"Catholic" Politicians - Dick Durbin

“Catholic” Politicians – Dick Durbin

According to Wikipedia, United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) graduated from Assumption High School in East St. Louis. He earned both his B.S. and his J.D. at Georgetown University – the same Catholic university that Illinois Governor Pat Quinn attended. Remember also that Georgetown University is the “Catholic” college that agreed to hide a religious inscription representing the name of Jesus, at the request of the White House, during President Obama's address there.

As a congressman, Durbin voted consistently to uphold pre-existing restrictions on abortion or impose new limitations. He had much to be proud of including the following:

·        In January 1982, Durbin served as Master of Ceremonies at the Respect for Life Observance, sponsored by the Springfield Right to Life Committee at the Illinois state capitol.

·        Two months later, he pledged his support for a constitutional amendment that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

·        In June 1983 he wrote, “I have studied the issue in depth and favor the Eagleton Amendment which states clearly that the right to abortion is not guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution."

·        Later that year, he indicated that he would support legislation which would protect unborn children from abortion except in those cases necessary to prevent the death of the mother.

·        In 1989 Durbin wrote, “I continue to believe the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade should be reversed.”

Shortly after that time, however, Durbin completely reversed his opinion. Nowadays NARAL and Planned Parenthood give him a 100 percent rating while the National Right to Life Committee gives him a 0 percent rating. His position on abortion is reflected in this recent email.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.

In 2003, Bishop George Lucas, bishop of the Springfield, IL Diocese, joined the other bishops in Illinois in writing to Catholic federal and state officials to remind them of their obligation to follow the teachings of the church in their work for the common good. The content of the letters and who received them was never disclosed, but it is widely believed that Dick Durbin received such a letter.

The following year, in response to criticisms of Durbin and other “Catholic” politicians, Durbin commissioned and released a survey of Catholic Senators that rated them in three categories: Pro-Life, Domestic Policy, and Foreign Policy. Durbin weighted the categories so that pro-abortion politician John Kerry had the highest rating of any Catholic Senator (95 percent).

In 2005, Durbin voted to fund education on contraception usage.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

2390 …All these situations offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.

Also in 2005, Durbin questioned Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, who is also a Catholic.  Durbin asked Roberts what he would do if “the law required a ruling that his church considers immoral.” The question is illustrative of the self-hate that seems to pervade the thinking of poorly catechized cafeteria-Catholics. They regard the obedience required by the Church and the Bible as being repugnantly servile.

In 2006, Durbin voted against mandatory notification of parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.

In the following year, Durbin voted to expand embryonic stem cell research. Not only was this morally problematic, but it was questionable from a scientific perspective. Embryonic stem cell experiments have not yet produced a single unqualified therapeutic success, not even in animal models.

Document of the Holy See on Human Cloning

The Holy See opposes the cloning of human embryos for the purpose of destroying them in order to harvest their stem cells, even for a noble purpose, because it is inconsistent with the ground and motive of human biomedical research, that is, respect for the dignity of human beings. However, the Holy See applauds and encourages research using adult stem cells, because it is completely compatible with respect for the dignity of human beings.

More recently, after repeated media reports of election fraud by the ACORN organization, Durbin was one of only seven senators that voted to continue funding the group. The vote failed and ACORN was stripped of funding in the Senate.

Finally, Durbin is the sponsor of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), which was introduced in September 2010. COICA would create blacklists of Internet domain names. A similar law in Australia has been used to blacklist pro-life webpages.