Bishops' Letter on Egg-As-Person Initiative in Colorado Shrouded in Mystery

A claim that the Colorado Catholic bishops have blunted their opposition to the latest "egg-as-a-person" state ballot amendment is raising questions about its authenticity. And the people who could verify the mystery letter have clammed up.

An obscure blog, Colorado Catholics for Personhood, recently posted an unformatted Oct. 1 statement purportedly from the Colorado Catholic Conference and signed by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, Denver Auxiliary Bishop James Conley, Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan and Pueblo Bishop Arthur Tafoya giving the greenlight to circulate ballot petitions at Catholic churches:

The decision to allow signature collection at your parish is one we are leaving to the judgment of the pastor. If you are approached by people in your parish wishing to collect signatures for this ballot initiative, and you feel it is pastorally appropriate for your community, we will trust your decision.

If the statement is true, this represents a fairly significant departure from the bishops' 2008 position when they not only didn't back the measure but expressly forbid the church's formal involvement in the process.

Yet, the letter also affirms that the state's four bishops still vigorously disagree with the vague premise of the repeat initiative to bestow fertilized eggs with constitutional protections and will not support the measure.

Though with such big news one would think the personhood activists, many of them Catholics, would be crowing about their good fortune to beat the Feb. 15 deadline to capture 76,074 signatures from Colorado registered voters to make the Nov. 2010 ballot.

No such luck.

Neither the statement, a crossposted link or even a mere mention of it is made on the official Colorado personhood campaign Web site, by its local partner Colorado Right to Life, its national affiliate Personhood USA or any of the prolifically updated supporters' personal blogs.

The statement is also curiously absent from the conference Web site. Though a copy of the bishops' statement decrying the 2008 personhood initiative as risking renewed court affirmation of Roe v Wade is still prominently displayed.

A random check of the more conservative parish's Web sites and weekly church bulletins turn up absolutely nothing on organized petition circulation drives.

The Christian online news magazine, Charisma, quickly yanked its Nov. 17 story and deleted the cached version from its site. "Just after that report was published on our Web site, the story changed," explained Strang Publications employee Drew Glaser. Our news editor decided to take it down until it could be updated with the most recent information."

The story has not reappeared.

Even more mysterious is the dead silence from all involved.

Colorado Catholic Conference Executive Director Jennifer Kraska did not return multiple calls for confirmation of the bishops' revised position.

The state ballot measure director Gualberto Garcia Jones, who also runs the Colorado Catholics for Personhood blog that posted the statement, couldn't be reached for comment.

Though it wouldn't be the first time the "egg as a person" activists got their wires crossed on the Colorado bishops' intentions on political matters.

Keith Mason, then an organizer for last year's Colorado for Equal Rights push, issued a Feb. 2008 press release listing the three bishops (Conley was not yet installed) as supporters of the group.

A battle ignited in the press with Kraska blasting Mason and the group for "seriously misrepresenting" the bishops position and failing to provide the conference with requested information about the campaign's donors, strategy and organizational structure.

Still the public scuffle and eventual back down on the fib touting the church's endorsement didn't appear to hurt the Wichita-resident's trajectory in the extremist national anti-choice movement. Mason co-founded Personhood USA in suburban Denver with fellow CRE carpetbagger Cal Zastrow, who is originally from Michigan.

Not to be outdone in the media bug out, American Life League's Judi Brown weighed in all the way from Stafford, Va., calling the bishops' lack of support for the measure "gutless." ALL would eventually pour $200,000 into the Colorado campaign days before its 73-27 landslide defeat.

In the meantime, we'll keep trying to confirm — with somebody, anybody — the authenticity of the bishops' letter.