Punditry

If Obama wins on November 4 with the help of Catholic voters, the biggest factor in his favor will be the bishops’ own document and Web site, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.”

I never thought it likely that Catholic voters could be persuaded to support a candidate with both the most extreme record on abortion and who favors gay marriage. Yet, barring a miracle, that paradox is only a week away: The New York Times is reporting Obama 22 points ahead among Catholic voters. [article]

I wouldn’t put it on the USCCB doc at all. The USCCB could have published Faithful Citizenship with one line saying “Abortion is the preeminent issue of our time.” and they would still have found wiggle room with a Clintonesque meaning of “is”. Like Vatican II we have a “spirit of Faithful Citizenship.” It does not matter what the totality of a document says, they will strip it out of context.

The main things about many dissenters is that they are basically liars. For example Fr. Reese, S.J. recently saying “Democrats are finally emphasizing that it should be rare” when they actually stripped “rare” from their platform and made a stronger statement supporting abortion “rights”. Sure sometimes they are just mistaken and pass on something that somebody else said. Often though dissenters just lie to our face and expect us to accept what they say. So many dishonest things are said that it is hard to find a charitable explanation. No doubt some read a document and interpret them through their own lens and actually think it says what they say it says. That is always a danger for everyone. Mainly though they ignore strong statements and grasp at straws.
Look at what they have done to scripture? So can we be surprised what they do this to a USCCB document.

As to Faithful Citizenship itself it certainly is not without flaws. It is way to wordy, long and, repetitive. Obviously written by a committee and not having a strong editor to clean it up. Though that is kind of the nature of USCCB documents in the first place. It does though have some of the clearer statements on abortion and that it is not just one issue of many and it much better than the documents released in 2000 and 2004.

Somebody who understands how horrific an evil abortion is, is not going to read Faithful Citizenship and say “Wow, I guess I can vote for Obama if I want to.” People who are willing to overlook abortion, ESCR, euthanasia, cloning, and homosexual marriage are not likely to be swayed by a USCCB document anyway.

Besides how many average people in the pew have actually read Faithful Citizenship anyway. Or in fact any USCCB document. I have never seen a bishop’s document passed out or on a table as you enter a church. Sure wonks such as myself read all the documents coming out of the Vatican and USCCB, but surely this is not common. Probably the average Catholic knowledge on these documents is often third hand if at all. So I think blaming the Faithful Citizenship is a bit of hyperbole.

Though I must admit I applauded when Bishop Morlino said “The USCCB doesn’t speak for me.” The problem with all bishop’s conferences is that they are a created structure and really have no theological justification. Like pretty much all committees you end up taking weaker positions in the name of collegiality. For the USCCB the abuse scandal was about anything but Bishop’s who helped enable abusers. Nobody was surprised when the USCCB said it was up to each bishop to decide whether to withhold Communion from pro-abortion politicians. The USCCB can easily become a scapegoat, but Bishop Morlino was right in multiple ways. It is the local ordinary who is the official teacher for his diocese. Sometimes it seems to me that we have bishops conferences so that individual bishops can avoid making tough decisions. Thank God that more and more bishops are taking seriously their role as shepherd and are speaking out. Though there have been some great statements coming from the USCCB recently. This is due though to individual bishops part of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. This Secretariat has been there for a long time and never managed to make a statement against a pro-abortion candidate until now.

So certainly there are things we can complain about the USCCB on, but we also give it more credit for what it can do than it deserves.

A Vista, Calif., megachurch is canceling all worship services this weekend and leaving no excuse for Christians to stay in the pews and out of “being” the church.

“So many people think of a church as a self-contained religious club – but it’s not,” said Pastor Larry Osborne of North Coast Church. “A healthy church is a community of Jesus-followers who live out their spiritual commitment 24/7.”

Over 6,000 North Coast attendees are living out their commitment as they tackle 139 community service projects at 70 sites throughout North San Diego County. On Oct. 25 and 26, the church is closing its doors for a “Weekend of Service” and providing churchgoers the opportunity to show the love of Jesus. [article]

Well one aspect of “being” the church is that you can tithe to yourself.

