| Home - Latest News | Introduction | Bayside Prophecies | Directives from Heaven | Order Form | Testimonies | Veronica Lueken | Miraculous Photos | Bible | Radio Program |

Catholics who vote for pro-choice or pro-abortion candidates commit a mortal sin...

“For that reason among many, the United States will suffer unless there is placed into your government a group that fears the Lord if they cannot love the Lord. They will fear Him and find measures to stop the slaughter of the unborn.” – Our Lady of the Roses, April 14, 1984 

To be Catholic is to be unconditionally pro-life...
Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, over 44,000,000 babies have been murdered under cloak of law.  Killing for convenience has become heavily entrenched in our once moral nation.  

The Holy Father, in an address to Lindy Boggs (Ambassador of the United States to the Holy See), stated:

“The United States of America was founded on the conviction that an inalienable right to life was a self-evident moral truth, fidelity to which was a primary criterion of social justice. The moral history of your country is the story of your people’s efforts to widen the circle of inclusion in society, so that all Americans might enjoy the protection of law, participate in the responsibilities of citizenship, and have the opportunity to make a contribution to the common good. Whenever a certain category of people—the unborn or the sick and old—are excluded from that protection, a deadly anarchy subverts the original understanding of justice. The credibility of the United States will depend more and more on its promotion of a genuine culture of life, and on a renewed commitment to building a world in which the weakest and most vulnerable are welcomed and protected.”[1]

Any Christian knows that murder of the innocent breaks the Commandments of God. The Catholic Church teaches very clearly that:  

“Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”[2] 

Also, a Catholic may never obey an immoral law, such as legalized abortion: 

"Man may never obey a law which is in itself immoral, and such is the case of a law which would admit in principle the liceity of abortion. Nor can he take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law or vote for it. Moreover, he may not collaborate in its application. It is, for instance, inadmissible that doctors or nurses should find themselves obligated to cooperate closely in abortions and have to choose between the law of God and their professional situation."[3]  

Those Catholics who perform an abortion, or are accomplices to an abortion, receive the automatic punishment of excommunication. Pope John Paul II writes:

"The Church’s canonical discipline, from the earliest centuries, has inflicted penal sanctions on those guilty of abortion. This practice, with more or less severe penalties, has been confirmed in various periods of history. The 1917 Code of Canon Law punished abortion with excommunication. The revised canonical legislation continues this tradition when it decrees that ‘a person who actually procures an abortion incurs automatic (Latae sententiae) excommunication’ (Canon 1398). The excommunication affects all those who commit this crime with knowledge of the penalty attached and thus includes those accomplices without whose help the crime would not have been committed (Canon 1329). By this reiterated sanction, the Church makes clear that abortion is a most serious and dangerous crime, thereby encouraging those who commit it to seek without delay the path of conversion. In the Church the purpose of the penalty of excommunication is to make an individual fully aware of the gravity of a certain sin and then to foster genuine conversion and repentance."[4] 

Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis had informed his archdiocese that

Catholics in St. Louis who vote for political candidates supportive of abortion rights have committed a grave sin in the eyes of the church, and should confess and do penance before receiving Communion. ("Voting for abortion rights candidate is a sin," SLToday.com, June 25, 2004)
 

Cardinal Bernard Law, in a homily given at the National Shrine in Washington, D.C. on January 21, 1996 stated,  

"That is what Catholics are called to: to be unconditionally pro-life. There is no ambiguity in the words of Peter's successor. To be Catholic is to be unconditionally pro-life. To support abortion, to advocate the right to choose an abortion can in no way be considered a catholic option. ...
     “How scandalous it is to see the evidence of Catholic votes supporting those who deny the Gospel of Life. It is easy to criticize Catholic elected representatives who have rejected life. Do we not need to be even more concerned with the far greater number of Catholic voters who fail to challenge these politicians?
    “Our task within the household of faith is clear and daunting, my brothers and sisters. It must be made abundantly clear in pulpits, in classrooms, in the lecture halls of our colleges and universities, in the Catholic press, in the way we vote that to be Catholic is to be unconditionally pro-life.”  

