Following is a letter from Dr. James Likoudis, president emeritus of Catholics United for the Faith, to the Buffalo News regarding the status of Catholic Politicians in respect to the abortion controversy.

June 25, 1990

Letter to the Editor
Buffalo News

Dear Editor

Certain pro-abortion politicians who profess to be Catholics have expressed outrage regarding a statement by Cardinal John O'Connor of New York noting the Church having possible resort to the penalty of excommunication. What is surprising is the ignorance of Catholic teaching manifested by such politicians.

A recent pastoral letter by the Most Reverend John J. Myers, Bishop of Peoria, adds a valuable clarification on a matter that has received much media attention. As Bishop Myers noted:

"Catholics who publicly dissent from the Church's teaching on the right-to-life of all unborn children should recognize that they have freely chosen by their own actions to separate themselves from what the Catholic Church believes and teaches. They have also separated themselves in a significant way from the Catholic community. The Church cannot physically force such people to change their position; but she can and does ask them honestly to admit in the public forum that they are not in full union with the Church."

There is nothing new in the Bishop's comments or in Cardinal O'Connor's remarks on the possible consequence flowing from the formal complicity of Catholics in the grave evil of abortion. In his address to the entire U.S. hierarchy in Los Angeles in 1987, Pope John Paul II emphasized that dissenters from Catholic doctrine exclude themselves from Christian life and the Catholic community.

It might be added here that one of the worst things that might be said about some modern politicians is their prostitution of human rights to the wanton desires of a modernity that no longer respects the sanctity of the human lives of the unborn.

About Dr. James Likoudis
James Likoudis is an expert in Catholic apologetics. He is the author of several books dealing with Catholic-Eastern Orthodox relations, including his most recent "The Divine Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy: Letters to a Greek Orthodox on the Unity of the Church." He has written many articles published by various religious papers and magazines.
He can be reached at:  jameslikoudis1@gmail.com, or visit  Dr. James Likoudis' Homepage