Profaning the Priestly Ministry: A Letter to Fr. Frank Pavone

I received something in the mail today from Fr. Frank Pavone and his Priests for Life(http://www.priestsforlife.org/) organization. Upon opening the letter, I discovered that it was a screed against Frances Kissling and Catholics For a Free Choice(http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/), along with a survey asking some carefully crafted and loaded questions about abortion, hoping to present his findings to the bishops and the media. I responded to Fr. Pavone by filling out the survey as best I could and including the following letter.

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Dear Father Pavone:

I do not agree with the extreme rhetoric of Catholics For a Free Choice, nor do I agree with your extreme rhetoric.

As a priest, your job is to be a pastor, not a lobbyist. There are plenty of lobbying firms in the United States that you could work for, but the Catholic priesthood is not one of them. Please stop using the priesthood and the lay faithful that you serve to advance the agenda of your political friends in Washington. You risk the Church's moral credibility and tax exempt status by meddling in political affairs as often as you do.

I believe that abortion is morally wrong. I also believe, over three decades since the Roe v. Wade ruling, that we need to be focusing on helping pregnant women and reducing the social and economic pressures that lead them to choose abortion. While you have played sacred campaign manager to President Bush, Republican congressmen, and the President's extremist nominees to the courts -- they have all been hard at work eroding social and economic aid to poor mothers and their children. How can you sleep at night knowing that you have profaned your priestly ministry by abandoning women and children to partisan politics and cheapening the Church's teachings on the dignity of human life by turning them into Republican talking points?

Frances Kissling does not speak for me or for most Catholics, but neither do you. I hope you'll take that to the bishops when you present your findings.

God bless you,
Nate Nelson

P.S. Please remove me from your mailing list.