Cardinal O'Malley on Trig Palin

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I'll have a full story on this issue in tomorrow's paper (UPDATE: here's the story), but here is a partial transcript of O'Malley's remarks, along with video from the rally:

"I very seldom get to see any television, but I did watch part of the political conventions, and for me the star of the conventions was Trig Palin, whose mother said that he was 'beautiful' and 'perfect.' And when his little sister used that spit to slick his hair down, I mean, I stood up and applauded.

When Senator Sam Brownback addressed the Red Mass for Catholic lawyers last year, he brought to our attention that, in the United States now, 90 percent of the Down Syndrome children are being aborted. This is what we mean by the culture of death. This is what we're here today about, to try and change, to make our country a safe place for children, born and unborn. It's a very serious task, but it's a very important one, and it's one that we can do. The more voices that are raised, the more that we talk about and witness to the Gospel of Life, the more Americans will come to realize what abortion is: it's not a choice, it's snuffing out an innocent life.

When I was young, everybody smoked, and then all of a sudden, there was what I call the Last Commandment: Thou Shall Not Smoke. And the campaign was out there, telling people how dangerous it was, the percentage of smokers that would die of cancer, how many people who were around smokers would be in danger. Well, that's all true, and I'm glad that that campaign has been so successful. But now we have to let people know that, when it comes to abortion, it's not just a percentage of the children that are dying, it's all of the children. And all of those who were involved in the abortion -- the parents, the nurses, the doctors, the social workers -- they're all being contaminated by this evil and diminished in their humanity and their appreciation for life.

We're not here to impose any religious principles on our nation. We know that this is a pluralistic society. But we're here to say that we must stand up for human rights, and the first human right of all is life."