicized withdrawal of the Rev. Charles E. Curran's license to teach as a Catholic theologian at Catholic University is the most dramatic of the recent attacks on influential Catholics who favor a less punitive approach to moral issues surrounding sexuality and pregnancy. A respected scholar and popular lecturer for more than 20 years, the theologically mainstream Curran was censured for moderate attitudes toward birth control, abortion, divorce, homosexuality, and premarital intercourse [NOTE:  The "moderate" Curran essentially said that all of these activities were perfectly fine all of the time. This is "moderate?" Once again, CFFC is crying about the right of Catholic universities to actually teach Catholic sexual morality]. ... Many fear that if the Vatican succeeds with Curran, no Catholic professor who expresses dissenting views will be safe. ... Writing in Christianity and Crisis, Christine Gudorf, who teaches theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, voiced the objections of many Catholic academics: "In this case, it is important that supporters of Curran speak out on the substantive theological issues as well as issues of process. The area of sexual ethics is a wasteland in the Catholic church. Teachers of Catholic sexual ethics have the choice of either addressing real life with useful critical moral reflection, or being faithful to the magisterium (the official teaching authority of the Catholic church located in the pope and bishops). It is impossible to do both. More bluntly put, one can either be Christian, or one can be faithful to the magisterium" [NOTE:  This goes to the heart of what CFFC thinks — that you cannot be a true Christian if you follow the teachings of the Catholic Church]. ... philosophically and politically, the bishops no longer represent the laity nor, it would seem, the needs of Catholic colleges and universities."
—
Judith Paterson. "The Civil Rights Restoration Act and the Bishops." Essay in "Civil Rights Held Hostage: The United States Catholic Conference and the Civil Rights Restoration Act." 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), March 1987, pages 7 to 23.

[REL]       "The pope came on Shepherd One, but he did not find sheep awaiting him. He found people who take Judeo-Christianity seriously and who do not feel that it can be reduced to the patriarchal, hierarchical, authoritarian model the pope thinks to be the one, true Catholicism. ... There are many alien presences in the church which, when recognized for what they are, must be rejected. The model of political monism which led political leaders to say "L'Etat c'est moi!" [the State, it is me!] and popes, in effect, to say: "L'Eglise c'est moi!" [the Church, it is me!] is one of these objectionable foreign objects. ... The reform of the papacy is past due. A central figure who could give voice to the main moral and religious hopes of Christendom, who could speak the thundering prophetic certitudes on hunger, racism, militarism, sexism, and the abuse of economic and political power, would be a welcome voice. ... this pope has managed to squander this moral authority by charging into issues where he has no privileged expertise. He tries to speak last words while first words are being spoken. He violates the Aristotelian principle that in moral matters we should seek no more certitude than is available. He fails to realize in James Gustafson's phrase that it has pleased God to leave some things unclear. By trying to shut down debatable issues like in vitro fertilization, the pope discredits his own considerable moral authority."
—
Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "The Pope and Post-Clerical Catholicism: Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 1 to 3.

[REL][ABO]       "God wills dissent to reach the blindness and hardness of heart of many Church leaders. Dissent is a constructive not a destructive activity in the religious community. ... If the Church were like a woman's club or the national football league, then rules would be paramount in determining membership. I could be kicked out for dissenting from the opinions and directives of Church leaders in such areas as women's ordination, contraception, sterilization, abortion, divorce, and even the right to dissent. However, since the Church is a community whose members are gathered together by God, membership is not a gift from Church leaders that can be taken away at their command. Dissent with laws and rules of the Church does not mean that I have put myself outside Church membership. It is simply an indication that the rules and laws must be examined anew by all the members of the Church to determine whether they have ceased to serve the whole Church. ... No one ... should allow herself to be drummed out of the corps or badgered into leaving by those who cannot tolerate diversity in the Body of Christ."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire. "Dissent in the Catholic Church." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], page 8.

[HOM]       "Once again churches lag behind science. Long after social and behavioral scientists have proven that homosexuality is healthy, good and natural for a certain percentage of our population, the Roman Catholic Church continues to teach antiquated and harmful theology."
—
Mary E. Hunt (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)). "Lesbian/Gay Catholics Are Church." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 10 and 11 [NOTE:  A more profoundly nonsensical statement can scarcely be imagined. With millions dead of AIDS, we also know that sexually active homosexuals are infected with many diseases, suffer a very high murder and suicide rate, and lose an average of 30 years from their lives, regardless of whether or not they die of AIDS. How can such a disastrous lifestyle be "healthy, good and natural?"]

       "There is an increasing demand from Roman Catholic women that they be recognized as full members of the Church. This must include ordination to all priestly ministries. ... The assumption is that anything the Church has done or not done for a long time must be right. ... Women are also increasingly present in equal numbers in theological seminaries. As a result, feminist theological criticism and reconstruction of the basic curriculum of the theological seminaries have begun to develop. ... Roman declarations cannot be regarded as definitive if they do not reflect the consensus of theological scholarship and the mind of ordinary Catholics."
—
Rosemary Radford Ruether (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "The Church and the Ordination of Women." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], page 12 [NOTE:  This is a statement of what we might call 'theology by consensus'].

