I have decided to form a group devoted to the election of Senator John F. Kerry called “Pro-Life Catholics for Kerry.” I was thinking the other day: isn’t being “pro-life” more than fetuses? What about what happens after the little things are born?
Senator Kerry has consistently opposed the machinery of death that spews out of the Defense Department and its lackey contractors. That’s pro-life. He believes that human needs should take priority over killing in the Federal budget. That’s pro-life. He wants to make sure that those with different sexual orientations can have children using extra-natural means, and not be beaten up by right-wing religious thugs. That’s pro-life.
Sure, he isn’t “pro-life” by the standards of, say, the Pope. He is personally against abortion, though, and as far as we know, he has never encouraged any of his past girlfriends or heiress wives to have abortions. Like President Clinton, he wants to mitigate the conditions that drive women to get abortions. Isn’t that more important than making women feel bad about their choices?
I will be voting for John F. Kerry for President, and I encourage all pro-life Catholics to follow my example. I’ll post the link to Pro-Life Catholics for Kerry site when it becomes available.
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It’s *always* about babies, isn’t it? Kudos to you Eric: It’s time that we worry about adults too. Pro-Life for All! Not just those babies.
Happy AFD! Very funny…
My stomach dropped. Phew! Happy April Fool’s Day!
I was worried until I looked at the calendar…..
What’s hilarious is the one person who didn’t get the joke :-)
Eric, I think Ono’s hacked into your account. :-)
Wow I’m slow. I was like, NOOOOOOO!
Josh M.: Being that my post was a joke too, then I guess *you* are the only person here who got duped. Ha!
Nope. I was duped too. I was prepared to unleash a pre-screed here and then put the full screed at Ragemonkey. Thanks for the joke but don’t do that again. My heart can’t take it.
Sorry, Father. I guess it was just close enough to the truth….
If you guys are going by Catholic standards for the election of the president, I guess you aren’t voting at all during this election season, considering our anti-death penalty views. Bush has fried quite a few people.
How smug you all are that you are Soooo devout – I came across this website in a true search for Catholics who support Kerry. (and dont fool yourself, there are plenty of us) I was raised Catholic and went to public shool so my connection to this faith is mostly a familliar, family connection, but Im ready to turn my back. After five months on chemotherapy for breast cancer and seven months into a pregnancy that a number of doctors reccomended I abort to focus on my own stuggles with cancer, I went into preterm labor and lost my son. My husband could not afford to take everyday off work the week we buried him, so the day before we buried him, I was home alone. I was so desperate for someone to talk to and cry to and was too proud to call my family because I knew how much they would hurt to see me so upset. I pulled out the phone book and visited the closest catholic church – (I dont attend regularly and Im an hour from where I was raised)I attended a 9am mass on a Tuesday morning, and prayed the entire time that SOMEONE, would see my distress as I sobbed in the back pew throughout, too proud to ask. 40 people focused intently on their Rosary while I cried. and 40 people, including the priest, all passed me by on thier way out, and LITERALLY, the lights were turned out on me. AND THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO DICATE MY VOTE AND SPEAK TO ME ABOUT COMPASSION AND WHAT GOD WOULD APPROVE OF??? The hypocracy of all of this slaps me in the face everyday. I personally could never have an abortion, but Kerry will have my vote. My “hypocracy” negates yours, belive me. I certainly would hope that halfway intelligent people may see that we must give Kerry a chance to improve domestically and internationally what Bush has destroyed. You’re CRAZY if you think that any Republican will overturn Roe v Wade, and an even bigger idiot if you vote Democrat just because you desperatly want gun control. These two things will never change, and to base your vote on either of these things soley is insane- but thank you for the “phony site” than only served as a catalyst to make my feelings even stronger, and I am sure it will others, too.
Yeah, Yeah, yeah…..I know I spelled SCHOOL wrong, and after the word “Public” nonetheless!
Yeah, Yeah, yeah…..I know I spelled SCHOOL wrong, and after the word “Public” nonetheless!
diverging a little from the original theme of this thread, see http://www.catholicsagainstkerry.com
Dear Voter,
I’m sorry about your illness and the loss of your baby, and I hope the chemo will work out well for you. Protecting your baby when you weren’t healthy yourself was a courageous and generous act that deserves respect.
Try not to think too harshly of the people who let you cry in peace in church. Some people leave alone a person who’s crying, out of respect. Who knows what’s going on inside someone else’s head?
Thanks – I just tend to get a little fired up when I feel guilted in who I am supposed to vote for, as if voting for a democrat is the same as committing murder – (as crazy as it sounds there are MANY people who feel this way) I just dont feel like a vote for Bush is necessarily a Pro-Life vote. When you neglect public education, you are, in many ways creating a scenario where abortions are more likely to take place. Something to think about.
Well, let me lay out what’s behind my thinking on the issue.
In the sphere of politics, there are often various differing analyses and policy prescriptions that Catholics (or anyone of good will) can legitimately follow. People come to different conclusions about the causes of social problems, and so they prescribe different remedies.
For example, it is legitimate for Catholics to disagree about exactly how the tax code should work. There is no single correct way to raise enough money for the government, assign the burdens to taxpayers justly, and avoid excessive burden to the economy. There is a certain sphere of moral freedom about this subject.
I contend that abortion is not such a case. If a Catholic understands how severe an evil abortion is, he or she will understand that one is obliged to give it priority as an issue.
