Posted on 08/09/2016 3:52:05 PM PDT by ebb tide
As Americans prepare to vote in an increasingly divisive presidential election, the Catholic bishops of the United States are urging U.S. Catholics to catch up on some summer reading. They’ve republished an updated version of “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” their teaching document on the political responsibility of Catholics.
Scandals, fear mongering, insults and lies – this electoral campaign pitting Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton has seen it all. And U.S. bishops have seen enough. Reissuing their 2007 online document, they’re calling on American Catholics to think hard about their political responsibilities. And rather than blindly casting their vote for a certain ideology or a particular political party, to choose the common good and consider” all that protects or threatens human dignity.”
Subdivided into three parts, the bishops’ document begins with a reflection on the Church’s social doctrine, then presents a summary of the U.S. Bishops’ position on the principal ethical questions facing today’s society: defense of human life, peace and economic justice, the protection of minors and religious freedom, and safeguarding the planet.
The document has been updated from its original version to include the later magisterium of Pope Benedict XVI and that of Pope Francis and takes into account recent developments in the US in both domestic and foreign policy.
It is a call, they say, to “people of good will to use this statement to help form their consciences; to teach those entrusted to their care; to contribute to civil and respectful public dialogue; and to shape political choices in the coming election in light of Catholic teaching.”
New concerns have evolved in recent years
The document specifically cites as concerns:
"The ongoing destruction of over one million innocent human lives each year by abortion • Physician-assisted suicide • The redefinition of marriage—the vital cell of society—by the courts, political bodies, and increasingly by American culture itself • The excessive consumption of material goods and the destruction of natural resources, which harm both the environment and the poor • The deadly attacks on fellow Christians and religious minorities throughout the world • The narrowing redefinition of religious freedom, which threatens both individual conscience and the freedom of the Church to serve • Economic policies that fail to prioritize the poor, • A broken immigration system and a worldwide refugee crisis • Wars, terror, and violence that threaten every aspect of human life and dignity."
“All of these threats, and more,” write the bishops, “speak to a breakdown in what Pope Francis has called an ‘integral ecology.’ Without the proper ordering of relationships of persons with each other, with creation, and ultimately with God himself, sin takes hold. Pope Francis reminds us that all individuals, nations, and members of the global community have the duty to place the needs of others ahead of selfish desires to possess and exploit the good things that come from God’s hand.”
As usual in Francischurch and with the United States Conference of Communist Catholic Bishops, "economic justice", "safeguarding the planet" and "defense of human life" are all on equal terms.
Well being Catholic I can say this, and would to any Cardinal or Bishop that had anything to do with the ‘little boys being defiled by the priests’ and who ever else...when they clean that up and can again show their faces in the ‘sunshine’ then I’ll think about it...
You see, God is my word, the Bible is where I find God’s word, NOT FROM MAN...and certainly not from the ‘false prophet’ we have now...
42 pages which basically say Hillary! is not the best choice. It doesn’t come out for one over the other, but anyone who reads the thing can’t in honesty say the DemocRAT choice is the right one.
So in other words, Catholics don’t need all that “discernment” that the USCCB is babbling about.
It’s a clear choice.
Why aren’t the Bishops here in this country telling the people that you cannot vote for somebody pushing abortion and homosexuality?
What this reminds me of is when Sir Thomas More tried to simply not express his opposition to what King Henry the Eighth was doing, divorcing his wife so he could marry another. Eventually, he had to face the truth and oppose the king’s wishes, which caused him to be executed.
If people here in this country don’t start to openly oppose abortion and some of the other things the democrats are pushing, they are going to find that it gets harder to stand up with time. I choose to push back now. The Bishops should be telling the people to do so also.
I agree.
But hey, gotta give them something to write about, eh?
Cardinal O'Malley, my own bishop, is one of pope Francis' premier whispering devils. He has preached gun control from the pulpit, sacrilegiously said a stunt Mass across the US-Mexican border fence (probably took some doing to even FIND a spot with a fence), called anyone who opposes illegal immigration "xenophobes," condemned Donald Trump's "rhetoric" (hasn't made a peep about Hillary, as far as I know), and used some of the recent terror attacks to remind us not to think poorly of Islam.
I wouldn't cross the street to wizz on him if his habit were on fire. And I'm not going to give a moment of thought to what he and his ilk think about this election.
Yet Pope Francis has said anyone who builds fences is not a christian and firearm manufacturers are an "industry of death".
Moreover, Trump's platform is entirely compatible with Catholic teaching . . . from Christ to St. Paul to Aquinas to Leo XIII to Benedict XVI.
Discernment is foreign to anyone who would vote for Hitlery.
Bumping that!
To sum it up, pro-Democrat party, just like the 2007 booklet.
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