Why won’t Sr. Simone Campbell answer a simple, direct question about abortion?

Do you remember my post called NUNS GONE WILD?  I will have to add Sr. Simone Campbell to that dismal list.

From The Weekly Standard with my emphases and comments:

Charlotte
Sister Simone Campbell is a Catholic nun and liberal activist who has earned a lot of media coverage this year for criticizing the Paul Ryan budget while riding around the country on a bus. Tonight [5 Sept] at the Democratic National Convention, Campbell will be speaking from the podium against the Ryan budget.

[QUAERITUR…] But how does Campbell, a Catholic who says she believes abortion is the taking of an innocent life, weigh her budget concerns against her opposition to abortion? It turns out there’s not a dilemma because, as Campbell told me this afternoon at the Charlotte Convention Center, [NB] she doesn’t know if she supports laws protecting the lives of unborn children.

TWS: On the legal question, do you think there should be penalties against abortion doctors? I mean, should it be illegal to perform abortions?

CAMPBELL: That’s beyond my pay grade. I don’t know. [This dodge can only mean one thing.  She is pro-abortion.]

“The fact is my vast preference is that all women would have the support to carry their babies to term,” Campbell continued. “One of the things I find so horrifying in the Romney-Ryan budget is that they want to take those supports away. And then they claim they’re pro-life. That just drives me nuts!”  [Indeed.]

So Campbell knows that the Romney-Ryan budget is “horrifying” because it spends less on social welfare programs than Obama, but she’s agnostic about passing laws to stop abortions. According to one study, striking down Roe v. Wade would lead to 180,000 fewer abortions per year in the United States.

But Sr. Campbell doesn’t care about that.

Remember, Sr. Campbell, you cannot fool God.

 

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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34 Comments

  1. Pingback: THURSDAY AFTERNOON EDITION | Big Pulpit

  2. “Do you think there should be penalties against abortion doctors? [Do you think it should] be illegal to perform abortions?”

    “That’s beyond my pay grade. I don’t know.”

    Is it beyond her pay grade (Obama-phrase!) to have an opinion on whether abortion should be legal?

  3. anna 6 says:

    “that’s beyond my paygrade”…interesting. Isn’t that exactly what Pres. Obama said about abortion at the Saddleback Forum with Rick Warren four years ago?

  4. Southern Catholic says:

    Can. 915?

    Seriously, isn’t she the same one that went on the Daily Show? It is about time some action is taken to stop this nonsense.

  5. Sissy says:

    How can nun make a public statement that she doesn’t know what the Church teaches about abortion?

  6. Jim says:

    Of course its beyond Sister Campbell’s “paygrade” to google “catechism of the catholic church abortion”, click on the very first link that comes up (http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm) and read :

    2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:

    “The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death.”80

    “The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child’s rights.”

    or to pay $13 at Amazon.com (including shipping) for the Mass Market edition of the Catechism and find the same information.

  7. nykash says:

    How on earth did ‘pro-life’ become government handouts and the like? The Democratic party is really about redefining everything in order to justify their immoral outlook on life.

    imho, it’s too late for Can. 915.

  8. Sissy says:

    Sounds like Sr. Simone needs some remedial education. Or maybe she should just choose a better class of associates instead of trying to curry favor with child killers.

  9. A.D. says:

    I heard her presentation! What a disgrace for a Catholic religious sister to USE her faith to justify the Democrat platform and her views. Not once was an unborn baby included in her concerns. Her comments after were even worse.

    Re: Clinton’s speech – He was really rallying the troops; they were in a real frenzy. Once when all were standing and clapping in exaltation, I declare I saw Michelle Obama’s face fade and in its place I saw, for a brief moment, the face of Angela Lansbury (as in the Manchurian Candidate). I was horrified! I don’t see visions; I know it was my mind in overdrive, but what could be scarier.

