The following comes from a November 5 story in the National Catholic Reporter.
I received a call from a reader in Sioux City, Iowa, this morning. The reader wanted us — and all visitors to the NCR website — to know that the bishop of Sioux City Iowa, Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless, bought a half page ad in this Sunday’s Sioux City Journal, to spread his message about Election Day 2012. The 11 inch by 11 inch ad appeared on page 14A, the back page of the front section of Sunday’s paper. Half of the ad is a photo of an adult hand holding the hand of a baby. The other half of the advertisement are the following words:
How we vote in the upcoming election is of the utmost importance. Even our salvation may depend on it. Many moral and prudential issues are at stake, and Catholics are not single-issue voters. But one issue stands above all in its gravity and its consequences.
Abortion is our nation’s gravest injustice
The blood of 55 million murdered babies “cries out to heaven for justice.” It is always gravely sinful to support or condone abortion. Abortions’ mere legality corrupts our culture, our government, and the rule of law.
As you vote this year you have a chance to speak up for the defenseless unborn.
Your vote can save innocent lives.
Supporting the dignity of all human life I remain your bother in Christ.
(signed) +R. Walker Nickless
Diocese of Sioux City
The diocesan coat of arms is in the lower left hand corner of the ad, with address, phone number and website information.
I asked the caller if some kind of initiative was on the ballot that has anything to do with abortion. The caller said, no. Why then focus so heavily on abortion? If our salvation may depend on how we vote this election, to what vote is Bishop Nickless referring? If I were a member of the Sioux City diocese, I sure would like to know.
Trying to gain some insight into this question, I visited the Sioux City diocese’s website where I found Bishop Nickless’ column “The Shepherd Writes.” The most recent one addresses the election in equally as strident terms. I will quote it at length, so you get the full sense of Nickless’ message:
“….The gravest, most urgent, and most destructive evil of our time is abortion. As Catholics, this is our most important issue. The scale of abortion’s evil is unprecedented: 55 million American babies murdered since 1973, along with tens of millions more in other countries, and uncountable lives of mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters twisted or broken by guilt and grief. The scope of abortion’s consequences on society and the economy is also vast: laws and the rule of law corrupted, justice denied, politics twisted and embittered, an unbridgeable gulf dividing our nation, marriages and families destroyed, productive workers eliminated, and on and on. As long as abortion is legal, the slaughter and the injustice will continue. It is imperative for our faith, that we as Catholics witness boldly against both the appalling fact of abortions, and the corrosive legality of abortion.”
Bishop Nickless ends by encouraging “everyone who is eligible to vote, if you have not already done so by an early or absentee ballot, to vote according to a well-formed and devout Catholic conscience …”
His message ultimately isn’t very helpful. I mean, how is one to vote? There is no abortion initiative or referendum on the Iowa ballot, so Bishop Nickless must be directing voters’ attention to candidates, but are there any candidates in Iowa who do not condone legal abortion? Certainly both of the major presidential candidates support abortion under some circumstances. Maybe one of the third party presidential candidates is absolutely opposed to abortion in all circumstances. Are there candidates in state races that could meet this measure? Missouri has Todd Akin and Indiana has Richard Mourdock, both are Republican senatorial candidates. Does Iowa have someone of the Akin-Mourdock ilk?
If Sioux City Catholics are going to avoid serious sin, Bishop Nickless may have to get more specific.
To read entire story click here.
[Cal Catholic editor’s note: following are a few of the comments on the NCR site supporting Bishop Nickless.]
Margaret Wilkersham • a day ago
I don’t understand you. If bishops support candidates, you get upset. If they don’t support candidates, you get upset. What exactly do you want them to do?
55 Million dead babies is not reason enough to place the ad?
Seriously?
I believe many Americans would be surprised at the extent to which
President Obama has advanced a pro-abortion agenda through a long list
of “bill signings, speeches, appointments, and other actions” since his
election in November, 2008.
His many pro-abortion actions are documented at the link below. The list is shockingly long and extensive.
The link: https://www.lifenews.com/2010/1…
We must support all of OUR GOOD BISHOPS when they teach our Faith according to the “CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition”.
Intrinsic Evil is and always will be the murder of innocents through abortion, euthanasia, homo-sexual marriage, and being against Freedom of Religion.
