Deacon using parish bulletins to take potshots at conservatives

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Tolle_Lege said:
to avoid addressing issues that are likely to upset the majority left-wing media, like abortion and homosexuality.
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???

The Bishops of the US have an impressive initiative “Marriage Unique For A Reason”. This

http://www.marriageuniqueforareason.org/

This is where your parish and parishioners would be linked for info, bulletin and social media campaigns, etc.

You have Respect Life Week every year at your Parish directed by the USCCB:

http://www.usccb.org/about/pro-life-activities/index.cfm

Every Diocese in the US has a Respect Life Office that works year round.
 
I wasn’t trying to start a rumor…I forgot the specific publication. Thank you for your holy concern.
 
The one who handled part of my husband’s services (the funeral home part) was so much like Ned Flanders I was sorry my husband was not alive to see him and chuckle with me about it.
He was a very nice man and did a wonderful job with the services…he was just very much like Ned 🙂
 
JoeFreedom said:
Agreed, immigration is not a neutral topic, but my post was originally to address the prudence of using a parish bulletin to espouse political opinion to its parish members.

Also, I’ve seen many use Pope Francis’s words as a strongarm to push for their agenda because it now aligns to those who tend to lean left, and they say we must listen to him since he is Pope, when in fact as Catholics we know that unless he speaks ex cathedra, he is speaking his opinion. If another Pope were to speak his opinion and it disagreed with yours (in the past some popes had a likely different stance on the death penalty than many on the left had, but never used this same argument).
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There are several issues in this post and not a single thing you said was outside political rhetoric.

Political rhetoric is mostly vacuous, devoid of content, or thought, seeking only to inflame, divide, and polarize. There are forms of thinking, speaking, and analyzing issues - political rhetoric is not one of them, nor does it try, aim, or succeed at the former.

Political rhetoric is just a set of pre-fabricated arguments - what in catholic theology would be called captious/deleterious sophistry. - I’m sorry but that kind of discourse has no effect on me @JoeFreedom .
 
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@TheLittleLady and @Tolle_Lege, thank you both for your help. Apparently what appeared in L’Osservatore Romano was a brief summary of the long article published in La Civilta Cattolica. This will now keep me busy for quite a long time!

www.catholicculture.org

‘An ecumenism of hate’ | News Headlines

A chief provider and curator of Catholic information on the web since 1996. Our editorial voice, always faithful to the teachings of the Church, assists and inspires Catholic clergy and laity.
www.catholicculture.org www.catholicculture.org
 
Thanks. I may reach out to the deacon or the priest and try to respectfully discuss it. I have over the years learned to just let things go, but I’m only human and for some reason this got to me. To be honest, it’s the reason I don’t post a lot anymore. It really doesn’t do any good to vent about stuff. In fact, one of the good articles the deacon wrote was about two monks who had to help two old crotchety ladies across a river by carrying them on their shoulders. When the monks got across they helped the women off their shoulders and each group went on their own way. One of the monks kept complaining about how the woman he helped was berating him, hitting him with her shoe, etc. The other monk said something along the lines of how the complaining monk still had the woman on his shoulders. Basically, even though the situation was over, he was still carrying “her” on his mind. This type of thing moves us away from God.

I guess I haven’t done that in this case, but also had a valid question of whether or not it is appropriate.
 
It seems you’ve assumed your deacon has placed political views before faith. There’s an equal possibility that you’re doing the same. Perhaps you could try to read his comments and pray about their meaning and influence in your life?
 
JoeFreedom said:
Then why comment?
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For this reason esteemed @JoeFreedom : because I believe in dialogue. Please, don’t think I was uncharitable - that was not my aim.

I pointed only towards writing mechanics in itself. That perhaps a second moment of reflection is in order. I understand your dismay with the parish bulletin, and even more precisely for the difficulty of having a dialogue with the said deacon. “Truth is an encounter”. I honestly hope our encounter brought you something, on my side I say you were courteous and charitable in your dealings with me, I would however reexamine the political factors of division seeking to overcome them.

God bless.
 
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Perhaps it helps to remember that we are Catholics first, Americans second.

There is no political party in These United States that fully embraces Catholic Teaching.

Liberals/Democrats ignore the Teaching about Life by embracing Abortion.

Conservatives/Republicans ignore the Teaching about the people being the responsible as Caretakers of the Earth and everything in it by refusing to accept responsibility for Climate Change.

We’d be wise to not fully embrace any political ideology and stick exclusively to Catholicism to form our beliefs.
 
