The US bishops' political activism against abortion: a chronology.

The Catholic hierarchy has long been at the forefront of the battle against legal abortion in the United States. The following is an edited version of a chronology of the bishops' involvement in the abortion debate that was produced as part of the Catholics in Political Life: The Challenges to Faith in Democracy project, and appears in full on the campaign website, www.CatholicVote.net.

1966--Rev. (now Bishop) James McHugh of the US bishops' conference's Family Life Bureau sets up the National Right to Life Committee. *

JANUARY 1973--The bishops' conference urges opposition to the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.

SEPTEMBER 1973--The bishops' conference comes out in support of a constitutional amendment against abortion.

1974--Robert Lynch, an employee of the bishops' conference, sets up the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment.

MARCH 1974--Four cardinals testify in support of a Human Life Amendment before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.

AUGUST 1974--CFFC board member Fr. Joseph O'Rourke is dismissed by the Jesuits for baptizing the baby of a prochoice Catholic woman.

1975--1n what may be the first case on record, Bishop Leo Mather of San Diego issues an order denying communion to Catholics who were "members of pro-abortion groups such as the National Organization for Women." Subsequently, at least a dozen San Diego NOW members were denied communion at St. Brigid's Church in Pacific Beach, Calif., after they told the parish priest they did not support the hierarchy's antichoice views.

NOVEMBER 1975--The bishops' conference announces the Pastoral Plan for ProLife Activities, a political campaign to organize people in favor of a constitutional amendment against abortion.

1976--Representatives of the bishops' conference meet with presidential candidates Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford to promote a Human Life Amendment. Bishops' conference president Joseph Bernadin and Cardinal Terence Cooke testify before the House of Representatives committee on the amendment. The bishops' conference Office of General Counsel files an amicus curiae brief in Planned Parenthood v. Danforth, a case in which the court struck down a Missouri law restricting access to abortion. NRLC members lobby for the Hyde Amendment, denying federal funding for most abortions.

OCTOBER 1979--The bishops' conference's Office of General Counsel files an amicus curiae brief in Harris v. McRae, a Supreme Court case that reaffirmed the Hyde Amendment.

1980--Following an unsuccessful court case brought by the Abortion Rights Movement challenging the Catholic church's tax-exempt status, the bishops' conference issues detailed instructions on what political activities are allowed during election cycles.

SEPTEMBER 1980--Humberto Medeiros, archbishop of Boston, instructs Catholics not to vote for prochoice candidates.

NOVEMBER 1981--Cardinal Terence Cooke and Archbishop John Roach testify in support of a Human Life Amendment before the Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on the Constitution.

MAY 1983--Sister Agnes Mary Mansour resigns from her order rather than submit to a mandate from the Vatican instructing her to resign as Michigan's director of social services, a position in which she administers Medicaid funds that could be used to assist poor women seeking abortions.

AUGUST 1984--Cardinal John O'Connor tells Catholic prochoice Catholic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro that she "may be in trouble with the pope" because of her statement that the church does not have a monolithic stance opposing abortion.

JUNE 1985--Mary Ann Sorrentino, executive director of Rhode Island's Planned Parenthood affiliate is told in a letter from her diocese that she has "excommunicated herself" because her clinic performs abortions.

1988--The bishops' conference's Office of General Counsel files an amicus curiae brief in support of Webster in a Supreme Court case, Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, when the court supported a Missouri law banning the use of public facilities for abortion and requiring doctors to test for viability in post-20 week abortions.

MAY 1988--The auxiliary bishop of New York, Austin Vaughan, is arrested and jailed for participating in a four-day campaign by the radical antiabortion group Operation Rescue to close abortion clinics in Manhattan and Queens.

JUNE 1989--Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, issues a statement asserting that Catholic legislators have a "positive moral obligation" to repeal laws allowing abortion.

NOVEMBER 1989--Bishop Leo Mather of San Diego informs State Assemblywoman Lucy Killea, a prochoice Catholic Democrat running for office in a heavily-Republican district, that she may no longer receive communion. Killea won by a whisker and her opponent, Carol Bentley blamed the bishop's intervention for her defeat. Killea took communion elsewhere and honored the ban until after she retired from the state Senate in 1996.

