News In Brief
South Bend, Ind.
Governor Cuomo decries use of religion for political gain
The way to stop abortions in the United States is ''not by trying to make laws for others to live by, but by living the laws already written for us by God ,'' New York Gov. Mario Cuomo said Thursday at the University of Notre Dame. He staked out a position for Roman Catholic political leaders who are at odds with the church over the abortion issue.
Governor Cuomo and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, another Roman Catholic New Yorker, are embroiled in a dispute with New York Archbishop John J. O'Connor over their refusal to work for antiabortion legislation while personally opposing it.
Cuomo offered to donate his speaking fee from Notre Dame, $1,500, to a Catholic home for unwed mothers, but the home turned it down last Friday because of his support for legalized abortion. An anti-abortion group promptly doubled the governor's donation.