Archives for 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #78)

Friday, October 26, 2012 A.D. 2 Comments

This week: Archbishop Chaput speaks on the politics of abortion and being Catholic first plus Father John Fitch’s excellent homily on the same topic. Two successful businessmen talk about religious freedom and the HHS mandate. Catholic social teaching and subsidiarity (hint: it’s not solidarity alone). At one time we had a free press that wasn’t an extension of 1 party. The government’s role in marriage, explained simply. The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles have a new CD in the works. The Benedictine Monks of Norcia are brewing up something of their own.

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Not Democrats, not Republicans… not even Americans first. Catholics first. By that, Archbishop Charles Chaput means faithful to ACTUAL Church teaching first.

Father John Fitch (Epiphany Cathedral in Venice, FL) recently gave an excellent homily on the same theme as Archbishop Chaput. “The fact of the matter is I am neither liberal nor conservative. Simply put, I am Catholic.”

Note to Joe Biden – that also means not having a “private” set of morals and a “public” one. There is only the truth and opposing it is sin.

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The Green family talk about their Christian faith, their business (Hobby Lobby) and how religious freedom is being infringed.

Another businessman, employer and healthcare provider for many, speaks about the impact of ObamaCare on him. Listen to Autocam CEO John Kennedy:

Here, the issue is explained in 15 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enC0eFJgmpA

Note to Joe Biden – you can not leave your faith at home.

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Does the Catholic social justice principle of subsidiarity still confuse you? If you care about social justice (and you absolutely should), then you must care about what the Church actually teaches.

Note to Joe Biden – large, every growing, powerful centralized government is NOT and never has been the Catholic answer.

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A pillar of democracy, the fourth estate, relentless seekers of truth – yes, the American mainstream media, is the topic of this Bill Whittle video:

I am reminded of a line Elizabeth Scalia used recently describing a reporter who (this is the amazing part) is covering an important national story even though it is damaging to the media’s candidate. She wrote “CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson is committing journalism regarding Benghazi, on behalf of a citizenry that is entitled to know what the hell is going on.” See Elizabeth’s piece Benghazi Travesty: 7 Hours, 4 Lives: No Scheisskopf, Please.

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Confusion about the nature, purpose and governmental role in marriage is not a US only problem. An agenda against so-called “traditional” marriage has sadly spread much wider. This video is for a British audience, but it’s message is simple and applicable everywhere:

Fine you say, but how does “gay marriage” hurt you? It does, a lot. See my earlier post but how does “gay marriage” hurt you. For a very quick summary:

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The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, is an order outside of Kansas City. They are putting together a beautiful new CD entitled Advent at Ephesus. Here is a preview:

Spotted by Father Zuhlsdorf

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The Benedictine Monks of Norcia at the Monastery of San Benedetto, Italy have a new means of support – a brewery! Birra Nursia has now launched in the birthplace of St. Benedict:

A nice video about their order is here .

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

Filed Under: quick takes

Credo of the People of God

Tuesday, October 23, 2012 A.D. 1 Comment

Pope Benedict XVI has announced the Year of Faith in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the universal Catechism. The year began on October 11, 2012 and ends on November 24, 2013. This is a time of renewal, conversion and evangelism.

Interestingly, it is not the first Year of Faith. The last time was in 1967 following Vatican II and was called by Pope Paul VI. It was in part, a response to actions already being taken falsely “in the spirit of Vatican II”. At the end of that year, the Holy Father published an extended creed to reinforce our non-changing doctrine and counter those taking heterodox liberties in the name of Vatican II.

The creed is in the form of a Motu Proprio named Solemni hac Liturgia (This Solemn Liturgy), also called the Credo of the People of God. Well worth studying:

Profession of Faith

We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of things visible such as this world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels, and creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul.

We believe that this only God is absolutely one in His infinitely holy essence as also in all His perfections, in His omnipotence, His infinite knowledge, His providence, His will and His love. He is He who is, as He revealed to Moses; and He is love, as the apostle John teaches us: so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us, and who, “dwelling in light inaccessible, “is in Himself above every name, above every thing and above every created intellect. God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light. The mutual bonds which eternally constitute the Three Persons, who are each one and the same divine being, are the blessed inmost life of God thrice holy, infinitely beyond all that we can conceive in human measure.We give thanks, however, to the divine goodness that very many believers can testify with us before men to the unity of God, even though they know not the mystery of the most holy Trinity.