  10. Dave N. says:

    “Coincidentally” Sr. Campbell is leading a Catholic voter’s workshop in the Diocese of Oakland (an event also promoted by the Diocese of San Jose) on September 16. I’m sure you will ALL be interested in attending Sister’s workshop :\

    http://www.dsj.org/ministries/social-ministries/election-workshop-presented-by-sister-simone-campbell-sss-of-network

    Considering the facts in total, this seems awfully close to a Church endorsement of the Democratic Party.

  11. thomas tucker says:

    By saying her preference is that women have “the support” to carry their babies to term, she is saying that if they don’t have support, then abortion is a valid option. That is what she really means, reading between the lines, without saying it explicitly.

  12. Bea says:

    I saw her picture on “Pewsitter”
    No sign of a crucifix or cross, however she was wearing a strand of pearls.

    Douay-Rheims Bible
    Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you. Matthew 7:6

  13. Clinton says:

    Why won’t Sr. Simone Campbell answer a simple, direct question about abortion?

    Because her agenda is best served by dishonesty and disingenuousness. I cannot imagine that
    Truth Incarnate could ever be served by deliberate dishonesty– especially in a matter as
    grave as abortion– so I’ve got to conclude that her allegiance lies ‘elsewhere’.

    She wants us to believe that a truly pro-life stance would couple ambivalence about legalized
    abortion with ever-expanding federal entitlement programs. If that were true, shouldn’t we be
    seeing an inverse relationship between the expansion of entitlement programs and the number
    of abortions performed each year? What we have instead is a rise in both over the past four
    decades. I’d be interested to hear her try and spin that to fit her agenda.

  14. mamajen says:

    Is this woman for real? Oh, this kind of stuff makes me spitting mad.

    Not only is Barack Obama the most pro-abortion president in the history of the United States, but he (not surprisingly) opposes federal funding for crisis pregnancy centers. How can this woman even claim that she wants to support all pregnant women while also supporting this president? I guess that’s a rhetorical question since we already know she likes to claim she’s Catholic while supporting any number of mortally sinful things.

    I hope and pray that the majority of American voters see right through this evil and make the right decision. I wonder if our church leaders, who continuously fail to enforce Can. 915, will be held as responsible for the souls being led astray as these catholics who are out blabbering these horrific things? That quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that you (Father Z) recently posted to FB definitely applies here.

  15. acardnal says:

    TWS: On the legal question, do you think there should be penalties against abortion doctors? I mean, should it be illegal to perform abortions?

    CAMPBELL: That’s beyond my pay grade. I don’t know.

    I don’t know why I am even responding to this comment. Seems nonsensical to me that a vowed consecrated sister in the Roman Catholic Church would say such a thing! Unbelievable. Perhaps she should sit as a student in a CCD class and study the CCC, Evangelium Vitae, the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the the Didache .

  16. AvantiBev says:

    “The fact is my vast preference is that all women would have the support to carry their babies to term,” Campbell continued. “One of the things I find so horrifying in the Romney-Ryan budget is that they want to take those supports away. And then they claim they’re pro-life. That just drives me nuts!”

    What drives ME nuts are the priests, nuns and Catholic laypeople over the past 45 years of my life who no longer preach a Gospel message found thoughout the Old and New Testaments most especially in JOHN 4: 1-23. Sex without marriage and with multiple “partners” has given us nothing but disease, divorce, abortion and poverty.

    Has this Sister opposed as vigorously the sexual libertine behavior which brings us the moral and financial impoverishment as she opposes the Ryan budget? What are her plans for single, chaste tax payers such as I? Am I to just work longer? Harder? Take a 3rd and 4th job to support the women and illegitimate children she does not demand their boy-lovers support???? So we are to cut no social programs, huh? What are Sister’s plans for our country when our bond/stock markets and banking systems implode and a bushel basket full of dollars won’t get us a loaf of bread? (See Germany 1920’s). Like other Leftists, she will probably be happy then because THEN we will ALL be equally as poor and miserable.

