Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 21:07, 20 July 2011

Catholics for Choice (CFC), formerly Catholics for a Free Choice, is a pro-choice organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1973 "to serve as a voice for Catholics who believe that the Catholic tradition supports a woman's moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health." CFC is currently led by President Jon O'Brien.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) states that CFC is not a Catholic organization.

History

CFC was founded in by Joan Harriman, Patricia Fogarty McQuillan, and Meta Mulcahy, as Catholics for a Free Choice, to promote access to abortion in the context of Catholic tradition. Its first president was Joseph O'Rourke, a Jesuit priest who was expelled from the order in 1974. CFC emerged from Catholics for the Elimination of All Restrictive Abortion & Contraceptive Laws, a New York lobby group that had been formed in 1970.

O'Rourke remained as president of CFC until 1979, when Pat McMahon was hired as Executive Director. McMahon shifted CFC's legal status from a lobby to an educational association, opening the group up to tax-exempt status and to foundation support. One result of this was a $75,000 grant on behalf of the pro-choice Sunnen Foundation which funded the group's first publications, the Abortion in Good Faith series.

In 1978 Frances Kissling joined the group, and in 1982 she was made president. She lobbied politicians and activists, many Catholic, to work in favor of giving women access to contraception and abortion.

In October 1984, CFC placed an advertisement signed by over one hundred prominent Catholics, including nuns, in the New York Times. The advertisement stated that "direct abortion ...can sometimes be a moral choice" and that "responsible moral decisions can only be made in an atmosphere of freedom from fear of coercion." The Vatican took disciplinary measures against some of the nuns who signed the statement, sparking controversy among American Catholics, and intra-Catholic conflict on the abortion issue remained news for at least two years.

Kissling led CFC until her retirement in February 2007. CFC's former Vice-President and Director of Communications Jon O'Brien was subsequently appointed as the organization's new President.

With other groups, the CFC successfully lobbied against the naming of John M. Klink, a former representative of the Holy See at the United Nations, to lead the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in 2001. More recently, it has assisted in drafting legislation with the stated goal of reducing abortions, partly by increasing financing for family planning.

Mission

The organization describes its mission as "to shape and advance sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women's well-being and respect and affirm the capacity of women and men to make moral decisions about their lives. CFC works in the United States and internationally to ensure that all people have access to safe and affordable reproductive health-care services and to infuse our core values into public policy, community life and Catholic social teaching and thinking."

CFC argues that Catholic teaching on the primacy of individual conscience, and the role of the faithful in establishing church law, support a pro-choice stance on these issues.

Funding

In 2007, CFC had a budget of $3 million. It is supported largely by secular foundations such as the Ford Foundation.

Criticism

Church

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has stated that CFC "is not a Catholic organization, does not speak for the Catholic Church, and in fact promotes positions contrary to the teaching of the Church as articulated by the Holy See and the NCCB," and that "its activity is directed to rejection and distortion of Catholic teaching about the respect and protection due to defenseless unborn human life." It also stated that "The public relations effort has ridiculed the Holy See in language reminiscent of other episodes of anti-Catholic bigotry that the Catholic Church has endured in the past."

In response to similar accusations, theologian, ecofeminist and CFC board member Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote that CFC was part of a schism rather than a proponent of anti-Catholic bigotry, that the accusation was an attempt to portray the "Catholic right" as the only authentic Catholics, and that "the charge of 'anti-Catholicism' is being used as a scare tactic by the Catholic right in the service of repression of progressive Catholic views."

Other critics

Helen M. Alvaré, an associate professor of law at the Catholic University of America, said that CFC has "no grass-roots base among Catholics." She said the CFC arguments were not different from other pro-choice groups.

Excommunication

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska issued an interdict in March 1996 forbidding Catholics within his diocese from membership in 12 organizations, including CFC, in which membership is described as "...always perilous to the Catholic Faith and most often is totally incompatible...", in a letter of formal canonical warning published in the diocesan newspaper, the Southern Nebraska Register. Members of the diocese were given one month from the date of the interdict to remove themselves from participation in the named organizations or face automatic excommunication.

References

1. Catholics for Choice – About Us
2. ^ U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – Office of Communications
3. Priest Expelled for Forbidden Baptism Sarasota Herald-Tribune, p. 4b, Oct. 18, 1975
4. "When the swallows come back to Capistrano" Bottum, Joseph. First Things, Oct. 1, 2006. at highbeam.com. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
5. ^ The New York Times. Backing Abortion Rights While Keeping the Faith. Banerjee, Neela. February 27, 2007
6. Dillon, Michele (1999). Catholic identity: balancing reason, faith, and power. Cambridge University Press. p. 106.
7. "After 25 Years, a Catholic Warrior Steps Aside" Burke, Daniel. Religion News Service. 2007-02-22. at CFC website. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
8. Catholics for Choice – About Our Work
9. Kissling, Frances (Oct. 2001). "The place for individual conscience". Journal of Medical Ethics. v.27, Supp. Archived from the original on 2005-09-03. Retrieved 2011-07-20. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. Ruether, Rosemary Radford (Autumn 2000). "The Mantra of Anti-Catholicism". Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion.
11. EXTRA SYNODAL LEGISLATION: Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz
12. "Catholics in 12 Groups Excommunicated in Nebraska". Daily News. Los Angeles, California: The Free Library, by Farlex. Associated Press. May 16, 1996. Retrieved July 18, 2011.

External links

• Catholics for Choice Official website
• Conscience Magazine

• Pro-choice organizations in the United States
• Pro-choice religious organizations
• Organizations based in Washington, D.C.
• Organizations established in 1973
• Christianity-related controversies
• Roman Catholic Church in the United States
• Christian political organizations