The Father

We believe then in the Father who eternally begets the Son; in the Son, the Word of God, who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal love. Thus in the Three Divine Persons, coaeternae sibi et coaequales, the life and beatitude of God perfectly one superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated being, and always “there should be venerated unity in the Trinity and Trinity in the unity.”

The Son

We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. He is the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and one in substance with the Father, homoousios to Patri, and through Him all things were made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man: equal therefore to the Father according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His humanity; and Himself one, not by some impossible confusion of His natures, but by the unity of His person.

He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God and made us know in Himself the Father. He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us. He taught us the way of the beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit, meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake. Under Pontius Pilate He suffered-the Lamb of God bearing on Himself the sins of the world, and He died for us on the cross, saving us by His redeeming blood. He was buried, and, of His own power, rose on the third day, raising us by His resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace. He ascended to heaven, and He will come again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead: each according to his merits-those who have responded to the love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished.

And His Kingdom will have no end.

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the Holy Spirit, who is Lord and Giver of life, who is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He spoke to us by the prophets; He was sent by Christ after His resurrection and His ascension to the Father; He illuminates, vivifies, protects and guides the Church; He purifies the Church’s members if they do not shun His grace. His action, which penetrates to the inmost of the soul, enables man to respond to the call of Jesus: Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48).

We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner, preserved from all stain of original sinand filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures.

Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly gloryand likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ’s members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.

Original Offense

We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our first parents-established as they were in holiness and justice, and in which man knew neither evil nor death. It is human nature so fallen, stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with human nature, “not by imitation, but by propagation” and that it is thus “proper to everyone.”

Reborn of the Holy Spirit

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the cross redeemed us from original sin and all the personal sins committed by each one of us, so that, in accordance with the word of the apostle, “where sin abounded, grace did more abound.”

Baptism

We believe in one Baptism instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Baptism should be administered even to little children who have not yet been able to be guilty of any personal sin, in order that, though born deprived of supernatural grace, they may be reborn “of water and the Holy Spirit” to the divine life in Christ Jesus.

The Church

We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, built by Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter. She is the Mystical Body of Christ; at the same time a visible society instituted with hierarchical organs, and a spiritual community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim People of God here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings; the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through which the work and the sufferings of Redemption are continued throughout human history, and which looks for its perfect accomplishment beyond time in glory.In the course of time, the Lord Jesus forms His Church by means of the sacraments emanating from His plenitude.By these she makes her members participants in the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit who gives her life and movement.She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to heal her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Word

Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to the Spirit, through that Israel whose scriptures she lovingly guards, and whose patriarchs and prophets she venerates; founded upon the apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit, she has the charge of guarding, teaching, explaining and spreading the Truth which God revealed in a then veiled manner by the prophets, and fully by the Lord Jesus. We believe all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium.We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor of Peter when he teaches ex cathedra as pastor and teacher of all the faithful, and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it exercises with him the supreme magisterium.

We believe that the Church founded by Jesus Christ and for which He prayed is indefectibly one in faith, worship and the bond of hierarchical communion. In the bosom of this Church, the rich variety of liturgical rites and the legitimate diversity of theological and spiritual heritages and special disciplines, far from injuring her unity, make it more manifest.

One Shepherd

Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church of Christ, of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong to her as her own and tend to Catholic unity, and believing in the action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of Christ love of this unity, we entertain the hope that the Christians who are not yet in the full communion of the one only Church will one day be reunited in one flock with one only shepherd.

We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His body which is the Church.But the divine design of salvation embraces all men; and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only to God, can obtain salvation.

Sacrifice of Calvary

We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.

Transubstantiation

Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine, as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.

The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord glorious in heaven is not multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places on earth where Mass is celebrated. And this existence remains present, after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches. And it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore in the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see, and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.

Temporal Concern

We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.

We believe in the life eternal. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ whether they must still be purified in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes them to paradise as He did for the Good Thief are the People of God in the eternity beyond death, which will be finally conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be reunited with their bodies.

Prospect of Resurrection

We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in paradise forms the Church of Heaven where in eternal beatitude they see God as He is, and where they also, in different degrees, are associated with the holy angels in the divine rule exercised by Christ in glory, interceding for us and helping our weakness by their brotherly care.

