Statement of Principles-- House Democrats

Fifty-five Democratic members of the US House of Representatives who identify themselves as Catholic have just issued a Statement of Principles. The statement is relatively brief and is HERE . A quick perusal indicates that similar points in more elaborate form were made in the letter sent to Cardinal McCarrick almost two years ago. I plan to study this new statement in greater detail, but you will see that the one issue upon which they concentrate is abortion, which they "do not celebrate." They state that they seek the Church's guidance, but they also assert "the primacy of conscience." They do not indicate if they will take the route which Pope John Paul II drew in Evangelium Vitae and reiterated by the CDF in its own text. From what I see, that direction of these texts does not seem to be the position that they endorse. They conclude by stating that as the "people of God" they "have a claim on the Church's bearing as it does on ours." Please forgive my brief commentary at this point, but I thought MOJ contributors and readers would like to see the statement as quickly as possible.   RJA sj