This from The Washington Times today:
The nation's Catholic bishops on Tuesday served notice to the future Obama administration that they will oppose "a culture of coercion" on abortion, even if they have to suffer doing so.
The five-paragraph statement, which was debated at length during an afternoon session of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual meeting, said the 223 bishops present were "completely united and resolute in our teaching and defense of the unborn child from the moment of conception."
Several bishops said church leaders must be prepared to suffer for their beliefs.
"We have lost 50 times as many children in the last 35 years as we have lost soldiers in all the wars since the Revolution," said Bishop Robert J. Hermann of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
"I think any bishop here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring about an end to abortion," he added. "If we are willing to die tomorrow, then we should be willing to, until the end of our lives, to take all kinds of criticism for opposing this horrible infanticide."
The statement singled out the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) for criticism, saying it would "reduce religious freedom, and the Church must work against its passage."
If passed by Congress, FOCA would nullify all state laws limiting abortion. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to sign FOCA into law.
Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki said FOCA would have a "significant and adverse effect" and that bishops "need to be prepared in the face of increasingly militant threats to unborn life."
"The next step would be for federal law to require abortions by all hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, which we cannot do," he said. "We'd need to consider taking the drastic step of closing our Catholic hospitals completely."
The full article here.
The Brody File will monitor the situation from The White House.
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