NYT: Catholic Bishops Offer Voting Guide, Allowing Some Flexibility on Issue of Abortion

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/us/15bishops.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

By NEELA BANERJEE
Published: November 15, 2007

BALTIMORE, Nov. 14 — The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops approved principles Wednesday intended to guide Catholics in choosing whom to vote for but leaving the door open for them to back candidates who support abortion rights.

Nearly all the bishops approved the document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” That broad consensus might help the church avoid the fissures that occurred in 2004, church experts said, when some conservative Catholic groups issued voter guidelines that identified abortion as “non-negotiable” and a group of bishops touched off a debate about whether Catholic candidates who back abortion rights should be denied Communion.

Past documents allowed Catholics to vote, in certain cases, for candidates who support abortion rights.

But the issue has garnered renewed interest this year with the Republican candidacy of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and a Catholic, who supports abortion rights.

The set of principles discusses “intrinsic evils” and defends them as actions that “must always be rejected and opposed.”

“A prime example is the intentional taking of innocent human life, as in abortion,” the document says.

FULL story at link.