We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God and His saints is ever listening to our prayers, as Jesus told us: Ask and you will receive.Thus it is with faith and in hope that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Blessed be God Thrice Holy. Amen.

Filed Under: faith

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #77)

Friday, October 19, 2012 A.D. 1 Comment

This week: It’s time to revisit Raymond Arroyo’s interview with Mitt Romney. Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus explains why he is “frightened to death.” Another successful businessman, Hungarian immigrant Thomas Peterffy, talks about the loss of opportunity and our dangerous path. Guess who defends traditional values in the face of attacks on it by US and other western powers. Just how bad is the debt crisis? Thanks to abortion, sterilizations and contraception – all western powers will be predominantly Muslim after the next generation. Marriage = biology, not bigotry. Eye of the Sparrow.

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Many people oppose Mitt Romney based on 30 second attack ads produced by his opponent. That is a shame, as their vote will be uninformed. I invite fair-minded people to let him present himself, which he does here for EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo. Mitt speaks on religious freedom, prayer in his life, Paul Ryan, personal character vs. policy choices, robbing Medicare to pay for ObamaCare, permanent immigration reform, campaigning and his faith.

This is a few months old, but conveys well who he is. Two quotes that popped-out at me: “God’s work is to save souls and to bring, to return, to Him.” and “This is a time to get America back on track, not to vilify fellow Americans.”

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We have inherited a great country and will leave it for our children in far worse shape than we received it. The $16,000,000,000,000 federal debt is crushing our economy today and particularly for future generations. Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, speaks candidly from the heart:

Spotted by my friend Tom

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Thomas Peterffy created this ad as a concerned private citizen, concerned about the march to socialism that the Catholic Church has long denounced. This is where he is “coming from”:

Thomas Peterffy grew up in socialist Hungary. Despite the fact that he could not speak English when he immigrated to the United States in 1956, Thomas fulfilled the American dream. With hard work and dedication, he started a business that today employs thousands of people. In the 1970s, Thomas bought a seat on the American Stock Exchange. He played a key role in developing the electronic trading of securities and is the founder of Interactive Brokers, an online discount brokerage firm with offices all over the world.

Spotted by Matt Cassens

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During the cold war, Russia was seen as a godless, communist force arrayed against the God-fearing, free people of the West. We stood for traditional values, they stood for anything but traditional values. My how things have changed. Now it is Russia, against western powers, who defends traditional values.

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Our debt crisis is very real and will, at some point in time in the not very distant future, affect every single American. It will greatly hurt the rich and the poor. There can be no bail-out.

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One of the most ironic aspects of leftism is how superior many feel over those who do not share their ideological views. Yet, consider the historical outcomes every time their way is tried. The western economic collapse is squarely on their shoulders IMHO. The culture of death and the destruction of the family is another result of their brilliance. Father Z posted this recently:

The video refers to “fertility rates” in the sense of babies who are not destroyed in the womb or whose conception was not blocked by artificial contraceptive means. This contrasts starkly with the natural notion of fertility.

Blocking births at the source, one way or another, is not the only culture of death offensive. Undermining or destroying the institution through which life is created and nurtured is another. Within an hour of Father’s post, Marcel happened to post this video:

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For a completely different presentation of the first presidential debate, Bad Lip-Reading presents Eye of the Sparrow:

Spotted by Patrick Archbold

Filed Under: quick takes

Live Like You Are Dying

Tuesday, October 16, 2012 A.D. Leave a Comment

Guest contributor: Ed Trego

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

Are you saving goods for yourself or are you saving to honor God in the use of the many blessings he has given you? The rich man in the scripture was obviously more concerned with worldly goods than with heavenly reward. The price he paid for his foolishness was great.

How would you live your life differently if you knew that your life would be taken tonight, or tomorrow, or next week? Are you prepared for the reality that one day it will be required of you? We all must die, and we do not know if that will be in an instant or many years from now. Is your focus on yourself and your earthly pleasures and desires or is it on your heavenly home? How we live today will decide how we will live in eternity.

If you were told that without doubt you will die in three days what would you do? There are essentially two choices; you can become depressed and wait in horror and dread as death approaches or you can thank God for the opportunity to perhaps correct some areas of your life in preparation for death. That choice is yours today just as much as it would be if you had a date certain for your death.

