Posted on 10/29/2004 4:50:14 AM PDT by SLB
CHEYENNE (AP) -- A Roman Catholic congregation is being told that voting for pro-choice candidates in next week's election would be a mortal sin.
The Rev. Tom Cronkleton, of the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, said he has a moral obligation to remind his parishioners of their duty as citizens and as Catholics to vote for people who will represent them.
"There are five pre-eminent issues -- abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem-cell research, human cloning and so-called homosexual marriage," Cronkleton said. "How the candidates stand is a reason to vote for or against them."
In a bulletin insert on Sunday, Cronkleton said, "Being a Catholic sometimes is difficult, and being a Catholic voter is not an exception. We have to live by faith and moral principles and not by political affiliation or personal like or dislike."
He encouraged the congregation to stop by the church to pray before voting.
But at least one member of the congregation dislikes being told how to vote.
Joan Easley said at least one person walked out of the church during Sunday's sermon, and she would have walked out had she not been there with her 80-year-old mother.
"It was disturbing," she said. "I don't support abortion, but I also don't support going over and bombing and blowing up families either."
A lifelong Catholic, Easley said it is not the first time she has felt out of synch with the church's positions. But she said she has dealt with her disagreements quietly.
"They (the church) are the ones who have introduced me to the love of Jesus Christ, and I feel that they have the ability to give me the complete faith," she said.
"As far as the church doctrines, sometimes I have a problem with them. But you've got to suck that kind of stuff up."
But the language she heard Sunday was too hard to swallow.
"They're actually putting their personal feelings on our religion," she said. "I don't think we should be judged on the personal feelings of a priest."
As a nonprofit organization, the church walks a fine line in its ability to speak to voters about the morality of their choices. The Internal Revenue Service does not permit nonprofit groups to endorse candidates or try to influence the outcome of elections.
A Roman Catholic pro-choice group based in Washington, D.C., Catholics for a Free Choice, has gone on the offensive against the archdiocese in Denver to try to halt its expressions of politics from the pulpit. The group is challenging the archdiocese's tax-exempt status.
"Nonprofits can't get away with this by avoiding the candidate's name and using the word 'pro-life,'" said the group's president, Frances Kissling. "There are two candidates -- one is pro-life and one is pro-choice. By saying to vote pro-life, they have said to vote for George Bush.
"If they say you cannot vote pro-choice, that is a statement of opposition, and that is illegal."
WHICH half of smartass is back? Inquiring minds want to know??
That leads to another question.........
First off, let's try to put everything in proper perspective. The legalization of abortion, thirty some years ago, has caused the death of over 40 million human beings. Human beings that had no say in the activity that created them, no say in the decision to kill them and no say in the Supreme Court decision that made killing them legal.
Such activities as drugs, liquor and cigarettes, is usually engaged in by willing adults, and has over the history of humanity, never killed more humans than thirty years of legalized abortion has done.
Sexual prosmiscuity and pornography, while dehumanizing for all participants in many ways, is as a rule indulged in by willing adults. I don't endorse such activities, but feel it's none of my business unless children are involved in the pornography or children and uninvolved spouses suffer from the consequences of promiscuity.
In my opinion a politician should conduct him/herself in a manner that reflects the highest moral standards of those who elected them to office. Politicians should set the example, for others to live up to, and if they can't or won't, they should either be honorable enough to resign the office or be removed from office.
LOL, that's about all you could do at this point!!
"Drama Queen" "More Drama Queen"
Very interesting choice of words - from one who so vehemently claims he does not support the gay clergy agenda within the Catholic church, while you posts clearly show a support for just about every possible liberal, gay, AMchurch cause.
A very interesting choice of words. It just conjurs up images of middle aged men gathered around a piano in a bar singing Broadway show tunes.
Thank for confirming our suspiscions.
Sounds about right to me.
You're the queen. Not me.
Images from your own life?
By the 300's it was so bad St. John Chrysostom said this: “The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bad bishops.”
--St. John Chrysostom
Bishop, Doctor of the Church, born at Antioch, c. 347
"If a New Catholic Church is formed, I'll be there in a heartbeat" But it is you and me who must stay so that the Church may be renewed. Without you and me who will rebuild. It has always been the laity who continues to carry on the life of the Church in the best as well as the worst of times.
If we believe that the Catholic Church was instituted by Christ Himself how can we "in good conscious" leave His Church. It is up to us to renew the Church. Consider the following:
"When there is an imminent danger for the Faith, Prelates must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects." –St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica II, II, q. 33, a. 4
I saw two cars in the parking lot at my church last Sunday with Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers...it took all of my strength not to linger by their car to see who these idiots were. There is no single moral argument to attend church and promote voting for Pro-Abortion candidates.
Thankfully my husband and children were in the car, and I could not even think of this course of action.
To be precise....Kerry voted against the partial-birth abortion ban SIX TIMES!! I heard that on Michael Medved's show just yesterday....it made me sick to my stomach.
Kerry is more PRO-Abortion than I even imagined.
So, a church is not allowed to voice its stand on moral issues? A church can't teach right and wrong, because one of the candidates may fall on the "wrong" side?
This is entirely unconstitutional! Remember that the separation of church and state goes both ways! Just as a church is not allowed to directly influence the political processes, the government may not control a church's message. Especially when that message is uncomfortable and/or unpopular, their right to proclaim it is as fundamental as our right to vote.
"Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority ... to defend the lives of the innocent ... among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates ... do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors and others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cries from earth to heaven" (Pope Pius XI Casti Connubii No. 67 12-31-1930).
I don't believe it will even be voted on.
Narses: Thanks for the web site information. My brother in law actually attended Prep school at that school in winona, mn. I appreciate the information and it is nice to know there is a sect of true Catholics who still believe.
I judge a man by his deeds and therefor consider George W. Bush pro-life and I'll pray that the souls who vote for Kerry don't die without sacramental confession.
The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Democrats? (to paraphrase the old saint Chrysostom)
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