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Catholics for Choice (CFC), formerly Catholics for a Free Choice, is a pro-choice organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1973 "to serve as a voice for Catholics who believe that the Catholic tradition supports a woman's moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health." It is currently led by President Jon O'Brien.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) states that CFC is not a Catholic organization .

History

CFC was founded in by Joan Harriman, Patricia Fogarty McQuillan, and Meta Mulcahy, as Catholics for a Free Choice, to promote access to abortion in the context of Catholic tradition. Its first president was Joseph O'Rourke. O'Rourke was expelled from the Jesuit order in September 1974 after he baptized the baby of a pro-choice woman against his superior's orders. This was preceded by a long trail of discontent, often testing the authority of the Church. CFC emerged from Catholics for the Elimination of All Restrictive Abortion & Contraceptive Laws, a New York lobby group that had been formed in 1970.

O'Rourke remained as president of CFC until 1979, when Pat McMahon was hired as Executive Director. McMahon shifted CFFC's legal status from a lobby to an educational association, opening the group up to tax-exempt status and to foundation support. One result of this was a $75,000 grant on behalf of the pro-choice Sunnen Foundation which funded the group's first publications, the Abortion in Good Faith series.

In 1978 Frances Kissling joined the group, and in 1982 she was made president. She lobbied politicians and activists, many Catholic, to work in favor of giving women access to abortions and to contraception.

In October 1984, Catholics for Choice (then Catholics for a Free Choice) placed an advertisement signed by over one hundred prominent Catholics, including nuns, in the New York Times. The advertisement stated that "direct abortion...can sometimes be a moral choice" and that "responsible moral decisions can only be made in an atmosphere of freedom from fear of coercion." The Vatican took disciplinary measures against some of the nuns who signed the statement, sparking controversy among American Catholics, and intra-Catholic conflict on the abortion issue remained news for at least two years.

Kissling led CFC until her retirement in February 2007. CFC's former Vice-President and Director of Communications Jon O'Brien was subsequently appointed as the organization's new President.

CFC was part of a successful drive to prevent John M. Klink, a delegate from the Holy See, from being appointed leader of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. CFC has assisted in writing legislation to increase funds for family planning and thus decrease the number of abortions.

Criticism

The Church

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has made the statement that " is not a Catholic organization, does not speak for the Catholic Church, and in fact promotes positions contrary to the teaching of the Church as articulated by the Holy See and the NCCB," and that "its activity is directed to rejection and distortion of Catholic teaching about the respect and protection due to defenseless unborn human life." The organization Priests for Life states that CFC's theological arguments directly contradict the Catholic Church's teaching on abortion and contraception.

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska issued an interdict in March 1996 forbidding Catholics within his diocese from membership in twelve organizations, operating locally, where membership is described as "...always perilous to the Catholic Faith and most often is totally incompatible...", in a letter of formal canonical warning published in the diocesan newspaper, the Southern Nebraska Register. Catholics for Choice was the last of the twelve organizations. Members of the diocese were given one month from the date of the interdict to remove themselves from participation in the named organizations or face automatic excommunication.

Other critics

Critics of Catholics for Choice argue that only a negligible fraction of CFC's income come from subscription fees and over 97% of its funds are donated by tax-exempt groups and private foundations including the Ford Foundation.

Helen M. Alvaré, an associate professor of law at the Catholic University of America, stated “They had no grass-roots base among Catholics. There was nothing very different about them from other pro-choice groups in the arguments they made.”

Accusations of anti-Catholicism

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and the Catholic News Agency have described the organization as anti-Catholic.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that "The public relations effort has ridiculed the Holy See in language reminiscent of other episodes of anti-Catholic bigotry that the Catholic Church has endured in the past."

In response to similar accusations, theologian, ecofeminist and CFC board member Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote that CFC was part of a schism rather than a proponent of anti-Catholic bigotry; that the accusation was an attempt to portray the "Catholic right" as the only authentic Catholics; and that "the charge of 'anti-Catholicism' is being used as a scare tactic by the Catholic right in the service of repression of progressive Catholic views."

References

1. Catholics for Choice- About Us
2. ^ U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops - Office of Communications
3. ^ The New York Times. Backing Abortion Rights While Keeping the Faith. Banerjee, Neela. February 27, 2007 Cite error: The named reference "NewYorkTimes" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
4. Priest Expelled for Forbidden Baptism Sarasota Herald-Tribune, p. 4b, Oct. 18, 1975
5. "When the swallows come back to Capistrano" Bottum, Joseph. First Things, Oct. 1, 2006. at highbeam.com. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
6. Dillon, Michele (1999). Catholic identity: balancing reason, faith, and power. Cambridge University Press. p. 106.
7. "After 25 Years, a Catholic Warrior Steps Aside" Burke, Daniel. Religion News Service. 2007-02-22. at CFC website. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
8. Fr. Frank Pavone to Francis Kissling: Being Catholic is not a game
9. Extra-Synodal Legislation: Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz
10. Richard Doerflinger, “Who Are Catholics for Choice?” Supplement to the Catholic League Newsletter, n.d.; reprinted from America, November 16, 1985; no pagination.
11. “Catholics for Choice” Nets $300,000 Grant From Foundation Planned Parenthood CEO Helps Lead LiveAction.org, June 19, 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
12. "Catholics for Choice Needs to Convert" Catholic League, Dec. 3, 2009
13. Pro-Marxist, anti-Catholic groups unite to attack Mexican Bishops CNA July 24, 2006
14. Ruether, Rosemary Radford (Autumn 2000). "The Mantra of Anti-Catholicism". Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion.

External links

• Catholics for Choice Official website
• Conscience Magazine

• Pro-choice organizations in the United States
• Pro-choice religious organizations
• Organizations based in Washington, D.C.
• Organizations established in 1973
• Christianity-related controversies
• Roman Catholic Church in the United States
• Christian political organizations