It all comes down to what abortion is. Voluntary abortion is a **direct and intentional** attack on a human being. (I say “voluntary” in order to exclude spontaneous miscarriages or those caused as an unintended side-effect of some legitimate medical treatment.)
Notice the two aspects: abortion is one human being’s **direct** violation of another human being’s right to live. In contrast: poverty is a burdensome condition, but it’s not a person-to-person attack. Poverty does not automatically destroy a person’s life. Rather, it causes *indirect* harm to a person’s well-being.
Also, abortion is *intentional*. In abortion, the intended result of the act is that the child dies.
This is quite different from any government policy about poverty or education. There is no government policy from liberals, conservatives, Republicans, or Democrats that is *intended* to increase poverty or ignorance. Of course, there are political figures and movements that seek to expand the availability and acceptance of abortion.
So there’s really no comparison between abortion and most political issues. Now, if some candidate came out advocating extreme violations of human rights, that might come close in gravity to abortion. But we just don’t have that in America. We don’t have anybody advocating genocide or slavery. As long as that remains the case, there just isn’t any issue more critical than abortion.
Sometimes voting to fight abortion means crossing party lines and ideological affinities, and I’ve done that. I’m generally conservative and pro-Republican, but here in Massachusetts I’ve voted a few times for various moderate-to-liberal Democrats because they were pro-life on abortion and the supposedly conservative Republican wasn’t. So I’m not urging people to make a sacrifice without doing the same myself.
Vatican II, in the document on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) called abortion an “unspeakable crime”. Let’s take that seriously.
Thanks for reading along.
I don’t know how anyone who is pro-life can vote for either Kerry OR Bush! Kerry voted against the ban on partial birth abortion-one of the most horrific procedures imaginable. Also, I am sick of the pro-life issue being limited to Catholics. It is a human life issue and even agnostics and atheists can be pro-life.Bush is against abortion but does not fund programs that would allow women to keep their babies. He also is pro-war which is pro-murder. I wish a candidate was pro-life and anti-war. Wow, that would be the person I’d vote for. In my conscience, I do not think I can vote for either Kerry or Bush. Call me an apathetic American. Even if I saw Kerry doing something to protect the lives of the fetuses being killed each day, I might be able to vote for him, but he does nothing to protect their lives. No, it’s not ” all about the babies” as one writer said. It’s all about human life and I wish their was a candidate who was pro-life for ALL people; fetuses, babies, women, men,-ALL people.
RC fails to mention the church’s stand on the death penalty. Anyone who votes for Bush should call themselves anti-abortionists, not pro-life. The Republican party has done a nice job turning politics into a one-issue vote for Catholics. Ignore all of the church’s other teachings and any other issues or beliefs you may have…just vote this one issue. To turn over the Roe V. Wade decision should be a detriment to the Republican party. Then, I’m sure all good pro-life Catholics would have to vote against pro death penalty supporters? Or is this not just about abortion? Abortion is wrong, but it should not be the single factor determining how this country is run.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in the Glossary for abortion, “deliberate termination of pregnancy by killing the unborn child. Such direct abortion, willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. (2271-2272).”
Ya’ll just try to confuse the issue by mentioning other issues. If one cannot support the life of the unborn and the most innocent in society, all their other decissions are going to be skewed, as well.
Death penalty: If the state has the means to punish without putting them to death, they should use these other means to punish. That is why the pope’s opinion says that western civilized nations should not use the death penalty. The Church does not disallow the death penalty.
The previous comment explains why it is a grave sin to support a pro-abortion candidate; this also explains why the Boston diocese bishop does not allow Kerry to receive communion. Pro-abortion candidates basically excommunicate themselves and must go to confession immediately. Kerry refuses to change his position and support the most innocent in society….
The Vatican is just desperate right now to change the subject. The Pope is furious over the temerity of the American Catholic laity in demanding that their hierarchy be accountable for the sexual abuses and proclivities of their clergy. He sees the whole clergy abuse mess, not in terms of all the born children who were victimized, and mothers whose faith and trust were betrayed, but as an erosion of ecclesiastical authority. He just wrapped up a symposium in Rome, with participation by numerous psychologists, sociologists, etc., designed to support the proposition that abusive priests should be treated with compassion and therapy rather than “zero tolerance.” He has also initiated changes in the liturgy designed to bolster the idea that priests and bishops are the sole purveyors of God’s presence and has become increasingly strident over the abominable suggestion that women could ever be ordained. Unfortunately for the Pope, however, in view of his apparent disdain for Americans and women–only women have abortions and abortions, like it or not, have been legal in the U.S. for 31 years. No legislator was involved in the decision, or will be. If the Catholic clergy and hierarchy haven’t been able to persuade Catholic women that they have an obligation to follow Church “doctrine” in making their own choices about birth control, abortion, and other procreation issues, what difference will it ever make what a Catholic politician thinks or says, especially a male politician. I think Catholic women should unite in refusing to take Communion from the Pope and any American Bishop who has failed to cooperate fully with the Commission on Clergy Abuse…and obviously vote for Kerry.
JC,
Look at these facts my friend.
In 2003 there were approximately 1.4 million abortions in the United States alone.
In 2003 there were exactly 65 human beings that died due to capital punishment.
Since 1973 over 40 million innocent lives have been slaughtered.
Since 1976 924 human beings have been put to death in the death penalty.
Do they hardly match up???…This math is math that a pre-schooler could fathom.
forgive me..it should say..Since 1973 over 40 million innocent lives have been slaughtered in abortions