       "I expect to be treated as a mature, educated and responsible adult. Not to question, not to challenge, not to have authorities involve me in a process of understanding is to deny my dignity as a person and the rights granted to me both by church and society. ... I rejoice that within my culture there is room for this incredible diversity. The challenge before the church in the United States is to be welcoming of these same diversities. Can we be as inclusive as Christ, who reached out to the woman at the well, who invited a tax collector to be his apostle, who brought the centurion's daughter back to life? Can we reach out and be more inclusive of women, our inactive clergy, homosexuals, the divorced and all people of color?"
—
Donna Hanson, Chairwoman, U.S. Bishop's National Advisory Council. "Voices of Concern: Excerpts from Addresses Delivered to the Pope." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], page 13 [NOTE:  This is key — to be 'diverse' — the dissenters never try to understand or reiterate church teachings on the issues].

[STU]       "... the church really does not have a viable sexual ethic. ... If the Roman Catholic church is ever to regain credibility in matters of sexuality, it will need to develop an appropriately sophisticated and complicated sexual ethic beyond what it has at present."
—
Kevin Gordon (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors), who publicly burned Vatican documents he did not agree with. "A Little Secret." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 14 and 15 [NOTE:  Notice that Gordon wants a complicated sexual ethic, an ethic where any possible sexual perversion can easily be justified and rationalized. This is how the anti-lifers work: They condemn what they call "black and white" thinking, and strive to make as large a "grey area" as possible, in order to give themselves maximum freedom and sow as much doubt and uncertainty as possible. One of the beauties of the Church's teachings is that it is so simple and elegant that anyone can understand it. Six words summarize it: "Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness after." The only people who cannot understand this supremely simple sexual ethic are educated idiots. Those who cannot accept have far worse problems].

[HYP]       "While maintaining respect for the Pope and his followers, we affirmed that it would be disrespectful to people of different religious persuasions to be denied access to abortion on that day."
—
Marla Smith of Arizona Right to Choose, referring to escorting at abortion mills during the Pope's 1987 visit to the United States, in a letter entitled "Positive Impact." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], page 16.

[REL*]       "God put me on earth to give the pope a hard time."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), quoted in Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], page 17.

[STU][BIG]       "[Ruth] Riddick says the purpose of the right-to-life movement "has been to deny women opportunity, to deny women choice, to deny women a moral existence." She added, "they are only interested in women in a negative sense."
—
Mary M. Sullivan. "Defying Tradition: One Irish Woman's Struggle for the Right to Choose." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 20 and 21.

       "... at the "Women-Church Claiming our Power" meeting in Cincinnati, the weekend of Oct. 9-11. Theresa Kane observed, "This is the real Synod. The alternative one is the one being held in Rome. ... This is holy ground, sacred space. You who are here make it so. God is in the the [sic] midst of us; we claim Her power!" ... Patricia Camp spoke on the perspective of separation of church and state, saying "It is morally permissible not to want to impose one religious group's moral perspective on abortion upon others."
—
Ruth McDonough Fitzpatrick. "Women-Church Claimed Its Power in Cincinnati." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 22 and 23.

       "The whole point of the Women-church movement is to say that women as women cannot be full religious agents in the patriarchal church and, therefore, the only way we can be church is to be Women-church."
—
Mary E. Hunt (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)), quoted in Adelle-Marie Stan. "A Decade of Dissent." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 24 to 26.

[RAC]       "U.S. Catholics have long been ignoring the sacrament of penance as an antiquated rite and an invasion of privacy. ... Most priests, overworked due to a lack of priestly brethren, prefer to grant a general absolution to their congregations during the mass rather than to hear the individual confessions of each churchgoer. ... Latinos are the great brown hope of the Vatican, which is counting on them to set the church back on course by bringing their fervent piety and ethic of machismo into the mainstream of American Catholicism."
—
Adelle-Marie Stan. "A Decade of Dissent." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 24 to 26.

       "C.F.F.C. director Frances Kissling explained to me the "two complementary strategies" employed by Women-church in its struggle for a transformed church. "One is the strategy of confrontation and challenge — you know, directing one's attention to the hierarchy," Kissling said. "But the other, in [holding] a meeting like this, is ignoring the hierarchy. The name of the conference, Women-church: Claiming Our Power, is just women taking their power and going with it — not worrying about what the bishops have to say, not worrying about what the Pope thinks — in essence, taking their own vision of church and making it a reality."
—
Adelle-Marie Stan. "A Decade of Dissent." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 24 to 26.

