Valerie Schmalz of Our Sunday Visitor has interviewed Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, who discusses the appointment of Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius to the head of Department of Health and Human Services by President Obama:
Valerie Schmalz, OSV contributing editor: What precipitated writing Gov. Sebelius last May to tell her not to receive Communion?
Archbishop Joseph Naumann: I had actually written the August before that, in 2007, asking her not to present herself for Communion and I did not make that public. But then she violated that in March, and so in May I had written her again and made that public. Since then to my knowledge she has not presented herself for Communion.
OSV: She violated it by going to Communion in March (2008)?
Archbishop Naumann: Yep.
OSV: What does the appointment of Gov. Sebelius to HHS mean in terms of her policies? There are a whole bunch of people, like Doug Kmiec and others, who are saying when she was governor abortion dropped by 10 percent. This letter (from Catholics for Sebelius) says, “She’s made clear she agrees with Church teaching that abortion is wrong and has lived and acted according to that belief.”
Archbishop Naumann: I think that’s very, very dishonest and not at all accurate. It’s true that abortion dropped during her term as governor but I don’t think she really had anything to do with it, although she likes to take credit for it. And in fact, during that time she vetoed measures that could have helped prevent abortion. At one time, she struck from the budget a pregnancy maintenance initiative that gave state funding to crisis pregnancy centers. Only when the legislature passed it by such an overwhelming margin that it was highly probable she would have been overridden, she allowed it to stay in the budget.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann: I had actually written the August before that, in 2007, asking her not to present herself for Communion and I did not make that public. But then she violated that in March, and so in May I had written her again and made that public. Since then to my knowledge she has not presented herself for Communion.
OSV: She violated it by going to Communion in March (2008)?
Archbishop Naumann: Yep.
OSV: What does the appointment of Gov. Sebelius to HHS mean in terms of her policies? There are a whole bunch of people, like Doug Kmiec and others, who are saying when she was governor abortion dropped by 10 percent. This letter (from Catholics for Sebelius) says, “She’s made clear she agrees with Church teaching that abortion is wrong and has lived and acted according to that belief.”
Archbishop Naumann: I think that’s very, very dishonest and not at all accurate. It’s true that abortion dropped during her term as governor but I don’t think she really had anything to do with it, although she likes to take credit for it. And in fact, during that time she vetoed measures that could have helped prevent abortion. At one time, she struck from the budget a pregnancy maintenance initiative that gave state funding to crisis pregnancy centers. Only when the legislature passed it by such an overwhelming margin that it was highly probable she would have been overridden, she allowed it to stay in the budget.
Read the entire interview.
UPDATE: The Catholic Key blog has just posted Archbishop Naumann's March 6 column, which is all about Gov. Sebelius. He writes:
Kansas has one of the most restrictive laws regarding late-term
abortions. Yet, it has become, in large part because of Dr. Tiller, the
late-term abortion capital of the Midwest. How is this possible? It is
possible because our current laws have not been enforced. Each time the
Kansas Legislature has passed statutes in an effort to improve
enforcement of late-term abortion restrictions, Governor Sebelius has
vetoed these laws.
My name is Art Mucciante and I live in Northern Michigan.
I was so pleased to read about the courageous stand of Bishop Naumman reguarding the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of health and human services. It is about time we stop suger coating the teaching of the Church and start standing up for Christ. The comment of C. Korzen about the appearance of partisan politics is just the kind of equovical hog wash too many Catholics in public office produce. As Aquinis said: a thing can not be and not be at the same time. I can't find Bishop Neumman's e mail address so I hope you send this nnote to him.
Posted by: art mucciante | Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 02:02 PM