Saturday, April 25, 2009

Archbishop Dolan and the Intrinsic evil of abortion

My parishioner Patrick Hurley made me aware of something that happened while I was away. As reported in the New York Post earlier this week, Archbishop Timothy, recently installed as the 10th Archbishop of New York (and its 13th bishop), spoke in no uncertain terms about his difficulty with the invitation offered to President Obama by the University of Notre Dame. He spoke about other issues, like the death penalty and war which “are open to some discussion" since neither is an "intrinsic" evil. President Obama's support for abortion is supporting something which is an "intrinsic evil.” An "intrinsic evil" is something which is an evil in its very essence and can never be a good, irrespective of the circumstances under which it is undertaken.