Would you reach out to those you may have hurt in the past and try to reconcile with them? There are always relationships that suffer due to our selfishness and desire to take care of ourselves first. But that isn’t the way it was meant to be. When asked what the greatest commandments were Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40) There is nothing in these commandments that mention love of things; only God and your neighbor.

We have a tendency to care more for our possessions than for our friends, family, and even God. How many times have you failed to take part in a family event because work got in the way? Have you ever skipped Mass on a Holy Day because you just didn’t have the time? If we won’t take the time to care for our family and God, of what value is our goods. Can they truly bring us happiness or just the temporary illusion of happiness? We sometimes act as if we don’t really know what true happiness is. When we depend on our money and our possessions for happiness we are proving that we have a misguided concept of happiness.

I’m certain Satan thoroughly enjoys and encourages our mistaken view of what constitutes happiness. If he can keep our focus on material sources of happiness we are less likely to pay attention to the true source of happiness. There is only one happiness that is worth striving for and that is the happiness of eternal life in the presence of God. Satan will try any trick available to shift our focus to ourselves rather than God or our neighbor.

In today’s society, Satan has developed his skills in this regard to nearly an irresistible force. Everywhere we turn we are told that the path to happiness is a new or bigger car; a bigger house; more “toys” such as televisions, telephones, computers, etc. In many cases our society teaches us that we can never be happy unless we are obtaining more and more and more stuff. Never mind that once we get it we may rarely use it and it will become obsolete in a very short time. Oh well, if it’s not the newest anymore we’ll just have to get the newest and discard what we thought we wanted last month.

Perhaps if we knew we were facing death we would reorder our priorities and consider those things that matter most. Maybe we would strive for those things that can bring us true happiness instead of just material satisfaction.

When a death occurs we always hear things like, “I wish I had told her how much I loved her”, or “I sure wish we could have gotten things right between us before he died”. Maybe taking care of these things right now would go a long way to making life better and more fulfilling rather than regretting that we didn’t do these things when it’s too late.

When you leave the house do you tell your spouse you love her or him? When you go to sleep do you remind them of your love? Perhaps hold them close for a minute or two just to feel the love between you? When we walk out the door we never know for certain whether or not we will ever return. People die in car wrecks, of heart attacks or from other causes every day with no warning. Wouldn’t you want the last words your loved one heard from you to be words of love”

Do you have children? So many times one hears mothers and fathers scolding their children about some infraction of a rule, sometimes quite harshly. While discipline is necessary and should be used to help the right development of children, it can be overdone. What if you send your child off to school after one of these events and they never return? Do you want the last words your child heard from you to be words of scolding or words of love. Even when correcting children it can be done in a loving manner. We should always ensure that our children know of our love more than of our dissatisfaction with their behavior.

If we only knew, we could make sure those we care for were reminded of our love. We could give that extra few dollars to the church or a charity. We could reach out to someone we have wronged to ask forgiveness. Perhaps give forgiveness to that someone whom we feel has wronged us and we’ve been unable or unwilling to forgive.

Death will take us all at some point. We will not normally know when. Oh, we may have some idea if we are diagnosed with a terminal illness, but even then we won’t usually know the day or the hour.

When death comes, all the “toys” we have will mean nothing, someone else will be playing with them tomorrow. The big bank accounts are of no use, someone else will be spending the money. That great summer home on the lake we worked all those extra hours to afford may have to be sold to take care of the ones we leave behind. If we could only get those extra hours of work back, maybe we could have used that time for those things that really matter rather than the material things that will pass away.

Most of all, maybe we could have taken some of the time we spent searching for the material happiness we thought we wanted and used it to better our relationship with our God. An extra hour at a bible study rather than watching the ball game on TV could make the difference between a mediocre relationship and a family relationship with our Lord and Savior. A few more dollars to support the poor of the church rather than buying that new car that wasn’t needed could go a long way to helping someone get their life back on track. While we may never know the good our contribution did, we can be sure that it had a beneficial effect.

Jesus gave up his glory for a while to join the human race. He felt pain, loss and suffering in his life. He ended his life on a cross alongside thieves. He didn’t work for a bigger home or nicer clothes. He devoted his humanity to providing a means for us to regain our proper relationship with our God. When it was done, he returned to the Father and still devotes his efforts to helping us along our way home to him.