    Somebody explain to me how a self-governing republic can be possible when over half the population has been infantilized and brain washed into seeing themselves as victims without free will or personal responsibility. I am not talking about one race, one class or one income group. I mean one-half across the board from Kim Kardashian to the gang bangers here in Chi town. I see no Christian charity nor Catholic dogma in keeping a population in a state of perpetual childhood wherein they assume someone else will always clean up after them, smooth all bumps in the road and pay all their bills. Edmund Burke was right: “men of intemperate minds cannot long be free …their passions forge our fetters.”

  17. JacobWall says:

    I think people should focus on exactly what Sr. Simone Campbell – on real poor people. Look at what she does:

    She raises funds.
    With this money she:
    -rides around the country on a comfortable bus
    -funds a politicized lobby group (Network)
    -campaigns on behalf of a stinking rich political party

    I’d like to see one single poor person who has been fed by Simone Campbell or her group. Nuns or laypeople, liberal or conservative, Catholics who are actually out on the street feeding the poor DON’T HAVE TIME for political campaigns and luxury bus rides across the country.

    Even Andy Warhol volunteered in soup kitchens, funded his nephew’s studies for the priesthood and attended mass every day. Imagine how much Ms. Campbell could accomplish if she would only do this much??? It’s sad when consecrated religious are outstripped in their charitable and religious actions by a degenerate pop-art celebrity (who was a scoundrel besides.)

  18. KevinSymonds says:

    What I find most perplexing is not the abortion question. Rather, a religious sister makes a political statement and does not hear cries of “Religion is getting involved in the State! Take away the Church’s tax-exempt status!”

    A most perplexing fact indeed.

  19. *Candidate* Obama used the paygrade dodge. When he was elevated to the presidency, his paygrade went up. Would be nice if, after 3.5 years and counting, somebody, anybody would re-ask the question pointing out he did go up in paygrade. Perhaps now–maybe in one of the debates?–would be a good time.

  20. Cathy says:

    Why is the USCCB still funding NETWORK?

  21. mamajen says:

    @KevinSymonds

    Excellent point! I never thought about that, but you are absolutely right.

  22. Supertradmum says:

    Why are all the bishops silent on this woman’s rantings? Why?

  23. WYFamily says:

    There is a pay grade for Morality and Common Sense??
    Where’s my check?
    (or my bill?)

  24. JKnott says:

    God bless Bishop Morlino! He was superb in an interview this evening on the World Over with Raymond Arroyo. One of the questions put to him was on the appropriateness of Sister Simone to address the DNC. He said the purpose of women religious is to witness to the holiness of the Church and much more. He also spoke about Ryan , his budget and the role of the laity. What a great Bishop!

  25. Michelle F says:

    I have an idea. Since we live in a litigious age and in a litigious country, couldn’t we sue people like Sr. Campbell, and organizations like “Catholics for Choice” for false advertizing for their use of the word “Catholic,” or the phrase “Roman Catholic”? We could stop them from pretending to be something they aren’t, and if we get any money out of them we could give it to groups like the FSSP.

  26. NoraLee9 says:

    AvantiBev:

    You took the words right out of my mouth. The whole contraception/abortion mentality is linked to men (and women) ducking responsibility for their actions.
    And as for various “pay grades” – well- I hate that phrase. In graduate school I learned about TQM- total quality management. It is an excellent way to run things; no one has to lobotomize themselves! Indeed, inherent in the “above my pay grade” comment is the avoidance of taking responsibility. That seems to be my theme today, is that folks are not walking, but running from their responsibilities as citizens, as Christians, as inhabitants of the earth! Heavens! Those of us of a certain age remember Citizenship classes in school. Maybe we need to bring these back, eh?

  27. hype2120 says:

    Thank you for writing this post. I had the exact same sentiments while watching Sr. Campbell address the DNC and grew even more enraged reading her interviews. As a Catholic, I was appalled. As a Catholic woman, I was furious.

    Sister Campbell is entitled to her opinion; she is also entitled to articulate that opinion. That is her right as an American. However, I do not believe she should speak — as a Catholic. Because of her position (nun,) the public is led to believe that she speaks FOR Catholics. Ergo, the general public is misled into thinking ‘if a nun evaluates the issue in this manner, her beliefs certainly must reflect the teachings of the Catholic Church.’ And that is simply not the case.

