Cardinals Condemn Abortion Veto

In an unusual joint statement that carried a scarcely veiled political threat, the nation’s Roman Catholic cardinals Tuesday condemned President Clinton’s veto last week of a bill that would have barred a certain late-term abortion procedure.

In a letter to the president, the eight American cardinals, along with Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, accused Clinton of deciding to permit a procedure “more akin to infanticide than abortion to continue.”

In recent months, the bishops had voiced concerns on immigration and welfare that showed them to be closer on those issues to the administration than to the Republican Congress. But the letter Tuesday served as a reminder that among the Catholic hierarchy, abortion is the dominant issue.