Via The Catholic League.

In a speech in New York, Harvard professor Jessica Stern reportedly told her audience, "Catholic priests are not stepping up to condemn those who kill abortion doctors." Her comments were reported in today's New York Sun (Fri. 6/15/07).

Well, Jessica. The reason that Catholic priests aren't "stepping up" is that there has been no reason to. There have been exactly ZERO murders of abortion doctors and clinic workers in the United States and Canada so far in the 21st century. The last murder was nine years ago in 1998. (Even the defenders of abortion recognize this. Look here.)

There have been a total of seven of these awful murders since Roe V. Wade was decided in 1973. (Read more about that here.) And as the Catholic League reported today, in the mid-1990's (all seven occurred between 1993 and 1998), Catholic priests did "step up" and condemn these atrocities. Here are some samples:

• Following an awful 1994 murder of an abortionist in Florida, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles said, "It makes a mockery of everything we stand for." (source)
• "Bishop John M. Smith of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee said it 'defies logic and flies in the face of divine law' for anyone to take a human life in the name of the pro-life movement. 'No one has the right to take the life of another human being as a solution to the issues surrounding abortion.'" (Also in 1994, source)
• "In Chicago, Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin issued a statement saying the use of violence in the name of fighting abortion 'not only defies logic, but the law of God and the teachings of the church.'" (source)
• "When there were two killings at Massachusetts abortion clinics, Cardinal Bernard Law not only denounced them, he ordered a moratorium on sidewalk protest vigils outside abortion clinics in Boston." (The Catholic League)
• In the 1990's, Cardinal John O'Connor of New York was quoted on more than one occasion: "If anyone has an urge to kill an abortionist, let him kill me instead." (here)

Jessica Stern owes Catholics and Catholic priests a public apology. Her boss (?) at Harvard should demand it as well and not allow the whiff of anti-Catholicism at his school.