Posted on 09/05/2004 7:30:16 PM PDT by ADSUM
THE FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES
These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those which fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.
1. Abortion
The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.
The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child's, who should not suffer death for others' sins.
2. Euthanasia
Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.
In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).
Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.
4. Human Cloning
"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through 'twin fission,' cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).
Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.
5. Homosexual "Marriage"
True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.
"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).
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Looks good to me. No problems here.
It's a shame this has to be publicized, because Catholics SHOULD know this already!
He claims that the seperation of church and state affords this.
How would you counter this argument?
Pinging those with the Catholic lists.
He's a democrat.
There's no making sense to them.
"I have a very liberal CATHOLIC friend who proclaims that it's okay to vote for politicians who have beliefs contrary to the teachings of the church.
He claims that the seperation of church and state affords this.
How would you counter this argument?"
Ask them for the chapter and verse.
The laws on men will not protect them from God's judgement.
Perhaps my Priest should see this! I got into a knock down drag out tussle with him back in the sacristy last night before Mass. I honestly thought he was going to send me back to the pews rather than allow me to lector and distribute communion.
He will vote Democrat even if Attilla the Hun is running against Bush.
IV. ERRONEOUS JUDGMENT
1790 A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin."59 In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
1792 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.
1793 If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.
1794 A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith."60
I also have a Catholic friend like that. He leads a very conservative lifestyle, but he is a lawyer and votes DEMOCRAT. We used to argue about it, but I gave up on him.
I'm going to buy a George W. shirt and hat and wear it around him.
I'd tell him that Hitler did wonders for the economy of Germany and bettered the lives of most Germans.
Would he use an argument like that to have voted for him back then?
I go to a Catholic College, and one of the most frustrating things is discussing these issues and politics, because most people just don't seem to realize that supporting these things are wrong. Most of them are more concerned that Bush is waging an "unjust" war than the fact that millions of babies are killed every year. One of my professors last year was a priest, and he had a Kerry bumper sticker on his office door, and would never consider voting for Bush. I swear, there are just connections not present in the brains of most democrats
PS: I like your name :)
Thank you.
It makes you wonder how people going to a Catholic college could be Democrats.
Your priest sounds like a Commie. Ask him if he believes in the Immaculate Conception, Purgatory, etc. (Probably doesn't.) If he doesn't he needs to get out.
Tell him that I said so, too.
Thank You.
"It makes you wonder how people going to a Catholic college could be Democrats."
I don't think many people going to a Catholic college could vote for a pro-abort Democrat. However, I think people attending a "Catholic" college would. IOW, there are only a handful of truly Catholic colleges in the U.S. These colleges can be counted on to faithfully present and defend Catholic teaching. The "Catholic" colleges, basically "Catholic in Name Only" or CINO colleges are such dens of dissent, it should be no wonder that the students there vote Democrat. I should know, having attended one of these CINO schools. But for the grace of God, I suppose I could have ended up buying the Demo crap that gets fed to the students in these places. I was young and naive to think that all Catholic colleges were truly Catholic. Well, I won't let my children make that same mistake.
You forgot me...Waaaaaaaaa.
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