Democrat Convention Invocation
Sept 18, 2004
Breaking with recent precedent, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony agreed to deliver the invocation at the opening of the Democratic National Convention Monday. And already the fallout as begun with pro-life advocates praising or condeming the decision.
(Source unknown, Los Angeles, 14 August 2000) In a Sunday mass attended by Democrat convention attendees, Mahoney urged delegates to have compassion for society's most vulnerable children “threatened both in the womb and in our neighbourhoods.”
“Human life remains threatened in our country most clearly because of legalixed abortion, but also by ... the movement to allow physician-assisted suicide,” Mahony said.
Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Los Angeles archdiocese, said Wednesday that Mahony's consent to deliver the invocation on Monday should not be seen as "fudging" on the Church's - and the cardinal's - oft-stated pro-life conviction.
"This is not a big speech about abortion. That's not appropriate for an invocation," Tamberg said. "An invocation is a prayer."
"It's at a political convention, but we're praying to God. . . . It's not a Catholic prayer or a sectarian prayer, but a prayer asking God to come down to all of us and to be with all of us," Tamberg said.
Nonetheless, Tamberg said Gore's invitation was unexpected. "The invitation came [Tuesday] afternoon from the vice president's office, and it was quite a surprise, but it was accepted [Wednesday]," Tamberg said.
Mahony, who formerly chaired the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities, has repeatedly denounced abortion.
In 1996 on the 23rd anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, which struck down pro-life laws across the country, Mahony delivered an address in Pasadena decrying "the scourge of abortion and euthanasia."
He was one of the Catholic leaders who called for a ban on partial-birth abortion, and he urged Catholics to "besiege" Congress and the White House urging them to oppose an "immoral bill" that allowed such procedures.
In the 1996 speech, Mahony referred specifically to the party platforms' stance on abortion. "The present Republican Platform opposes abortion and supports a constitutional amendment to protect human life from the moment of conception," Mahony said to applause. "We need to urge the Republican leadership to retain their long-standing platform language--and to challenge the Democrats to return to their own earlier pro-life roots."
Democrat Convention Invocation