From the California Catholic Daily:
When Sonoma County Pro-Life advertised its annual Rally for Life held last Sunday, it promised that its keynote speaker -- Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa -- “is sure to challenge and inspire us all.” Bishop Vasa did not let them down.
“Any government leader, particularly those who claim to be Christian, who claim to be pro-choice, is unworthy of public office,” Bishop Vasa told the rally at Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa on Jan. 22. “Absolutely unworthy and absolutely unfit for public office.”
Politicians who support abortion are “as guilty of abortion as those who choose it themselves,” he said. And Roe v. Wade, said Bishop Vasa, was an “illicit and invalid” decision.
Because of its pro-abortion policies, said Bishop Vasa, the U.S. is no longer “the land of the free and the home of the brave. It's a land of the imprisoned and the home of the cowards.”
The bishop’s remarks, reported the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, brought cheers from a crowd of about 100 people who gathered in the afternoon rain to hear his speech.
And from the Santa Rose Press Democrat:
He said that because of the position of the United States on the issue of abortion, it is “not the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
“It's a land of the imprisoned and the home of the cowards,” said Vasa, who traded his bishop's mitre for a baseball cap in deference to the weather.
Such forceful public rhetoric is a marked departure from that of previous leaders of the 165,000-member Santa Rosa Catholic diocese, which sits in a strongly liberal region with widely held feminist values. Vasa became its spiritual leader in July.
Sunday, he called laws like Roe v. Wade “illicit and invalid” and leaders who support abortion rights “as guilty of abortion as those who choose it themselves.”
God bless Bishop Vasa!! We need more bold shepherds like him! "You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved" (Mark 13:13).
Jesus told the truth and they killed Him. The Savior of the world is clear: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:34-38).
This is not a time for wimps or cowards. Go Catholic or go home!
Posted by: Deacon Harold | Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:54 AM
In our area Bishop Vasa is the lone wolf crying out in the wilderness. We have so many liberal priests and therefore liberal Catholics in governing positions that when any of us who are pro life, pro going to Confession regularly, pro considering missing Sunday Mass a sin, etc. we are shouted down, ridiculed and not given positions in the diocese. Can he bring sanity back to our diocese?
Posted by: Geralyn Fessler | Monday, February 06, 2012 at 06:46 PM