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Kansas City, Kan., Oct 19, 2016 / 04:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine’s stand in favor of legal abortion shuns consistency in reason and faith and ignores the pain abortion causes, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas has said.

“It was painful to listen to Senator Kaine repeat the same tired and contorted reasoning to profess his personal opposition to abortion while justifying his commitment to keep it legal,” the archbishop said, reflecting on Kaine's abortion comments in the Oct. 4 vice presidential debate. He characterized the senator’s remarks as “the usual made-for-modern-media sound bites.”

Writing in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas' newspaper The Leaven Oct. 14, Archbishop Naumann critiqued the senator's “sound bite” comment that “it is not proper to impose his religious beliefs upon all Americans.”

"With regard to the imposition of religious beliefs, Senator Kaine appears to have no qualms with his public positions conforming with his religious beliefs with regard to such issues as the church’s opposition to racism or our preferential option for the poor."

"He appears not to be conflicted with our public policies mirroring the Ten Commandments with regard to stealing, perjury, or forms of murder, other than abortion."

In the Oct. 4 debate, Kaine professed support for Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court decision that mandated legal abortion nationwide. He said he supported “the constitutional right of American women to consult their own conscience, their own supportive partner, their own minister, but then make their own decision about pregnancy.”

The archbishop commented, “It is difficult to imagine that Senator Kaine has not seen the ultrasound images of his children and grandchildren when they were in their mother’s womb. Is the senator unaware that abortion stopped the beating hearts of 60 million American children aborted legally since 1973?”

Archbishop Naumann asked, “Does anyone really have the choice to end another human being’s life? Our choices end where another individual’s more fundamental rights begin.”

The archbishop also questioned Kaine’s stand on conscience, given his support for forcing taxpayers to fund abortion and his support for rules that would coerce the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide abortifacients, contraceptives, and sterilizations in their health plans.

Kaine said it was not the role of a public servant who is a religious believer to mandate “the commands of your faith.”

Archbishop Naumann countered that although religion speaks about fundamental human rights, the right to life is not based in religion.

“As the Founders stated, these are self-evident truths. They are accessible to everyone through the use of reason. They do not require faith,” the archbishop said, adding that the American Founding Fathers “actually believed that the right to life is given to us by our Creator, not by the Supreme Court.”

The archbishop said that the senator was inconsistent in citing his religion, given that he follows Catholicism’s opposition to racism and preference for the poor.

“He appears not to be conflicted with our public policies mirroring the Ten Commandments with regard to stealing, perjury, or forms of murder, other than abortion,” he added.

In the debate, Kaine countered Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s early comments, later retracted, that women should be punished for having an abortion.

“Before Roe v. Wade, states could pass criminal laws… to punish women if they made the choice to terminate a pregnancy,” Kaine said.

According to Archbishop Naumann, decades of legal history show that this was “certainly not the case.”

“The laws were enforced against the abortionists,” he said. “Our own legal experience shows clearly that it is possible to develop public policies aimed at protecting children, not punishing women.”

The archbishop invited Kaine to speak with women who have had abortions and have sought the assistance of Project Rachel and other post-abortion ministries that help women and men find “healing, hope and mercy after an abortion.”

He blamed permissive abortion policy for placing the entire burden of an abortion decision upon the woman.

Archbishop Naumann noted Kaine’s expression of anguish when he enforced death sentences as governor and the impression that Kaine attempted to convince Virginians to abolish the death penalty.

But he said Kaine seems not to have made a similar effort to convince Virginians “to work for public policies that protect the lives of the unborn.”

“Instead, he appears eager to champion not only maintaining the status quo, but actually expanding abortion rights,” the archbishop charged.

Archbishop Naumann also acknowledged the tensions of the 2016 election year.

“This presidential election presents all Americans with a difficult choice. Both major political parties have nominated very flawed candidates,” he said.

He encouraged voters to think not only of the presidential candidate, but who they will appoint to “key Cabinet and other powerful government positions … We are choosing not just a president, but an entire administration,” he said.

