Saturday, August 30, 2008

Bootlicking: Instructional Guides from Patrick Murphy & Robert Casey, Jr.

.
Shame on both of you!
.
In his autobiographical Taking the Hill , Congressman Patrick Murphy proudly proclaims his Irish-Catholic background. He speaks of attending Mass, going to Confession, and participating in Catholic culture, dropping names of local Catholic churches, clergy, religious, and schools. Pathetically, he tries to reconcile his faith with his lockstep support of the rabidly pro-abortion, pro-embryonic stem cell research stances of the Democratic party!


Patrick Murphy may be the real life Forest Gump. In regard to his socio-economic climb up the ladder, he has repeatedly been in the right place at the right time. One leaves a conversation with Murphy with the impression that "West Point professor" must be some sort of typo on his vitae. Clearly, Murphy is in over his head with the Culture of Death proponents in the Democratic leadership - and they know it!




.
Casey throws in a few words about being pro-life & against abortion. Then he shames himself by kissing up to Obama for merely letting him speak at the convention, when his dad was forbidden from speaking at earlier conventions. This is the United States, Bobby! How dare you take it upon yourself to flatter a rabidly pro-abortion politician for merely letting you say that you are pro-life. Incredibly, Casey closes his embarassing presentation by recalling his dad's rhetorical question about what one did, when one had power. Pathetic.


Monday, August 4, 2008

re: "U.S. bishops: Vote your conscience" (Times of Trenton, 7/30/08)


As reported by Jeff Trently, Father Ronald Cioffi ALLEGEDLY indicated that the U.S. Catholic Bishops have given a green light to "vote for a person who is pro-choice if you feel you have a moral reason to support the candidate for his stand on other issues." According to Mr. Trently, "the bishops clearly state a Catholic may vote for an abortion rights supporter, such as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, if that candidate's views on other moral issues outweigh his abortion stand in the voter's conscience." The bishops "clearly state" no such thing!

Mr. Trently lacks an understanding of Catholic conscience formation. To this reader, it also appears that he did not bother to read the document, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" <www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCStatement.pdf>, about which he editorializes. His resultant comments are outrageously misleading - especially since Senator Obama is out of touch with a wide range of Catholic social concerns!

"For the more than 800,000 Catholics in the Trenton Diocese, including close to 32,000 in Mercer County, the new guidelines are a call to weigh their consciences, as well as the common good, Cioffi said." That's certainly true and needs to be coupled with forceful reminders of Catholics' grave obligation to form their consciences, according to the teaching of the Church (Catholics should also be reminded that our understanding of the "common good" varies radically from how that term is used colloquially. Absolute, uncompromising respect for the sanctity of human life is at the core of our understanding.).

Mr. Trently tells us that Father "Cioffi presented an outline of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' document 'Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship' at a meeting of about 30 staff members at the diocese's Pastoral Center." The actual document only comes to 30 pages of text. I believe that all adult Catholics - especially the clergy and those in the full time employ of the Church - have a serious duty to read the actual document.

In the actual document, the bishops eloquently remind us that "We are a nation founded on 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' but the right to life itself is not fully protected, especially for unborn children, the most vulnerable members of the American family....In our nation, ‘abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others’ (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 5)....direct threats to the sanctity and dignity of human life, such as human cloning and destructive research on human embryos, are also intrinsically evil….

"Two temptations in public life can distort the Church’s defense of human life and dignity: The first is a moral equivalence that makes no ethical distinctions between different kinds of issues involving human life and dignity. The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed….Racism and other unjust discrimination, the use of the death penalty, resorting to unjust war, the use of torture, war crimes, the failure to respond to those who are suffering from hunger or a lack of health care, or an unjust immigration policy are all serious moral issues that challenge our consciences and require us to act. These are not optional concerns which can be dismissed. Catholics are urged to seriously consider Church teaching on these issues. Although choices about how best to respond to these and other compelling threats to human life and dignity are matters for principled debate and decision, this does not make them optional concerns or permit Catholics to dismiss or ignore Church teaching on these important issues" <www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCStatement.pdf>

"Roe" Becomes Pro-Life



Nothing "Mere" About It!




Mere Chistianity is divided into 4 books: 1. Right & Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, 2. What Christians Believe, 3. Christian Behavior, and 4. Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity.

