by Paul Gingras

Created on: October 15, 2008

Newsweek recently published an article titled "Pro-Life Catholics For Obama: Should abortion be the litmus test for political support? The author, George Weigel, summarizes the current political climate for the presidential election of 2008 as having "its share of quirks, oddities, and surprises." Of course, the biggest surprise of this election is the Roman Catholic pro-life supporters of Barack Hussein Obama, who is a known supporter of abortion rights for women.

Mr. Weigel compares the views of such pro-life Obama supporters as Douglas Kmiec (Pepperdine University law professor), M. Cathleen Kaveny (Notre Dame professor), and Nicholas Cafardi (Duquesne University law professor). These intellectual elites proclaim that their choice of Obama is entirely based on moral principles. They also profess that most Catholics, and Republicans, are confused over the actual moral issues most represented in this election.

For example, Cafardi claims that Catholics have lost the battle against abortion in this country. He further states that abortion is not the only moral issue here. Kmiec states there are greater issues, such as the government's policy on the interrogation of terrorists, wages, health-care costs, and of course the war in Iraq. Kmiec also states that Obama is more Catholic than many of the Catholics he knows, and that Obama represents "an alternative way to be pro-life."

Well, these are certainly some very disconcerting statements, especially from members of society that have the greatest impact on the morals and ethics of the general population.

First, I would like to state for the record that I am a Catholic and Pro-Life, and I am not an Obama supporter. I feel that most people in this country really have no idea what it means to be Catholic. It means that you proscribe to a certain way of life, a certain way of thought that is different than the rest of society. It means that you put God first in your life. A Catholic believes that through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that you will have eternal life. It also means that you proscribe to certain moral and ethical values within your life, and from those moral and ethical values you determine to live above those values, which define the rest of society. It is evident from this article that most people who call themselves Catholics, especially those members of political office and elite educational institutions, do not proscribe to the Christian way of life. As Catholics, and Christians,

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