More minnions for my furnace!
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."
Ping to you.
"But at least one member of the congregation dislikes being told how to vote"
So let's spend a third of the article quoting this one person.
*Unless she repents, Frances will have eternity to chat with Satan about her interpretations of the First Ammendment
The Church is clear: Voting for a pro-choice candidate is cooperation with evil. If that's not a mortal sin...
To take an example, compare the Catholic church's always consistent stand against Communism with the way they now waffle around the abortion issue.
No, this is wrong. Sounds like it should read "A lifelong cafeteria Catholic"...
Great point! I am sick and tired of it always being about a small minority. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Especially if it is someone who disagrees with the church. The secularist media loves that.
I see a good man in our president. Kerry is the epitome of everything I don't like. I have been taught by this very same faith to always confront evil, to stand up as a man. Consider the decline in morality of the faithful, even to the point of what people wear to Mass. When our president went to visit the pope, this good Catholic boy was wondering if Bush shouldn't be scolding the pope about not fighting evil not the other way around.
""There are five pre-eminent issues -- abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem-cell research, human cloning and so-called homosexual marriage,"
This isn't political. This is doctrine. To disagree is to disagree with eternity.
As I've said before, if you refuse to live by the teachings, why are you still there?
every mainline church during the past 10 years has departed so much from the Word of God. They are voting by little actions to make life of a believing member, of the faith, harder and harder.
He preached a barn burner last Sunday and laid it on the line - non-negotiable "life issues" and all. He spoke of people who claim to be Catholic but don't support the church's teachings. He didn't mention any names . . . didn't have to. As we were walking out of Mass, I met an old friend of my parents who whispered to me that it was the "Vote for Bush" sermon . . . I replied, "Shhhh . . . don't say that . . . too obvious!"
More minnions for my furnace!
Fellow Catholic boy ditto.
"Will Work for Food"
"Will Kill for Sex"
It is good not to read any nonsense about the death penalty, especially since the Vatican had one through 1969.
Realistically, what does the president have to do with abortion being legal or not? No matter who is elected, it won't go away.
In his Gospel of Life (1995) the Pope described church teaching on abortion as an infallible part of our tradition. He also reiterated the Catholic moral teaching on formal and material cooperation in evil actions. The first is always wrong; the second is not. If politicians, for example, vote for a bill favoring abortion with the intent of taking innocent life, they would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil. If they do so for some other grave reason (?!!), they would not be guilty of this formal and forbidden cooperation.All I can say is, wow. That is some moral pretzel bending/hair spliting. Disgraceful. I think my pastor should be ashamed of putting that pap in our bulletin.
Rome,’s Cardinal Ratzinger applied the same principle to voters. Voters would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil if they voted for candidates precisely because of their permissive stand on abortion. If voters do not share that view, they may vote for the candidates for other proportionate reasons. (???!!!!) Their vote would not constitute the formal cooperation in evil forbidden by the natural law.
The Task Force concluded by urging persuasion rather than penalty. The bishops, it said, must renew their efforts “to teach clearly, to advocate effectively, and to engage, persuade and challenge Catholic politicians to act on the moral teaching of the Church.” In sum, therefore, the bishops point to persuasion rather than penalty as the most effective way of publicly engaging the tragedy of abortion.
How far has Amchurch sunk if this even needs to be said? Of course voting for a pro-abort is a sin. Such a vote constitutes participation in a (gigantic) conspiracy to commit murder.
Of course it's a sin.
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