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Yeah, I love that monk story. I have often thought of it during my life, including yesterday when somebody at an event started hollering at me unjustly for something and I had to set that aside and enjoy the rest of the event with this person sitting behind me.

I can see where it would be wearing to put up with this every week though. Of the two deacons who most often give the annoying homilies I mentioned, one of them is at a parish some distance away so I only go there once in a while. The other one is at my parish, but he’s not at every Mass and when I see him heading for the pulpit I just tune out and read Scripture, or discreetly pray a Rosary or Divine Mercy, rather than listen to him. If the priest doesn’t do anything about the bulletin columns, I guess you would just have to ignore them or detach yourself from them, like maybe just chuckle at them instead of getting wound up.
 
Although I can not say that I am as good as some of the more seasoned experts at true charitable dialogue and true “argumentation” (that word’s actual meaning has been distorted in recent decades) like the apologists on Catholic Radio (e.g.: Trent Horn), I will say that I do try to take the approach not to convince you that you are wrong and that I am right, but for you to understand the argument(s) I am making and let you decide, presuming I present them factually without ad hominem, etc.

I have a friend / coworker, who is the complete opposite of me in every way ideologically. He is a liberal Democrat, believes in on-demand abortion, homosexual “marriage”, euthanasia, universal health care, open borders, taxing the rich, no rights to guns, hate-speech, etc. Yet him and I have a uniquely rare way of discussing our differences. We do so respectfully and politely, each providing our reasons why we believe what we believe, presenting questions and counter-arguments, and doing so without resorting to ad hominem.
 
“Wife.of.Gabriel said:
We’d be wise to not fully embrace any political ideology and stick exclusively to Catholicism to form our beliefs.
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← Yes, this! This is a big reason why I have put my political beliefs solidly behind my religious beliefs. I “rearranged” so-to-speak. Sure, I still have them, but I try to filter everything through what Christ teaches first (although like anyone else, fail from time to time).

Since in America, we really only have a choice of two parties or a way to label ourselves as “left” or “right”, it’s difficult and time-consuming to say what one believes for every concept, and much easier to say one is liberal or conservative, even though I do not fully align to either, even though I lean one way vs. the other.
 
JoeFreedom said:
what about the first article of him calling people who do not buy electric vehicles evil and unChristian?
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Difficult to comment without seeing this in context, and I understand that you do not want to make that public.

I’d have to say that a blind answer is that people express personal opinions. I have said that anyone who eats low quality “frozen dessert” instead of quality ice cream is crazy. That does not mean I think they have an actual mental illness.
 
JoeFreedom said:
we really only have a choice of two parties or a way to label ourselves as “left” or “right”,
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No, I am a member of an alternate party that takes their platform from the Social Doctrine of the Church. We do have choices, but, not as many people choose to take the road less traveled.
 
@JoeFreedom honest to God I appreciate the trouble you are taking in responding to me. And your last post was just lovely and a true exercise of Christian charity.

I would ask you to please notice that I failed utterly in the form of my exposition - for not having the patience, softness, and attention to “the person” (who always takes precedence over ideas) that it should have had. But please, also notice the subtle detail: I didn’t make an “ad hominem” nor did I aim at such, I was however ruthless regarding the “text mechanics itself” (the ideas being largely independent of the person.)

One of the problems in debating issues that have political overlap in these threads is that immediately a bunch of folks join in with little contribution other than banging the war drum. And that works against fruitful dialogue sometimes to a point of rendering dialogue impossible.
JoeFreedom said:
Yet him and I have a uniquely rare way of discussing our differences.
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You’ll might like to know that I’m European. My family has had successive generations of immigrants on all continents. And the political spectrum is completely unrecognizable here, what you call left/right can hardly be recognized as such here.
 
I appreciate your sentiments. Truly. I do not believe I am the model of Christian charity. LOL! I do try. Fail a lot. I certainly started this thread with somewhat of a chip on my shoulder for feeling like I was grouped in with the hateful side of many who believe like I do, whether or not that was the intention of the deacon or not, even though my I did have an honest question about whether this was acceptable or not given church teaching. I think I’ve gotten the answer in that regard.

I felt like I was maybe uncharitable to you, and for that I apologize. At least I can take out of this an opportunity to learn and to continue to use my failings to try and be holier the next opportunity I have. I do agree with you that political rhetoric is vacuous and that true argumentation is an art form long lost on most these days. And so I am clear, (since Internet posting leaves much context to the seagulls), I had no intent to accuse you of ad hominen, but I think you interpreted it that way, and that my discussion of ad hominem was only to discuss its presence in our political environment, and not to accuse you of it.
 
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