1990--The bishops' conference's Office of General Counsel files an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case, Rust v. Sullivan, a case that upheld the prohibition on federally funded family planning clinics from providing information about abortion.

APRIL 1990--The Knights of Columbus funds a five-year, $5 million contract with the PR firm, Hill & Knowlton for the bishops' conference's campaign against abortion. The contract is canceled in 1992 after failing to radically change the public's perception of abortion.

MAY 1990--Bishop James McHugh of Camden, N.J., tells prochoice Catholic public officials that they "cannot speak at church-sponsored events, receive honors from Catholic agencies, or serve in church offices or ministries."

JUNE 1990--Cardinal John O'Connor of New York writes that Catholic politicians who vote prochoice "risk excommunication." Auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughan of Orange County, N.Y., says that Governor Mario Cuomo was at "serious risk of going to hell" because of his prochoice stance.

JUNE 1990--Bishop Rene Gracida of Corpus Christi, Texas, issues a formal decree of excommunication against Rachel Vargas, the director of Reproductive Services, a local health clinic. In November he issues another decree against Elva Bustamente who worked at New Women's Clinic, another local health care provider.

1991--The bishops' conference's Office of General Counsel files an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case that upholds states' rights to impose some restrictions on abortion services.

1992--Helen Alvare, representing the bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, testifies in Congress against the Freedom of Choice Act, which would have enshrined Roe v. Wade into law.

1993--The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment distributes 5 million postcards to Catholics to mail to members of Congress urging them to oppose the Freedom of Choice Act.

JANUARY 1994--The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment and the Pro-Life Secretariat distribute 19 million postcards to parishes for mailing to members of Congress urging a vote against any proposal to add contraceptive and abortion coverage to a national health care plan.

MAY 1994--All US cardinals sign a letter to President Bill Clinton decrying his stance at the UN Conference on Population and Development. The letter falsely states that Clinton supports a document that would "mandate abortion as a condition for receiving aid from other countries."

JANUARY-APRIL 1996--The bishops' conference sponsors ads in the Washington Post and the New York Times in support of a ban on a method of abortion called "partial-birth abortion" by the antichoice lobby. (The bill would have resulted in the first federal ban on abortion and is subsequently referred to as such.)

JUNE 1996--The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment and the ProLife Secretariat distribute postcards calling on Members of Congress to overturn President Clinton's veto of the first federal ban on abortion.

SEPTEMBER 1996--All eight US cardinals and 80 bishops demonstrate on the steps of the US Capitol, in support of the first federal ban on abortion.

NOVEMBER 1996--Less than a week before the US elections, retired New Orleans Bishop Philip Hannan tells Louisiana Catholics that they cannot vote for President Clinton or prochoice Catholic Senate candidate Mary Landrieu. Both won.

MARCH 1997--Cardinal O'Connor and other cardinals write President Clinton urging him to support the first federal ban on abortion.

OCTOBER 1998--The bishops' conference publish a statement called Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, urging Catholic pubic officials to "defend life to the greatest extent possible." The document also urges Catholics to vote for antichoice politicians.

AUGUST 2000--Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss of Omaha, Neb., urges Catholic Democrats "to do everything they can to reverse the pro-abortion policy of their party."

OCTOBER 2000--The bishops of the four Roman Catholic dioceses in Massachusetts issue an election statement calling on Catholics to exercise their "moral obligation" to vote and to recognize the "absolute centrality" of the protection of human life when choosing candidates.

JANUARY 2001--Bishop Thomas J. Welsh of Arlington, Va., states in an interview with the Arlington Catholic Herald, "If you say the church is wrong about one serious issue like the prolife stance, then you're undermining the whole nature of the church.... There's no time for anybody at any place to have an abortion and say, 'this is right.' It's always, always wrong."

JANUARY 2001--Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver addresses participants of the Colorado Right to Life March and Rally saying, "People of religious faith must live their prolife witness courageously, as a matter of public record and civic responsibility--or we'll lose it even as a matter of private principle."

