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."
That is not correct. If Schwarzenegger had dropped out and endorsed him, McClintock would have won.
There is a difference between promoting and voting for the candidate who will do the most to advance the culture of life, and stating flatly that to vote for the other candidate is a sin that will put one's soul in eternal torment.
Well, if Bustamante had dropped out, McClintock would have run unopposed.
The fact is, the race for governor in California was between Arnold and Bustamante.
She obviously supports being ignorant.
I sympathise with believers that grew up dems. I know a few in my church and they have a tough time coming to grips with the truth. Their politics are like breathing to them...they're addicted to it.
1. Not certain. McClintock was bound and determined to NOT go on offense against Bustamante. The Indian casinos that were sponsoring McClintock's spoiler role did not want him campaigning effectively, and they would've pulled their donations.
2. Since when does the guy in the lead pull out to make room for a third-place guy?
You could just as easily say that the race was between Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis. It is highly unlikely that voters would have removed Davis, and replaced him with Bustamante.
Schwarzenegger has gone beyond mere toleration of abortion...he is enthusiastically endorsing the cloning of and killing of human beings, paid for by taxpayers, in the name of "science." It's quite Mengele-like.
I had made my peace with Schwarzenegger, until he started pushing Prop. 71. Now, he's as bad as any Democrat.
If a person supports Kerry because he votes for partial birth abortion, there might be sin involved. However, many people vote for Democrats because they always voted for Democrats. I have no doubt that my dear mother, were she alive, would be voting for Kerry. She never voted for a Republican in her life.
To say that my mother, in that instance, would be guilty of mortal sin is simply ludicrous.
Well, now you're going beyond the Schwarzenegger vs. Bustamante discussion.
If it had come down to a Bustamante-McClintock shootout, McClintock would've taken a dive.
I am a member of the Diocese of Cheyenne and wish the heck our pastor would say this in his sermon! Our pastor has not the gravitas of a chihuahua! Father Cronkleton is a good guy and is only repeating what God has already said - 'Killing is against my law'.
In this particular case, the priest is supplying that knowledge, and not giving people an excuse.
This is long overdue.
Furthermore, as we can see from such examples as the California governor, this isn't about voting for Democrats or Republicans.
Please let me know if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
He is supplying faulty knowledge, Knotts. My mother would not vote for a Republican, pro-choice or not, if the Pope himself said to vote for that politician.
And, she would not be guilty of mortal sin.
I don't know the answer to that, and neither do you.
But I do. One must have full awareness to commit mortal sin, and my mother would not have had that, given her life-long bias to vote for Democrats, under any circumstance.
That's why what Cronkleton is saying is so problematic.
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