"Catholic" Politicians - Pat Quinn

“Catholic” Politicians – Pat Quinn

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn reportedly was born into a good Catholic family. His brother is a teacher at a Catholic high school and his 93-year old mother still attends daily mass.

According to Wikipedia, Quinn attended St. Isaac Jogues Catholic grade school in affluent Hinsdale, Illinois. He then attended Fenwick Catholic High School in Oak Park. Quinn went on to graduate from Georgetown University. It is interesting to note that Georgetown is where Illinois Senator Dick Durbin attended law school.

Interestingly six Illinois governors have been charged with crimes during or after their governorships; four were convicted, and of those, one (Quinn’s immediate predecessor) was impeached and removed from office. Quinn first became governor when, as lieutenant governor, he succeeded his predecessor.

While finishing out his predecessor’s term, Quinn ran for governor this past November. One memorable television ad attacked his opponent as being dangerous because the opponent was pro-life.

Quinn was quoted in the press as saying, “I believe in a woman's right to choose, and I believe we must strongly consider all consequences that would result from enacting any particular restriction upon that right, intended or unintended.”

On the other hand, his opponent, whom Quinn narrowly defeated, said, “As a Roman Catholic my personal beliefs are rooted in and informed by the theology of my faith.”

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 July 2010, Quinn marched in Chicago’s Gay Pride Parade.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

2357 Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

Most recently, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1716, which was put on the fast track by the Illinois Speaker of the House, Michael J. Madigan. (Madigan is another “Catholic” politician. He attended St. Ignatius College Prep, attended college at the University of Notre Dame and graduated from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law – all Catholic Schools.)

The bill would legalize civil unions and explicitly grant the unions the same status as marriage in state law. As noted by the Catholic Conference of Illinois, “Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. Marriage has been established by our

Creator in harmony with the nature of man and woman and with its own essential properties and purpose. The Church did not invent marriage and neither has any state. No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, mutually commit to each other in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives.

“The legislation also contains the potential for a serious conflict with religious liberty. While the bill states that nothing in the Act should interfere with or regulate the religious practice of any religious body, such language may offer little protection in the context of litigation religious institutions may soon encounter in relation to charitable services, adoption and foster care.”

Opponents of the measure include Chicago Cardinal Francis George and the Illinois Family Institute.

Governor Quinn has pledged to sign the bill. The Springfield Journal-Register quoted him as saying, “My religious faith animates me to support this bill.”

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Springfield Archdiocese responded by saying, “He did not say what religious faith that would be, but it certainly is not the Catholic faith.”

Bishop Papriocki added, “If the Governor wishes to pursue a secular agenda for political purposes, that is his prerogative, for which he is accountable to the voters. But if he wishes to speak as a Catholic, then he is accountable to Catholic authority, and the Catholic Church does not support civil unions or other measures that are contrary to the natural moral law.”

The Chicago Sun Times reported that when Quinn was told of the bishop's statement, Quinn just shrugged and said, "I follow my conscience. … and my conscience is not kicking me in the shins today.''

Quinn’s defiance of the Church is decidedly non-Catholic. His thinking is similar to the belief in sola scriptura (which we discussed in a prior post), which holds that everyone is able to interpret the Bible as he sees fit. Actually, the adage “Let your conscience be your guide” is not scriptural. The belief does not come from God, the Bible, or Sacred Tradition.

 It comes from a Walt Disney animated character.