The sin of omission...
The clergy have the grave responsibility to inform their flock that it is a mortal sin to vote for a pro-choice or a pro-abort politician.  They risk the fires of hell if they do not speak out.  On October 6, 1980, Our Lady of the Roses said:

"The sin of omission shall condemn many to hell, be they layman or Hierarchy.  I repeat:  not the sin of commission, but the sin of omission will commit many to hell.  Among them there will be also mitres."

Our Lady of the Roses warned Senator Edward Kennedy...
Archbishop William Levada emphasizes that membership in the Church is conditionally, that is, belonging to the mystical Body of Christ requires “the full profession of Catholic faith and the reception of Baptism as the beginning of a life of sacramental worship and moral living in accord with the teachings of Christ.”[5] 
    Our Lady of the Roses warned Senator Kennedy many years ago that unless he defended his Catholic Faith in Washington, he would be condemned to hell: 

"I sent you, My child, into your capitol city to approach two with great power.  We were not mistaken in the reaction, My child.  More prayers are needed.  You will write, and you must give out the knowledge without hesitating, that Heaven expects and commands the last of his clan in manhood to speak out and defend his Faith in your city of Washington!  If he does not, My child, he will be condemned.  He will be taken, My child, when he is unprepared.
     "Warn him once more, My child and My children, in the mercy that you have for your brothers.  Speak out without fear, My child.  It is too late;  the hour grows late.  You must now speak out and use the name. 
     “You will write to Ted Kennedy and tell him that he faces eternal damnation.” -Our Lady of the Roses, September 6, 1975  (Contact Senator Ted Kennedy...)

Senator John Kerry...
The same fate awaits Senator John Kerry, unless he too repents, returns to living a moral life, and defends his Catholic Faith in Washington. Tragically, Senator Kerry erroneously considers it a “right” to belong to the Catholic Church and at the same time remain in absolutely opposition to the Church’s teachings on a number of issues, including abortion. Senator Kerry does not fully profess his Catholic Faith but has publicly denied his Catholic Faith on numerous occasions.  
   
Quoted in Time magazine (April 5, 2004), a Vatican official has said, "People in Rome are becoming more and more aware that there's a problem with John Kerry, and a potential scandal with his apparent profession of his Catholic faith and some of his stances, particularly abortion."
    Senator Kerry has publicly opposed a Vatican decree issued in 2003 which stated that Catholic politicians have a duty to uphold the Church’s “non-negotiable ethical principles,” such as opposition to abortion and same-sex unions. This Vatican decree warns politicians “who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies [that they] have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life.  For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them…. In this context, it must be noted also that a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”[6] 

This Vatican decree speaks directly to Senator John Kerry.  His response?

According to the Associated Press, John Kerry responded to the Vatican decree by saying that he believed “in the Church and I care about it enormously. But I think that it’s important to not have the Church instructing politicians. That is an inappropriate crossing of the line in America.”[7]  Kerry also said, "I don't think people want questions about character," in response to accusations by the White House (Fox News, March 28, 2004).
    Robert Bork writes, “It seems impossible to say that a person believes in a religion when he rejects what the religion proclaims.”[8] As Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My Commandments” (John 14:15),  and “if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican” (Matthew 18:17).  Kerry cannot simultaneously “care” about the Church and reject its teachings.
    