Now it is very good for them to be getting involved in community projects, but they are in need of a little both/and. Loving God and loving neighbor are not mutually exclusive activities..

It is rather interesting all of the divergent paths Protestantism has followed since the Reformation. Then we had the false charge that Catholic’s believed justification came via works and now we have a Protestant Megachurch canceling “worship” to do works. Over the last couple of years there have been Megachurches that canceled Christmas services to give family time. But the idea that going to church is about us an not giving the due worship and thanks to God is not confined to just Protestants. Bishop conferences have transferred Holy Days of Obligation to Sundays to make things more “convenient” or we have parishes tailoring liturgy as entertainment.

Another priest has broken ranks with California’s bishops on the Protect Marriage initiative, telling his parishioners in the church’s weekly bulletin, “I cannot in conscience unequivocally support Proposition 8.”

The remarks came in a “dear parishioners” letter published Oct. 5. by Claretian Fr. Steve Niskanen, pastor of San Gabriel Mission in the Los Angeles archdiocese.

The same day that Fr. Niskanen expressed his opinion in San Gabriel, Fr. Geoffrey Farrow told parishioners at the St. Paul Newman Center in Fresno following his Sunday morning homily that he opposed the marriage initiative – and admitted during a television interview before the Mass that he was a homosexual.

In his “dear parishioners” letter at San Gabriel Mission, Fr. Niskanen went through each of the ballot measures endorsed by the Catholic bishops of California one by one. He said he supports Proposition 4 – the family notification before a minor’s abortion initiative, and that he opposes Proposition 6 – the “Safe Neighborhoods Act,” which would add new crimes and tougher penalties to state law. Fr. Niskanen’s positions on Props 4 and 6 are in line with the recommendations of the bishops.

But when it came to Proposition 8, which would amend the state constitution to outlaw same-sex marriages, Fr. Niskanen disagreed. After reprinting a portion of the bishops’ arguments in favor of the proposition, he wrote: “I deeply respect and submit to the authority of our bishops and the force of traditional Catholic teaching limiting sexual relations to the love and life-giving commitment of heterosexual marriage. But I cannot in conscience unequivocally support Proposition 8 because I cannot in my heart of hearts say with certainty, at this time, that God would not call His gay and lesbian children into a faithful and life-long covenant with one another.” [article]

Plus there are all those examples of same-sex couples in the Old and New Testament living a life-long covenant with one another. Oh wait, funny how the Holy Spirit inspired no one to mention this if homosexual relations are approved by God. Apologists for homosexuality constantly say 5 to 10 percent of the population has same-sex attraction, so it is rather strange for scripture to not even mention that “faithful” homosexual relations were always part of God’s plan. Go forth and be fruitful except this segment.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Catholic Charities plans to sever its two-year funding relationship with an adoption agency, Family Builders by Adoption, that focuses on placing children with homosexuals.

“The funding from Catholic Charities is ending this [budget] year,” Jill Jacobs, executive director of Family Builders by Adoption, told Our Sunday Visitor Sept. 25. Catholic Charities CYO currently provides two staff members for the agency at a cost of about $250,000 annually.

It is not clear what motivated the decision, which means the archdiocese will no longer have any involvement with adoptions. A Catholic Charities spokeswoman declined to comment.

Well that is good news, though they should never have contracted with them in the first place. Previously they had sent paid staff to “Family Builders by adoption” whose goal was “Increasing the number of children adopted by Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) adults.” What is sad is how the homosexual lobby has pushed Catholics out of providing adoptions in California and Massachusetts. The goal of the homosexual lobby is not about tolerance but forced acceptance and the Catholic faith has to be pushed into the closet.

Hat tip to Fr. John Malloy, SDB who has been on the forefront with coverage on this for the last couple years.

I was wrong about the first McCain/Obama debate. A third of the way through the event, I said to one of my guests, “My guy is getting creamed!” Note that I did not say, “My candidate is being beaten into the ground.” I don’t have a candidate. Priests, like columnists, are not supposed to endorse a candidate. But one of the candidates is from my state and my city, and we shared a pulpit once. So of course I hope he wins. But that doesn’t mean I endorse him. As I have said repeatedly in this column, I think he will lose because the country is not ready for a smart, attractive, charismatic man — if he has skin slightly darker than a Sicilian’s.

