Linked on the Corner earlier this morning, this is an op/ed piece that speaks to the contention over Kerry's Katholicity and the orthodox Catholics who engage in the political discourse. This is a must-read for everyone, especially for those small number of you who think we work full-time for the RNC and club baby seals on our day off.
We don't club baby seals on our day off from the RNC, but Eric does run a secret empire whose sole aim is to pave rain forests to make parking lots for Walmart. When he gets a free moment at work he opens the window and discharges an entire can of hairspray in order to deplete the ozone layer. I have also heard him speak of the need for us to re-intern the Japanese. His car runs on low standardized test scores - a clean, renewable resource produced in abundance by inner city public schools. He prays the Rosary daily with his family. They implore Mary's intercession to impose a Catholic theocracy on America.
Listen, don't take me seriously. I make a caricature of these bugaboos to make this point: Our faith informs our politics. It isn’t the other way around. Eric doesn't do all those things I so ridiculously wrote above. Marines don't buy hairspray! He rides his bicycle to work - how’s that for environmental stewardship? And we don't all work for the RNC. We are faithful Catholics who believe with the Church that the cause of life must be defended. Bush is not the perfect pro-life candidate but since Roe v. Wade our only option has been to try to win by degrees.
Contrary to what one of our commenters thinks, Pete is well within his rights to write whatever he wants about what he believes is the canonical implication of Kerry's support for abortion. As a canonist he's eminently qualified to do so.
Read Archbishop Chaput’s excellent article. Read “The Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” a statement by the CDF that Chaput mirrors.
The life of a democracy could not be productive without the active, responsible and generous involvement of everyone, "albeit in a diversity and complementarity of forms, levels, tasks, and responsibilities".[6]By fulfilling their civic duties, "guided by a Christian conscience",[7] in conformity with its values, the lay faithful exercise their proper task of infusing the temporal order with Christian values, all the while respecting the nature and rightful autonomy of that order,[8] and cooperating with other citizens according to their particular competence and responsibility.[9] The consequence of this fundamental teaching of the Second Vatican Council is that "the lay faithful are never to relinquish their participation in ‘public life’, that is, in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good".[10] This would include the promotion and defence of goods such as public order and peace, freedom and equality, respect for human life and for the environment, justice and solidarity.
Don't be fooled by the moral relativism and subjectivism of liberalism. Just becuase you want something to do be true doesn't make it true. And we all know liberalism is a sin. So don't be a liberal, you'll go to Hell.
Most excellent..!!!
Publicly on TV last night the debate between Alan Keyes and Obamanation, Keyes made a strong strong statement that all of us should take seriously. Thank God for men like this who stand up for the truth publicly!!!
http://www.renewamerica.us or www.keyes2004.com
"When I look at where Christ stands and I look at where Sen. Obama stands based upon that record of Christ's understanding which we acknowledge as Christians to be the true record, I say well, Christ is over here, Sen. Obama is over there.
The two don't look the same. And that means that I'm not thinking about Alan Keyes. I am thinking about the Lord.
And to say I don't have the right to do that means that you're trying to suggest that my faith-shaped conscience has no place in our politics.
And yet if I go into the voting booth or into public life without my faith-shaped conscience, then I have no conscience, for the Lord said I must love him with my whole heart soul mind and strength. There is nothing left over.
Without faith there is just a faith-shaped void where the conscience ought to be.
And I challenge all the voters of this state who profess to believe in Christ: How can you vote from such a faith-shaped void?
Without the Lord, your vote will not be based upon that faith which ought to shape your life.
And for anyone to suggest that you leave it behind at the door of the voting booth or public service suggests something utterly incompatible with what the Lord ourself -- himself rather-- told us about the meaning of our faith."
but Eric does run a secret empire whose sole aim is to pave rain forests to make parking lots for Walmart.
Eric, I'm really disappointed in you. You run a secret evil empire and (a) it's a really boring secret evil empire and (b) you didn't invite me to run anything in it. I hereby insist that I be given at least the rank of Lieutenant General (though I could unhappily settle for Major General) and that I be given permission to blow stuff up at will (to break the monotony of building parking lots for Walmart).
Thank you for you're time, Dear Leader.
See this article for evidence that Eric isn't spraying nearly enough CFCs into the atmosphere for my taste.
(It's really just more evidence that the sky is not falling, after all.)
Bryan,
Generalissimo Eric would be spraying enough CFCs into the atmosphere if he had me as his evil sidekick. But no, he's too cheap to hire an evil sidekick. Serves him right to see his fiendishly brilliant plan to irradiate the earth go up in smoke!
Eric, TPFKAAC:
Remember that SOUTH PARK episode where "Getting Gay With Kids" went to save the rain forest? And were rescued from cannibals and piranhas by bulldozers?
That was SO awesome!
Since you're anonymous, Coward, I can hardly give you a rank. That reminds me of a Simpsons episode:
CHIEF WIGGUM: All right, you scrawny beanpoles: becoming a cop is not something that happens overnight. It takes one solid weekend of training to get that badge.
SCARY-LOOKING MAN WITH FACIAL TIC: Forget about the badge! When do we get the freakin' guns?!
CHIEF WIGGUM: Hey, I told you, you don't get your gun until you tell me your name.
MAN: I've have it up to here with your "rules"! [runs away]
Eric,
My name is Montgomery Burns. Do I get my stars and nukes now?
I'll have to put you on a waiting list.
I think the Archbishop is an idiot and a hypocrite. To use his congregations' fears about salvation to further his political beliefs is not only sad, but also manipulative and reminiscent of middle age catholocism.
I am a former Catholic who left the Church after the priest that sexually abused my brother was protected by the hierarchy of the Church while my brother was ostracized and told that it was his fault. Their choice to protect this pedophile showed me that they cared no more for their flock than did the tobacco companies that lied to protect their money.
Thanks for your (the Bishop's) attempt at controling me through your guilt, but no thanks. I will take my faith in God, which remains strong, to a non-manipulative denomination that is interested in my salvation and not the Church's economic and political interests.
I encourage everyone reading this to wake up too.
I wonder how long this post will be left up before it mysteriously disappears?
Hi, Scott.
I'm sorry that some wretched priest abused your brother, and even more so that the bishop didn't take proper action about it. Jesus warned us about shepherds whom he called "hirelings", worried more about protecting themselves than the people entrusted to their guidance.
As for us here at CL, you don't have to worry that we'd take your post down because of what you're saying. We've all been appalled and then disgusted at the parade of corruption we've seen over the past twenty years.
You can't be blamed for being cynical now, but for what it's worth, Abp. Chaput is a decent and gutsy bishop. Part of his calling is to teach about morals, and on the substance of the issues, he's doing it right. That remains, even while we Catholics have to put up with public disgrace at the cover-ups many bishops perpetrated.
Best wishes to you and your brother; I hope he's made some good recovery.
Since coming into the Church this past Easter Vigil, my personal convictions now have a direct impact on my political views. In the past, I always considered myself pro-choice. I used to argue that the government had no right to tell me what I can or cannot do to my body. I think it all had to do with how I was raised and the spiritual and religious implications were never discussed.
I am grateful to the Church for teaching me the moral implications and God's will for us. I look back on my past and its hard to believe that I would have ever promoted or supported pro-choice.
I cannot understand how John Kerry can call himself a Catholic yet he feels that he cannot impose his beliefs on society. What kind of leader does he plan to be? If he cannot stand behind his own convictions than he is nothing more than a hypocrit. I will continue to pray for him, but mostly, I will pray for the unborn lives that he will effect should he be elected to office.