[ABO][REL*]       "The bishops have no more right, based upon church teaching, to decide that abortion should be illegal than I [do]. I have as much right to decide that abortion should be legal. ... What is going on in the church right now, in the broadest sense of the word, is a struggle for political control. The struggles over abortion, birth control, divorce, women's ordination, or any number of other matters, are related to political control, not to church teaching. These struggles have nothing to do with spirituality. It is not a spiritual struggle; it is not a struggle for the heart of the church; it is a struggle over who will prevail in the public arena." [page 149]
       "Dissent in the eyes of the institutional church is a very serious thing. People who dissent are marked and marginalized. It is the constant desire of the institutional leadership of the church to marginalize and to cut off people who differ with them. ... If, for instance, one believes abortion is morally justified in certain circumstances, then that becomes a dissenting position. It is fair to call that dissent. But, if one simply believes, as I do, that abortion should be legal, that is not a dissenting position. You are dissenting from no church teaching whatsoever, because there is no church teaching on the legality of abortion. ... Having said that, I also believe that dissent is the lifeblood of the church. Without people, without women willing to dissent, to stand up and challenge the church and indeed take a prophetic stance on the issues that affect us, the church will be a dead organism" [page 149].
       "To continue to enjoy this political clout, they [the American bishops] are willing to subvert every other value in the church to maintain their hegemony over the people of God. They are perfectly willing to conduct the crackdowns they do on Catholics around the country. ... I think there is a corruption of the church at the highest levels. It may not be the venal sort of corruption [which] existed in the Renaissance, in the sense of personal and financial gain. But it's a profound corruption eating away at the power of the laity. It can demoralize the people of God and that's a very serious thing" [page 151].
       "When I say I came back to the church, I never came back on the old terms. It is true you can't go home again. I came back to the church as a social change agent; I came back to women-church. When I talk about coming back into the church, I'm not talking about coming back to Sunday mass, confession and all of those things that are the memories of my childhood. I'm talking about coming back to a new vision of church established in the late 1970s by women within the church. Women recapturing the church. I believe what happened in the church was parallel to what happened in the secular women's movement. And indeed, if you examine what is going on in the women's movement in the church now, it is similar to what went on in the women's movement in the past" [pages 152 and 153].
       "We're entering a period of great polarization. The reality is that we are about to go through an enormously painful time in the church. We are into a stage of intense conflict, confrontation, polarization, and challenge. And this is necessary right now in order to grab the base of support for major change within the church. We must find ways to wake up people who don't really see the injustice in the church. To some extent that means pushing against the system and forcing it to respond [page 154] [<NOTE:  This is a rare instance where CFFC admits to being divisive — yet, when it opposition reacts to CFFC's initiatives, it calls this kind of 'divisiveness' a bad thing. As always, anti-life groups claim the right to be divisive, while denying the same right to everyone else].
       "Yes, we really are talking about revolution. You see, when we do this kind of nice resistance, sort of polite, civil disobedience — which isn't terribly disobedient but it's awful civil — we are still treating the leadership with an enormous amount of respect. They don't deserve our respect. Difficult as it is to take it that next step, which is necessary, I would like to see women reach the point they understand that every bishop in this country should be so embarrassed that he is afraid to show his face in public [page 154] [NOTE:  This from a person who demands respect for her viewpoints and condemns "right-wingers" if they do not show it].
       "There is this very heavy dose of vinegar that is constantly coming out of the church: In their male rage, and in their fear of losing control, these men behave very badly. Every time something as dumb as stopping altar girls happens, it increases the size of the [dissent] movement. Every time you have someone like [Cardinal] Ratzinger or [Archbishop] Laghi coming down on a Charlie Curran, you increase the size of the movement. Our greatest stand right now is in pushing the institutional leadership into corners. We know when we push them into corners, they make mistakes. They don't know how to deal with people who confront them" [pages 154 and 155].
       "For example, we get calls frequently from people who work in Planned Parenthood, or in abortion facilities, or health care facilities where abortions are performed. They tell us their priest said, "No, I'm sorry, we won't marry you. You may not be married in this parish." These things really mobilize people and that's what the church is doing to itself. ... Church government is not divinely ordained, and I have no particular overriding respect for that government. It is not sacred and should not be treated as sacred" [page 156].
       "I have made a conscious decision that I will speak about abortion. It's not just abstract talk about theology and ethics. Rather, I will speak about who I am; how my life experience and the ethic flowing from it is universal. ... I and many others are not willing to have personal values and ethics lambasted from the altar. It is sheer hypocrisy. We are trying to force the church to a point where pastoral reality becomes consistent with the objective, public, political message. ... In another sense, however, we seek recognition of the moral agency of all women through the abortion issue. The question is, how do we get the church to acknowledge that women can be trusted to make good decisions? That is what we're pushing them to do on the abortion issue, to trust women" [pages 157 and 158].
       "First of all, I do not believe that they [the hierarchy] care at all for fetuses. I do not believe they care one iota for fetal life. I have seen no evidence historically, or in recent times. ... This is the kind of hypocrisy that we're dealing with. It's not, I repeat, that bishops care about fetuses" [page 159].
       "I come now to my second point. I do believe these men [the bishops] are deeply afraid of women. Deeply, deeply unconsciously afraid of women and the power of women" [page 160].
       "Most women won't bother to confess the sin of abortion. First of all, they don't think they've committed a sin, and secondly, therefore, it's not a sin. ... Now, for example, there is this big emphasis within the U.S. church for the various dioceses to set up programs of reconciliation for women who have had abortions. In most places they're called Project Rachel, which I find offensive. It is named after "Rachel weeping for her children" in the massacre of the holy innocents scene. You see how dumb they [the bishops] really are? They even choose names that are inclined to increase guilt" [page 161].
       "The Democratic party said in essence to the bishops, "We don't think you're so powerful. Despite your stand on abortion, and what you think about women, we're going to nominate this Catholic woman [Geraldine Ferraro] who's pro-choice. We don't think you bishops have political clout" [page 162].
       "I, as a Catholic, don't want to impose the Catholic perspective on people of all faiths [NOTE:  CFFC opposes the death penalty, which is a Catholic position on a moral issue that not all people of all faiths agree with]. ... I must show some respect for people who have a religiously based concern about the fetus" [page 165].
       "They are much happier of many of us ... if I went away. But I'm not going anywhere. I have no reason to leave. I won't give them the satisfaction of leaving. Secondly, I feel an obligation to other women to stick with it. It's not up to me to leave other women alone in the church. I think I'm a good Catholic. They should be happy to have me" [page 168].
       "We will see women ordained in my lifetime. Once women are ordained, that becomes the key to change. ... Even in political terms, you can't get to be an ambassador in this church unless you're a priest. I'd love to be the Vatican ambassador to France. I think that would be a wonderful job. ... To get those changes we have to become nasty. ... In a political structure you first confront and create polarization" [page 169] [NOTE:  If CFFC's opponents do exactly the same thing, CFFC condemns them as 'divisive forces'].
       "But, in the meantime, I think it's time to stop being nice. ... We have suffered the death of Marjorie Tuite, one of the [1984 New York Times pro-abortion] ad signers. [Although] her case was settled, many people feel she lost her will to fight for life when she got cancer. Intense demoralization occurred in her through the year-and-a-half struggle with the Vatican. She gave up. Her community betrayed her, the church betrayed her, and she was profoundly affected. It was such an enormous shock when this happened to her. She would muse, "How can they do this to me? I have given so many years." She had been faithful and loyal. They slapped her in the face and threw her in the garbage. It destroyed her, and when the cancer came, she had no will to fight it" [page 170] [NOTE:  This is a reference to Marjorie Tuite, one of the signers of the CFFC "diversity of opinion New York Times advertisement and Director of Ecumenical Action for the dissenting group Church Women United].
       "We have to [challenge] the organization called the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, CRIS. Two people in that institute come regularly to this country. I don't think they should be allowed to show their faces in the United States of America without the women of this country, and our church, confronting them with their complicity in the death of Marjorie Tuite" [page 170] [NOTE:  It is absurd that CFFC either did not expect a reaction from the Vatican, or did not properly prepare the signers of the advertisement for such a reaction. Naturally, CFFC and Kissling, who conceived the idea of the ad and rounded up the signatures, disavow any responsibility whatsoever for Tuite's death]. ...
       "We women value good manners. But these men don't deserve good manners. We must get to the point where once we know they don't deserve good manners, we're capable of taking to the streets. ... Nothing will drive them crazier than to be treated without dignity" [page 170].
       "If Jesus looked at what the church had become in terms of its institutional governmental character, it would not please him. And he'd throw them out! ... One of the things I think is so tragic is that part of me finds that John Paul II has a certain capacity to give a positive message to the world. There's something in his writings and in his glimmers of a mystical spiritual vision which could be very valuable to the church. But that vision is ruled by his need to control. Somewhere in himself, and in our church leadership, [the pope] has lost his ability to trust, not only the people of the church, but to trust himself" [page 171].
—
Excerpts from Frances Kissling's input to Annie Lally Milhaven's book The Inside Stories: 13 Valiant Women Challenging the Church [Mystic, Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications], 1987, pages 147 to 171 [foreword by Rosemary Radford Ruether]. These excerpts are also printed in Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 29 to 37 [emphasis in the original book].