Not only is Senator Kerry an apostate Catholic, he is also intellectually dishonest. 
     Pope John Paul II rejects Senator Kerry’s false notion of conscience in his pro-life encyclical, The Gospel of Life: “The legal toleration of abortion or of euthanasia can in no way claim to be based on respect for the conscience of others, precisely because society has the right and the duty to protect itself against the abuses which can occur in the name of conscience and under the pretext of freedom.”[9] 

Grace MacKinnon writes,  

“… we see that politicians who vote in favor of laws that legalize the crimes of abortion or euthanasia are guilty of committing a gravely immoral act.  In fact, they can even be denied Holy Communion by a bishop or priest for obstinately taking such a stance.  In order for an immoral act to be considered a mortal sin, three conditions must be met.  (1) It must be serious matter (2) with knowledge of its seriousness and (3) done freely and willfully.  Therefore, if he or she does so knowing that it goes against the law of God and it is done willingly, then he or she is guilty of mortal sin.  Surely we can say that most Catholic politicians know that a public pro-choice position goes directly contrary to Church teaching.”[10]    

Bishops have said that they would deny Kerry holy Communion, because he is no longer in good standing with the Church: 

“During Kerry’s campaigning in Missouri, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said if Kerry were to present himself for Communion, he would deny him.
    “I would have to admonish him not to present himself for Communion,” Archbishop Burke told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  “I might give him a blessing of something.  If his archbishop told him he should not present himself for Communion, he shouldn’t.  I agree with [Boston] Archbishop [Sean] O’Malley.”
    ... Late last month, Archbishop O’Malley told LifeSiteNews.com, “These politicians should know that if they’re not voting correctly on these life issues than they shouldn’t dare come to Communion.”[11] 

Senator Kerry is so blinded in his mind and hardened in his heart that he actually scolded the Vatican for its opposition to gay marriage: 

“Last summer, Kerry went on the offensive against the Vatican on gay marriage; an AP story bore the headline "Kerry Scolds Vatican." He opposed the Vatican's claim that Catholic politicians have a ‘moral duty’ to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples.”[12]  

To add injury to insult, Kerry proclaims himself to be a faithful Catholic. Barbara Kralis writes: 

“… John Kerry also says that he is a faithful Catholic in good standing, yet promises Americans that if elected: I will not overturn Roe v Wade; I will not appoint judges hostile to 'choice;' I will allow poor women to have free abortions; I will never outlaw abortion; I will increase American taxpayer's dollars on population control efforts around the world.  In other words, Kerry has set himself outside of the Catholic faith and has incurred, according to canon law 1398, a common excommunication, latć sententić, a censure incurred by the very fact of committing a crime.”[13]  

Kerry made the above pro-abortion proclamations on January 21, 2003, as a guest speaker at the 30th anniversary dinner for NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League). 

It is a mortal sin to vote pro-choice or pro-abortion...
Surveys showed that in the 2000 election only 50% of those calling themselves Christians were registered to vote.  On election day, only half of the Christians who were registered actually went to the polls.  

Voting is not only our right but a duty under certain circumstances.  According to Fr. Heribert Jone,
 

"Voting is a civic duty which would seem to bind at least under venial sin whenever a good candidate has an unworthy opponent.  It might even be a mortal sin if one's refusal to vote would result in the election of an unworthy candidate."[14]
 

Fr. Matthew Habiger is convinced that it is a sin for a Catholic to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. He writes:

“Can a Catholic in good conscience vote for a politician who has a clear record of supporting abortion? Or is it a sin to vote for a politician who regularly uses his public office to fund or otherwise encourage the killing of unborn children? I take the position that it is clearly a sin to vote for such a politician....
     “The argument can be made that voting is a very remote form of cooperation in abortion. But is it all that remote? The legislator who votes for abortion is clearly a formal accomplice, giving formal cooperation with abortion. S/he shares both in the intention of the act, and in supplying material support for the act. If I vote for such a candidate, knowing full well that he will help make available public monies for abortion, or continue it decriminalization, then I am aiding him/her.”[15]

Fr. Turraco believes it is a mortal sin to vote pro-abortion:

