Oct 11, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Prominent Catholic intellectuals Robert P. George and Gerard V. Bradley of Notre Dame University have written a vehement response to an article by Mark W. Roche, a Notre Dame University dean, that appeared in the New York Times yesterday encouraging Catholics to vote for Sen. John Kerry as the best means of fighting abortion.
In their response entitled “Not in Good Conscience,” Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and Gerard V. Bradley, Professor of Law at Notre Dame and former President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, argue that considering his positions and voting record on abortion and embryo-destructive research, to support John Kerry’s bid for the presidency would be to help Kerry perpetuate a great evil.
Roche’s New York Times article, “Voting our conscience, not our religion,” stated that “History will judge our society’s support of abortion in much the same way we view earlier generations’ support of torture and slavery,” and then argued that Catholics should vote for John Kerry in the upcoming election because his policies on social issues such as health care and the environment will be more effective in bringing down abortion rates than will direct opposition to permissive abortion laws, and that the issues of abortion and embryo-destructive research are not the only life-and-death issues in this election.
Pointing out Kerry’s perfect voting record on pro-abortion and embryo-destructive research legislation, and the fact that neither he nor Bush will abolish the death penalty, George and Bradley point out the logical fallacies in Roche’s argument.