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Texas priest puts aborted fetus on altar to urge others to vote for Trump
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/2016-presidential-election/2016/11/07/texas-priest-puts-aborted-fetus-altar-urge-others-vote-trump
A priest in the Diocese of Amarillo took an aborted fetus, laid it upon an altar Sunday and posted a live video to Facebook and Instagram to warn viewers about Hillary Clinton and urge them to vote for Donald Trump.
The priest, Rev. Frank Pavone, is a well-known anti-abortion activist and head of the New York-based Priests for Life. He says in the video that a pathologist entrusted him with the fetus for burial.
Accompanying Pavone's 44-minute long video (Warning: Graphic content)he wrote this appeal on Facebook: "We have to decide if we will allow this child killing to continue in America or not. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic platform says yes, let the child-killing continue (and you pay for it); Donald Trump and the Republican platform says no, the child should be protected."
"Words are not enough in this heated election campaign," Pavone says in a shorter version of the video posted on Instagram. (Warning: Graphic content) "America will not reject abortion unless America sees abortion. As you decide whom you are going to cast your vote for, spend a few moments looking at this child...I show him to you today to urge you to vote pro-life."
A request for comment from the diocese was not immediately returned Monday night. The Washington Post reports that receptionist for the diocese said her phone has been ringing off the hook.
The video has called into question what gestures of political activism are appropriate in the church.
Scott Eric Alt, in a blog post for Patheos, argued that what Pavone did in the video was sacrilege, a violation of the Catholic Church's canon law, which states that the altar "reserved for divine worship alone, to the exclusion of any secular usage."
"Being pro-life is about respecting the dignity of the human person," Alt wrote. "It is the antithesis of respect for the dignity of the human person to use a dead child as a political prop to lobby for your presidential candidate the day before an election."
Pavone has clashed with leadership within the Catholic Church. In 2014, Cardinal Timothy Dolan cut ties with the priest after Dolan suggested that Pavone had stonewalled financial reform within his organization, which is based out of Staten Island. A spokesperson for Dolan, who is also chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said the archdiocese does not have a relationship with Pavone and has no comment on the video.
In a blog post for the Archdiocese of New York, Ed Mechmann wrote about the "revulsion" he felt about the video.
"A human being has been sacrificed and the altar of God has been desecrated, all for politics," he wrote. "Everyone who respects the dignity of every human person should reject and disavow this atrocity."
Trump has been a divisive candidate for abortion opponents, who have tried to keep women at the forefront. Earlier this year, the GOP candidate suggested that women who have abortions should be punished, a position he later reversed.
If anything, Pavone's actions are a signal that the older anti-abortion groups are on their way out, said Charles Camosy, a bioethics professor at Fordham University and a board member of Democrats for Life of America. The use of graphic images has been a divisive issue in the anti-abortion movement, and Camosy said Monday that nearly everyone he knows, including conservatives, have condemned Pavone's video.
"This plays into the narrative so many people have of us, that this is a bunch of wild extremists who will put an aborted fetus on Facebook Live. Come on!" Camosy said. "This is the death rattle for the culture-war-focused pro-life movement."
The video comes after a group of Catholics inserted fliers into parish bulletins in San Diego claiming that a vote for a Democrat is a mortal sin. San Diego's Bishop Robert McElroy criticized the flier
And on Saturday, Pope Francis condemned the political use of fear and the building of walls, describing the refugee crisis as "a problem of the world" and urging political leaders to do more.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus
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