We certainly can’t be like Jesus, but we can strive to imitate him as best we can. We can work more for eternal happiness than for material happiness. We can love better and forgive more and help more than we do. All of these things will eventually bring us far more happiness and satisfaction than a bigger house, newer car or fancier clothes.

If we can focus on those things that bring true happiness we can face death, whenever it comes, calmly and with a certain knowledge that we have lived our life in a manner worthy of one who has been adopted by God. We can go home and know we will be welcomed with open arms.

“Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was in prison and you came to me.” (Matthew 25:34-36)

The above meditation is a chapter from Ed’s new eBook “Thoughts of God”. Only $1.99 on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Sony and other fine publishers.

Filed Under: guest Tagged With: Thoughts of God

Elsewhere: Can a Catholic vote for Romney?

Friday, October 12, 2012 A.D. Leave a Comment

On Tuesday I wrote about the source of human rights (It’s your right), the completely false “right to choose” and the upcoming election. Considering his unequivocal position and track record in favor of abortion, no Catholic can morally vote for Barrack Obama.

Can a Catholic vote for Mitt Romney? There are a number of areas where faithful Catholics can disagree on the potential effectiveness of his plans (e.g. healthcare, taxes, government aid for the poor, just war and the death penalty). These are prudential judgments on effectiveness, not morality.

Primary issues of morality where Mitt Romney differs from Barack Obama include abortion, traditional marriage and religious freedom. Romney would score “excellent” in all but abortion where his position is pro-life but not as perfect as we would like. Where does that leave us faithful Catholic voters?

Leila Miller coincidentally addressed this question last Tuesday on her blog Little Catholic Bubble:

I have heard faithful Catholics agonize over this year’s presidential election. They know that a vote for Obama is morally impossible (they are correct), but they are conflicted about voting for Mitt Romney, who is not 100% pro-life. Should they sit out the election or vote for a third party or write-in candidate, knowing that those options boost Obama’s chances of winning?

Or should they vote for Romney and possibly commit a sin?

I hope to assure you today that you will not commit a sin if you vote for Mitt Romney. Not only is the faithful-to-the-Magisterium organization, Catholic Vote, endorsing Romney, but pro-life warrior Fr. Frank Pavone will be voting for him as well:

Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any of the organizations I lead, it is clear to me that taking account not only of the teachings of the Church but of the demands of conscience in the light of the holocaust we continue to face with abortion, voting for the Romney-Ryan ticket is a smart way to mitigate the present evil we are facing.

Priests for Life has laid out “Ten Easy Steps to Voting with a Clear Conscience“, and I’d like to draw your attention to number eight, which helps us make some critical distinctions. Please note that all emphases are from the original:

{{omitting long quote – please follow the link below}}

After you chew on that for a bit (I know I did!), you can continue to form your conscience on these matters by considering what Blessed John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae (paragraph 73), concerning the legislative votes of elected officials (emphasis mine):

A particular problem of conscience can arise in cases where a legislative vote would be decisive for the passage of a more restrictive law, aimed at limiting the number of authorized abortions, in place of a more permissive law already passed or ready to be voted on. Such cases are not infrequent. It is a fact that while in some parts of the world there continue to be campaigns to introduce laws favouring abortion, often supported by powerful international organizations, in other nations-particularly those which have already experienced the bitter fruits of such permissive legislation-there are growing signs of a rethinking in this matter. In a case like the one just mentioned, when it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects.

Look, it would be nice to have the perfect candidate running against Barack Obama this November. But we live in the real world, the fallen world. We have a viable candidate in Mitt Romney, a man who will not actively persecute the Church (can you believe that’s even an issue?), and who will mitigate the evil that has come and will continue to come through Obama’s policies, executive orders, mandates, and (lifetime!) judicial appointments. As we read above, “by your vote, you can keep the worse person out. And trying to do that is not only legitimate, but good.”

You will not be in sin by voting for Romney. I beg of you not to “make a statement” this election, but to make sure that Obama is voted out of office for good. There is no greater threat to both the Catholic Church and unborn children in America than four more years of Barack Obama in the White House.

According to the principles of the Catholic Church, you may vote Romney-Ryan with a clear conscience.