Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki told the state Supreme Court this week that granting abortion rights to women would "substantially burden" his exercise of religion and would treat secular positions similar to his much more favorably.
"For the same reasons, such a ruling will substantially burden the rights of the unborn entrusted to my care, including their rights to life and to equal treatment under the law, and to bodily integrity, autonomy, and self-determination," Listecki said in an affidavit submitted to the court.
Listecki is seeking to intervene in Planned Parenthood v Urmanski, a lawsuit seeking to protect abortion rights in the state.
Listecki's affidavit embraces a position known as "fetal personhood," which argues that fetuses are people, with all the same rights.
The Milwaukee archbishop outlined several of his roles in the Catholic Church, including the administration of baptism, which formally brings people into the church. Those undergoing baptism are generally infants.
"With respect to 'children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God,” Listecki wrote, quoting from the "Catechism of the Catholic Church."
"We may 'hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism,' but the prospect of a loss of salvation for these individuals makes “[t]he Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism' 'urgent' for me and all bishops," he said.
The Church teaches that human life must be respected and protected from the moment of conception, Listecki wrote.
"'The law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child’s rights,'” he wrote.
A Supreme Court ruling that the state constitution protects the right to abortion, "will seriously hinder my ability to comply with my obligations as bishop of the Milwaukee Archdiocese," he wrote. "It will fundamentally interfere with my ability to teach and sanctify these souls."
Such a ruling also would "interfere with the ability of the unborn, after birth, to enter the Church through baptism, and my ability to facilitate that process as is my religious obligation," he said.
"Such a ruling will also substantially burden my ability to practice my chosen profession — my vocation — and to minister to those in my diocese to the full extent of my education, training, and ability," he said. "It will prevent me from ministering to particular souls entirely."
A ruling protecting abortion rights, he said, "will seriously and irreparably harm me and those entrusted to my care," he said.
As a Catholic he full of shit, as the Bible never discusses abortion. What the new testament Jesus Christ taught is that Judgment all judgment belongs to the Father and only to him.