In Book 1, Lewis strikes an early, direct blow against relativistic thinking: "If anyone will take the time to compare the moral teaching of, say the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinesese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own" (p. 6). There are basic, universal moral standards: "men find themselves under a moral law, which they did not make, and cannot quite forget even when they try, and which they know they ought to obey" (p.23). "I am under a law; that somebody or something wants me to behave in a certain way" (p. 25). Who but God wrote this law on my heart?

Personally, I've never met anyone who denied that Jesus was a great moral teacher. Yet, in one way or another, plenty of people try to deny His Divinity. In Book 2, Lewis tries "to prevent the really foolish thing that people often say about Him. `I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God'....A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic [sic]...or else he would be the Devil of Hell" (p. 52). Along these very same lines, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli present the options as "Lord, Lunatic, or Liar." "Now the Christian belief is that if we somehow share the humility and suffering of Christ we shall also share in His conquest of death and find a new life after we have died and in it become perfect, and perfectly happy creatures. This means something much more than our trying to follow His teaching" (p. 60).

In contrast to any notion that God's law is intrusive, oppressive, or stifling, Lewis starts 1943's Book 3 with the reminder that "moral rules are directions for running the human machine" (p. 69). Explaining the "cardinal virtues" (i.e., prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance), he notes that "a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a `virtue'" (p. 80). Book 3 closes with chapters devoted to forgiveness and pride, as well as the "theological virtues" of faith, hope, and charity.

Considering that Lewis was a member of the Church of England, which had approved limited contraceptive use in 1930, much of his commentary on sexual morality is prophetic: "Contraceptives have made sexual indulgence far less costly in marriage and far safer outside it than ever before, and public opinion is less hostile to illicit unions and even to perversion than it has been since Pagan times....Christianity is almost [sic] the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body - which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven....Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once" (pp. 97, 98). "We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity - like perfect charity - will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help....those who are seriously attempting chastity are more conscious, and soon know a great deal more about their own sexuality than anyone else....Virtue - even attempted virtue - brings light; indulgence brings fog" (pp. 101, 102).

I say that "much of his commentary on sexual morality is prophetic," because Lewis also offered some well-intentioned, yet poorly thought out, comments on marriage and sexuality:
* "If people do not believe in permanent marriage, it is perhaps better that they should live together unmarried than they should make vows that they do not mean to keep" (p. 106).
* "There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members" (p. 112).
I am among those who believe that, had Lewis lived longer, he would have embraced the fullness of the Truth which resides in Catholicism. How much his works would have been enhanced, were they informed by our generation's Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Compendium of the Catechism!

In book 4, Lewis acknowledges the attraction of "a vague religion - all about feeling God in nature, and so on" (p. 155). He warns that such touchy-feely, pseudo-religion cannot lead to "eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music....a great many of the ideas about God which are trotted out as novelties today are simply the ones which real Theologians tried centuries ago and rejected" (p. 155). "If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact." "The more we get what we now call `ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become....It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own....How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints....submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life" (pp. 225 - 227).

re: "Sen. Barack Obama names Catholics to his National Advisory Council"

Margaret Sanger's 1957 Vision for the Future



In 1957, Time Magazine seemed to gush with the excitement of a junior high student: “Some of the most hush-hush medical research has been pursued in dozens of laboratories in the effort to find a contraceptive pill” <www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,%20809446,00.html?promoid=googlep>.


According to Planned Parenthood, the “pill” is now the most widely used of various contraceptive methods <www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_%20contr_use.html> (Note: The “pill” is known to work in an abortifacient manner.). In an age of increased awareness about the foods we consume, people seem to be relatively unconcerned about ingesting chemicals and placing foreign objects on or in their bodies to "protect" themselves against their natural fertility.


While contraceptives are supposedly a panacea for "unwanted pregnancies," the CDC reports that one of every three pregnancies ends in an induced abortion <www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases>.


There are now 56 times more new STD infections each year, than there were overall STD infections in 1957:


In the past half century, the rate of forcible rape of women has tripled:


Over the past half century, Americans have become less likely to marry. Of those fewer who do marry, they are more likely to divorce:

The Beatitudes from "Jesus of Nazareth"

 

Use of Emergency So-Called Contraceptives in Catholic Hospitals for Those Reporting Rape

Book & Film Reviews, pt 1

Book & Film Reviews, pt 2


Blog Archive

And yup, that's me!

And yup, that's me!
(from page 1 of the NY Sun, 3/22/04)

Total Pageviews

March for Life 2010

CatholicsComeHome.org