Did Bill Donohue of Catholic League misrepresent the Pope's Position on the Iraq War on Hardball?

Here's a dkos diarist who thinks so:

President of Catholic League Lies about Pope on Hardball

Fri Oct 22nd, 2004 at 01:55:24 GMT

*** UPDATE - Audio link added see below ***

On Hardball tonight (Oct. 21, 2004), the President of the Catholic League, William Donohue flat out lied about the Pope's position on Iraq.

William Donohue said on this show: "The pope has never declared this war to be an unjust war." MP3 Audio This statement is a lie. On March 5, 2003 the Pope actually sent the White House a message saying that the war was "unjust and illegal."

The context of his lie was a flawed rationalization as to why Bush is a better "pro-life candidate" than Kerry for Catholics. This was a desperate attempt by the right-wing freaks to trick Catholic voters into voting for Bush by lying.

Here in Wisconsin, a good number of the swing voters are Catholic, and Bush and his ilk are desperate to sway them his way. But stooping so low that Catholic "leaders" lie about the Pope's stance on unjust wars and the death penalty could very well backfire.

People do not like being lied to, so please do what you can to spread the truth.Diaries :: kimg's diary ::

The news quotes and source follow:
"March 5, 2003, 11:18PMBush receives message from popeLetter says war against Iraq will be 'unjust and illegal'By BENNETT ROTHCopyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington BureauWASHINGTON -- A Vatican envoy Wednesday carried the pope's message to the White House that a U.S.-led war against Iraq without United Nations' approval would be "unjust and illegal." "

And by the way, why on earth do Catholic officials and Anti-abortion activists weasel out of the issue of punitive action for women who commit abortions? Both Msgr McSweeney and Bill Donohue weaseled out of the question when asked by Chris Matthews: What should the punishment be for the women who procure an abortion?

If abortion is murder then the women who commit abortions should get 5-10 years, at the least, right?

If you say, no, we make an exception for murder punishments in the case of abortions, then you emasculate the law. There is no longer equal protection, because in some cases, "murder/manslaughter/etc" is punishable by jail time, death, or whatever, but in cases of abortion, "murder" requires counseling and love. Go figure.

We make the case over and over again, the Church needs to go back to the drawing board and rethink its relationship between moral code and human law, there may be overlap, but the law is not and should not be based on the Church's moral code.

When it is all said and done, the Right and hierarchy will begin to acknowledge what moderates and liberals have known all along.

-That Pro-choice is not pro-abortion (this simply disqualifies all that talk of proportionate reasons)
-That human beings, most especially mothers, are good and naturally want to preserve their baby's lives; thus, in the case of an abortion, something must have weighed heavily on her to terminate her baby's life. (We believe in the goodness of human beings and humans naturally want to preserve life, thus in the case where life is harmed, we ask "why?"; anti-abortion activists believe humans lack a threshold of goodness, and that mothers may have, neutral, at best, feelings towards their unborn babies; otherwise, why would you think women want to have abortions for frivolous reasons or because a pregnancy was "inconvenient"?)
-That there is a consistent ethic of life from cradle to grave that must be respected
-That making abortion illegal does not solve the problem nor does it create a culture of life
-That creating a culture of life, which includes solving the problem of abortion, is hard work, and requires addressing the factors that weigh on women to make such an unnatural decision
-That the anti-abortion movement is more concerned with a principle than with life itself (the principle being that something that is "intrinsically evil" is never justified. Abortion [or substitute for contraception, same sex marriage, euthanasia, etc] is intrinsically evil, therefore, abortion [or X] is never justified. That's the principle which is the main concern, rather than actual existing human life. This explains the remarkable indifference to the 100,000 innocent Iraqis injured or maimed in this war, 20,000 innocent Iraqis killed in this war, 5,000 US troops injured or maimed, and 1,100 US troops killed (who cares if the war is just or unjust, war is hell!); or even the relative indifference to a baby, whose life was fought for prior to birth, two weeks after it is born, the anti-abortion movement is absent, even though it is the SAME life that they fought tooth and nail for two weeks earlier. )
-That the Republican Party is playing and has played Catholics like a drum and at some point, reasonable people begin to say enough is enough
-That John Kerry is and will be a more truly pro-life President than George Bush