“Is it a mortal sin to vote for a pro-abortion candidate? Except in the case in which a voter is faced with all pro-abortion candidates … a candidate that is pro-abortion disqualifies himself from receiving a Catholic’s vote. This is because being pro-abortion cannot simply be placed alongside the candidate's other positions on Medicare and unemployment, for example; and this is because abortion is intrinsically evil and cannot be morally justified for any reason or set of circumstances. To vote for such a candidate even with the knowledge that the candidate is pro-abortion is to become an accomplice in the moral evil of abortion.  If the voter also knows this, then the voter sins mortally [emphasis added].[16]
 

The dismal pro-life voting record of U.S. Catholics reflects the sad fact that many within the Church have had abortions themselves, have apostasized and have accepted the pro-abortion stance. Studies show that “Catholics have a higher abortion rate than do Protestants and Jews.”[17]  This would explain why many so-called Catholics vote Democrat, regardless of the Democratic Party’s pro-abortion platform. According to Leon J. Podles, “the Democratic Party has become the political home of unbelievers....  Moreover, anti-Christian policies are far more entrenched in the Democratic Party than Christian policies are in the Republican. Republicans sometimes want to ignore abortion; Democrats want to promote it, and make it a litmus test.”[18] 

 

Bishop John Myers warns Catholics, “To support candidates who would continue or even expand the possibilities for more people to die by human choice is seriously wrong.”[19] The Vatican likewise states, “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”[20]

"All who become part of or condone abortion, the murder of the young, shall be destroyed!" - Jesus, June 2, 1979

The awesome Bayside Prophecies...  http://www.tldm.org/Bayside/default.htm  
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995:

THE UNITED STATES SHALL BE FIRST STRUCK
"One of the reasons the Eternal Father chose your city and your state for My appearance was because of abortion, the murder of the holy innocents. Your nation, without repentance, shall be the first struck." - Our Lady, March 15, 1978

THE UNITED STATES SHALL FALL
"How can a great country like the United States fall, you say, My child?  You ask Me in your heart.  I read your heart.  I will tell you why.  Because they have given themselves over to satan.  When a country has lost its morality and seeks the pleasures of the flesh, giving over, themselves over, to all manner of abominations, like homosexuality, and condoning this up the highest courts of the land, then that country shall fall." - Our Lady of the Roses, November 1, 1985

DOCTORS
"Doctors now are profaning their profession, those who have given themselves over to destroying human life in abortions." 
- Jesus,
June 6, 1987

FOULEST OF DEEDS
"Our hearts are torn because of the wanton murder of the young by evil man. Abortion, My children, is murder, the most foulest of deeds, that is punishable by death! And what is worse than death of the soul?
     "I say unto you, as your Mother, that any man or woman who performs or takes part of this abomination of the murder of the unborn shall be given a heavy penance upon earth, or if this penance is not given upon earth, that person found guilty in the eyes of his God shall suffer eternal damnation in the fires of hell."
- Our Lady,
December 28, 1976 

DESTROYED
"All who become part of or condone abortion, the murder of the young, shall be destroyed!"
- Jesus, June 2, 1979

HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED
"The Eternal Father command that you stop these murders at once! You will not destroy the lives of the unborn. Human life is sacred in the eyes of your God. No man has the right to destroy a life. The Father, He sends this life to you, and only He will decide when it will return back to the Kingdom.
     "Do not, My children, be deceived by the words of the evil ones about you who cry to you of no space left for man. There is space, for My Father has a plan for every life He sends." - Our Lady, August 5, 1971

WILL NEVER BE CONDONED
"You will remember, My children and My child, to guard the young. Your clergy have fallen into darkness. Abortion will never be condoned. But We must have others who fervently will go forward and bring out to the minds of those who have actually seduced the country and the children--bring them the knowledge of Heaven, hell and purgatory. Then they will not have free license to sin."
- Our Lady,
May 28, 1983

GOVERNMENT
"For that one reason among many, the United States will suffer unless there is placed into your government a group that fears the Lord if they cannot love the Lord. They will fear Him and find measures to stop the slaughter of the unborn." -
Our Lady,
April 14, 1984

