Kalamazoo Bishop Joins Vote For Stronger Stance Against Abortion

US Catholic Bishops are deciding it is time for the church to take a more open stance regarding politicians who support abortion. For many of the Bishops, it is a clear-cut decision. But for some, not so much. Now the fallout begins. A majority of the Bishops are deciding the church needs to issue a directed position statement to politicians who support abortion and still receive Communion. That most pointedly includes President Joe Biden.

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Bishop Paul Bradley of the Kalamazoo Diocese represents the church over a large area of SW Michigan including Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties. While he participated in the national meeting, it is not known how he voted. But we can guess.

Bishop Bradley has taken a forceful stance on the issue. He has issued several related communications. In one following Biden’s 2020 Presidential win over incumbent Donald Trump, the Bishop wrote,

“...never before has any Catholic leader, at any level of public office, so openly supported abortion, and so defiantly made it clear how he intends to aggressively pursue those radical policies immediately, in the face of one of the most important teachings of our faith. I will encourage dialogue and we should pray for him, but my prayer will be for him to turn from his errant positions and to be concerned for his eternal salvation.”

More than a third of the Catholic Bishops in America have been leaning toward a subtle approach to the contentious issue, rather than the statement from the church on the issue to be drafted by a committee of the Conference of Bishops.

But any way you look at it, the fact that the issue went up for high-level review in the church by the Bishops is a message to abortion proponents all by itself.