San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
U.S. Catholic bishops support stricter gun control
In response to recent mass shootings, Pope Francis and the U.S. Catholic bishops have called for gun control measures that would save lives. This undoubtedly surprises some people who think that abortion is the only public policy concern of the church’s hierarchy. Sadly, the media and the bishops themselves give too little attention to the larger “life” agenda.
While praying for the children killed and their families in Uvalde, the pope did not hesitate to say, “It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of arms.”
Francis has frequently denounced gun trafficking, including in his 2015 address to a joint session of Congress. “Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?” he asked U.S. lawmakers. “Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.”
After the Uvalde shooting, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago did not mince words.
“Who are we as a nation,” he asked, “if we do not act to protect our children? What do we love more: our instruments of death or our future?”
“The Second Amendment, unlike the second commandment, did not come down from Sinai,” Cupich told NPR. “There is an understanding that we all have in our hearts, engraved in our hearts, a natural law about the value of human life. And there is no amendment that can trump that.”
Cupich was not alone in speaking out. On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the chairs of four conference committees issued a
statement urging all members of Congress to action in response to the killings.
These were not liberal bishops, but four of the most conservative prelates in the United States: Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City; Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco; Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore; and Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Wash.
In their June 3 letter to Congress, these bishops got into specifics on what they considered “reasonable” gun control.
They encouraged Congress to improve “the firearm background check process by voting in favor of the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 (H.R. 8) and the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 (H.R. 1446).” They also supported extreme-risk protection orders through passage of the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2021 (H.R. 2377).
The bishops point out that they are not “Johnny-come-latelies” to the discussion of gun violence, noting that as early as 1994 they issued a pastoral message “Confronting a Culture of Violence: A Catholic Framework for Action.”
“It should not be the case,” they argue, “that ... a person needs character references to apply for a job but not to purchase military-style assault weapons.”
The bishops call for “a total ban on assault weapons and limitations on civilian access to highcapacity weapons and ammunition magazines,” including bump stocks.
They also support universal background checks for all gun purchases and criminalizing gun trafficking. The bishops added their support to recent proposals to set a more appropriate minimum age for gun ownership.
Sadly, hardly anyone in the country knows about the strong and comprehensive position on gun control taken by the U.S. Catholic bishops.
The bishops’ response to gun violence should be preached from the rooftops.