If you couldn’t tell, this is classic Fr. Andrew Greeley.

He is from my state, city, far left side of the political divide, and we shared a pulpit! Of course I hope he wins. Never mind that his positions are intrinsically evil – we shared a pulpit doncha know. You must be racist if you can’t get past his support of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, cloning, ESCR, and homosexual marriage. Yes presidential affirmative action – vote for him even if you think he is a moral disaster. Otherwise not only will we throw the race card at you we make it a presidential race card.

“Go after him,” I screamed.

“He’s just being a gentlemen,” my friend insisted.

“Nice guys,” I shouted, citing a one-time manager of the Cubbies, “finish last!”

Naturally I couldn’t sleep that night. At 3 a.m., I crawled out of bed and turned on a cursed machine to read the data from the instant surveys.

Please breath in and breath out Fr. “I don’t have a candidate” Greeley. Yes Sen. Obama was really being a gentleman by calling Sen. McCain “John” repeatedly.

Now you might rightly ask why are you even paying attention to a Fr. Greeley article in the first place? Maybe I am like a dissident paleontologists. Even though these progressive dinosaurs are on the way out, they are still fascinating creatures. The contradictions between their faith and what they advocate is an interesting case study. Though looking at the history of the Church the DIssentosaurus never quite goes extinct.

Hat Tip Matthew K.

A reader sent me a link to the Maryknolls called "U.S. Elections 2008: Loving our neighbor in a shrinking world" pdf This is quite an excellent document. I really like how it informs the Catholic voter about such important issues such as abortion, euthanasia, cloning, ESCR, and homosexual marriage. It does a great job of making the difference between topics that are intrinsically evil and things such as government supported social programs that are prudentially decided upon. It is great to see a document that talks about loving our neighbors that includes both the financially poor and the unborn without any kind of moral equivocation. I am quite impressed.

And if you believe anything I wrote above about this document then you know nothing about the Maryknolls. The part I mentioned about "abortion, euthanasia, cloning, ESCR, and homosexual marriage" is of course totally missing with no reference whatsoever.

I bet the majority of my readers know what topic their "voting guide" starts off with – of course global warming. Yes organic farming and talking about the dangers of nuclear power are fundamental parts of Catholic social teaching. Though this guide like other progressive religious guides condemns corn-for ethanol subsidies though doesn’t mention why. I totally agree with this since it makes food prices rise, but ironically of course it came about mostly because of the global warming crowd. Even when I was a bleeding-heart liberal environmentalist I never understood the massive opposition against nuclear power. That somehow Japan was able to become the third largest user of nuclear power and we continue to stigmatize it since it is “nuclear.”

Then we get the typical boilerplate on immigration and while I agree with part of it, the impetus is always on the U.S. instead of the countries that are contributing to poverty through their policies. The reform called for is always on our side.

The section on HIV/AIDS could be written by any Democratic organization and there is nothing specifically Catholic about it and it is pretty much all on the medical side without a word about how teaching the truth of Catholic moral teaching on human sexuality. Like other parts of the document they once again blame racism for problems and ask "How would you address the racial disparity in HIV/AIDS prevention and services in the U.S.?" I guess if you just say something it must be true. Must be the racist administration, you know the same one that signed a $14 billion dollar international HIV/AIDS bill and has spent more in Africa than any previous administration.

Than some more boilerplate on the military and a call to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now I was quite dubious on the war in Iraq in the first place, but I don’t see how pulling out now will lead to peace. Afghanistan certainly seems to fulfill all parts of just war theory and once again I don’t see how pulling out will lead to peace. Even sillier is to "Begin immediately to convert the U.S. military budget to conflict prevention. … and peace education." Though I totally agree with them about ending torture in all its forms and circumstances.

