Posted on 11/26/2013 11:32:53 AM PST by Morgana
Today, the Vatican released the text of Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), an Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis that specifically addresses pro-life and pro-family issues.
The text of the message makes it clear that the Catholic Church cannot and will not compromise on its pro-life teachings on abortion.
214. Precisely because this involves the internal consistency of our message about the value of the human person, the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question. I want to be completely honest in this regard. This is not something subject to alleged reforms or “modernizations”. It is not “progressive” to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life. On the other hand, it is also true that we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, where abortion appears as a quick solution to their profound anguish, especially when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful situations?
Continuing that pro-woman theme, Pope Francis says the Catholic Church must do more to help women in various pregnancy situations and following an abortion.
213. Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, “every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offence against the creator of the individual”.[176]
The 85-page document has Pope Francis putting together his priorities after eight months worth of homilies, speeches and interviews. Francis wrote the bulk of it in August, during the Vatican’s summer lull, said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, according to AP.
It is already receiving praise, with one pro-life blogger commenting, “Anyone who feared or hoped that Pope Francis intended to change (which would not be possible) or soft-pedal the Church’s teachings on these matters might want to note carefully what he says.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops has produced a new video honoring the pro-life spirit and mission Pope Francis has had thus far since becoming the leader of the Catholic Church.
“Open Your Hearts to Life! Pope Francis reaches out to the weakest and most vulnerable — “masterpieces of God’s creation” — in his Day for Life greeting,” the USCCB says about the video.
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
Earlier this week, after Pope Francis blessed a disabled man who suffered from growths all over his head and body, the leader of the Catholic Church took the time to bless a severely disfigured man without a face.
The disabled man who made international headlines after Pope Francis blessed him was greatly appreciative of the Pope taking his time to bless him. Now, Pope Francis paused during his weekly audience to greet another disfigured person, showing his sensitivity to the dignity and worth of human life no matter what physical conditions they face.
Pope Francis stopped to speak to and hug the man who lacked facial features.
You don’t know that Catholics are mostly pro-abortion, democrat voters?
Really? Do you think the left would be wanting to import them by the millions and legalize them as quickly as possible, if they were voting republican?
The Catholic denomination has always been a democrat vote, with only about five exceptions in presidential voting history, it is why the Kennedys wanted to change the immigration laws in the 1960s, to give us what we have today.
Not at all.
You said:
>> The Catholic denomination’s voters are strong supporters of abortion and the American left in voting and politics.
That leaves no room for exception. Did you mean something other than what you said? Did you misstate something? Please elucidate.
Does this mean that the Church will henceforth deny the Sacraments to those politicians who have voted to fund and perpetuate the murder of the unborn?
"Mostly"? That's very different from what you first asserted.
‘twas a little joke.
I sure hope so.
I know I had to play along because I consider that church a joke.
Welcome to your fifth week at FR.
I will let you know that when you feign ignorance of such obvious topics, such as what ‘the Catholic vote’ means, it doesn’t make you look smart.
Welcome to your 8th year at FR.
I will let you know that when you make sweeping generalizations, unsupportable assertions, and inaccurate statements; that when you display leftist groupthink; it doesn’t make you look smart.
That smells like retread personalized anger to me.
One thing you can’t escape, is how members of the Catholic denomination vote, the pro-abortion democrats count on it.
But abortion (in most cases) is willful murder, which is one of the sins that “cries out to heaven for vengeance”. Looking at a woman with lust is a sin, but not one of those four biggies.
I say “in most cases”, because I realize sometimes there are very young and naïve girls that are being forced into abortions. They just don’t think they have any other choice.
I note that you were first to bring up the matter of someone’s “age” on this forum. To then turn and accuse someone else of personalizing the issue, and to attribute to him the emotiong of anger, is not a rational thing to do.
I have seen computer forums (fora?) come and go ... folks on BBS and USENET and listserv didn’t like getting caught in sloppy language and sloppy reasoning.
As for the actual issue: to assert that a bare majority of self-identified Catholic voters vote for democrats is very different from asserting, as you did, that “The Catholic denomination’s voters [all of them, apparently] are strong supporters [personally dedicated to the matter] of abortion and the American left [each in his own indvidual capacity] in voting and politics” is absurd and contrary to the facts. Most Americans do not seem to be strongly, thoughtfully, supporters of anything. Most Americans are more of reflexive voters, or tribal voters, than anything else.
I fail to understand why a sane person would willingly annoy more than +40% of a population that agrees with him by lumping them with the +50% who do not ... It seems to me more reasonable to hold up the +40% as exemplars of what that population should be like ... and try to persuade some of the +50% to join them.
But that’s just me. I see the 90% of blacks who vote democrat, the 75% of Jews who vote democrat, the 65% of hispanics who vote democrat, etc ... as people to invite and persuade.
Abortion is more like rape than lust, given that for most rapists, the principle motive is domination rather than sexual pleasure.
The pro-abortion Catholic vote is a simple fact and it was relevant to the post that I first posted to.
This is a conservative political forum, we do pay attention to voting, and especially when immigration is importing more democrat voting Catholics by the tens of millions, and already costing us states.
It is rational to spot what appears to be a retread, trying to get off the subject and seemingly carrying some old baggage, it happens fairly often.
As far as Hispanics, they vote differently depending on what denominations they belong to, Catholic Hispanics Hispanics vote overwhelmingly democrat, Protestant Hispanics are close to a 50/50 vote.
Unfortunately, there is no “Catholic vote” anymore.
“An overwhelming majority of Catholics practice artificial contraception”.
If you believe liberal polls.
The issue here is really simple: You painted all members of a fairly large population as strongly supportive of Abortion and Leftism. The facts do not support that position. The facts support that a bare majority of that population votes for abortionist/leftist candidates, for unspecified reasons and in opposition to the beliefs formally defining that population.
I see those fact, and think that the conservative thing to do, the individualist thing to do, is challenge the individuals forming the abortionist/leftist voting majority to live up to their stated beliefs. And that is what I do.
You, of course, will do as you see fit.
And if you see fit to make inaccurate statements (as you did earlier on this thread), you may well find people objecting to those statements (as I did, and have been doing since the mid 1980s).
That is all.
I believe what I hear people who are allegedly Catholic say.
White Catholics vote OVERWHELMINGLY conservative, the same as any other denomination. Church goers vote OVERWHELMINGLY conservative, same as any other denomination. If you are low-income, government dependent voters (like the majority of hispanics) you tend to vote democratic. Makes no difference if you are Catholic or protestant. Do not be confused by anyone that claims the VAST MAJORITY of Catholics vote for pro-abortion candidates. The pro-life Catholic vote was bigger than any protestant denomination in the country.
In recent years the remaining white Catholics have started voting republican, but that has nothing to do with the past, present, and future of Catholic voting.
The Catholic vote will remain as a part of the democrat voting block.
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