Posted on 03/02/2006 8:01:21 AM PST by Teófilo
Their attempt to dress up their dissent from Church teaching fails miserably upon careful analysis.
Folks, according to Beliefnet:
WASHINGTON -- A coalition of 55 Catholic House Democrats on Tuesday (Feb. 28) acknowledged the "moral leadership" of the Catholic Church but said they will remain "in disagreement with the church" on some issues, including abortion rights.Commentary. I haven't seen the statement yet, but if the few reports out there are correct and on the mark, the stance of these Catholic politicians is deeply flawed and hypocritical. Perhaps we need to remind them that Pope John Paul the Great, in his Apostolic Exhortation entitled Christifideles Laici stated clearly:The "statement of principles" resurrects a battle from the 2004 elections when some Catholic politicians -- especially Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry -- found themselves at odds with church leaders over their support of abortion rights. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who spearheaded the statement, said Catholic Democrats did not want to see Catholic faith defined solely by a "one-issue, very narrow right-wing agenda."
"This is about the whole notion that the Catholic purpose is not defined by one issue," DeLauro said in an interview, "and what we wanted to try to do was instead of other people defining us, we needed to try to define ourselves."
Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.Further, their stance on the "primacy of conscience" is also skewed to favor their dissent. In his masterful encyclical letter, Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul noted that:
Today, however, it seems necessary to reflect on the whole of the Church's moral teaching, with the precise goal of recalling certain fundamental truths of Catholic doctrine which, in the present circumstances, risk being distorted or denied. In fact, a new situation has come about within the Christian community itself, which has experienced the spread of numerous doubts and objections of a human and psychological, social and cultural, religious and even properly theological nature, with regard to the Church's moral teachings. It is no longer a matter of limited and occasional dissent, but of an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine, on the basis of certain anthropological and ethical presuppositions. At the root of these presuppositions is the more or less obvious influence of currents of thought which end by detaching human freedom from its essential and constitutive relationship to truth. Thus the traditional doctrine regarding the natural law, and the universality and the permanent validity of its precepts, is rejected; certain of the Church's moral teachings are found simply unacceptable; and the Magisterium itself is considered capable of intervening in matters of morality only in order to "exhort consciences" and to "propose values", in the light of which each individual will independently make his or her decisions and life choices. (Emphasis his)The Pope also noted:
Certain currents of modern thought have gone so far as to exalt freedom to such an extent that it becomes an absolute, which would then be the source of values. This is the direction taken by doctrines which have lost the sense of the transcendent which are explicitly atheist. The individual conscience is accorded the status of a supreme tribunal of moral judgment which hands down categorical and infallible decisions about good and evil. To the affirmation that one has a duty to follow one's conscience is unduly added the affirmation that one's moral judgment is true merely by the fact that it has its origin in the conscience. But in this way the inescapable claims of truth disappear, yielding their place to a criterion of sincerity, authenticity and "being at peace with oneself", so much so that some have come to adopt a radically subjectivistic conception of moral judgment.The Democrats in Congress are desperately seeking for a way that will allow them to portray themselves as "Catholics in good standing" while at the same time actively or passively supporting policies that are inimical to the good and welfare of individual human beings and to society as a whole. In this vain quest, they will co-opt Catholic doctrine if necessary, to push their agenda and regain their legitimacy before observant Catholics of both main parties.
They are wrong, and their servile stance in favor of the Culture of Death can only be justified by an appeal to the supremacy of individual conscience and a selective reading of Catholic morality. This must be pointed out repeatedly, less it becomes a commonly accepted "fact," at least more common than what it is now.
Don't let yourself be deceived! These 55 Democrats are not even contemplating the possibility of debating their party's stance in favor of abortion. What this "Statement" means is that the Democrat Party now counts with yet another blessing from their Catholic members of Congress for the Party's pro-abortion stance and a reassurance to the Party's ultraliberal base that no internal debate is forthcoming or even thought necessary by their Catholic lawmakers.
In Spanish we have a saying: La puerca, aunque de seda se vista, puerca se queda which may be translated as "No matter how much you dress up a pig, it will not become a lady, it will remain a pig." These 55 members of Congress may think they have succeeded in dressing up their dissent from Catholic teaching with high-sounding phrases and pledges of loyalty and "serious consideration," but in the end, their dissent remains a dissent and their pig, a pig.
Pro-lifers, please vote accordingly.
I found the "Statement" which may be read at the URL below. I'll modify the post on the blog accordingly.
http://www.house.gov/delauro/press/2006/February/catholic_statement_2_28_06.html
-Theo
PING!!
Only 55 - heck, wasn't it 27 that voted a few years back to approve post-birth abortion? As in after the birth, putting them in a private room with no food so they would die.
I will be shocked if by this weekend one of the US Cardinals or major ArchBishops does not put the smack down on these fools. My money is on Chaput or Burke, but it would be great if it's one of the Cardinals. Especially a certain Cardinal-to-be from the archdiocese that curses us with a lot of the high-profile pro-death CINO Dims.
***************
No punches pulled here. It's good to see.
