Posted on 04/21/2004 7:40:33 PM PDT by Hugenot
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, The Hill is reporting that a new voter scorecard claims that Democratic lawmakers are more in touch with Catholic teaching than their Republican counterparts.
The Catholic Voting Scorecard is the work of Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D, CT) and Congressman Nicholas Lampson (D, TX). While the scorecard is yet unfinished, 67 Catholic House Democrats scored an average of 76 percent, while their 49 Republican colleagues averaged only 64 percent.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said that, Many of the issues theyre talking about really have nothing to do with actual Catholic teaching or religion. It is interpretation of economic policy. According to Congressman King, the Democrats are attempting to make liberal Democrats look like mainstream Catholics.
Frank Monahan, director of government liaison for the U. S. Conference of Catholic bishops, told the Hill that his organization was not involved in the development of the scorecard and does not rate politicians.
Various Catholic politicians (mostly Democrats) have been criticized for their support of abortion on demand, stem cell research on human embryos, same-sex marriage, and other issues which directly oppose Catholic teaching.
Furthermore, the Vatican has warned Catholic politicians that they cannot call themselves Catholic if they use their positions as lawmakers to oppose Catholic teaching on critical issues.
In light of the Church's teaching at Vatican II that, "Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: Abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes," how can a scorecard equate a vote against the Partial Birth Abortion ban with a vote against a questionable social welfare plan?
In the end, Catholics need to see who supports school choice, the rights of the unborn, faith-based initiatives, and traditional marriage. The last time I checked, it's not the Democrats.
Once again, this is an act of lay Catholics attempting to instruct the faithful regarding the Catholic faith in opposition to the instruction of the bishops. Thank goodness they didn't attend a Latin Mass, otherwise this might actually get the bishops in a real huff!
"Because a leftist has no concern for the unborn."
The leftist also has no concern with the reality that those who are born have to deal with either. Leftists are concerned about their fuzzy il-considered intentions rather than the results of their actions. They equate support for suffocating "social welfare programs" with caring about the outcomes for people less fortunate than themselves.
Welfare reform has been enormously beneficial to the lives of poor people in the US since 1996, but leftists are loathe to acknowledge that.
"No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true Socialist."
- Pius XI , Quadragesimo Anno (1931)
The type of totalitarian, secular humanist, collectivist statism advocated by Lib Dems, which includes culture-of-death ideology such as their pro-abortion absurdity, cannot be reconciled with the Catholic faith or any other variety of Christianity.
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