JULY 2001--In the Diocese of Trenton's policy statement on "pro-abortion politicians," Bishop John M. Smith writes, "It would be misleading to assist prochoice politicians with a platform to promote their views for fear that others would falsely conclude that the church at least tolerates their position."

DECEMBER 2002--Monsignor Edward Kavanagh, who runs an orphanage in Sacramento, Calif., declares that California governor Gray Davis is not welcome to distribute Christmas toys to the children because he is prochoice.

JANUARY 2003--In his homily at the Annual Prolife Mass, Bishop William W. Weigand of Sacramento, Calif., states, "Anyone--politician or otherwise--who thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk, and is not in good standing with the church. Such a person should have the integrity to acknowledge this and choose of his own volition to abstain from receiving Holy Communion until he has a change of heart." Later that month, he challenges Governor Gray Davis to either renounce his support for abortion rights or stop taking communion.

APRIL 2003--Media reports suggest that Bishop Robert Carlson of Sioux Falls, S.D., instructed Senate minority leader Tom Daschle to stop calling himself a Catholic. Neither the bishop nor the senator confirm the rumors.

NOVEMBER 2003--The bishops' conference issues a document, Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, "to help [Catholics] learn, share, and act on Catholic teaching about how our faith can and should shape our choices and opportunities as citizens, so that we can build a world more respectful of human life and dignity and more committed to justice and peace."

NOVEMBER 2003--Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, then bishop of La Crosse, Wisc., issues a public declaration stating, "In accord with the norm of can. 915, Catholic legislators, who are members of the faithful of the Diocese of La Crosse and who continue to support procured abortion or euthanasia may not present themselves to receive Holy Communion. They are not to be admitted to Holy Communion nor should they present themselves, until such time as they publicly renounce their support of these most unjust practices."

NOVEMBER 2003--At the bishops' conference fall meeting, Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., says, "It's a constant source of scandal that the most prominent pro-abortion people are Catholics ... who seem to go un-reproved."

MARCH 2004--Bishop Nicholas A. Di-Marzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., urges parishes, schools and agencies in his diocese to ensure that all public officials to whom they "grant a place of prominence, or accord an honor" have a position that is consistent with the church's "teaching on human life and other moral issues."

APRIL 2004--One day before Bishop Joseph Galante is installed as the bishop of Camden, N.J., he tells reporters that prochoice New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey will not be permitted to receive communion. Citing McGreevey's divorce and remarriage, in addition to his prochoice stance, he states, "If he comes to communion, I'd give him a blessing, in his case, he can't go to communion."

MAY 2004--In a pastoral letter to his diocese, Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo., takes the most extreme position to date: not only do Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, stem-cell research, euthanasia, and/or homosexual marriage, but also those who vote for them, "jeopardize their salvation" and may not receive communion until they have "confessed in the sacrament of penance."

MAY 2004--Bishop Thomas Wenski, the coadjutor bishop of Orlando, Fla., compares Catholic politicians who are personally opposed to abortion, but don't want to impose their views on others to Pontius Pilate, who was personally opposed to Christ's crucifixion.

MAY 2004--At the direction of Bishop John M. D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., prochoice Indiana Governor Joe Kernan is uninvited to commencement services by his alma mater, South Bend's St. Joseph High School.

JUNE 2004--President George W. Bush asks the Vatican to intervene in US politics by encouraging bishops to support him on "family and life" issues. The White House subsequently denied that there was any request for political assistance.

JUNE 2004--The bishops' conference decides to leave it up to individual bishops to decide whether or not to deny communion to prochoice Catholic politicians, despite the intervention of Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, who apparently urged a vote to deny communion. The bishops supported the new policy by 183 votes to six during a retreat in Denver.

* In the time period covered by this chronology, the US bishops were organized under three different names. The United States Catholic Conference (USCC) and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) merged in July 2001 and became the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). For simplicity's sake, we refer to these entities throughout as the bishops' conference.

Research for this chronology was done by LISA HISEL (1966-1997) and DEBORAH WASHINGTON (1998- 2004).