Folks, these are the "Catholic" Democrat Members of Congress who signed Congresswoman DeLauro's aforementioned "Statement of Principles By Fifty-Five Catholic Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives," where they flaunt Catholic moral teaching in favor of a misguided appeal to "the supremacy of conscience":
Anna Eshoo
Bart Stupak
Betty McCollum
Bill Pascrell
Carolyn McCarthy
Charles A. Gonzalez
Cynthia McKinney
Dale E. Kildee
David R. Obey
Dennis A. Cardoza
Diane Watson
Ed Pastor
Edward J. Markey
Frank Pallone
Gene Taylor
George Miller
Grace Napolitano
Hilda L. Solis
James L. Oberstar
James P. McGovern
James P. Moran
James R. Langevin
Jim Costa
Jim Marshall
Joe Baca
John B. Larson
John T. Salazar
Jose Serrano
Joseph Crowley
Lane Evans
Linda T. Sanchez
Loretta Sanchez
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Luis V. Gutierrez
Marty Meehan
Maurice Hinchey
Michael Capuano
Michael H. Michaud
Mike Doyle
Mike Thompson
Nancy Pelosi
Nydia Velazquez
Patrick J. Kennedy
Peter A. DeFazio
Raul M. Grijalva
Richard E. Neal
Robert Brady
Rosa L. DeLauro
Silvestre Reyes
Stephen Lynch
Tim Holden
Tim Ryan
William Delahunt
Wm. Lacy Clay
Xavier Becerra
The first is the encyclical of JOhn Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, where he condemns in the strongest possible language the choice of voluntary abortion; in the opinion of many reliable Catholic Theologians, JP II's statement is an instance of the infallible extraordinary magisterium.
The other is a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2002, on the responsibility of the Catholic layperson and expecially Catholic legislator active in public life. The document makes a strong point that, while a variety of political parties and options are permissible, there can be no compromise on issues of fundamental human dignity.
These legislators have entered the public realm with this document; and so it is necessary for the relevant bishops to similarly enter the public realm with a response. This challenge to Catholic teaching and to the responsibility of the Catholic legislator cannot go unremarked.
Hmmmmm. Something I'd like to see issued from the Vatican:
Memo to: Anna Eshoo
Bart Stupak
Betty McCollum
Bill Pascrell
Carolyn McCarthy
Charles A. Gonzalez
Cynthia McKinney
Dale E. Kildee
David R. Obey
Dennis A. Cardoza
Diane Watson
Ed Pastor
Edward J. Markey
Frank Pallone
Gene Taylor
George Miller
Grace Napolitano
Hilda L. Solis
James L. Oberstar
James P. McGovern
James P. Moran
James R. Langevin
Jim Costa
Jim Marshall
Joe Baca
John B. Larson
John T. Salazar
Jose Serrano
Joseph Crowley
Lane Evans
Linda T. Sanchez
Loretta Sanchez
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Luis V. Gutierrez
Marty Meehan
Maurice Hinchey
Michael Capuano
Michael H. Michaud
Mike Doyle
Mike Thompson
Nancy Pelosi
Nydia Velazquez
Patrick J. Kennedy
Peter A. DeFazio
Raul M. Grijalva
Richard E. Neal
Robert Brady
Rosa L. DeLauro
Silvestre Reyes
Stephen Lynch
Tim Holden
Tim Ryan
William Delahunt
Wm. Lacy Clay
Xavier Becerra
From: His Holiness Pope Bendict XVI
N-O! Which part of that word are you having trouble understanding?!?!?!? Now cut the bupkus or exit out the door and don't let it hit your cabooses as you leave!
Anathematize them all. What are we waiting for?
Pope: "Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N-- himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment."
"Fiat, fiat, fiat."
"... let [them] be stricken with anathema maranatha, i.e. may [they] be damned at the coming of the Lord, may [they] have [their] place with Judas Iscariot, [they] and [their] companions. Amen."
(4th Council of Toledo)
Cardinal Bernadin's "seemless garment" is alive and well and still being used as a cover for supporting baby-killers.
Ping for later
There's nothing theologically strange going on. It's a threat that the recipient needs to shape up or he's going to the bad place.
Do we have a list of these CINOS?
"We judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment."
From comment #7:
Folks, these are the "Catholic" Democrat Members of Congress who signed Congresswoman DeLauro's aforementioned "Statement of Principles By Fifty-Five Catholic Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives," where they flaunt Catholic moral teaching in favor of a misguided appeal to "the supremacy of conscience":
Anna Eshoo
Bart Stupak
Betty McCollum
Bill Pascrell
Carolyn McCarthy
Charles A. Gonzalez
Cynthia McKinney
Dale E. Kildee
David R. Obey
Dennis A. Cardoza
Diane Watson
Ed Pastor
Edward J. Markey
Frank Pallone
Gene Taylor
George Miller
Grace Napolitano
Hilda L. Solis
James L. Oberstar
James P. McGovern
James P. Moran
James R. Langevin
Jim Costa
Jim Marshall
Joe Baca
John B. Larson
John T. Salazar
Jose Serrano
Joseph Crowley
Lane Evans
Linda T. Sanchez
Loretta Sanchez
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Luis V. Gutierrez
Marty Meehan
Maurice Hinchey
Michael Capuano
Michael H. Michaud
Mike Doyle
Mike Thompson
Nancy Pelosi
Nydia Velazquez
Patrick J. Kennedy
Peter A. DeFazio
Raul M. Grijalva
Richard E. Neal
Robert Brady
Rosa L. DeLauro
Silvestre Reyes
Stephen Lynch
Tim Holden
Tim Ryan
William Delahunt
Wm. Lacy Clay
Xavier Becerra
Liberalism is the true religion of these "Catholics", and abortion, multiculturalism, and feminism are their sacraments. The Catholic Church should have excommunicated this nest of vipers long ago to preserve its own credibility. Instead, they've been catered to.
The word you want is "flout", not "flaunt"....just a linguistic bug of mine.
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