Dear Priests for Life Friend and Supporter,
Imagine you are the
pastor of a parish and you receive an urgent letter from the
attorney who serves as your diocese's lawyer. In the letter, you
read that you are NOT to allow anyone to distribute any pro-life
voter guides to your parishioners ... otherwise you risk violating
tax laws.
How would you react?
What would you do?
In all likelihood
you'd follow the diocesan lawyer's advice and make sure that no
pro-life voting guides see the light of day in your parish.
And that's exactly
how pastors in one diocese acted during the critical 2004 election
after they received just such a letter from their diocesan attorney.
Unfortunately, this letter was like many others sent out in other
dioceses.
But here's the
problem.
Not only was the
letter totally incorrect,
... but the
lawyer who wrote it is an abortion advocate who has given thousands
of dollars to help pro-abortion political candidates win their
elections!
I was reminded of
this outrage when I read that several pastors in a Southern city
told pro-life activists that they did not have the pastors'
permission to hold pro-life events on public sidewalks near their
churches.
I'm going to give
these pastors the benefit of the doubt and assume that they acted as
they did because of a misconception that if they allowed these
pro-lifers to speak out against abortion near church property that
they risk violating IRS guidelines and jeopardizing their tax-exempt
status.
The fact of the
matter is no one needs the permission of a pastor to speak out
against the crime of abortion no matter how close they are to a
church! Public sidewalks are just that ... PUBLIC! As such, they
are a forum from which any citizen can preach the Gospel of Life.
I shared these
two examples with you because the 2008 election campaign is already
upon us ... and Priests for Life must re-educate the clergy
regarding their legal rights in order to let pastors and bishops
know all that can do and say about abortion and political candidates
during the campaign.
In order to do so,
however, I must have your help today.
The two examples I
just gave you are perfect illustrations of why this project is so
important. You don't need me to remind you of the results of the
2006 elections. A great many pro-life lawmakers went down to
defeat. So many, in fact, that pro-abortion proponents now hold
power in Congress and in many statehouses around the country.
Please understand,
this was not because voters became less pro-life. For those
who weigh the candidate's views on abortion, voters chose pro-life
candidates by a margin of 2 to 1! The 2006 election was decided on
other issues.
But this also means
that the more people we reach, the more momentum our cause will
have, because the abortion issue is still a winning issue at the
polls.
That's why it's absolutely vital to our fight to end abortion that
we not suffer losses in the fast-approaching 2008 election like we
did in 2006!
And one of the
best ways to avoid a repeat of 2006 is to take the muzzle off those
God has specially called to speak out in defense of innocent human
life!
But as I just showed
you, far too many ordained ministers continue to operate under the
misconception that if they dare to preach against abortion they are
going to violate current tax laws.
Complicating matters are the
actions of many pro-abortion groups. They use scare-tactics to
silence members of the clergy. They build "straw men" and paint
dire pictures of churches being shut down by the IRS. They're all
fabrications ... but more often than not they achieve their goal.
Here's an example of
what I mean. It's from a particularly aggressive pro-abortion
organization. What follows comes from an actual letter (I added the
bold facing and underlines in order to highlight those things that
jump out at bishops and pastors who receive this letter):
Dear Religious
Leader,
Another
election year is upon us, and questions about the appropriate role
of houses of worship in the political process have arisen.
The First
Amendment ... protects the right of pastors and church leaders to
speak out on religious, moral and political issues. However,
houses of worship ... are barred from endorsing or opposing
candidates for any public office and may not intervene directly
or indirectly in partisan campaigns. ...
Federal
tax law, which governs the activities of houses of worship,
prohibits churches from engaging in partisan politics on behalf of
or in opposition to candidates. The IRS has already revoked
the tax-exempt status of one church that violated this provision by
announcing its opposition to a presidential candidate. The federal
courts have upheld the revocation.
I recommend extreme caution in this area. ...
As a priest, I can tell you that
that kind of letter grabs your attention. Pastors read the words
"directly or indirectly" and wonder what that means for them. Does
it mean they'll lose their tax-exempt status if they talk about
abortion ... or the election ... or voting for pro-life candidates?
Then they read about
the church that lost its tax-exempt status ... and finally the
chilling sentence: "I recommend extreme caution in this
area." So rather than take a chance and possibly violate
IRS guidelines, far too many pastors remove themselves to the
sidelines and remain silent on the inseparable link between morality
and politics.
This is where YOU
and Priests for Life come in to play!
The statements and conclusions of
the legal experts who conducted Priests for Life's first Legal
Symposium in 2002 are as true today as they were then. And those
findings make it clear that bishops and pastors and priests and
members of the clergy can be extremely bold on the issue of abortion
during election campaigns!
That being the case, the first
thing I want to do is make sure that all those God has charged to
preach the Gospel of Life - from all religious denominations - know
exactly what the law allows them to do.
