Posted on 11/05/2008 10:42:55 AM PST by Alex Murphy
November 5, 2008 (insidecatholic.com) - When the U.S. bishops hold their annual meeting in Baltimore next week, one item on the agenda will be approval of the new Order for the Blessing of the Child in the Womb.
The blessing, according to the USCCB, "was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage in the parish prayers for and recognition of the gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society." If approved by the bishops, the Blessing of the Child in the Womb will be incorporated into the Book of Blessings.
It couldn't come at a better time.
The election of Barack Obama sets the stage for a series of potential executive and congressional acts that could remove all the limits set on abortion since the Roe v. Wade decision. The most pernicious of these is the "Freedom of Choice Act," which Obama has promised will be the first bill he signs into law as president.
It is estimated that FOCA alone would result in 125,000 more abortions a year in the United States. That figure does not take into account other measures, such as Obama's pledge not to renew the Mexico City Policy and to repeal the Hyde amendment. As a result of Obama's victory, there will not only be hundreds of thousands of additional abortions, but American taxpayers will be paying for them.
Polls of Catholic voters prior to the election suggested that Obama might win a majority of self-identified Catholic voters. A more significant measure of Obama's Catholic support will be the percentage of regular Mass-attending Catholics who voted for him.
But regardless of the final statistics, it is clear that the Obama-Biden ticket received substantial help from Catholics working for parishes and chanceries, as well as a number of high-profile Catholic politicians and jurists. They successfully promoted the flaws of "Faithful Citizenship" to Catholics nationwide, neutralizing any advantage the Church's pro-life and pro-marriage teachings might offer to McCain-Palin.
"Faithful Citizenship" stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights for "other grave reasons" as long as they do not intend to support that position (34-35).
It's a strange argument that allows Catholics to send a politician with an undeniably extreme abortion record into the Oval Office and yet somehow bear no responsibility for what happens to unborn children as a result. One can only wonder what "grave reasons" the bishops could have had in mind that would outweigh the 4,000 unborn children who are aborted each day.
Many bishops -- including Bishops Vann, Farrell, Vasa, Martino, and Chaput -- stepped forward in the last months to correct misinterpretations of "Faithful Citizenship," but it was too late. History will show that Catholics helped to vote into office a president whose record contradicts our most fundamental moral belief -- the sanctity of human life.
When the bishops meet next week and approve the Blessing of the Child in the Womb, just as important will be the steps they take in convincing the president-elect to change his mind about the Freedom of Choice Act.
Change, after all, can be a good thing.
>>By the way, Ohio is home to the famous Franciscan University in Steubenville<<
Some of your problem is right there. They’ve been playing fast and loose with the liturgy for a long time.
Why should they play by the rules for anything else?
I know you are not blaming it all on Catholics, for Obamanation lured many evangelicals his way also.
The funny (okay, not so funny) thing is that the fedgov is about to covet many of our incomes to the point where we can no longer tithe. And I can’t see Hussein spreading the wealth to the Catholic Church.
Thank you for putting this perfectly. The church must be purified from within.
Hopefully, the bishops will ask all those who voted for the 0bamination to stand at next Sunday’s Masses - then excommunicate the lot of them publicly!
A public excommunication in the town square and put in stocks sounds good to me.
The American Bishops give nothing but lip service to the protection of the unborn.
Talk is cheap and they are cowards.
We as a people have the blood of millions of babies on our hands, and the majority don't care.
Life begins at the moment of contraception.
You may be on to something.
| "...These two world views [Christian theism vs naturalist, impersonal matter or energy shaped by impersonal chance] stand as totals in complete antithesis to each other in content and also in their natural results--including sociological and governmental results, and specifically including law. It is not that these two world views are different only in how they understand the nature of reality and existence. They also inevitably produce totally different results. The operative word here is inevitably. It is not just that they happen to produce different results, but it is absolutely inevitable that they will bring forth different results..." - Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto (1981), page 2. |
I heard some quote today, “Democracy without Virtue becomes a Tyranny” or something of that nature ... selfish? that’s why we have so many people just pursuing their own agenda.
This is a good article. In Ohio, roughly 50% of Catholics voted for Obama while roughly 30% of Evangelicals voted for Obama.
How do practicing Catholics vote for an abortionist?
How do Evangelicals vote for abortionists?
It is utterly disgusting. Both Catholics and Evangelicals Bishops and Preachers need to do some serious praying, soul searching and correcting in their respective churches.
Of course it proves what I’ve thought all along about the many pretenders who attend both Mass and church.
Talk is cheap and they are cowards
In the past, Catholic organizations have sprung up when there has been a need, Legion of Mary and others. Maybe there is something, a group could be formed by parishioners, by lay Catholics, really, demanding and pursuing actions that would see non-faithful Catholics leave the fold. I'm not sure how to word that, in a sense, I'm not one to judge but on the otoh, perhaps there is some sort of activism and action against our errant brethren. It's not strictly the responsibility of the Bishops.
Christians have been fed to the lions for their faith but we don't have to look 2000 years ago for such examples, there have been many admirable examples in modern times.
I know a lot of Vietnamese Catholics, they certainly don't fall back on their responsibilities to the faith. When the Vietnamese Mass is said Sunday morning at 8 or 9 AM: everyone goes, the place is packed for a relatively early Mass and it's the height of reverence that they show.
An inherent difference I’d have to contemplate is the way, Catholics, like Jews I gather are born into their faiths. Evangelicals will often search out a Church it could seem and are thus, at times, enthusiastic in their faith; but really, Ohio was an important state and those numbers point to Catholics having had a decisive impact.
This is a good article. In Ohio, roughly 50% of Catholics voted for Obama while roughly 30% of Evangelicals voted for Obama.
How do practicing Catholics vote for an abortionist?
How do Evangelicals vote for abortionists?
It is utterly disgusting. Both Catholics and Evangelicals Bishops and Preachers need to do some serious praying, soul searching and correcting in their respective churches.
Of course it proves what I’ve thought all along about the many pretenders who attend both Mass and church.
Many Catholic Republicans were unwilling to criticize Bush until he became unpopular. This unwillingness actually helped ensure the president would become unpopular, because his mistakes would remain uncorrected.
They "helped" Bush help Obama.
How many Protestants voted for him?
None.
Only faux-Protestants voted for him.
I have an RCIC class, tonight they asked me who I voted for and I told them and they all cheered, their families all voted for McCain.
My granddaughter’s teacher had stated his intention to vote for 0bama, I tried to sway him, I don’t know if I had any luck, he didn’t show tonight. My granddaughter wants to quit Catechism because she doesn’t think she should be taught by someone who could even consider voting for 0bama.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.