Many people, including Catholics, somehow misunderstand the meaning of Pro Life. The biggest issue, according to the Pope and many US Bishops, in this past Presidential election, was the one of abortion. Life itself is held sacrosanct at all stages, from conception to natural death, by the Catholic Church. Since abortion was, or should have been, of the greatest concern in this past election, yes Catholics should have been conscience bound to vote for the more pro life candidate rather than the one who vowed to Planned Parenhood that his first action as President would be to sign FOCA into law, thus dismantling any protection for the unborn federal, or state wide.
Is it a sin to vote for a Pro-choice candidate then? I thought the Catholic voter must look at each candidate and decide the best person to vote for. For instance, President Bush may have been more Pro-Life than other candidates but his war stances may have bothered some Catholic’s consciences. Whoever the best candidate is in that person’s opinion the Catholic must contact the candidate and express their concerns should they be Pro-Death.
Personally, I don’t believe those people (Catholics who voted for Obama) have to go to confession. There are some Catholics who went by their concience-not because he happened to be pro choice - there was nothing that said you could not vote for Obama - (regardless of how I personally feel)-I know that many who voted for him truly believed that he would help more than hurt - regardless of his stance on abortion. I know there are many on here that believe that abortion was the what should have determined Catholic votes but people were allowed to vote with their concience and many voted in good concience for Obama. I’m sorry but I don’t believe the Church has any right to say (and rightly they didn’t) - as a Catholic, you have to vote for Candidate X or Candidate Y. They can make reccomendations but if they did come out and say as a Catholic you must vote for Candidate X - if they did they would no longer be able to say they were not political and would no longer receive things like tax exemption. As it was, many came very close (including one Priest in our Parish) to saying or did say - as a Catholic, you can not vote for the candidate that supports abortion. As far as I know, with all the letters that were written to the Bishop here, he was censured for it.
I hope this is a good link, if not just search for Fr. Corapi on youtube and look for Death Wish. If after watching these 2 messages and you are not convinced that voting for a politician that promotes abortion is wrong and should send you to the confessional , then may God have mercy on your soul.
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear- many who voted for Obama that were Catholics voted for him NOT because he was pro choice but because they felt that he could help the country. I never inferred that I voted for or agreed with them. What I do agree with is that as an American citizen these people have the right to choose who they vote for by going with their concience. Some Catholics are very anti-abortion in all situations - others are not - I believe that many of the Catholics that voted for Obama (although I expect some are regretting it now), believed that the most important issues were not anti abortion issues. I did have a friend explain some of her logic to me - it had to do with if the economics of this country are helped (which she believed Obama to be more capable of doing than Mc Cain)- then perhaps some people won’t feel they need to have an abortion because they’ll feel financially secure enough to raise a child - she also felt that the soldiers would be brought home. She was true to her concience and made the best choice she felt she could at the time. She also pointed out that even if Obama wasn’t voted in, there really wasn’t anyway that Mc Cain could stop abortions from occuring. He might push for them to but there was no garuntee that he would be able to stop them.
One must look at the hierarchies of good and evil. Is it more immoral to kill an undefended child in utero, or to wage a war, (just or unjust) against a nation that may have been a threat to one’s homeland? No one likes killing of any kind, but there is room for a theory of self defense in war while there can be no acceptance of killing a child in the womb for any reason. Whether the Iraqi war was just, or unjust (I for one, did not approve of it.) even though thousands fo soldiers and civilians have been killed, the slaughter cannot begin to compare with the slaughter of babies killed in the past 37 years since 1973 just here n the US. Over 50, 000, 000 compared to 4?5000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I have puzzled over the conundrum of the Pope not slapping the wrists of some of our “bishops” over allowing pro abort catholic public figures to attend communion. I don’t know that much about it, but the way I understand things is that the Pope is somewhat like a CEO, he can suggest, exhort, beg the bishops to toe the line, but unlike a CEO, he cannot fire them except in the most possible extreme instances. Why he cannot say “three strikes and you’re out”, I will never understand. The recalcitrant hierarchy are a scandal not only to Catholics, causing great confusiion, but also to those who are not Catholic who already have a difficult enough time trying to understand us Catholics. We aren’t easy to understand as compared to denominational churches and weak spined, political bishops are not helping the situation. Some have come out and taken a strong stance regarding Church doctrine, such as Chaput, Finn, Martini (who “suddenly” retired), Burke (who has said from his position of authority in the Vatican, that of Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura ) that no politician voting for abortion should be allowed to receive communion. Go figure. I don’t understand it.
