I Would Argue That Practices That Destroy

I Think There Has Been An Unfortunate Tendency For A Lot Of Different Groups To Forget That Distinction Between Natural Law And Revealed Truth And To Say: Our Complete Agenda Is To Be Enacted Into Laws Governing The Entire Society. Many Different Religious Groups Claim That Authority, Not Only Catholics. A Lot Of Different Protestant Groups As Well Are Stepping Forward To Say: Here Is Our Agenda, It Is A Moral Agenda, Ergo It Must Be Enacted Into Law. I Think That The Distinction Between Natural Law And More Ultimate Kinds Of Doctrine Is Being Lost.

We Had Kind Of A Rocky Start, But I Spent A Lot Of Time Working With The President And Handing Him Statistics And Showing Him What We Were Doing As We Went Along And Kind Of Saying To Him, You Know, This Is Really Important.

I Have No Question That The Roman Catholic Church Teaches That Abortion In Virtually All Circumstances Is Wrong. I Think The Church's Position At All Times In Modern History Has Been That It Is Unequivocally Opposed To Abortion.but That's Not The Question For A Catholic Who Is A Public Official. I Happen To Subscribe To The Church's Position As A Person. Still The Question, As Governor Mario Cuomo Suggested, Is: What Is Your Obligation As A Civic Leader? I Agree Entirely With John F. Kennedy. I Answer Only To My Conscience In My Public Life And That's That.

Well, I Actually Wrote Her A Letter A Couple Of Days Ago Congratulating Her. The Tone I Tried To Convey In The Letter Is, Look, You Are A Part Of A Great American Historical Process.

I Was Nurtured In The Church; I Went To A Catholic School; I Was An Altar Boy; I Went To A Catholic University; I Was Steeped In The Moral Tradition Of The Catholic Church. My Catholicism Plays A Very Strong Role. But I Thought President John F.kennedy Answered Rather Well When He Said That Ultimately My Conduct As A Public Official Does Not Come Ex Cathedra From Rome; It Comes From My Conscience.