The ‘National Catholic REPORTER’ is a heretical paper. The writers know that the CCC exists, but will never acknowledge it.
The Reporter does not print any meaningful dialogue that quotes the CCC, and will not print my letters.
So I refuse to acknowledge their existance.
All US BISHOPS need to enforce Canon 915 within their own Diocese and excommunicate when necessary.
Relativism, secularism, heresy, schism and scandal all are rampant within our Church because of many Bishops refusal to do their jobs.
I hope those Bishops who refused to teach difficult issues according to the CCC within the last 20 years, and refused to frequently tell literate Catholics to read the CCC – are satisfied with the outcome of the Presidential election.
They must know that you can’t teach the faith in entirety within a few months – just before an important election, and expect most Catholics to jump on board. Education does not happen over-night.
Great aspiration…but, the Bishops are dependent on their ground game: the pastors. Rev. Richard Lawrence read a pro-traditional marriage letter by his bishop in Baltimore during mass, then bashed it during the homily to a rousing ovation.
They shouldn’t be difficult teachings if we teach them from the beginning of catechism. Throwing out the Baltimore catechism with nothing to replace it with was MAJOR turning point and poorly catechizing young impressionable minds is a travesty. Compounded with many parishes accommodating heresy by looking the other way, the work is HARD. God may want a smaller, but more quality Church. Then, that can flourish, but flourish with perseverence and suffering.
Although the tax laws of the United States of America prohibit Catholic clergy from promoting any one politician over another, there should be no backlash when any member of the Catholic clergy stands up for issues of morality and justice for the innocent. This is absurd. The priest is a hero, and in the eyes of all righteous people, he can be seen as having stood up for the rights of murdered innocents. So obviously those who are committed to the legal murdering of unborn innocent babies are going to go after this hero, and all the rest of us Catholics who support him, and hey, why not go after the entire Catholic Church from the pope on down while they’re at it?
We need more brave bishops. When I was a young college student (’57)
our Jesuit theology professor looked at us seriously and said that before
we were old men we would begin to see the persecution of the Church
in the United States. The American people have spoken for secularism
and we will pay the price with ever greater frequency of a totalitarian government tightening the noose on our religious liberties.
Too bad there weren’t enough of them like him!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
The centuries long Protestant empire is falling away, and what is rising now is a competitive field. Neo paganism, Islam, homosexualism, socialism seem to be vying for the lead. Catholicism seems to be wasting away while resting on its laurels.
With the reading of the comments to ad placed by Bishop Nickless, could not one conclude that we Catholics are, in deed, in need of much Catechesis??? Would that every diocese would initiate a detailed study of the Catechisism for starters. Let us Catholics develop ” a grown up’s ” knowledge of our precious Faith. It is about time!
I have never seen less attention paid to an election than I did this time on the part of our California bishops and the NCCB. Since about February, when the HHS mandate got a flurry of attention for a couple of weeks, nothing more. Why does good Bishop Nickless have to “go it alone”? Where are all the bishops? What Bishop Nickless expressed in the ad was right in line with the nature of the teaching office of the Church: You don’t even have to hand out voter guides (which candidate supports what), let alone endorsements. All you have to do is make clear what a Catholic must support or oppose as a Catholic, and why. Preach about it within and without…pulpit and community. There are plenty of lay organizations that can follow up with the information that the well-formed Catholic conscience needs to vote morally.
I believe that Romney’s loss is ultimately on the doorstep of the American bishops. They now have to deal with the HHS mandate and Obamacare in general. Romney supported abortion in limited circumstances, but was the clear lesser of two evils. His loss means we will surely have a Supreme Court entrenched in Roe v. Wade for generations.
Roberta, I totally agree. I am sorely disappointed in the California Bishops and priests of my parish. Every homily till election day should have added some instruction on how to vote. The Church must stop worrying about their tax exempt status when it is under attack from the very same government that provides it. It is time to stop tax exemption if it means giving up the truth of Jesus Christ.
We had a religious freedom Mass and less than a quarter of our parishioners even showed up. People who run ministries at our parish didn’t even attend. Our shephards in the Church are letting too many stray without a word.
