To the editor:

The Feb. 22 letter of Ms. Moroni requires a response. The “Didache,” or Teaching of the Apostles (ca. A.D. 140), says: “You shall not procure abortion, nor destroy a new-born child.”

Canon 1398 of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law states: “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.” It is proper to call into question the catholicity of Senator Christine Rolfe for her alleged support of the grave sin of abortion.

Ms. Moroni’s assertion that Catholic social doctrine would support “reproductive rights” is a gross misrepresentation of that doctrine. When it comes to a “woman’s pregnancy decision” Concerned Women for America reported on a recent Elliot Institute survey of 192 women who conceived during a rape or incest and “found that nearly 80 percent of the women who aborted said that abortion was the wrong solution,” adding “in that same survey, 80 percent of women who carried their babies to term were happy with their decision, and not one of the women who gave birth to a baby conceived during a sexual assault regretted it.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Belief in the True Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith.” Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ is true God and true man. He never existed as a “something else,” as an inanimate, not-quite-human blob in the womb of His Blessed Mother Mary. To call Him something other than a “person” in her womb is to deny the Incarnation. As He was a person in the womb, so to is every child from the moment of conception, for He “shares in our humanity.”

It is exceedingly proper to call into question the catholicity of Senator Christine Rolfe and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as other Catholic politicians who support abortion or its euphemism “choice.”

PETE BRADY

Bainbridge Island