Posted on 05/27/2015 12:26:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Take a look at this list of countries: Belgium, Canada, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, France, Uruguay, Luxembourg and Ireland. Name two things that they have in common.
They don’t share a continent, obviously. Or a language.
But in all of them, the Roman Catholic Church has more adherents, at least nominally, than any other religious denomination does.
And all of them belong to the vanguard of 20 nations that have decided to make same-sex marriage legal.
In fact, countries with a Catholic majority or plurality make up half of those where two men or two women can now wed or will soon be able to.
Ireland, obviously, is the freshest addition to the list. It’s also, in some ways, the most remarkable one. It’s the first country to approve same-sex marriage by a popular referendum. The margin wasn’t even close. About 62 percent of voters embraced marriage equality.
And they did so despite a past of great fealty to the Catholic Church’s official teachings on, for example, contraception, which was outlawed in Ireland until 1980, and abortion, which remains illegal in most circumstances.
Irish voters nonetheless rejected the church’s formal opposition to same-sex marriage. This act of defiance was described, accurately, as an illustration of church leaders’ loosening grip on the country.
But in falling out of line with the Vatican, Irish people are actually falling in line with their Catholic counterparts in other Western countries, including the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Actually it is the members of the Catholic denomination, making this decision in Ireland.
Catholic in Name Only
CINO’s
I’m sure there are some Catholics who support gay marriage.
I don’t happen to know any personally.
First, it was all the socalled catholic priests playing
with parishioners’ children, once caught, shipped, er,
transferred to another state, out of the reach of the
vengeful parents.
So now, it is not that much of a stretch for full blown
Church sanctioned, and accepted by the parishioners,
queers as priests.
You refute anything that doesn’t match your view. I saw you one night dismiss facts, (posted by steelfish, IIRC) which provided election proof about the white Catholic vote.
I’ve already addressed that meaningless recent factoid, on this thread.
Yet the majority of Catholics in America vote democrat, and for the gay agenda and abortion.
LOL, that was about a totally different topic, an endorsement thread from 2008.
You aren’t the Catholic who claimed that Jim Robinson is a catholic are you?
The issue, as I see it, is not their moral teaching in these areas. Rather, I see it as the bishops' social teaching, which I expect to be uniform from country to country as they claim to be of "one church", has poisoned the "moral teaching" so badly that Catholics will jettison their pro-life stance and vote Democrat without blinking an eye. Eight years ago, Catholic FReeper "all the best" gave his excellent diagnosis of the problem, which holds up even moreso today:
"Show me just one Catholic bishop who will speak up against coveting your neighbors’ goods. That is why Catholics ignored the Bishops on abortion. They know abortion is wrong but overlooked the Dems on that point because those same politicians pandered to their covetousness. Same for protestants and evangelical pastors, leaders and activists. American politics and government at all levels is driven by government-mediated coveting. Until the Church takes a stand against this we can expect to sink deeper and deeper into socialism and, oh yeah, abortion."
I’m wondering about the validity of this claim.
They’re not Catholics, they are fallen away Catholics - just like many Protestants have fallen away from their faith. What about the Lutherans in Germany? Are they so holy? What about the loony Archbishop of Canterbury - who is actually a practicing Anglican unlike the Irish Catholics. Plus, there is probably a whole generation of Europeans who have bought into the atheism fad that is sweeping the west. They believe in nothing so tend to believe everything.
And I repeat, agreeing with Frank Bruni - a complete fraud like Frank Rich before him - will betray you.
Just checking, that was one of the approaches that was used for a while.
The national Catholic vote is the most fascinating topic here, as Catholics keep denying it.
Rush is all over the place when it comes to the last three Popes. As to Francis, some days he likes him some days he doesn’t. Rush is not a Catholic and knows very little about the religion although he, unlike most of the Protestants on this thread, has a respect for it.
They are Catholics, and they are counted as Catholics, just as all non Catholic Christians are counted as Protestant.
The Protestant vote has only gone democrat in 1932, 1936, and 1964, and that counts all Protestants, church attending or not.
You cannot change the Catholic vote by just telling everyone that you don’t consider them to be real Catholics.
As conservatives, why would you even be trying to conceal the Catholic vote?
I wonder what other faith traditions have such a clear statement that applies to all members.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.