NUNS
"That is what makes My heart ache, My child. That is one of the reasons Theresa is crying constantly when she looks into the convents and sees what is going on. Many now believe in abortion, the murders of the children; and many have committed this act upon themselves." - Jesus, October 1, 1988

SIXTY MILLION
"I say this for this reason: the Eternal Father is much disturbed at the numbers of abortions being committed throughout your country and the world. These numbers go upwards to fifty to sixty million in one year throughout the world."
- Our Lady,
June 18, 1986

TREATED AS GARBAGE
"O My child, My tears fall upon you all when I see all of the innocent little babies being slaughtered . . . cast into garbage pails like nothing but dirt and scum. They are living human beings! And all murderers shall get their just recompense."
- Our Lady,
March 18, 1983

BOMBS IN THE UNITED STATES
"These interlopers upon the serenity of the United States have dark skins.... With their plans there will be bombs placed in strategic places and many shall die at the hands of these ruffians....
     "One big reason for permitting this disaster in New York would be the abortion mills throughout the city and the country." - Jesus, October 1, 1988

HOLY SPIRIT
"At the time of conception, the Holy Spirit makes the child, and the breath of the Almighty gives it life." -
Our Lady,
June 18, 1991

LIMBO
"And what, My children, are We going to do with all the aborted babies? O My child, I know you feel as I do, for I can see the great distress on your face. What are We going to do, My child? Do you understand when they come to Us, they must go to Limbo? They are in Heaven, a happy place, but they cannot see God." - Our Lady, October 2, 1987

SORROWFULLY
"Sorrowfully, the penance that is to come upon the world for the murders of the unborn shall be a chastisement far greater in severity than man has ever witnessed in the past nor ever shall pass through again. Your world is plunging into a deep chasm of suffering and destruction." -
Our Lady,
May 20, 1978

OATH
"Your once loyal to the oath of a doctor, your once loyal doctors are now butchers! For money they kill the young!" -
Our Lady,
February 10, 1978

WOE TO THE WOMAN
"Know, My child, this simple lesson, that in these days of the latter times, women will seek to cast off their role as mother and a woman. Women will cast it off under the direction of satan, and murder her children. Woe to the woman who does not repent of this vile abomination! She has walked the road to eternal damnation and hell. Repent, O woman, or forever be lost!" -
Our Lady, March 18, 1975
 

Directives from Heaven... http://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D23 - Abortion PDF Logo PDF
D28 - Hell PDF Logo PDF
D134 - U.S. Government Leaders PDF Logo PDF

Articles...

Vatican Cardinal: Catholic voters can never be justified in voting for pro-abortion politicians
http://www.tldm.org/News8/VotingProAbortionNeverJustified.htm

Archbishop Burke: voting for pro-abortion candidates is a grave sin
http://www.tldm.org/news6/Burke3.htm

Bishop Sheridan will deny Communion to Catholics who vote pro-abortion
http://www.tldm.org/news6/Sheridan.htm

Bishop Wenski calls pro-abortion Catholics who demand to receive Communion "boorish and sacrilegious"
http://www.tldm.org/News6/Wenski.htm

Vatican document repeats Church teaching: Catholics must be free of grave sin to receive Holy Communion
http://www.tldm.org/news6/receptionofcommunion.htm

Sacrilegious Communion and the U.S. bishops
http://www.tldm.org/News6/sacrilege.htm

Congressman Hyde is on the U.S. bishops' case
http://www.tldm.org/news6/Hyde.htm

Our Lady says Senator Ted Kennedy must defend his Catholic Faith or be condemned
http://www.tldm.org/News6/Kennedy.htm

Separation of Church and State: "a fatal theory"
http://www.tldm.org/News6/separation.htm

