More from Archbishop Naumann on the Sebelius HHS nomination
Posted on March 5, 2009 by Dennis Sadowski
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., has been questioning Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic, for her support of legalized abortion for a year and a half now, and he has asked her on at least two occasions not to present herself for Communion in Kansas.
In his latest public comment, he now says her nomination by President Barack Obama as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is “troubling” because of her abortion stance. The archbishop offered his most recent comments about Sebelius — summarized in a Catholic News Service report – in his column in the March 6 issue of The Leaven, the archdiocesan newspaper.
In an interview with Our Sunday Visitor, he further explains his stance.
While calling Sebelius a gifted leader who represents Catholic social teaching well when it comes to concerns such as the development of affordable housing and increasing access to health care for poor children, Archbishop Naumann strongly takes the governor to task for her long-held support for abortion. In the interview the archbishop said he can understand why Sebelius was nominated to the federal post but reiterated that he finds it troubling.
An excerpt: “But I think from the church’s point of view, it’s sad because it places another high-profile, pro-abortion Catholic into national leadership along with Vice President (Joe) Biden and Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and a raft of others that are in the Congress. And so I think it makes our job as bishops more challenging, because we have to be even more clear that this is not acceptable for a person in public service to say that they are Catholic and then to support these policies that are anti-life, you know go against the most fundamental of all human rights, the preservation of innocent life.”
Filed under: healthcare, Medical Ethics, Social Doctrine
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