‘Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine…promote intrinsically evil acts’ by Bradley Eli, M.Div., Ma.Th.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill (ChurchMilitant.com) – Bishop Thomas Paprocki is doing something almost no other bishop has done: he is publicly calling out political candidates by name.

In a video Sunday, October 30, the bishop of Springfield, Illinois spoke the plain truth in simple fashion. “Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic candidates for president and vice president, respectively, both hold stridently aggressive positions that promote intrinsically evil acts such as legal abortion and redefining marriage in a way that denies its essential meaning,” he declared.

Recent polls show half of all Catholics are voting for Clinton and Kaine. Bishop Paprocki admonishes such Catholics about their sinful participation with candidates who promote evil. “People who vote for pro-abortion candidates are cooperators in evil,” he flatly stated.

His Excellency also brings up Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, citing talk show host Eric Metaxas, who wrote an op ed in the Wall Street Journal:

It’s a fact that if Hillary Clinton is elected, the country’s chance to have a Supreme Court that values the Constitution — and the genuine liberty and self-government for which millions have died — is gone. Not for four years, or eight, but forever. Many say Mr. Trump can’t be trusted to deliver on this score, but Mrs. Clinton certainly can be trusted in the opposite direction.

Remarkable is the fact that almost no other bishop has dared to call out the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates explicitly by name. One prelate who did so was Abp. Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas. In his talk on October 18, Abp. Nauman mentioned self-professed Catholic Sen. Tim Kaine 11 times.

Calling out Kaine’s hypocrisy, Abp. Naumann remarked,

It is ironic that Senator Kaine expressed such profound concern about imposing his religious beliefs on others, while supporting efforts:

1. to coerce the Little Sisters of the Poor and other faith-based ministries to violate their conscience by including abortifacients, contraceptives and sterilizations in their employee health plans;
2. to put small business owners (e.g., florists, bakers, photographers, etc.) out of business with crippling fines if they decline to participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies;
3. to force every American taxpayer to help fund abortion.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island has also called out Kaine by name — the first bishop to do so.

Bishop Paprocki finished his talk with the affirmation that a Catholic must form his conscience according to the mind of the Church and that to act contrary to Catholic teaching is sinful.

Catholics who are unsure of the moral implications of their election choices, especially with regard to abortion — the defining moral issue of our time — should discuss these matters with a priest in the sacrament of penance in order to form their consciences properly as faithful citizens, or to be absolved of their sins, as the case may be.

EDITORS NOTE: The column originally appeared on ChurchMilitant.com

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