In addition, we should take into account what Pope Benedict said back in 2004 when asked if a Catholic could vote for a pro-choice candidate:
First I would like to apologize for my poorly worded response. It was intended for everyone not to anyone specifically.
I hope and pray that you are correct about “changing” the direcction of this country. When studying history in college one thing that became quite aparent to me was that morality was something which needed to exist - I say this because it appears that in almost every case I found, when a Peoiple’s morals went by the way side and there was mass sin and corruption with no longer a sense of what was right and wrong regardless of which deity was being praised, that People went the way of their minds into the gutter. Of course many will argue that it happened for other reasons, which I understand, but at each juncture prior to the fall of a People/.Civilization it was obvious that the majority of minds were where their People/.Civilization ended up - discarded in the gutter.First I would like to apologize for my poorly worded response. It was intended for everyone not to anyone specifically.
No matter how one votes it is our God given right to choose the candidate that we feel will do the best job. Given that we are also expected to vote using a
" well formed conscience ". Many people voted for candidate Obama for financial well being or perhaps other reasons which is their right.As Catholics we are also called to look at the whole picture, and a very important part was overlooked. There are some that believe that " life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness " are inalienable rights given to us by the Creator. Without life, which is listed first for a good reason, the other rights are unobtainable. I would suggest that IMHO not everyone used all the information available to them to make the decision on whom to vote for. I do believe that many people were caught up in the feeling that this was a change that was needed and disregarded
( and/or did not realize ) the unintended consequences.
As far as the Bishops and Priests telling us who to vote for, I agree that this is not their responsibility, but it is their responsibility to help our formation and give us proper direction. It is unfortunate that many Catholics do not listen to their shepherds as they should in many areas where the Priests do have authority. As an example, there are a number of Catholics that do not believe that abortion is always wrong or many other sins
( that they do not really believe are sins) that need to be confessed. I profess that I am a sinner, but I do try to follow the path Jesus showed us and when I stumble I know that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the way back to the right path. I also believe we are heading in the wrong direction, but with prayer and well formed voters we can change the direction of this country in 2010 and beyond. I encourage everyone to pray the rosary and ask for The Blessed Mothers’ intercession.
Words have a way of meaning whatever we want them to mean. You, as others, have fallen for the rationalization of compartmentalizing evil and good. Somewhat like a parallel universe. While understanding exactly what Pope Benedict XVI said, most people forget the rest of his sentence, “for proportionate reasons.” What is proportionate about the killing of 50, 000,000 unborn babies and any other issue?
The devil works in many ways. Methinks the Bishop goofed. No wonder people are afraid to say the truth. Those that do get punished. I would say this particular priest was a stronger leader than his Bishop who didn’t support him. As far as all the ankle nippers who reported his “great wrongdoing”, they need to be kicked out of the way.
The Bishop had to cover his backside. Had he not censured the priest, and this continued then the church could wind up no longer being able to claim that they were just a religious organization and loose it’s tax exempt status - they would be considered a political organization and rightly so - if you’re going to endorse a candidate to your parishoners, you can no longer remain a solely religious organization- like it or not, that can change your standing. Goodness knows that if it was another organization like say another sect of Christianity and they were saying bote for Obama and it got out, then I garuntee you that people who are anti abortion would be crying from the rafters that they aren’t allowed to endorse someone publicly as a relgious organization. The street has to go both ways in this country.
Vasian, Excommunications do happen especially to public persons who remain obstinate in scandal. Usually the protests and the evidence need to escalate to the attention of the Vatican and often the local Bishops are still in the process of making determinations for recommendation. Any organization that defers judgment to departmentalized sections requires more time to react as the discernment process is very deliberate. Keep in mind that all who give scandal publicly and obstinately in many cases incur excommunication according to Catechism without pronouncement from the Church according to their scandal and so the statement of punishment usually follows a Tribunal trial. It is not possible to receive Christ sacrilegiously without suffering a final condemnation so the statement of condemnation takes some time to attach itself to the person.And, not only these professed Catholic politicians, but certain members of the clergy as well.
One name that comes to mind is the outspoken Father Daniel Maguire, a pro-choice Catholic priest.
What gives?