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Do Most Catholic Bishops Support Obama?
US News & World Report ^ | June 18, 2009 | Dan Gilgoff

Posted on 06/21/2009 7:50:22 AM PDT by presidio9

The Roman Catholic bishops who attacked President Obama's recent appearance at Notre Dame and who've called for pro-abortion rights politicians to be denied communion constitute a minority. Most of the roughly 275 U.S. Catholic bishops have kept quiet about both controversies.

Liberal Catholics claim this silent majority disagrees with strident public pronouncements from outspokenly conservative bishops. Most U.S. bishops, they say, think Notre Dame was right to invite the president—and that Catholic elected officials should receive communion regardless of their stance on abortion.

Catholic scholar David O'Brien makes the case in the latest National Catholic Reporter:

As Catholic bishops gather in San Antonio this week, they face some tough questions. Their most recent engagements with politics sharpened divisions within the church and left the bishops shaken, even embarrassed....

The shrill reaction of many bishops to President Obama's election and visit to Notre Dame reflected a grim image of an embattled church hunkered down against hostile enemies....

Only a few seem able to resist. One who does so is retired San Francisco Archbishop Emeritus John Quinn. As the ugly rhetoric heated up this spring, Quinn argued that even "where there are grave divisions as there are on abortion," Catholics should recognize that it is in "the interest of both the church and the nation to work together in civility, honesty, and friendship for the common good."

Here's my question to Catholics, like O'Brien, who allege that outbursts of anti-Obama sentiment by some bishops has left the majority of U.S. bishops " shaken, even embarrassed": Is there any hard evidence for that case?

O'Brien cites one retired bishop who publicly broke ranks with the anti-Obama-at-Notre Dame bishops. That's a thin reed on which to claim that most Catholic bishops reject the hard-line anti-Obama statements coming from some of their ilk. I'd like to see some real evidence for this theory, widely held by liberal Catholics. For me, the silence of most U.S. bishops doesn't suffice.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho44; catholic; catholicvote; presidiot9; religiousleft
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To: Bob Eimiller
There are those who believe the third secret from Fatima that was to be, but never revealed in 1960 as requested by the Blessed Mother, predicted the recent apostasy in the Church.

That's interesting (and probably true, which is the reason they have tried so hard to keep it quiet).

I think Bambi at ND was a lead-in to the Abomination of Desolation. He has appointed a nitwit as the ambassador to the Vatican, but a very left-wing nitwit who is going to be connecting with all of the other factions in the Vatican that want to get rid of BXVI and install the Great New Leader, whoever he may be, as part of the URI (United Religions Iniative).

21 posted on 06/21/2009 8:49:25 AM PDT by livius
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To: Yorlik803
Agreed.

A Catholic can not be a Rat.

Abortion is a strong reason, perhaps the strongest.

Of course the gay plank in the Rat party is also a deal breaker.

But the Rats and socialists make envy a sacrament, exactly wrong, it is a vice.

Lastly, in Genesis, God told Adam and Eve, before throwing them out of the Garden, "By the sweat of your brow will you earn your bread." Which says it all to me... a commandment against socialism in all of its forms.

22 posted on 06/21/2009 9:10:56 AM PDT by caddie
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To: presidio9

http://www.collinsreport.net/2009/05/18/catholic-bishops-should-use-notre-dame-as-a-%e2%80%9cbloody-shirt%e2%80%9d-to-force-jenkinsist-catholics-to-%e2%80%9cchoose%e2%80%9d-a-side/

http://www.collinsreport.net/2009/05/08/rasmussen-or-gallup-who%e2%80%99s-wrong-on-catholic-support-for-obama%e2%80%99s-speech-at-notre-dame/
http://www.collinsreport.net/2009/04/27/notre-dame-the-catholic-potemkin-village-nice-on-the-outside-fake-on-the-inside/

http://www.collinsreport.net/2009/03/31/notre-dame%e2%80%99s-invitation-to-obama-the-beginning-of-an-american-catholic-church-schism/

These are just a few of the Collins Report’s essays on Obama at Notre Dame.


23 posted on 06/21/2009 9:13:59 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: presidio9; livius
This was predictable.

"The shrill reaction of many bishops to President Obama's election and visit to Notre Dame reflected a grim image of an embattled church hunkered down against hostile enemies...."

Actually, it wasn't that shrill and many of the protests and criticisms were very moderate. As for those who remained silent, they will have to answer to God and explain themselves. It's possible that most are heretics, fruitcakes, and liberals who adore Obama and approve of his policies. Others may just have been timid. Others may have concluded they should not get involved in politics or the internal affairs of a university. These are wrong conclusions but much of the institutional Church effectively is in schism.

This is another example of people pointing to liberal modernism and claiming this is the mainstream of Catholicism. Heresy gives rise to scandal.