       "Honest debate is the only way to get this abortion bone out of the Catholic throat so that we can get on to more important pro-life issues [like hunger, health care, overpopulation, and "militarism"].
—
Daniel Maguire (former Jesuit priest and former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors), quoted in "The Catholic Legacy and Abortion: A Debate." Commonweal, November 20, 1987, page 657.

QUOTES FROM 1988

       "If there is a symbol of American dissent it is, and has been since 1968, the condom and the pill. ...
—
David Earle Anderson. "AIDS Debate: Catholic Teaching Within U.S. Reality." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), January/February 1988 [Volume IX, Number 1], pages 1 and 4 to 6.

[ABO]       Small wonder it is offensive to those vestigial defenders of the mind-shutting ancien r‚gime which did moral teaching (especially about sex) by dictatorial fiat. ... The bishops, like all religiously-affiliated persons, are legitimate "participants in the public life of this nation" [NOTE:  But only if they agree with CFFC's position on an issue]. ...
       Matters that we would condemn at the level of personal choice may be countenanced in the public realm to avoid great harm to the common good. Thus, said Aquinas, a Christian legislator might permit prostitution if the attempt to cancel it out might do more harm to society than good. In effect, Aquinas and Augustine were personally opposed to prostitution but said it should nevertheless be legal. ...
       "Expertise and teaching authority does not result from being appointed to church office, but from learning and study. Episcopal ordination does not, by transubstantiation, turn a non-theologian into a theologian. We owe a lot to O'Connor and Law for making this so obvious. ... Vatican II almost went overboard on the point: "The body of the faithful as a whole, anointed as they are by the holy One, cannot err in matters of belief." ...
       It is moral to remove a woman's cancerous pregnant uterus, but her loss of fertility and of the embryo, that she hoped would become her child, are painful collateral evils — but not moral evils. The surgery achieves the most good available. ... Contraception can be considerably less negative (a lesser evil) than an unwanted pregnancy. A woman who has an abortion may be making a pro-life choice since life is a rich mix of negatives and positives; she may be doing the least evil and the most possible good in her circumstances. ... When contraception fails, abortion could be positively counseled as the lesser evil. So, again, O'Connor is dead right. This lesser-evil business could shatter the oppressive simplicities that he brings to complex matters in which he has no experience and little expertise."
—
Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Diversity on AIDS: Legitimate and Welcome." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), January/February 1988 [Volume IX, Number 1], pages 3 and 4.

