He notes that the guidance given the faithful by some members of the clergy to “Just follow your conscience," is misleading without proper explanation “because it suggests that people are responsibly following their conscience when they knowingly replace Christ's teaching with the world's opinions.”
Appreciating the dignity of human life
The bishop states that the dignity of human life is not sufficiently appreciated by Catholics who “all too often regard abortion and euthanasia primarily as political issues on which they can legitimately take a position at odds with the teachings of Christ and his Church. “
“Practices like abortion and euthanasia are morally abhorrent even when they are called "rights" and given the protection of law. They remain abhorrent even when such a law is agreed upon by a majority of persons,” he says.
He also points out that the “tendency among some Catholics to equate all issues of life such that, for example, capital punishment and war are considered to have the same moral significance as abortion and euthanasia,” are “misguided.”
Faith is not private
“We must deepen our understanding of what it means to live out our faith in the world,” writes Bishop Aquila. He points out that Catholics who say they are personally opposed to abortion “but defend the alleged right to abortion and even approve when others choose it”… separate their personal conviction about fundamental truths from their public life.”
“Whether they are culpable or not, such persons cooperate in a grave evil by their support of abortion,” he writes and affirms that “Catholic politicians who vote specifically to fund abortions do not merely cooperate with a grave evil but are principal agents in a grave evil.”
“All too often,” he states, “Catholic public officials and voters are more deeply committed to their political agendas than they are to the teaching of Christ.”
In concluding Bishop Aquila points to other serious areas of confusion that need to be addressed: “the assumption that salvation is universal and automatic no matter what one says or does; the failure to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation on a regular basis and to be properly disposed before receiving Holy Communion; the failure to appreciate the truth, dignity, and meaning of human sexuality; the failure to understand the apostolic authority of bishops; and pastoral practices in dioceses which go beyond legitimate diversity.”