Father James Altman: You cannot be Catholic & a Democrat. Period

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Fr. Altman’s own bishop apparently gave him a thinly veiled smackdown yesterday.

“Canonical penalties are not far away if my attempts at fraternal correction do not work. I pray that Fr. Altman’s heart and eyes might be open to the error of his ways and that he might take steps to correct his behavior and heal the wound he has inflicted on the Body of Christ,” said Bishop William Patrick Callahan.
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News of this correction by his bishop is now spreading throughout Catholic media, and I’m glad.


As Bishop Callahan rightly states, “When we approach issues that are contradictory to the Faith and teachings of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, particularly on abortion and other life issues, we should invite dialogue and heart-felt conversion to the truth. Our approach must never seek to divide, isolate and condemn. That being said, it is not only the underlying truth that needs to be evaluated but also the manner of delivery and the tone of his message. Unfortunately, the tone Fr. Altman offers comes off as angry and judgmental, lacking any charity in a way that causes scandal both in the Church and in society.”

Amen.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Fr. Altman’s own bishop apparently gave him a thinly veiled smackdown yesterday.
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The Church is as divided and conflicted as the world. That fact alone ought to shame us and call us to deep, deep introspection, prayer, examination and repentance - and conversion! Truth is ONE. We are not one. God help us!
 
christofirst said:
As Bishop Callahan rightly states, “When we approach issues that are contradictory to the Faith and teachings of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, particularly on abortion and other life issues, we should invite dialogue and heart-felt conversion to the truth. Our approach must never seek to divide, isolate and condemn. That being said, it is not only the underlying truth that needs to be evaluated but also the manner of delivery and the tone of his message. Unfortunately, the tone Fr. Altman offers comes off as angry and judgmental, lacking any charity in a way that causes scandal both in the Church and in society.”

Amen.
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Jesus left gentility behind when He spoke to, and of, the "scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Their outward religiosity was false and misdirected:
Mt 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Mt 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
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The negative tone and uncharitable anger exhibited in Fr. Altman’s video was less concerning to me than was the misleading and incorrect statements he made, the “underlying truth that needs to be evaluated,” as his bishop so diplomatically put it.

@fide , you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but once again I’m asking you to take my word for it that, like you, I want to see less abortions. In that, we are one. How we best go about promoting life in society is where we differ, and on that we can legitimately disagree and still be united in our faith. That’s the point I’m trying to make. Once we get past the false claim that no one, under any circumstances, can be a good Catholic and vote for a Democratic candidate, which the Church clearly teaches is false, then we can debate the merits and shortcomings of any political party, as many are already doing here on CAF.

I’m not accusing you of this, but some people apparently think that if they use the threat of hellfire, they can, for all intents and purposes, force a person of faith to vote in the way they see as best. They think they can just shut down legitimate debate with the threat of damnation, and in so doing force someone to vote against their well-formed conscience. This kind of coercion has been firmly rejected by the Church, which is precisely why documents like “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” are nuanced, looking at all the issues and circumstances related to voting, rather than being overly simplistic, whittling our rich faith down to a few non-negotiables.
 
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christofirst said:
some people apparently think that if they use the threat of hellfire, they can, for all intents and purposes, force a person of faith to vote in the way they see as best. They think they can just shut down legitimate debate with the threat of damnation, and in so doing force someone to vote against their well-formed conscience.
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Very similar to people here (naming no one) who respond to posts with “that’s not my position, it’s the Church’s position” as a way to shut down debate.

We need to allow for people to explore options, work through issues.

No one knows who is going to hell and who is going to heaven.
 
How long has talk and dialogue been going on now. For years, for decades and where are we? Deeper and worse off with abortion and the culture of death.

This isn’t just about abortion but the eternal souls of so many people.

It’s time to tell it like it is.
 
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I’m telling it like it is. No Catholic should be made to feel that they are held hostage with the threat of damnation in order to persuade them to vote for or against any political candidate, not when the Church, their well-formed conscience, and their God-given intelligence tells them otherwise.
 
