Jeanne Douillard: Making U.S. election about abortion debate a mistake

Kaboompics.com

Published: 09-16-2024 7:19 PM

I have just read the following Associated Press article published in the Recorder: “Pope: Harris, Trump Against Life,” [Sept. 14]. The AP journalist writes, “Pope Francis advises American Catholics to choose who they think is the ‘lesser evil’ in the upcoming U.S. elections.” She goes on to quote Pope Francis as saying the following: “Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies.”

My hope is that whoever translated the pope’s words did a poor job in conveying his actual statement. The phrase, “the one who kills babies” is a shocking representation of an upstanding, moral woman (Vice President Kamala Harris) who seeks to best represent this country with all of its challenging and complicated issues, migrants and abortion being only two of many.

I am a Catholic woman. Just identifying as a woman tells you something, for my standing in the Catholic Church is currently not taken very seriously by many Catholic leaders, to say the least. I have three brothers-in-law who were abused by a priest. I retain my personal identity as Catholic because I have discovered its teachings reside in my heart and marrow. However, I cannot sit by and remain silent.

If Pope Francis actually did say these very words in a misrepresentation of the stakes of the U.S. presidential election, shame on him! Such a harsh, judgmental and false phrase is especially shocking coming from an upstanding, moral man respected by many for his desire to make needed changes in the Catholic Church.

This is a message to Pope Francis and all Catholic leaders in the U.S.:

Please do not make the U.S. election a single issue election about abortion. Our entire democratic system of government is at stake with a candidate and his Republican followers who are intent on upending the basic principles on which this country is founded. Yes, democracy is probably the most difficult form of government we have at this time, but it is the best because its principles stand for “We the People” and not for “I, the one in charge who has all the answers.”

Jeanne Douillard

Greenfield

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