Exactly, that is how I see it. I also think it takes any further discussion of not letting pro-abort pols to receive Communion off the table. And, it utterly removes the ability to argue these points from pro-life Catholics.
Close. The document does say that some issues are more important than others.
Not really. The fitness of pro-abortion politicians for receiving Communion is covered in other Chuch documents. The voting document doesn’t (and can’t) override other teaching documents.
Yes, and the Bishops likely realize that most Catholics do not dig deeper. This will be used to justify a great many people.
You know that, I know, many other people know that, but politicians will use this document to justify their positions despite all the other sources of what the Church teaches. This document, in a political atmosphere, gives cover for those who want a means to justifiy their position.
It comes from the new webpage on Forming Consciences for Faithful CitizenshipI am curious, what is the purpose of posting this here?
You misunderstand, or I made the wrong statement. People will not read the guide once they have read the introductory statement, because they will take the intro as a summary. Where in the intro/summary does it make any definitive claims (I do not see any) about specific issues?
Gotcha. Thanks.
You misunderstood originally.
My post didn’t mention the introductory letter at all but was referring to the document, Forming Consciences for Faiithful Citizenship. That’s the document that will be put in parish literature racks. The introductory statement is the 5th page of the document.I agree there is an unacceptable amount of “cover.” But it’s not because the USCCB doc doesn’t say that some issues are more important than others. It is because, while the document tells us that some issues are more important, it does not give much concrete information to help us choose which ones those are.
…which is why I said earlier that it would have been helpful to provide theoretical examples as to how to make decisions with regard to competiing positions.
In our parish, the literature “rack” is a table. The bulletins are at one end and then everything else. A lot of people pass by like it’s a buffet, picking up one of everthing. Not that they read it…
I’m going to bet that the overwhelming number of Catholics on CAF attend weekly Mass. But a sizeable number of those posters do not understand Faithful Citizenship (the concept, not the particulars), based on their posts which constantly parrot the secular propaganda that the Church’s positions are irrelevant to secular society. They have never apparently been catechized, or sufficiently so, to understand the application of their personal Catholic commitment to society, and why that proceeds from their Catholic identity. That’s what I was referring to.
Well said.
So, are they saying both sides misused it? If so that would mean that neither side understood it … so what exactly are they trying so hard to say that no one seems capable of understanding them?
In most cases social problems do not stem from evils any more than a hurricane can be considered an evil, and figuring out how to resolve our (e.g.) immigration problems is no more a moral problem than figuring out how to help those devastated by natural disasters. There are no moral evils involved.
It would appear you are in the “let’s lump all the issues together” camp. I’m in the “some issues are more important than others” camp. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which camp you’re in) the document provides no help in determining which side is closer to the truth. We are (again) completely free to follow our own inclinations. I’m surely not alone in believing this doesn’t represent much in the way of guidance.
The Catholic Church is not the religious arm of the Republican Party and of the political Right, which seems to be what folks want the Bishops to be saying.…which is why I said earlier that it would have been helpful to provide theoretical examples as to how to make decisions with regard to competiing positions.
I continue to believe, however, that the key missing understanding among the majority of Catholics is the very concept (and mandate) of Faithful Citizenship. So without a homilist getting into specifics (save for perhaps one example), this is a catechetical opportunity for the Sunday pulpit: What is the place of the Catholic Church in influencing society, and the individual member of that Church in his or her moral consistency, both with regard to personal actions and “public” actions? Because until this is made explciit and understood, the document will be taken seriously only by the minority of Catholics who do understood the mandate of Faithful Citizenship, and who take clerical statements about society seriously.
And by the way, the parish literature racks? Observe who even approaches them: the already devout Catholics who tend to attend more than Sunday Mass, are involved somehow more than that in their Church and in Church concerns regarding society, etc.