excommunication.net

DeGette had been invited to speak at the dinner sponsored by the Denver Archdiocesan Housing Committee by the fundraising chairman, Denise Ludwig. Ludwig issued the withdrawal to DeGette on May 2 in a letter that said, "I deeply regret this request to ask that you not attend our Housing Awards Dinner." She added that the archdiocese had been "inundated" by "highly controversial and threatening phone calls and the archbishop has even received negative emails."

DeGette sent a harshly worded letter in reply, with a copy to Archbishop Chaput. She said she had been "surprised at being invited to speak because of the Catholic Church's apparent litmus test regarding elected officials' views on a woman's right to choose." But she said that she thought the invitation might be an "olive branch" from the archdiocese and that she "was delighted to accept." However, she wrote, "the fringe politics of abortion have apparently won out."

The archbishop replied to DeGette on May 4, praising her commitment to peace and justice, saying, "I've always been puzzled by political leaders who exclude unborn children from the protection of the justice they publicly claim to champion."

He added, "I invite you to turn away from the fringe politics (of the abortion issue) by bringing your own politics more consistently in line with real service to the sanctity of human life." He also rejected her accusation that the Church employs a "litmus test since your own party enforces a pro-choice litmus test on its potential candidates far more roughly and with far less moral legitimacy."

DeGette later told the Denver Post newspaper that the withdrawal of the invitation "rude" and the archbishop's letter "confrontational and combative."

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