Catholic Church Continues Postcard Campaign To Rally Opposition To Freedom Of Choice Act

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 18 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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The Roman Catholic Church's postcard campaign to fight the Freedom of Choice Act is experiencing a strong response in the Chicago area, according to Catholic officials involved in the effort, the Chicago Tribune reports. The bill, if approved by Congress and signed by President Obama, would codify the abortion-rights protections in Roe v. Wade. Mary-Louise Kurey, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago Respect Life Office, said about 150,000 postcards have been sent to the 364 Catholic Chicago-area parishes in the archdiocese, and she continues to receive requests from churches for more postcards. Parishioners are given three postcards to sign, two of which are addressed to Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin (D) and Roland Burris (D) and one that is addressed to the person's congressional representative. The Tribune reports that more than 1,650 members of St. John Brebeuf in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Ill., mailed 4,900 postcards to their legislators, while 800 members of St. Pascal Church in Chicago mailed 2,400 postcards. The Catholic Church launched the nationwide campaign Feb. 1 in coordination with the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment. The effort will continue through the end of the month. The campaign is one of the largest ever sponsored by the church, with tens of millions of postcards distributed to schools, churches and other Christian groups, according to the Tribune.

Cardinal Francis George last month wrote a letter to all Catholic priests in Chicago asking them to preach about the issue of abortion and the church's opposition to it, as well as to encourage parishioners to take "pro-active measures" against abortion. The letter said that although the Catholic Church "wants to work with the new president and the Congress," it cannot "cooperate in any plan to remove all restrictions on abortion, to violate personal or institutional conscience clauses or to call abortion a human right." Kurey said the response to the campaign is due in part to the new administration and concern that antiabortion laws would be overturned if FOCA becomes law (Ramirez, Chicago Tribune, 2/13).

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