[HOM]       "Until now, the bishops haven't liked condoms because they prevent conception. Dr. Ruth, or perhaps a yet to be discovered Sister Ruth, needs to tell the John O'Connors that sex between males isn't about conceiving babies. The church may declare homosexual sex sinful, and warn that it means more business for hell, but can there be a double sin — eternity plus a million years — when a gay puts on a Trojan?
       "This rectory fracas would be good for a laugh, or rate only a weary sigh, except that it adds one more insult to those dying and suffering from AIDS. O'Connor, a narrow-minded legalist-moralizer far out of his depth in any public health issue as complicated as AIDS, has detracted from the valuable work that many church people are doing in this field. In his prevenient [anticipatory] way, O'Connor believes, as do other simplifiers, that AIDS would be no problem if people would only behave. ... There is more to be learned about compassion for AIDS patients from Elizabeth Taylor than John O'Connor.
—
Colman McCarthy. "AIDS, Condoms and the Cardinal's Answer." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), January/February 1988 [Volume IX, Number 1], page 9.

       "This victory confirms our understanding of obedience as responsible decisionmaking. ... And now we know this church can change and we can change this church, but only through struggle, honesty, speaking out, taking risks and being clear [NOTE:  There is never any mention by CFFC members that they might change in the slightest]. ...
       "We believe that dissent falls within the rights and responsibilities of all Roman Catholics. The official church has a responsibility to foster a climate in which faithful dissent is incorporated into the ongoing life of the community."
—
"Statement of Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], page 4.

       "Women are said to have a "vocation" to motherhood, while men are never said to have any vocation to fatherhood. This means that parenting is, in fact, not a "partnership," but a female job. Fathers "help" mothers in what remains essentially "women's work." ...
       "Women, like laymen, then, in some sense, do not really belong to the church, but are outside and "under" the church. This is reflected in the fact that the bishops still use the term "church" to refer, not to a community that encompasses laity and clergy, but to themselves as hierarchy. Basically, the bishops want women to be the subordinate "helpers" of the "church" — i.e., the clergy."
—
Rosemary Radford Ruether (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "The Catholic Bishops' Pastoral on Women: A Flawed Effort." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], pages 5 and 6.

       "We don't even see the hint of developing an office of women's concerns in every diocese, a watchdog committee to monitor implementation, nor strategies for breaking the hegemony of the bishops-only decision making of the national church. Until each bishop sits at the conference table with a woman of equal rank from the diocese, this letter [the 1988 USCC letter "Partners in the Mystery of Redemption"] will remain a kind of novel. ...
       "We do not want the largess of the bishops for a few women deacons who will solve their priest shortage by their boundless energy and ministerial skill, unless the episcopacy is open to women" [NOTE:  This is a warning to those naive enough to believe some feminists who say they only want the diaconate opened to women, and no more].
—
Mary E. Hunt. "Limited Partners." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], pages 6 to 10.

[ABO]       "A recent study of views held by U.S. Catholics on abortion — taken from an extensive poll of attitudes on the issue by Hickman-Maslin Research Inc., a Washington, D.C. polling firm — showed that there exists "a lot of misinformation" about the issue, said pollster Harrison Hickman at the briefing [NOTE:  This is precisely the mission of CFFC: To create confusion, indecision and division among the faithful].
       "Many of Catholic and non-Catholic attitudes against abortion rights are driven by stereotypes which portray women who typically have abortions as liberal, college-educated and single, Hickman said [NOTE:  According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), the research arm of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, these are precisely the characteristics of the average abortion patient. Therefore, this is no stereotype]. ...
       "People are massively uninformed about Catholic tradition and thought, said [Daniel] Maguire, especially as a result of arguments by Catholic bishops that there exists a "clear and constant teaching" on the issue of abortion [NOTE:  This is precisely the opposite of reality: There certainly is a "clear and constant" teaching by the bishops on abortion, and it is CFFC that is trying to muddy the waters]. ...
       "There has been no systematic thinking in Jewish-Christian tradition on abortion. There is nothing in the Bible on it," Maguire said. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did the Vatican emerge with a rigid, anti-abortion position, that most persons, including legislators, believe is the "Catholic tradition." Because of this prochoice tradition in legitimate Catholic teachings, legislators who are prochoice must not allow prolifers to claim any moral ground or to challenge their religious integrity, he said" [NOTE:  Get this? The Catholic church's legitimate teaching is "prochoice," according to Maguire]!
—
Janice Hughes. "The Catholic Constituency: What Church Leaders Don't Tell Congress." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], pages 2 and 10.

