Vatican Prelate Says Document of US Bishops Partly to Blame for Election of “Most Pro-Abortion Pres”

LifeSiteNews ^ | 1/28/09 | Hilary White

[mockingbyrd]

I watched our DRE twist Faithful Citizenship into justifying a vote for Obama and to convince young people in her class that you could vote for Obama.

[hocndoc]

Bravo to the Archbishop. How I wish Catholics everywhere would listen and hear.

[TChad]

A PDF of "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship " is here.

From that document:

34. Catholics often face difficult choices about how to vote. This is why it is so important to vote according to a well-formed conscience that perceives the proper relationship among moral goods. A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voter’s intent is to support that position. In such cases a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidate’s opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity.

35. There may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate’s unacceptable position may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons. Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamental moral evil.

36. When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods.

[Lou Budvis]

The US clergy are experts at sending mixed messages that green-light voting for pro-abort dims. They seemed to have missed the point that Jesus said nothing about what form governments should take. A Catholic’s duty to give to charity is the same for all time and for all places. Paying taxes is not a charitable act b/c it is mandatory and therefore lacks the ediffying benefit of a truly charitable act.

[ardara]

One of the greatest jobs we as Catholics can do is put the USCCB out of business.

[RetiredArmy]

Catholics and Jews voted big time for Osama Saddam Hussein Obama. Thankfully, we Southern Baptist did not. I have yet to find one person in my church that admits to voting for the messiah Obama.

[NewJerseyJoe]

The bishops have been denying, defacing, or otherwise watering-down doctrine for 40 years.... and now they’re surprised that Catholics don’t follow the teachings of the Church??

[SuperLuminal]

bttt

[livius]

Well, if the meeting did take place, they sure kept it quiet.

[PapaBear3625]

The Pope needs to exercise more care over who gets to be a bishop.

[Patriotic1]

True, but the state of teaching has been dreadful over the last 30 years. Many of the Catholics that I know are personally against it, blah blah blah.

There’s a lack of an idea of Truth, which is an indication of moral relativism.

[TChad]

...an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism,

So since the Democrats are pro-abortion and the Republicans are pro-racism, their is no net moral downside to voting for The Messiah of Choice.

[basil]

If you want a real hoot: I think I was the last person in the world to join the Church under the old Baltimore Catechism! I think they threw it out the day after I was baptized.......

[Notwithstanding]

U northodox
S lippery
C ontemptuous
C ulpable
B ackstabbers

As an organization it often seems that this is what they are, though I realize many individuals are not.

[Notwithstanding]

Paying taxes is not a charitable act b/c it is mandatory and therefore lacks the ediffying benefit of a truly charitable act.

And voting to force others to pay more taxes is, likewise, no charitable act.

[wintertime]

My daughter is a math teacher at a Catholic K-8 school. The principal and nearly every one of the teachers are hard line Democrats.

I simply can not reconcile the concept of “Catholic” school with any teacher or principal being a Democrat.

On Inauguration Day the students all watch Obama ( the infanticide voting president) take his oath of office. What on earth are these Catholic students learning!!!!

UNBELIEVABLE! ( Yes, I am shouting!)

[Jim Noble]

I can tell you this. I've been going to Catholic churches on a weekly basis for the past 15 years. Prior to that, being that all my cousins are Catholic and I worked for an order of nuns, I was reasonably close to many clergy and had plenty of opportunity to listen to their opinions.

When discovering that I was Protestant, a very substantial minority of priests and nuns would take the occasion to share with me how much they disagreed with the Church on various matters, especially those related to sex.

I don't know what percentage of bishops are pro-abortion, but it certainly ain't zero, or anything close to it.

[wintertime]

Sadly, there are a number of aged lefty bishops who love socialism
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6

They **worship** socialism! They **worship** Karl Marx instead of God. They are breaking the First Commandment.

Geeze! Is it any wonder then that 45% of Catholics who attend Mass weekly then vote for Obama? If socialism and Marxism are worshiped instead of God, then no wonder the faithful confuse Obama with the Messiah and pull the Democrat lever in the voting booth.

[markomalley]

Sign seen at MFL09

I agree that our shepherds have fallen down on the job; that can't be doubted by anybody. Their coziness with people who make public their sin against the Church is at odds with their speech in favor of life. Their lack of courage in publicly naming names and using their God-given authority to say "Thus saith the Lord" does not inspire confidence (to put it mildly). They have done so for decades leading up to this point. However, I am reticent to say, this time, that they bear 100% of the blame. (A preponderance, yes, but not all). As Salvation can easily point out, a number of them did actually get up the nerve to start being unambiguous. They do deserve some credit for that.

[markomalley]

ping to #39, sorry.