The archbishop conclude by advising voters to “be wary of candidates who assume to take upon themselves the role of defining what Catholics believe or should believe. Unfortunately, the vice-presidential debate revealed that the Catholic running for the second highest office in our land is an orthodox member of his party, fully embracing his party’s platform, but a cafeteria Catholic, picking and choosing the teachings of the Catholic Church that are politically convenient.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Chaz Muth

By Chaz Muth

GATLINBURG, Tenn. (CNS) -- When Huntsville, Alabama, resident Patrick Eads prepared to take his family on a trip to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park last August, he made sure to pack necessary vacation items, which included the address to the nearest Catholic church.

Eads and his wife, Rachael, made the 250-mile drive to Gatlinburg with their 1-year-old son to experience nature's glory.

Rachael, noticeably pregnant, eagerly joined her husband and son on the long hikes along the Appalachian Trail to find the best views of the mountains and said the majestic vistas, the sounds of the summer insects, the feel of the warm sun on her face and the scent of the wildflowers growing along their route, energized her.

After a day of navigating the Smokies, Patrick was feeling the need for spiritual nourishment, so the lanky, bearded redhead packed up his family and headed to St. Mary's Catholic Church in Gatlinburg for the 7 p.m. Saturday Mass.

A Google search before leaving home helped him locate the parish and he was thrilled that it was conveniently located near the town's main strip.

The Eads are among thousands of visitors who cross St. Mary's threshold each year and they are a driving force in the 81-year-old parish, said Carmelite Father Antony Punnackal, pastor of the church.

St. Mary's can seat 525 people if the church staff opens up its parish hall and daily chapel, both of which can be exposed to the main altar. But, it's not unusual for 800 people to attend a Mass during the peak park visiting times, Father Punnackal told Catholic News Service.

People stand in the back, the side of the church and even stand outside when a Mass is really packed, he said.

"We only have about 200 families registered in the parish, but you'd never know that if you came here for Sunday Mass," Father Punnackal said. "That's why we call this parish 'the parish of the Smokies.' It's basically for the visiting parishioners."

During the Aug. 14 Saturday evening Mass, the priest asked members of the large congregation to raise their hand if they were travelers visiting the park. A majority of the worshippers lifted their arms to signify that they were indeed visitors.

"You never take a vacation from your faith," said Mary Willis of Delaware, Ohio, who was among the Catholics attending Mass at St. Mary's on that sultry August evening. "Why would you miss going to church on vacation?"

St. Mary's pastor calls them the "visiting parishioners," because he considers them to be members of his church community, even if only for an evening.

"They are the majority," he said, "and they treat this church like it's their home parish. They support this church like it's their home parish. They are tremendous contributors when the collection basket is passed around."

The parish is in solid financial shape because of the reliably generous support of the visitors, Father Punnackal told CNS.

St. Mary's Parish dates back to 1935 when a Knoxville couple donated a log cabin to become the first Catholic Church in Gatlinburg, then a little-known valley of English and Scotch-Irish settlers.

Shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1940, visitors to the area began overcrowding the 40-seat log chapel, prompting the parish to build its current church, which was completed in 1953 and later expanded to include a parish hall and rectory.

When Willis and her husband, Ed, exited the church following the Aug. 14 Mass, they reminisced about how welcomed they felt by the priest and the other churchgoers.

"The Catholic community is universal and that was on full display this evening," Ed Willis told CNS.

There was a comfort knowing that so many others in the church were also visitors and even the locals went out of their way to make them feel at home, he said.

That is the sort of energy that keeps this parish thriving, both financially and spiritually, Father Punnackal said.

The city of Gatlinburg, with an estimated population of about 4,000, also benefits from the nearly 11 million visitors who travel to the Great Smoky Mountains annually, by far the most visited national park in the U.S.

Complementing the picturesque streets are beautifully maintained early 20th-century structures, hanging baskets with colorful plants strung from lamp posts, and they were packed with cars and pedestrians on a summer afternoon.

The main street leads to the entrance of the national park, where the Eads and Willis families, along with millions of others, are able to take in all of the gifts God has provided, Father Punnackal said.

"Coming to church after a day of seeing the Lord's bounty made me feel complete," Ed Willis said. "I can't think of a better way to spend my vacation."

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Follow Muth on Twitter: @Chazmaniandevyl.

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