[ABO][VIC]       "Kissling stressed that while the Catholic Church is suddenly fixated on the powerlessness of the fetus, it has never concerned itself with the powerlessness of women. She described the Church's role in the matter of public funding of abortion: "What is peculiarly disturbing to me is that the church has once again picked on the powerless. Once again the poor are the brunt of the desire of church men, and sometimes legislators, to make a moral statement that this is a country that does not approve of abortion — they are willing to use the poor as a method of making that statement. This is totally contrary to current Catholic teaching, a teaching which we have learned emphasizes standing with the poor, making a preferential option for the poor, trusting poor women, as we should trust all women, to make good decisions about their own life, and creating these options for them. This is what is particularly distasteful to thoughtful Catholics about the Michigan Referendum." ...
       "[Kissling] urged members of the audience to reclaim their Catholicism, not to consider themselves "ex-Catholics," nor "lapsed Catholics" but instead, "recovering Catholics" — recovering from the pain of oppression in the church, of making a choice to leave the church because it could not meet their needs; and recovering their Catholic heritage as Catholics.
       "During Frances' speeches and in most interviews, one question often arose: "Haven't you automatically excommunicated yourself from the church?" In response, Kissling described the stringent criteria for self excommunication, and explained that Catholics who dissent on abortion as a matter of conscience do not excommunicate themselves. Moreover, no one has ever been excommunicated by Church officials for publicly expressing their views on the matter."
—
Margaret Conway. "Public Funding: CFFC Makes Waves in Michigan Abortion Rights Battle." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], pages 12 to 16.

[ABO]       "[Pro-lifers are] going far beyond the usual civil disobedience. They are committing direct violence against women. A woman whose abortion is delayed increases her health risks, and commotion outside a clinic increases stress and affects the performance of medical personnel."
—
Ellen Carton, New York executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), quoted in "Gazette." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], page 17.

[ABO][HIS*]       "Four million abortions are performed annually in Brazil. ... Most significantly, ten percent, or 400,000 of the abortions, result in the death of women, because of poorly performed procedures."
—
"Gazette." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], page 18 [NOTE:  This is one of the wildest exaggerations any pro-abortion group has ever dared print. The Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE, or Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) showed that only 55,066 Brazilian women between the ages of 14 and 50 died of all causes in 1980. The IBGE figures were confirmed by World Health Organization statistics showing that 41,685 Brazilian women between the ages of 15 and 41 died in 1986 and, of these, 241 died of complications due to both legal and illegal abortions. This means that CFFC is inflating the actual number of illegal abortion deaths by a factor of (400,000/241) = 1,660! (November 13, 1991 Reuters news service releases of various titles to newspapers all over the world. Also see the December 30, 1991 letter of Dr. Geraldo Hideu Osanai, President, Associacao Pro-Vida de Brasilia to Andrew M. Nibley and Thomas D. Thompson of the Reuters News Agency in New York City)].

[ABO]       "A cardinal caught running an illegal abortion clinic in Rome is the stuff of papal nightmares. But Frances Kissling, president of the American lobby group, Catholics for a Free Choice, is no ordinary prince of the church. Nicknamed "The Cardinal" by friends and foes for her determined opposition to the Catholic hierarchy's teaching on abortion, she actually went so far as to defiantly found an abortion clinic within sight of the Vatican's walls.
       "Mine is a mission," pronounces Ms. Kissling in unmistakable New York tones. "I think the pope is very conservative. He is the greatest mind of the fifth century, but unfortunately we live in the twentieth century. ... I felt what we were doing at the clinic was correct. Abortion goes on whether it's legal or illegal. The question was what kind of abortion is a woman going to get," she says. "Just because I'm no longer in the convent doesn't mean I've lost the basic principle that God made me to make this world a better place." ... She began running illegal abortion clinics in Mexico and Rome. ... Ms. Kissling, unmarried, childless and sterilized, is not an obvious spokesperson for the pregnant woman. ... "For me to be pregnant would be an enormous violation of my own personal integrity" ... The ex-head of an abortion clinic goes to Confession and takes Communion with a clear conscience. "I have never been threatened with excommunication. I choose not to think about it. I am saying and doing nothing that Catholics don't have the right to say and do," she maintains. ...
       "The key to change, Ms. Kissling believes, is the ordination of women. "Now all the positions of responsibility in the church are held not just by men, but by clerics. I'd love to be the Vatican ambassador to France. I think that would be a wonderful job.
       "And after that? "Sure, I'll go to Heaven, I'm certainly not going to Hell. The important thing is for us to do our work here on earth. We were put here to do a job and I feel particularly lucky I have found my place."
—
"Kissling Takes Debate to London: Challenging the Vatican on Abortion." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], story beginning on back cover. This article was also printed in the March 31, 1988 edition of The Irish Times.

[ABO]       "Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) is a national educational organization that supports the right to legal reproductive health care, especially to family planning and abortion."
—
 Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], page 2.

       "We now believe that the leadership has affirmed that right to be a member and hold public positions on non-infallible teachings that differ from official church teachings."
—
Former nuns Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey. "Prochoice Nuns Move On." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], page 2.

[ABO][BIG]       "I view the abortion debate in similar historical and philosophical fashion. Coffin-carrying outside hospitals and doctors' offices, arsoning of women's clinics and excommunicating Catholic women are forms of Cromwellian fanaticism. ... What, we ask, nourishes in "religious" people the stridency, even the criminality we read and observe? ..."
—
Annie Lally Milhaven. "Fatherly Fanaticism." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], page 6.

[SEX]       "It is important to remember that sexual relations do not necessarily form a relationship, nor does insemination alone create fatherhood. ... You have no moral obligation to consult him or to consider his desire that you continue the pregnancy.
       "If you are married to the man, or if you are in a stable, permanent relationship with him which you want to continue, and you both wanted to conceive, you would have a serious obligation to listen to and consider his views. You would own him a full explanation of the reasons for your decision. Ultimately, however, the decision is yours.
       "In the case of an unplanned pregnancy in a marriage it is possible that your husband may want to have a baby while you may not. If he has already proven himself a good father and partner in parenting, providing not just his share of financial support but also his share of child care, you have a serious obligation to be sensitive to his wishes. Your husband also has an obligation to consider your wish not to have a child and not request that you put his desires above your own. ... Again, however, the final decision is yours.
—
Excerpt from Marjorie Reiley Maguire and Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). Abortion: A Guide to Making Ethical Choices. Also excerpted in "What Obligation Do I Have To the Man Who Is Involved?" Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], page 8.