In point of fact it is very clear that giving Obama an honorary doctoral degree and a podium to advance his anti-life views is contrary to the official policy of the church and even spelled out by the USCCB. Pro-abortionists are not to be given awards, honors, or a forum to advance abortion or embryonic stem cell research. If most bishops thought it was OK this hardly supports Notre Dame or Obama. It just shows how corrupt the modernist church hierarchy in the U.S. has become.

24 posted on 06/21/2009 10:52:07 AM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: Yorlik803
"If you are a Catholic that supports Obama, then you are no Catholic."

Anyone who supports Obama or votes Democrat is an accomplice in the murder of millions of innocent babies. This is a right or wrong issue. There is no middle ground in the confrontation with evil.

25 posted on 06/21/2009 12:29:34 PM PDT by Natural Law
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To: Joann37

how does one logically appeal to the authority of the Bible and at the same time deny the authority of the Church which by divine guidance formalized the canon of Scripture?

there have been frauds in the Church since shortly after its birth (”even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light”); and on FR we see almost daily the quote of bishops’ skulls lining the floor of Hell; thus, there should be no surprise regarding the existence of false shepherds today

thank you for your witness to life


26 posted on 06/21/2009 3:46:51 PM PDT by Piers-the-Ploughman (Just say no to circular firing squads.)
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To: LowCountryJoe; Sir Francis Dashwood
It means he couldn't come up with his own cheap shot at Catholicism.
27 posted on 06/21/2009 3:52:07 PM PDT by Jacquerie (The current tax code is a daily mugging - Ronaldus Magnus)
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To: Jacquerie

Mine are not cheap shots at Catholism but only shots at some of the people who are Catholic and who hold some beliefs that I find sickening.


28 posted on 06/21/2009 4:28:32 PM PDT by LowCountryJoe (Do class-warfare and disdain of laissez-faire have their places in today's GOP?)
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To: LowCountryJoe

Don’t worry, LCJ, no matter what you say, if it’s against a Catholic they will pounce on you. It can be the absolute truth and they will attack you for it. Speak truth.


29 posted on 06/21/2009 4:45:19 PM PDT by Marysecretary (GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!)
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To: Natural Law
"Anyone who supports Obama or votes Democrat is an accomplice in the murder of millions of innocent babies. This is a right or wrong issue. There is no middle ground in the confrontation with evil."

Well said, and absolutely correct.

30 posted on 06/21/2009 5:16:37 PM PDT by NoRedTape
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To: Theodore R.

My parish here in WA is having a hard time meeting the Catholic Appeal pledges this year and I think it is due to disgust with the pro-obama at ND bishops. In about 10 more years all the “I marched with King in Alabama” priests (if I had a nickel for every professor I knew that claims it, almost like saying “Wahington slept here” and I am hearing many priests say this too) will be retired and more traditional priests will rise up in the parishes.


31 posted on 06/21/2009 6:35:11 PM PDT by Citizen Soldier (Socialism is the financial arm of Communism)
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To: Sir Francis Dashwood
When the fairies are displeased with anybody, they are said to send their elves to pinch them.

The Good People are nothing you want to fool with.

That reminds me, midsummer eve is in a couple nights, isn't it?

32 posted on 06/21/2009 8:18:25 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayeredu hem vekhol-'asher lahem chayyim she'olah; vatekhas `aleyhem ha'aretz . . .)
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To: LowCountryJoe
What do you find sickening? What is your sect?
33 posted on 06/22/2009 8:43:06 AM PDT by Jacquerie (The current tax code is a daily mugging - Ronaldus Magnus)
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To: Yorlik803

Lets say this once and for all....If you are a Catholic that supports Obama, then you are no Catholic. I dont know what you are, maybe you are a Pagan or a Satanist, but you are not a Catholic.
Anyone who supports a President that supports abortion and says they are a good Catholic is a dirty rotten low down sleazy floor flushing dirtbag.
/////////////////////
yep


34 posted on 06/23/2009 2:30:39 AM PDT by TomasUSMC ( FIGHT LIKE WW2, FINISH LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM)
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To: Jacquerie

>>What do you find sickening?<<

The advocacy for socialism: not voluntarily through charity but an outright appeal and championing for government to handle the charitable functions.


35 posted on 06/23/2009 4:36:20 AM PDT by LowCountryJoe (Do class-warfare and disdain of laissez-faire have their places in today's GOP?)
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To: LowCountryJoe

What is your sect?


36 posted on 06/23/2009 5:13:45 AM PDT by Jacquerie (That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men.)
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To: Jacquerie

>>What is your sect?<<

I do not follow your question. I am a Roman Catholic who lives in the Atlanta metro area. ‘Sect’ is a new one on me.


37 posted on 06/23/2009 6:53:18 AM PDT by LowCountryJoe (Do class-warfare and disdain of laissez-faire have their places in today's GOP?)
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