Lets find excellent attorneys to help us change this law and allow our church leaders to speak freely! If Abortion is in the law, then we can change laws to not limit the free speak of any church!
Now about this article, this Bishop did not break a law, he is in his right to speak up on moral issues!
The Bishop should start wasting money on newspapers and look inside his own House; How many priests has he going to Pagatory or worse? Is he a good spritual father to them?
Who are the theologians in his house of formation? What is their record on fidelity to the Church? What is being taught in RCIA in his diocese? Is confirmation viewed as a photo opp with the Bishop or
do those receiving the sacrament know what it is they indeed receive?
These are the questions Bishops need to ask themselves.
Actually, abortion is only a symptom — gruesome though it is — of the greater march toward paganism and idolatry that characterizes our country, and world. Religion that tolerates abortion, homosexual marriage and all of that is what people desire (even if they do not always go to Church). Catholics vote overwhelmingly for Obama and for the Democratic Party merchants of death. And, now, the chickens will come home to roost big-time. The Church will be at the receiving end of a tsunami of private legal and governmental and business attacks for not permitting the abominations so loved by many in society (and secretly, by many bishops, priests, and USCCB and diocesan administration staffs). God permitted His chosen people to be slaves to Egypt and others, and He is permitting these awful things to play out in America. Much will become worse, and persecutions are likely. Prayer, and fasting, are called for, as it is unclear what is in store for believers now. Another thing that is needed — a complete cleaning of the Catholic Church in America, the Vatican curia and many other religious orders. Many, many — too many — in the Church have called the tunes for decades (ever since you-know-what) and it has been a catastrophe. Catholics no longer believe that they are bound to consider their Church’s views on anything as they vote (the few bishop “clarifications” of their voting guide were too little, too late, and still — unbelievably — unclear). Remember: Obama and his demons exists only due to Catholic voter (and clergy) connivance (and active support, too). Given this, Cardinal Dolan needs to admonish his “Flock” that what they did was unspeakable; no one need seek a sacrament (except confession) who voted for any Democrat. I know, I know, what a laugher — much better to remember our fulsome Cardinal lodged between Romney and the Greateast Abortionist Provider in American Public Office. What a complete and utter scandal. Cardinal Dolan should lead the resignation of hundreds (? more?) of American clergy, and then go to various monasteries to spend the remainder of their lives in prayer and atonement for what they have enabled. Hahahaha.
The bishop was crystal clear in his advertisement. He didn’t need to offer any names because the statement of principle was worded well. You don’t vote for pro-abort anything or anybody.
I was happy to see it. Leadership among the United States bishops is rare but ever so refreshing to see.
Way to go Bishop Nickless. If we could of had more like you standing up before this election, things just may have turned out differently. But we rest not nor shall we give up the fight!
I don’t believe the IRS has the right to tell us what we can and cannot preach from the pulpit. Speak the Truth no matter what.
I can’t wait to get this reduculous regulation before the supreme court.
I agree with you Robert, its time for change…..this election will only make us stronger because we will find good people with the right resources to help us fight the good fight!
BRAVO to the good Bishop Nickless! He is doing his job for Christ, to help protect the unborn children! The National “Catholic” Reporter is immoral and heretical! It should be stripped of its name “Catholic,” by our Church. People complaining mindlessly about the good Bishop failing to support particular candidates, have missed the point– we are all called by God to protect unborn life– and to promote abortion is a MORTAL SIN!! To deliberately vote for a pro-death candidate or cause– is a MORTAL SIN!! All Americans need, from chldhood days, to be fully formed in a MORAL CONSCIENCE, and to know and to live in a manner morally right with God!! Our Church desperately needs to take Christ’s holy teachings seriously, and GET BUSY properly forming all its clergy and laypeople in Christ, with daily, solid Catholic instruction and the Sacraments! Get rid of all those opposed to Christ– let them go somewhere else, not pretend to be “Catholic!” To follow Christ as a devout, practicing Catholic, is a RESPONSIBILITY, NOT a so-called, babyish “freedom,” to disagree with the Son of God, Who came to die on a CROSS for your Salvation!!
In contrast to Bishop Nickless, Cardinal Dolan in New York abandoned his people by remaining silent this election. I respectfully ask that the USCCB meeting this month, please not ask us to pray for unity in the Church.