[ABO][REL][SLO][HOM]       "There is no theological or scientific consensus on the beginning of human life. ... The job of religious progressives is to clearly state that women are to be trusted, that women have and will continue to make just and person-enhancing choices about the quality of life — beginning with the quality of women's lives. ... We need to develop a society where women's reproductive choice is normative and where reproductive options are considered a human right. ...
       "Third, clinic bombing and harassment campaigns are a prevalent part of our contemporary moral landscape. Even when the "bombs" are verbal instead of chemical they take a toll. They are destructive of the patient and the providers who fear for their safety, their reputations and their well-being.
       "The strategy of civil disobedience, which included bringing about the arrest of a bishop in New York, is designed as much to wear down pro-choice people emotionally, psychically and spiritually as it is to close clinics. It is one more way of accomplishing the heinous goal of preventing women from being moral agents, from honoring our bodily integrity. ...
[REL]       "Women's right is choose is what I, as a Catholic, dare to call sacramental. ... Reproductive choice is a sacred trust and women are more than equal to the task. Bringing this to public expression, "praising our choices" as poet Marge Piercy has said, is something that a just society will celebrate as sacramental.
[SEX]       "Second, "fathers'" rights need to be considered, but they are far down the ethical ladder when it comes to who decides about abortion. ... I mean especially lesbian mothers who have the right, not the privilege, to use reproductive technology to choose to have children by self insemination (we no linger consider it "artificial." ... Third, in a just society every health maintenance organization, every insurance company and every group practice will include abortion as a regular part of its services without the need to agonize, specialize and ostracize when the word is mentioned. ... It reminds me of the doctors who have chosen not to treat people with AIDS. In a just society, such doctors would, as Dr. Mervyn Silverman suggested, get another kind of work. ..."
—
Mary E. Hunt (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Abortion in a Just Society." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], pages 9 to 12 [emphasis in original].

[HIS][VIC][SLO]       "Daily in Bogot , Caracas, La Paz and Santiago, hundreds of women receive emergency treatment in maternity hospitals, clinics and other hospitals where they arrive in a critical condition after having tried to induce abortions themselves or been to untrained backstreet abortionists. ... They spoke of thousands of women, unable to pay the high cost of an abortion carried out in hygienic conditions, who were forced to resort to unsafe backstreet abortions, which caused their deaths. ... Maternity hospitals are over flowing with women needing emergency attention, causing congestion in all the services available.
—
Ana Maria Portugal and Amparo Claro. "Virgin and Martyr." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], pages 14 to 18.

[ABO]       "I also realized the futility and stupidity of those who think that women who risk their lives to get illegal abortions would be deterred from getting an abortion by picketing, sidewalk counseling and violence at abortion facilities.
       "Its [the Roe v. Wade decision] greatest strength — and ours — is its own centrist position."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC). "Summer Releases: Four 'Must' Reads." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], pages 19 and 20.

[ABO*]       "I am fathering a child for the first time. ...
       "A case can be made that those called to a specifically "religious community" (like the Jesuits) rather than the "secular" life of the parish priest chose an obligation to more, and so had an insistent and organizational demand to marry and reproduce for the Church's freer future, once celibacy lost its institutional defenses. ... My religious liberty, to choose children with my priesthood, gains new life with this pregnancy. Now I feel even better about my fight for legal reproductive choice, for the religious liberty, rights of women who choose abortion and children.
       "Tomorrow morning Carol will undergo, with my encouragement, a chorionic villi sampling test (CVS) to determine whether our child is chromosomally defective, and whether termination of the pregnancy should be considered. ...
       "I believe free choice is the Roman Catholic position, and the only true "anti-abortion" position that works. I believe you can only "out-love" not outlaw abortion [NOTE:  So perhaps we can say that the best "anti-rape" position is that which calls for the decriminalization of rape]. ...
       "Only yesterday, I held Carol's hand and watched my baby, the future, The O'Rourke dance in the snowy dark of ultrasound. ... If my wife has an abortion without me, for reasons I didn't approve, wouldn't compromise about, couldn't comprehend, couldn't control at all, to avoid responsibility rather than to gain generosity, I'd be sad and afraid, and then angry, and finally, cold and decisive. It would be a deal-breaker, all right. I might even go to court — and it wouldn't be about her right to choose. I'd feel betrayed, lied to, stolen from. I'd think less of her I'd feel violated [NOTE:  And this is from the same people that say that fathers have no rights at all in the abortion decision].
       "[CFFC] Editor's Note: We received this article from Joe O'Rourke on July 19. ... That same day Carol O'Rourke received a call from her doctor informing her that the first test results from CVS indicated their child carried the gene called Trisomy 21, which results in Downs Syndrome. Joe and carol spent the day together. On Wednesday, Joe saw a priest, a theologian, three male friends, had lunch with Carol, and then they saw their doctor at 2:00 p.m., the geneticist at 3:00 p.m., and a therapist at 4:00 p.m. They terminated the pregnancy on Friday morning, July 22, 1988" [NOTE:  O'Rourke referred to "my baby, the future, The O'Rourke" when he thought it was healthy. Then, when he found it was handicapped, he disposed of it as garbage. This highlights the exploitative, heartless, selfish and utilitarian mindset of pro-abortionists as nothing else could].
—
Joe O'Rourke. "Ruminations of a Father to Be." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September/October 1988 [Volume IX, Number 5], pages 1 and 19 to 21 [italics in the original].