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Father Altman does not have some special knowledge of who goes to heaven or hell.
Moreover, his contention that everyone who voted for Obama is somehow a bad Catholic or committed a sin is ridiculous.

I am happy his bishop spoke up.
 
Do you know what an abortion actually, really, horrifically IS, in the bloody and inhuman truth of it?

It leaves me speechless. No “debate” can change the plain fact of the horror of it.
 
Another article - Crisis magazine:

‘Catholics for Biden’ Is a Bad Joke
author: DECLAN LEARY

1st two paragraphs:
Catholics for Biden held its national kickoff call on the evening of Thursday, September 3. It was, predictably, an hour-long attempt to make us all forget that the candidate is implicit in—and his party is devoted to—the vilest crime ever perpetrated against humanity. It was a less than brilliant exercise in misdirection.

The distraction was attempted, for the most part, through sheer vagueness. Appeals to “the common good” and “Catholic values” abounded, with very little illumination of just what these words might mean and how they might be realized in political practice.
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click on link for the rest …
 
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The Church does not need to cast moral issues in explicitly political terms. All that does is drive people into hard political positions.

The Church needs to speak with power to moral issues, and it is clear where the lines of responsibility are and what a voter’s response should be.
We don’t even get homilies with firm moral exhortations. How can the Church now expect to start using the words “democrat” and “republican” with any moral authority.

Pastors need to simply speak up firmly for moral priorities.
 
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PaulinVA said:
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christofirst:
some people apparently think that if they use the threat of hellfire, they can, for all intents and purposes, force a person of faith to vote in the way they see as best. They think they can just shut down legitimate debate with the threat of damnation, and in so doing force someone to vote against their well-formed conscience.
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Very similar to people here (naming no one) who respond to posts with “that’s not my position, it’s the Church’s position” as a way to shut down debate.

We need to allow for people to explore options, work through issues.

No one knows who is going to hell and who is going to heaven.
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We do know what Christ expects of us though.

Ignorance and weakness are not excuses for sin. They help it proliferate and are the continuing result of it.
 
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fide said:
How many innocent babies should they be allowed to kill, in this journey of theirs?
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Hahahaha.

I’m talking about posters here. People post things. They think about others’ posts. Hopefully they learn and, if needed, change or evolve their views.

This is a discussion forum. People discuss.

Edit: We were talking about VOTING! Wow.
 
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Wrong in virtually every respect. We are obliged to “admonish the sinner” and to correct those who have been led astray. As the bishops have counseled us, abortion is the “preeminent issue” in this year’s election. Pope Benedict has said that we cannot support an abortion-supporting candidate other than for “proportionate reasons”; i.e. equally grave reasons. At present, in this election, there are none and nobody, even the liberals on CAF (to my knowledge) claim that there is.

It is totally wrong to suggest that one’s “conscience” governs all. A conscience can be horribly misinformed or malformed. “Conscience alone” is not Catholic. Supporting abortion politically is not a sign of a “well formed” conscience any more than euthanasia of the elderly or killing all the Jews would be.

Bp. Callahan’s complaint seems to be the tone of Fr. Altman’s delivery. In the cited article, at least, he does not say it’s morally okay to support abortion-supporting politicians. On the other hand, Bp. Strickland praised Fr. Altman’s courage.
 
Ridgerunner said:
We are obliged to “admonish the sinner” and to correct those who have been led astray.
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And exactly how well has yelling, threatening, and calling them murderers worked so far? If you want them to stop killing babies, you first have to convince them that what they are killing are actually babies, because the narrative they are following is different. Convince and educate, not yell or threaten into submission.
 
fide said:
Do you know what an abortion actually, really, horrifically IS , in the bloody and inhuman truth of it?

It leaves me speechless. No “debate” can change the plain fact of the horror of it.
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It’s true. Catholics should never support it for the sake for some limited (and often questionable) social or economic objective. One is reminded somewhat of Esau, who sold his birthright for pottage. Possibly the “Jacob” of our age are the Catholics (possibly a minority) who are faithful to the teachings of the Church, and those of other faiths who recognize that killing the innocent is not a permissible moral choice.
 
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