Durbin Touts Pro-Catholic Record

In April, the Illinois Catholic was stunned by the public statements of a priest in his hometown of Springfield who said he would refuse to administer Holy Communion to the Democrat over his support for abortion rights.

Durbin’s scorecard gave him an overall score of just over 60 percent in support of positions taken by the bishops. They covered a wide variety of issues including not only abortion but such other matters as immigration and housing.

Durbin’s score was the second highest of the 24 Catholic senators whose records were analyzed.

Durbin’s staff says the scorecard covered a total of 48 votes or actions senators have taken regarding 24 domestic and international issues in the current 108th Congress, and one from the previous Congress on the Iraqi War Resolution.
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That 40 percent includes voting against:
The Unborn Victim of Crime Bill
The Partial Birth Abortion ban
Condemning China for forced abortions and sterilizations.
Amendment to prohibit abortion coverage through the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program.

Voted for.
Making the Morning After Pill available in public schools
Public funding of abortion on military bases.
Passing foreign spending bills without reference to abortion

Here is the statement he tried to add to the Partial Birth Abortion ban: “The decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 (1973) was appropriate and secures an important constitutional right should not be overturned.”

And here is his statement on Human cloning.

“This has enormous potential for good, There should be no limits on human knowledge, none whatever. To those like President Clinton who say we can’t play God, I say OK, fine, you can take your side alongside Pope Paul V who in 1616 tried to stop Galileo, they accused Galileo of trying to play God too. […] I don’t think cloning is demeaning to human nature, to attempt to limit human knowledge is demeaning. It’s not legitimate to try to stop cloning. What nonsense, what utter, utter nonsense to think we can hold up our hand and just say “stop”. Cloning will continue, the human mind will continue to inquire into it. Human cloning will take place and it will take place in my lifetime, and I don’t fear it at all. I want to be on the side of the Galileos and those who say the human mind has no limits, rather than trying to stop something that’s going to happen anyway.”

This scorecard was the one devised by Rep. Nick Lampson and I believe that the areas used to make it up have never been publicly released. WIth Sen Durbin having the second highest score you can be assured that the methodology is highly questionable. I wonder how Hitler would have scored. He built roads and infrastructure and reduced health care costs through euthanasia. Surely that must be worth 60 percent. The 40 percent anti-life part is trivial compared to this by their assessment.

The fact that the Senator and his staff our touting this record is amazing. This reminds of something that St. Therese of Lisieux said.

You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.

Update: Here is a PDF document of the scorecard used. And the methodology is such that Medicaid and the Mercury Exposure Act count just as much as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and Human cloning. The areas where Catholic Democrats scored were areas that are not a direct part of Catholic teaching. Gun Control and the Minimum Wage and other such issues are not in themselves Catholic Teaching. I was glad at least that they labeled the one section pro-life, of course in the normal parlance of these same Senators they would use the words anti-choice.