Pro-Lifers to Boston Cdl. Seán O’Malley: Stop the Betrayals!

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BOSTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - A coalition of pro-life organizations is calling on the bishops in the state of Massachusetts to quit betraying the Church and the pro-life movement.

A petition titled "A Pro-Life Appeal to Cdl. O'Malley and all Massachusetts Bishops" was published Wednesday and decries Boston's Cdl. Seán O'Malley of having a permissive attitude toward pro-abortion politicians. It's signed by a number of notable pro-life groups, including William Cotter of Operation Rescue, Boston, Brian Camenker of Mass Resistance and C. Joseph Doyle of Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, among others.

"These scandals are increasing in severity, frequency and unconstrained audacity," Doyle told Church Militant. "Archdiocesan support for pro-abortion politicians is becoming more overt, less circumspect, more celebratory."

The petition also criticizes a recent measure by the bishops of Massachusetts banning signature-gathering on Church properties. The undersigned lament that this ban hinders the work of pro-lifers, given its timing. It comes "just as another effort to end state abortion funding gets underway."

The petition also challenges Cdl. O'Malley by asking, "Do those who complain about relatively rare pro-life petitions represent truly Catholic thinking and should their objections be the basis of Church policy?"

"These prelates cannot look at themselves in the mirror and take responsibility for the institutional collapse which they are presiding over," Doyle remarked to Church Militant. "It will take a long time, and probably, generational change to reverse direction."

Egregious examples are set forth of local Catholic leaders and organizations implicitly endorsing pro-abortion activists. Cardinal O'Malley gets called out for the honorary degree that Boston College gave to Sen. John Kerry, who supports abortion and homosexuality yet still considers himself a Catholic in good standing. This took place while O'Malley was chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"If you look at the League's June 30th Special Report, which serves as the documentation for this statement, you will find that half of these scandals occurred while the cardinal was Pro-Life Chairman, which is even more appalling," Doyle told Church Militant.

It also calls out the cardinal for attending the "Profile in Courage Award ceremony at the Kennedy Library in Boston where the award recipient was 'Barack Obama.'" Obama has a long history of pro-abortion politics. When Obama was elected president, his administration "waged a war on the Catholic Church by unjust Health and Human Services mandates imposed by Obamacare legislation, requiring Catholic entities to fund abortifacients, contraceptives and sterilizations in violation of the religious freedom rights of Catholics."

Church Militant reported in May on Catholic Action League's sharp criticism of Cdl. O'Malley for attending this award ceremony. We also shared in 2015 an open letter by Michael Hitchborn to the cardinal, calling on him to condemn a heretical priest in his archdiocese.

The digital version of the new petition links to a complete list of these types of scandals compiled by the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts.

The Catholic Action League list remarked, "May is the month of Our Lady. It is also the month when Catholic educational institutions in Massachusetts, and their parent religious orders, advertise their rejection of divine and natural law by hosting as commencement speakers and conferring honorary degrees upon proponents of abortion, contraception and sodomy."

Cardinal O'Malley has a mixed reputation among faithful Catholics.

On the upside, the Boston prelate affirmed in 2014 the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. In 2013, he forbade a dissident priest from speaking in the archdiocese. Appointed by Pope Francis to a Vatican board on sexual abuse, the cardinal said in 2016 that every bishop and priest has a "moral and ethical responsibility" to report clerical sex abuse to authorities.

On the downside, he has a history of associating with fake Catholic politicians who openly oppose the Church's moral teachings. O'Malley also caused widespread scandal in 2014 when he convinced a female Methodist minister to give him a blessing during an ecumenical prayer service.

Most recently on September 1, the cardinal co-authored a Boston Globe op-ed in favor of illegal immigration with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a lapsed Catholic and active lesbian.

"Pro-lifers must not be the enablers of their own betrayal," Doyle commented. "They must make clear to the Hierarchy that this episcopal malfeasance is unacceptable."

Add your name to the petition here.

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