    Sister Campbell is not and should not be held up as the poster child of Catholicism. I attended Catholic school for 12 years; I attend Mass regularly. Sister Campbell’s views on abortion are the antithesis of what I was taught in school and what I hear in Church every Sunday.

    Ever since Sister Carol Keenan (Catholic Health Association) helped champion Obamacare, I have grown increasingly exasperated by certain factions within the Roman Catholic Church. My religion, of 40 years, has been co-opted by fringe elements, with whom I vehemently disagree. I have called on Church leaders to identify so-called “Catholic” groups — those which do not uphold Church teachings — and ask/compel/coerce them to remove the word “Catholic” from their official name. These groups (of which there are many) do not reflect Church doctrine. They should not be permitted to call themselves “Catholic” organizations and reap the financial benefits that come with the use of the word “Catholic.”

    All like-minded Catholics should be demanding the same from our Church leaders. If you are a Catholic, I urge you to speak out loudly against those who misuse the term “Catholic.” I also strongly recommend researching Catholic organizations before donating money; there are many groups calling themselves “Catholic” in order to raise funds. Before you write a check, investigate the organization. Make sure the group truly embraces the teachings of the Church.

    As for Sister Campbell, my Catholic upbringing teaches me not to judge others. She is an individual. I will not stand in judgment of her. I cannot say she is any less Catholic than I. Only God knows Sr. Campbell’s heart and soul. I do maintain Sister Campbell is grossly misinformed about Church doctrine and has been used as a prop by the DNC (with or without her knowledge.)

    Thank you again for your blog post. I appreciate to opportunity to express my views and hope I haven’t gone off in an angry rant.

  28. matthiasvick says:

    She is neither Catholic, nor catholic, ipso facto. I just wish all the “world” could understand that. PAX

  29. BLB Oregon says:

    Asked a very basic question concerning Catholic teaching, and she says “that is beyond my pay grade.” She doesn’t say, “We have to end abortion somehow, I just don’t know that this would achieve it”, she doesn’t say “Abortion is gravely wrong, but Latin American countries such as Peru that have outlawed abortion and yet still see high rates of abortion”, she says nothing like that. She does not articulate what it is about the question that might concern her. She dodges the question entirely, not making it at all clear that abortion is not simply a matter of opinion.

    And people wonder what need the LCWR has of guidance from the Vatican!

  30. KevinSymonds says:

    An important point to keep in mind is that abortion is not necessarily a legal matter. It is a moral battle. As BLB indicated above, one can outlaw abortions, but the number of back alley abortions/do-it-yourself may only increase (note: “may”). Educating people in morality and teaching them how to be disciples of Christ is where we should be focusing most of our efforts at this time, IMHO.

  31. Maria says:

    Dear hype2120,

    I think Vatican is working on your “and ask/compel/coerce them to remove the word “Catholic” from their official name.” The idea is to have site like http://www.xyz.catholic. This way we can recognize it easily if the site is faithful.

    For now and I hope this will help, these sites listed some of dissenters.

    http://fidelityandaction.wordpress.com/
    http://www.catholicculture.org/search/resultslist.cfm?resourcetype=2&requesttype=sitebrowserate&fidelity=red&resources=0&useability=0

    God’s peace & joy,
    Maria

  32. NescioQuid says:

    Fr Z, that Dietric Bonhoeffer quote puts me in mind of Edmund Burke’s oft quoted saying: “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”

  33. Edprocoat says:

    Fr Z, I think this nun may have allowed the pride of her righteous work to blind her to the evils which she is embracing in her stance. This is a human response, where we get caught up in what we believe or know to be right and ignore the consequences of how we approach our goals. There could be no argument that her work with the underpriveledged persons is laudable and Christ like, yet to embrace the party of abortion on demand among their other stances against religion and morality seemingly outweighs the good she has accomplished.

    ed

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