Bishops Rule Out Dissent on Stand Against Abortion : Religion: Catholic leaders put pressure on public officials. Excommunication option left up in the air.

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, taking a more militant offensive in the emotional battle over abortion, declared Tuesday that the pro-choice position is not an option for Catholics and urged public officials to work to end legal abortions.

In a strongly worded resolution that was unanimously approved on the second day of their four-day fall meeting here, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops called abortion an “overriding concern” and “the fundamental human-rights issue” of the day.

As expected, the bishops on Tuesday also elevated Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati from vice president to president of the 300-member body, succeeding Archbishop John May of St. Louis for a three-year term. Archbishop William H. Keeler of Baltimore was elected vice president. Both Pilarczyk, 55, and Keeler, 58, are considered moderates on theological and social matters.

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, one of 10 candidates in the balloting, finished third in the presidential race, and second behind Keeler, 189 votes to 47.

The four-page abortion resolution is the U.S. Catholic hierarchy’s first official statement on the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last July giving individual states more latitude in restricting abortions. The bishops said their statement marks a stepped-up counterattack against the efforts of “pro-abortion or so-called ‘pro-choice’ groups . . . to convince legislators and others that Americans want abortion on demand.

“Abortion on demand remains our nation’s legal policy,” the statement said, and “many citizens believe that women have a moral right to abort.”

But, the position paper continued, “No Catholic can responsibly take a ‘pro-choice’ stand when the ‘choice’ in question involves the taking of innocent human life.”

The bishops “intend to once again make themselves the most significant anti-choice force” in the abortion arena, said Frances Kissling, president of the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice. “They are becoming more militant.”

Catholics for a Free Choice is an 8,000-member group that maintains that since the church prohibition against abortion is not an “infallible” dogma of Catholic teaching, loyal church members may disagree with it.

Kissling added in an interview that the bishops “are only talking to the 20% of the (U.S.) Catholics who are on their side . . . 80% disagree and believe they are free to dissent.”

Public opinion polls since the Supreme Court ruling last summer have shown that most Americans favor permitting some legal abortions, and that a majority opposes new abortion restrictions by the states.

Mahony, during the debate on the resolution, said it was “increasingly obvious and sad that fewer voices are being raised publicly and courageously on behalf of the unborn . . . We stand increasingly alone . . . We as Catholics may be in reality the only moral conscience in our country willing to be proclaimed publicly.”

The resolution does not directly address the troublesome issue of some lay Roman Catholic officeholders who have publicly stated that they will not seek to overturn legislation permitting abortions. But the statement does urge public officials, especially Catholics, to advance anti-abortion measures as part of their “moral responsibility to protect the weak and defenseless among us.”

Auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughan of New York told the bishops that the time was coming when “we need to take a stand against people who take an active pro-choice position in our churches” and against “aggressively pro-choice” Catholic politicians.

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, was asked at a press conference Tuesday whether individual bishops might now impose penalties such as excommunication upon outspoken pro-choice Catholics.

He said the resolution didn’t “specifically address penalties,” but he did not rule out the possibility. “It requires further study,” Bernardin said.