WASHINGTON -- Roman Catholic bishops Thursday voted unanimously to continue their opposition to abortion, but agreed to link their efforts to other 'life' issues like nuclear arms and capital punishment -- a move sure to anger many other anti-abortion activists.
The 270 prelates attending the week-long National Conference of Catholic Bishops also turned aside an effort to delete from their 'pastoral plan for pro-life activities' the creation and support of political action committees to lobby members of Congress on the abortion issue.
Archbishop Rembert Weakland proposed separating the lobbying measure from the plan because the single-issue focus of the PACs is 'out of step with the rest of the document,' which stresses the bishops' concern for a 'consistent ethic of life' linking a number of issues.
Weakland argued the bishops should be 'very clear that we do need now a political movement where the consistent life ethic' is central.
Some bishops have noted privately that some of the PACs -- which are not funded by the church -- have become dominated by 'conservative crazies.'
Weakland argued, 'These groups get outside our control and we are used by them.'
He urged the conference to instead develop guidelines for evaluating candidates' stances 'on a whole range of issues in a consistent ethics approach.'
But the bishops listened instead to Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, chairman of the conference's pro-life committee, who said the PACs are integral to the bishops effort to end legal abortion.
While making Bernardin's 'consistent ethic' approach an explicit part of the church's pro-life stance -- including such issues as capital punishment and the nuclear arms race -- the new and revised action plan makes the struggle against legal abortion the centerpiece.
Bernardin, who has been pushing for a broader approach to 'life' issues for months, has been harshly criticized by many leaders of major anti-abortion groups for trying to link abortion to other controversial issues.
They argue that the abortion issue should not be clouded by other controversies and that many in the pro-life movement do not agree with Bernardin's position on such things as the arms race.
'A consistent ethic, far from diminishing concern for abortion or equating all issues touching on the dignity of human life, recognizes the distinctive character of each issue while giving each its proper role within a coherent moral vision,' the new plan said.
'Precisely because all issues involving human life are interdependent, a society which destroys human life by abortion under the mantle of the law unavoidably undermines respect for life in all other contexts,' the statement said.
The bishops also lashed out angrily at the Supreme Court for its decision denying the use of federal funds for remedial education on religious school property.
'This is blatant discrimination. This is blatant injustice and we should call it that,' Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia said. 'It should be called what it is -- a distortion, not an interpretation of the Constitution.'
Krol's remarks were prompted by a July 1 Supreme Court decision that said it was impermissible to use Chapter 1 funds of the Elementary and Secondary School Act on religious premises. Since 1965, the funds have been available for remedial education in both public and parochial schools.
