American Life League Targets 'Pro-abortion' Cardinal McCarrick

American Life League, an outspoken opponent of abortion, has started an advertising campaign targeting Cardinal Theodore McCarrick over his reluctance to deny Communion to Roman Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.

The print ads note a statement by McCarrick to The Associated Press: "I have not gotten to the stage where I'm comfortable in denying the Eucharist."

The league's ads say in reply, "You can't be both Catholic and pro-abortion!"

McCarrick, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., is chairman of a panel of the American hierarchy that is considering whether bishops should settle on uniform church sanctions against U.S. Catholic politicians who champion abortion rights. It's not clear whether any action would be taken before Election Day.

Several U.S. bishops have said officeholders with such views should not receive Communion. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis said he personally would refuse the sacrament to Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry, who supports abortion rights.

The league, based in Stafford, Va., says in its ad that McCarrick spoke "despite the counsel of both Christ and the Holy Father." It quotes Pope John Paul II from 2003 saying bishops should deny Communion to Catholics who demonstrate "outward conduct which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm."

Formal Vatican pronouncements last year specified Catholic politicians' duty to uphold church teaching as they set policy on matters such as abortion and preventing the legalization of same-sex unions.

The League's ad ran Thursday in the Washington Times and is scheduled to run in the next editions of The Wanderer, a Catholic weekly, Human Events magazine and a second time in the Washington Times.

The league's media director, Joseph Giganti, said a series of six to eight ads would run in coming months, not necessarily criticizing McCarrick by name but "calling on bishops to use the authority they've been invested with" to bar Communion.

McCarrick is at meetings in Rome, and his spokeswoman said he would issue no comment on the ad campaign.

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