[HIS][ABO]       "When given an opportunity to vote directly on abortion through state or local referenda, the public has repudiated the antiabortion position."
—
"Politicians Remain Out of Sync With Voters on Abortion." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September/October 1988 [Volume IX, Number 5], page 2 [NOTE:  Really? Then why have they voted in favor of pro-life measures most of the time — such as voting down forced taxpayer funding of abortions almost every chance they get?]

[ABO]       "Fifteen years ago I was pro-choice because I judged the new fetus to be a little thing. Today I am much more pro-choice that I was then, because I judge the new fetus to be a big thing, important, precious. Not the biggest thing in the world, not the most important, not the most precious. Far from it — the life of the fetus can often be outweighed by other realities of human life. But the life of the fetus is a big enough, important enough, precious enough thing for pregnant women I have listened to that I am more convinced than ever that no one else should restrict their decision on what to do with it [NOTE:  This is just a ploy to make pro-abortionists seem humane and sympathetic. Note that a preborn child will never be "big enough, important enough, precious enough" to merit survival if the mother does not want it].
       "... pollsters said that the safe position for one running for public office, even in districts where pro-life was strong, was for the politician to express personal abhorrence of abortion in general while recognizing that under circumstances it might be morally and should be legally justified. No politician, said the pollsters, has lost a significant number of votes by taking that position [NOTE:  Now we know the real rationale for the cowardly "personally opposed" slogan — to troll for votes].
       "No one else, therefore, can know as well how valuable, how precious, how much ought to be respected the obscure reality that is the human fetus. I consequently know no one else better qualified than women to decide when it is best to destroy life and when to let it grow on.
       "Theologian Marjorie Reiley Maguire stirs my thinking by suggesting that mutuality is what constitutes "person." But for that, I submit against Maguire, real psychic mutuality is necessary. This happens only when two beings consciously communicate with each other. For real mutuality the mother's welcome or consent does not suffice. The new life must consciously respond [NOTE:  This is very frightening. If the "new life" does not "consciously respond," in Milhaven's lofty opinion, then it can be destroyed. Of course, Milhaven probably reserves the definition of "consciously respond" to himself]. ... As mutuality, I see the new life as person only once it consciously responds to either the welcome or rejection of the mother or whatever else it first senses the mother doing to it."
—
J. Giles Milhaven (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Becoming Prolife While Staying Prochoice." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September/October 1988 [Volume IX, Number 5], pages 15 to 18.

[ADU][FOR]       "The rules that will emerge when women are part of the policy process will not resemble the obsolete regulations presently prescribed for men and women with regard to birth control, abortion, divorce, and sexual relations outside a context of love."
—
"Noted feminist sociologist" Sister Marie Augusta Neal, quoted in Frances Kissling. "Editorial." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), November/December 1988 [Volume IX, Number 6], page 2.

"Suggestions for Change

— What the Bishops Can Do 6. Change the Structures: As it stands now, women cannot even participate at the higher levels of church governance. Canon law should be changed to allow women to take part in decision-making processes at all levels of the church. The structures of the church should be changed to be more democratic to allow involvement of all Catholics. 7. Ordain Women: As long as the priesthood is restricted to men, women cannot participate equally with men in the church. In addition, the all-male priesthood sets up barriers for women and priests working together."
—
"All Work and No Say: A Bishops Watch Report on Women's Employment in U.S. Catholic Dioceses." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), November/December 1988 [Volume IX, Number 6], page 18.

[REL*]       "Pat [Hussey] and Barbara [Ferraro] became a red flag to the hierarchy. No longer having a police force, army, prisons, or the ability to burn people at the stake, the church in the twentieth century relies on the voluntary compliance of the governed to retain power. This is a fact that they like to keep secret, and Barbara and Pat's defiance was screaming it to the world."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), quoted in Claudia Dreifus. "Out of Order." Ms. Magazine, December 1988, pages 64 to 67.

QUOTES FROM 1989

[HYP]       "I think these are the images we need to keep before us: Images of women willing to do whatever necessary to secure needed abortions; images of women acting unselfishly and with as much compassion as possible. They are courageous images that clearly contrast with the pictures of individuals who are prepared to force or coerce others into following their ways and their visions of righteousness."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC). "Operation Rescue." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), January/February 1989 [Volume X, Number 1], pages 7 and 8 [NOTE:  This is a classic example of the persistent pro-abortion urge to stand things on their heads. Women who slaughter their preborn children are "courageous," "unselfish" and "compassionate," and those who are willing to sacrifice much to save them are evil].

[ABO*][REL]       "... I want to suggest how we might reinforce and affirm moral choice through attention to liturgy and ritual about reproduction. ... I want us to see choice as a holy, moral option, one that not only makes us whole but that underscores the reverence we have for life, beginning with our own. ... I come to this issue as a Roman Catholic feminist with all the training and experience to be a bishop in my church. ... I have