Letter to my Bishop on Faithful Citizenship

Vanity | 10/1/12 | pgyanke

[pgyanke]

I am just beside myself with my bishop... but I keep praying, hoping and trying.

For reference, here is my "Voting Guide for Serious Catholics".

[brooklyn dave]

I don’t look to the bishops for much anyway. They seem to have always missed the train on a lot of issues. The Catholic hierarchy jumps and screams after the show is done and over. They are not a pro-active bunch. They are not a pre-emptive bunch. many (not all) are still in 1969-1970 Kumbaya mode.

[pgyanke]

I’m trying to change that. Half of their flocks are listening to the Democratic propaganda machine in forming their consciences. Either the Bishops get a handle on this or they will eventually lose their congregations (and those poor souls).

[pgyanke]

For your ping lists.

[Venturer]

Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger.

I am disgusted with the whole mess in the catholic Church. I still go because I feel it is the religion set up by Christ and I should go, but the latter day Bishops and Cardinals don’t show me much.

As for confession that has more or less become a joke to many catholics.
I see them all get up and go to Communion every Sunday, but I know only 10% of them are anywhere near a State of Grace, many haven’t been to confession in years.

I don’t see the crowds that get up to go to Communion at Confession on Saturday.

I try to confess on Saturday and got to Communion on Sunday because there is no way in hell I can stay pure for a week, so I take Communion a couple of times a year. Reading Free Republic and getting angry at the Muslim takes the pure out of me fast.

[FourtySeven]

I’m not sure the American Bishops can condemn a particular political party, at least not by name, without putting the tax exempt status of the Church in America in jeopardy. I don’t know though; I could be wrong.

[pgyanke]

No Church in America has ever lost its tax exempt status for stating the truth. The proscription on this comes from the 1954 tax code which set up 501(c)3. In truth, the Church escaped taxation long before this law simply because the state has no authority to demand anything of the Church.

Besides, even if the tax-exempt status is jeopardized, to keep silent for this reason in the face of encroaching evil shows a real problem of priorities. Please follow the link in my first post to my voting guide where I touch on this issue.

[Voltage]

There is a major misunderstanding here. The Catholic Church is not opposed to abortion. If they were hundreds, perhaps thousands of ‘Catholic’ politicians would be publically excommunicated.

[pgyanke]

I make that point here.

[Tax-chick]

That’s a good letter. I said a Memorare for your intentions.

[teflon9]

Terri Schiavo was starved to death because of an obsolete legal doctrine that automatically strips parents of their next-of-kin rights once their children marry, and then bestows all next-of-kin rights to their spouse. Such legal theory was conceived in a time when lifespans where short, and parents were expected to die soon after their children married. But now, with people commpnly iving with sound minds well into their 80s and beyond, the illogic of this practice is now obvious. If Terri Schiavo's parents had superior rights over her estranged husband, we would not even be having this discussion, and Schiavo might still be alive, if only in the most technical sense of the word. The only remedy to this is legislation that will leave the next-of-kin rights of parents paramount, even if their children marry. After all, marriages come and go, but parenthood is truly "until death do you part." And altough it's all too common for someone to have nefarious intent towards their spouse (and Schiavo was almost certainly a victim of domestic violence) nefarious intent of a parent towards a cjhild is almost unknown.

[pgyanke]

Terri Schiavo was starved to death because the law was turned on its head. Our legal default in this country has always been to life. In the case of conflict between parties, the state defaults to life until the dispute is resolved. She was starved to death against the conscience of the community and her parents' challenges which sought to come to her aid against a "husband" who had abandoned marital responsibility in a new relationship. He had a conflict of interest which stood to benefit him at her death. Her faith was such that she knew ending her life this way was contrary to the doctrines of the Church. Her testimony in her death was given by her estranged husband through hearsay.

Terri is dead because the state agreed with the proposition that her state of life was one not worth living.

I am in the financial services field. It used to be that people filed "living wills" to tell the state when it could change the default and allow them to die. Terri's case changed that. Now, people file living wills to tell the court when it is not allowed to end their lives. It's a shift brought to you by the culture of death through the court appointments and government sponsorship of the Democratic Party.

[pgyanke]

Thank you very much.

[teflon9]

Have to disagree even though I agree with much of what you said regarding respect for life. Terri Schiavo ultimately died because of an outmoded legal doctrine that gives even estranged spouses superior next of kin rights over living, compentent parents. Like I said, if Terri's parents were her first in line next of kin, not her "husband", we wouldn't be having this conversation. And note to other freepers: Do not allow your children to marry unless they grant you power of attorney that will supercede in an ironclad way the next of kin rights of their spouse. After all, you never know if the nice young man your daughter brings home might be next Richard Speck.

[pgyanke]

I watched this case unfold in FL. The problem wasn’t an outmoded legal doctrine... that was the foil to give the semblance of fealty to the law. The problem was a judge which allowed a hearsay request to die from an estranged husband with a monetary conflict of interest.

[teflon9]

You still haven’t answerd my question. If Schiavo’s parents had remained her primary next of kin even after she married, her husband, estranged or not, nice or evil, would have had NO say in her care. Which is as it should be.

[pgyanke]

You still haven’t answerd my question. If Schiavo’s parents had remained her primary next of kin even after she married, her husband, estranged or not, nice or evil, would have had NO say in her care. Which is as it should be.

Absolutely not! Like it or not, our system of government is rooted in Judaeo-Christian tradition. A wife and husband leave their parents and cleave together as one. This unity of the nuclear family is foundational to our civilization.

In the case of divorce or abandonment, however, this should revert. Not that an adult is under the authority of the parents again but rather that the next of kin reverts when spouses are abandoned and unable to make decisions for themselves. The parents made a credible case to impeach Michael's role as caregiver to Terri. It was rejected despite the obvious evidence of the new family relationship and monetary conflict of interest. The judge reasoned that there had been no divorce therefore there was still a marriage. The parents pointed out that Terri was unable to divorce in her condition and Michael was unwilling because it would sever the financial ties.

[teflon9]

It does revert in case of divorce. After all, once divorce is finalized, there is no more marriage! But there are cases where one spouse has hostile intent towards another even if there is no apparent abandonment. And the whole “cleave together” bit is mere ceremonial boilerplate, conceived, like I said, at a time when parents did not usually last long after their children married. And what stronger union is there than that between parent and child?

[pgyanke]

And what stronger union is there than that between parent and child?

Husband and wife.

[teflon9]

Does a spouse carry another spouse in its womb for 9 months? Does a spouse nurse another spouse, watch it say its first words, take its first steps etc.?