Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON. Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Catholic bishops, congratulated President-elect Barack Obama on his “historic election” Nov. 4 as the first African-American to win the White House.
“The people of our country have entrusted you with a great responsibility,” the cardinal said in a letter to Obama on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “As Catholic bishops we offer our prayers that God give you strength and wisdom to meet the coming challenges.”
But he also said, “We stand ready to work with you in defense and support of the life and dignity of every human person.”
In Nov. 5 statements, blog postings and other comments, Catholic leaders praised Obama for his history-making victory. Some said the Democrat’s win “best reflected” Catholic values “of hope, personal responsibility and care for the common good.”
But others, including Catholic bishops, said they hoped the new administration would make decisions that show a “commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life.” Still other Catholics, including pro-life leaders, expressed profound disappointment that a candidate who supports abortion rights was elected and vowed that the pro-life movement would grow in strength.
In his letter to Obama, released by the USCCB in Washington, Cardinal George said that “the country is confronting many uncertainties. We pray that you will use the powers of your office to meet them with a special concern to defend the most vulnerable among us and heal the divisions in our country and our world.”
Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said in a statement: “We offer our prayers today for our nation and for our newly elected leaders, including President-elect Obama, as they take on their new responsibilities.”
“We rejoice with the rest of our nation in the significance” of Obama’s victory, Archbishop Wuerl said. “May our nation’s new leaders be guided in their decisions with wisdom and compassion and at the heart of all of their decisions may there be a deep respect for and commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life and support for the most vulnerable among us.”
“My hope and prayer is that our new president will truly treasure and advance the principles that make us who we are as a great nation,” said Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh in a letter to Catholics in his diocese.
“As he spoke to the nation for the first time, our newly-elected president offered a litany of hopes for our country. To each of those hopes, the crowd gathered responded: ‘Yes we can!’ May that litany also include ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” Bishop Zubik said.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said in a statement the electorate made “a grave mistake,” pointing to a comment Obama made during the campaign that the priest paraphrased by saying that “he does not know when a human being starts to have human rights.”
“Governing is about protecting human rights; to do it successfully, you have to know where they come from, and when they begin. The president-elect has already failed that test miserably,” Father Pavone said, adding that the pro-life movement will grow in strength.
“We will keep marching toward that pro-life America we seek, and won’t stop until we get there,” he said.
In a posting on dotCommonweal, a blog run by the Catholic magazine Commonweal, journalism professor Paul Moses said: “John F. Kennedy blazed the trail for Catholics. But it has taken nearly 50 years for another Catholic to follow him to victory on a national ticket,” with Biden winning the vice presidency.
In a posting on her blog, Catholic cultural critic Amy Welborn said, “I am quite disappointed, from a policy perspective, that Obama won the election. I’m fearful of what his presidency will mean on many issues, particularly that of life as well as religious freedom and transparency in government.”
Still, she said she was “very glad that the barrier has been broken,” with Obama becoming the nation’s first African-American president, and looked “for more barriers being broken in the future.”
“We have work to do,” said American Life League president Judie Brown. “I think it’s time for the pro-life movement to focus on personhood and stop accommodating the Republican Party. We have to unify around personhood. We’re now waiting for those who have resisted (the idea of personhood for the unborn) to finally decide that maybe they were wrong.”