Links...
Will the silence of most U.S. Catholic Bishops help elect a Presidential candidate who promotes procured abortion and supports same-sex marriage?
, Barbara Kralis, October 15, 2004
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/041015

Archbishop Burke: voting for pro-abortion candidates is a grave sin, SLToday.com, June 25, 2004
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stltoday\news\stories.nsf&docid=E6C5A954FFC30E3C86256EBF000E7751

Moral duties concerning voting, Fr. Steven F. Turraco
http://www.ewtn.com/vote/brief_catechism.htm 

Sin to vote for pro-abortion politicians? Fr. Matthew Habiger, HLI
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/SINTOVOT.HTM

Fr. Pavone thanks Bishops for election guidance
http://www.priestsforlife.org/pressreleases/00-10-25bpsstmts.htm

Bulletin inserts on political responsibility (Priests for Life website)
http://www.priestsforlife.org/government/polresinserts.htm

Bishops of Massachusetts on the "Absolute Centrality" of the Defense of Life as an Election Issue
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/masscitizens.htm

"The ballot and the right to life," Bishop James C. Timlin
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/timlin2000.htm

Kerry scolds Vatican on gay marriage, AP, August 1, 2003
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/6438435.htm

No puppet of Pope, Kerry says, New York Daily News, March 29, 2004
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/178336p-155087c.html

Silence won't work any longer, WorldNetDaily, March 31, 2004
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37829

Ten questions regarding the denial of the Eucharist, Barbara Kralis, May 24, 2004
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/040524


References:

[1] Pope John Paul II, on receiving the credentials of Lindy Boggs as Ambassador of the United States to the Holy See, December 16, 1997.
[2] Pope John Paul II, encyclical Evangelium Vitae, #62.
[3] “Declaration on Procured Abortion,” Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, November 18, 1974, #22.
[4] Pope John Paul II, encyclical Evangelium Vitae, #62.
[5] “Whoever is not with Me is against Me,” The Catholic Sentinel, Archbishop William J. Levada, June 2, 1995.
[6] “Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding The Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” January 2003.
[7] “Catholics Attack Kerry on Abortion Stance,” Associated Press, February 6, 2004.
[8] Robert H. Bork,  Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, pp. 280-281.
[9] Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, #71.
[10] Grace D. MacKinnon, “Is Voting Pro-Choice a Mortal Sin?”
[11] “John Kerry--A new Kennedy? Bishops react,” National Catholic Register,  February 15-21, 2004.
[12] Tom Bethell, "Not just any Catholic," BeliefNet.
[13] Barbara Kralis, “Is the Church Serving Two Masters - Politicians and God?”
[14] Fr. Heribert Jone, Moral Theology, p.131.
[15]  Fr. Matthew Habiger, HLI, “Sin to vote for pro-abortion politicians?”
[16] Fr. Stephen F. Turraco, “Moral duties concerning voting,”  http://www.ewtn.com/vote/brief_catechism.htm
[17] quoted in Robert H. Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, p. 280; see Stanley K. Henshaw and Jane Silverman, “The Characteristics and Prior Contraceptive Use of U.S. Abortion Patients,” Family Planning Perspective, July/August 1988, pp. 158, 162.

[18] Leon J. Podles, “Editorial: Voting as Christians,” Touchstone magazine, April 2003, Vol. 16, issue 3.
[19] October 17, 2000.
[20] “Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding The Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” January 2003.

| Home - Latest News | Introduction | Bayside Prophecies | Directives from Heaven | Order Form | Testimonies | Veronica Lueken | Miraculous Photos | Bible | Radio Program |

We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy.  Also, send this page to as many people as possible.

The electronic form of this document is copyrighted.    
Quotations are permissible as long as this web site is acknowledged through hyperlink to:
http://www.tldm.org
Copyright © These Last Days Ministries, Inc. 1996 - 2005   All rights reserved.
P.O. Box 40
Lowell, MI 49331-0040
Revised:
July 30, 2018