NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      DALLAS (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said at the sixth annual Bishops' Pro-Life Dinner in Dallas on Saturday that Catholics have no choice but to be pro-life.

      The cardinal told the crowd of 1,700 that abortion is "a moral disaster that stalks our land ... an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the culture of death and the culture of life." He also called on Catholics to bring their faith into the public arena, influencing society in politics, economics, education, and other areas.

      Cardinal George also warned against extremism and a lack of charity for those who disagree. "That means not beating people over the head and always using a tone of compassion and caring," he said.

      In a related story out of Boston that has significance regarding Catholics getting involved in politics for the pro-life cause, Raymond Flynn, a former US ambassador to the Vatican, will head the national political group Catholic Alliance, the group announced over the weekend.

      Flynn, a former Democratic mayor of Boston, on Wednesday will officially become head of the alliance which was founded in 1995 as a branch of the Christian Coalition. "It's doing what I believe in and what is consistent with the social justice position of the Catholic Church," Flynn said. While he is avowedly pro-life, Flynn's other political positions have placed him at odds with Republicans who form the traditional political base of the Christian Coalition from which the alliance separated two years ago.

      The Catholic Alliance, which has 125,000 members, was most recently led by Keith Fournier, a founding partner of the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal advocacy group connected to Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson.

      Flynn ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination to the US House seat vacated by former US Rep. Joseph Kennedy, D-Massachusetts. Flynn partly blamed his loss to Michael Capuano on his pro-life stance.