Posted on 06/03/2008 3:19:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
“If she is basing her claim that Catholics cannot vote for a candidate that supports abortion on this, then it looks like she can’t vote for a candidate who is also pro-capital punishment or pro-divorce.”
That depends. If by executing a heinous criminal lives are saved, the Church has pretty much turned a blind eye to that (kind of akin to Aquinas’ “Just War” proclamation). As for divorce, the Church just gives that lip service, because if it didn’t it would have very few congregants (there are a great many prominent Catholics who have been divorced, and the Church has largely ignored it unless some political points could be made). It’s like being married by a judge or a JOP (or any non-priest presider): On the one hand the Church theoretically holds that such unions, unless blessed by the Church, are adulterous; on the other hand, it does not excommunicate the parties (though it restricts them from the sacraments). Abortion, though, is a completely different matter, and the Church will not broach any compromise on that. Why? Because abortion is taking the life of the most innocent among us.
I’m a Roman Catholic, though not a very devout one. And I have some fundamental disputes with the Church. But, like Jesus, the Church hates the sin but loves the sinner.
The Church is not stuck.
Proportionalism teaches that the loss or damage to souls that is caused by one “issue” causes that issue to take precedent over others if the number of lost/damaged souls from the one issue significantly exceeds the loss produced by the others.
So, if one was to put all the lives lost from, let’s say the Iraq War since its beginning, it does not equal the lives lost via abortion in just a couple of weeks.
Furthermore, the Iraq conflict is not black and white, cut and dry. Some believe justification exists for it, while others do not.
Abortion is intrinsically evil, while war is not intrinsically evil.
If you add fetal stem cell research, euthanasia, homosexual marriage, and scandalized children to the crimes against life, which most proaborts like Obama favor, the lives lost and/or damaged from the crimes against life by far outweigh the harmful effects of all the other injustices/indignities combined.
Proportionalism focuses on souls, not issues.
“If she is basing her claim that Catholics cannot vote for a candidate that supports abortion on this, then it looks like she can’t vote for a candidate who is also pro-capital punishment or pro-divorce.”
No, this just a recent reiteration of constant teaching.
Abortion is intrinsically evil.
Capital punishment is not intrinsically evil since the state has a right to defend itself against predators and those who harm others.
What does pro-divorce have to do with anything? Nobody dies as a direct cause of divorce.
He's not drinking the Kool Aid.
Yes, and while Obama was preaching, “Obama, Our Hope,” the Pope came with his theme, “Christ, Our Hope.”
That’s exactly right.
The prohibition on divorce is enforced, because divorced and remarried people are not allowed to receive the sacraments.
Usually the other quote is “innocent human life,” btw, because an exception has traditionally been made for justifiable killings of the guilty in war or through capital punishment.
But you’re not getting my central point, which is that divorce may be a violation of Church law and of God’s will for marriage, but it doesn’t deny the fundamental concept. Remember that Jesus introduced the prohibition on divorce as a new thing, since divorce was permitted and even abused by the Jews. Nowhere, however, has there ever existed the idea that two persons of the same sex may “marry.” Hence, this violates a premise of natural law, and it is not possible to build or run a just society on this basis.
Capital punishment is, again, a personal opinion; the words of the pope (or their translation) are not statements of doctrine, and until that happens, the Catholic doctrine on the matter remains unchanged. Various pro-abortion Catholics have attempted to add capital punishment to the life issues in order to dilute the attention paid to abortion and euthanasia and to make it sound like they’re all the same (the evil Bernardin “seamless garment” theory). They’re not.
Translation......Catholics in no way can vote for Obama. He is pro-abortion. Pro-baby killing. Pro-Planned Parenthood.
McCain is pro-life. Will not kill the babies. All Catholics should vote for him. I believe he will come around on the embryonic stem-cell research and not move it forward.
Vote McCain.
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Thank you Pope Benedict
You may want to hear this as well:
Fr. Mitch on same sex and abortion re: Obamas misuse of the scripture (No.15) from:
http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=6694&T1=threshold+of+hope
listen now
http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/resolve.asp?audiofile=toh_03042008.rm
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