Washington D.C., Sep 20, 2008 / 04:42 am
Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, has published an open letter to Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Biden in several major newspapers, chastising his support for abortion and correcting his erroneous claims about historical Catholic teaching on abortion.
Warning that Biden’s public remarks could confuse Catholic women in crisis pregnancies about the morality of abortion, Anderson’s letter also invites Biden to meet with him to discuss the issue in person.
The open letter to Biden, a U.S. Senator from Delaware, was published in USA Today, the Washington Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Delaware News Journal on September 19. Anderson says he writes the letter “on behalf of 1.28 million members of the Knights of Columbus and their families in the United States.”
Anderson begins his letter to Biden by saying he writes as “a fellow Catholic layman.” Commenting that the bishops who have publicly corrected Biden’s remarks on historical Catholic teaching on abortion are “far from alone,” Anderson tells Biden his statements “carry considerable weight” because of Sen. Barack Obama’s emphasis of Biden’s Catholic identity.