Quite frankly, many of our bishops
and clergymen are getting bad legal advice on this important issue.
They can do far more than their lawyers tell them they can.
But that's only half the battle.
There is another problem we face.
It's not just lack
of knowledge within the ranks of America's clergy ... it's also a
lack of courage!
So together with
giving our clergy the proper legal information they need, we're
going to help them overcome their fears by networking them with
other clergy who are courageous, and by providing spiritual retreats
to strengthen them.
To accomplish this
double goal, Priests for Life is going to hold a series of meetings
in 2008.
Participants will
include legal experts, bishops and other religious leaders. These
meetings will help the clergy become better educated on what the law
says and more confident in taking action.
What's more, I'm
working to get several of these expert attorneys to put together a
definitive, well-researched, fact-filled letter - complete with
footnotes - that I can send to all the pastors of all the churches
in the country. That letter would act as the antidote to the letter
pro-abortion organizations send out to pastors ... like the one I
quoted to you a moment ago.
I will be doing this
in conjunction with our Gospel of Life Ministries, which is
an umbrella effort that I lead to reach many denominations with the
pro-life message.
The bottom line is
this:
Members of the
clergy - including Catholic bishops - have been short-changed when
it comes to knowing all they can do during election campaigns. And
as a result, so has our fight to end abortion.
With your help
today, Priests for Life is going to change that ... and empower
pastors to speak boldly from the pulpit on both the evil of abortion
and the moral duty of Christians to get involved in the political
process!
The cost to do all this is going to
be enormous. And to be honest, more than Priests for Life can
handle at the present moment.
That's why I'm
writing to you with such urgency.
America's clergy need
to be assured that they do not jeopardize their tax-exempt status
when they preach the Gospel of Life from the pulpit! And that's
precisely what our Legal Symposium will give them: ASSURANCE ... and
CONFIDENCE too!
My goal right now
is threefold:
1. Update,
publish and send the
documents from our first Legal Symposium to the pastors of
EVERY Church of EVERY denomination in the country!
2. Set up a
series of meetings for early 2008 ... and give bishops and priests
the opportunity to meet one-on-one with some of the top pro-life
legal minds in the country, and to gain courage from the example of
their brother priests.
3. Recruit
a team of attorneys to compose a letter that I will send to every
pastor in the country assuring them of their legal and
Constitutional right to preach against the evil of abortion and
remind parishioners of their duty to get involved in the political
process - especially to VOTE pro-life - without fear of reprisal
from the IRS or any other government entity.
This one project
alone could be the very one that unleashes the POWER of the Holy
Spirit and enables him to use his ordained ministers to energize the
people of life as never before.
But as I said, the
main hurdle I have to overcome is the funding needed to accomplish
those three goals. It will cost Priests for Life literally tens of
thousands of dollars to accomplish all this.
And I'm counting on
YOU to help Priests for Life raise those much-needed funds!
Make no mistake. The
2008 election is already underway. And many of the leading
Presidential candidates - from both of the major parties - remain
uncommitted to the unborn!
It is critical that
we do everything we can to energize God's ordained ministers and
embolden them to act as modern-day prophets and get their flocks
directly involved in the fight to end abortion!
One of the best
ways to do that is to refute the bad legal advice these preachers
have been getting and tell them that it's time to be more afraid of
offending God by our silence than of offending the IRS by our
speech!
So please give
Priests for Life the funds we need to carry out this important
project ... and all of our other life-saving work.
Click here to make your secure donation online.
Remember, after
what happened in 2006, the upcoming 2008 elections are pivotal ...
not only for the future of our nation, but most especially for the
fate of the unborn.
It is critically important that
America's clergy instruct their flocks that true discipleship
includes getting involved in the political process and working to
elect those candidates who are committed to protecting all innocent
human life.
With your help
today, that is precisely what Priests for Life will continue to do.
So please
click here
to send the largest financial gift you can today. These next
fourteen months are critical for the future of our country and God's
unborn babies.
Thank you for your
urgently needed help today. In appreciation for all you are doing
for God's innocent unborn, I remember you at every Mass I offer; as
do all the other priests. God bless you.
Sincerely yours in
Christ,
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director,
Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries
PO Box 141172,
Staten Island, NY 10314
(For those unable to
donate online, checks payable to "Priests for Life" may be sent to
the address above. All donations are tax-deductible.)
PS Here's another reason why I am
putting this project on the fast track. As you know, every year
Nellie Gray gathers tens of thousands of pro-life activists for her
"March for Life" in Washington, D.C. and I lead a prayer service in
the US Senate. On that occasion I meet with a lot of priests,
pastors and seminarians of all denominations, and would like to have
this material ready to give them. In order to make that happen, I
have to move now. So please do whatever you can to help make this
happen.