But mainly what gets me about documents of this type is what they ignore and what they emphasize. There are many areas where Catholics can prudential disagree on something and it is usually these very areas that progressives seem to dogmatize as "social teaching." But to totally ignore abortion and all the other threats to life involving an innocent human person is quite another thing to do. It is like sitting in the middle of a concentration camp with people being slaughtered amongst you and then demanding that prisoners be fed from organic gardens. 45 million and counting people killed in abortion and yet that doesn’t even get a mention. Somehow the preferential love of the poor doesn’t seem to apply to the innocents in the womb. Somehow trying to create a non-violent culture does not include killing the unborn via abortion, euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, and ESCR. We need to preach the whole Gospel and not a gospel that runs along party lines – a lesson that needs to be learned by members of all political parties.

It seems to me that the USCCB’s statement on Sen. Joe Biden is something rather historic. Has there ever been such a statement on a person who is on a national presidential ticket? This is quite an interesting development considering that in the past that the same types of things said by Sen. Joe Biden have been previously said by countless others with no comment.

As Thomas at American Papist noticed there is pretty much a news blackout on this by the media. Look at this Google news search and only one story talks about the bishop’s statement. Maybe this will change as time goes on, but the bishop’s statement on Speaker Pelosi got plenty of coverage right away.

Since I had previously referenced Archbishop Niederauer lack of response to Nancy Pelosi, it is nice to see the actual column that was promised. The column is mostly quite good, though I agree with the comments Father Z made in his look at the document.

I especially liked:

Authentic moral teaching is based on objective truth, not polling. For instance, in 1861, as the Civil War began, a majority of the residents of Massachusetts opposed slavery, a majority of the residents of South Carolina approved of slavery, and in Missouri people were sharply divided on the issue. Does that mean that, in 1861, slavery was immoral in Massachusetts, moral in South Carolina, and something of a moral "wash" in Missouri? Sound moral teaching demands much more good sense than that.

Abortion is all about moral relativism so this is a great point. Morality by vote should be mocked.

I regret the necessity of addressing these issues in so public a forum, but the widespread consternation among Catholics made it unavoidable. Speaker Pelosi has often said how highly she values her Catholic faith, and how much it is a source of joy for her. Accordingly, as her pastor, I am writing to invite her into a conversation with me about these matters. It is my obligation to teach forthrightly and to shepherd caringly, and that is my intent. Let us pray together that the Holy Spirit will guide us all toward a more profound understanding and appreciation for human life, and toward a resolution of these differences in truth and charity and peace.

While I am rather skeptical such a meeting will take place, but you never know about the paths of grace so we should pray that not only does it happen but that their is a change of heart involved.

And while the Archbishop is inviting people for conversations may I recommend Gavin Newome.

San Francisco’s “Catholic” mayor will join tomorrow in the official launching of the “No on 8 – Equality for All Campaign” at the old Tower Records store on Market Street.

In early January, on the occasion of his inauguration to a second term, Mayor Gavin Newsom and his family attended a Mass at the historic Mission Dolores Basilica. And to this day he continues to describe himself as Catholic.

Newsom, said to have his eyes on the governorship, will be acting in open defiance of California’s bishops, who have officially endorsed Proposition 8 and have urged Catholics to support it.

But Newsom is no stranger to defiance of Church teachings or to thumbing his nose at prelates. It was Newsom who provoked a constitutional crisis in 2004 by granting marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples in a case that eventually led to the May 15 California Supreme Court decision upholding same-sex marriages. Proposition 8 would undo that 4-3 ruling by amending the state constitution.

In 2006, the divorced San Francisco mayor, who describes himself as a “lifelong Catholic,” abruptly canceled a trip to Rome for the installation of former San Francisco Archbishop William Levada as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Newsom said at the time that he decided to boycott Levada’s installation in protest over the Church’s prohibition on homosexuals adopting children.

In a February 2008 interview with The Santa Clara, the magazine of his Jesuit-run alma mater, Santa Clara University, Newsom said he “still has tremendous admiration for the Church and very strong faith.”

Joining Newsom at the Northern California headquarters of the No on 8 Campaign tomorrow at 10 a.m. will be Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, also a San Francisco Democrat, as well as County Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Equality California executive director Geoff Kors, and National Center for Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell, according to a flier announcing the event.

"With only 59 days to go, everyone needs to work to protect equality for all!" said a flier announcing the event. "We have come too far to let it slip away."