Denver, Colo., Nov 3, 2012 / 12:02 pm (CNA).- A group of lay Catholics in Colorado is placing a full-page ad in the Sunday edition of the Denver Post to drive home the importance of religious freedom in the upcoming election.
“I think the folks who organized getting the ad together want to ensure everybody understands what’s at stake not only for the Church, but for the country, when religious liberty is compromised,” said J.D. Flynn, chancellor of the Denver archdiocese.
The full-page ad, which will run in the Sunday, Nov. 4 edition of The Denver Post, will feature the full text of the Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila’s Nov. 1 letter on religious freedom and the election.
Flynn said that purchasing the ad in the Sunday edition, which reaches 964,000 readers, “isn’t cheap,” but the fact that over 20 Denver-area Catholics committed to fund it shows that they “support the archbishop in his public ministry.”
“I just think it speaks to the quality and commitment of the lay people in the Archdiocese of Denver that they want to support the archbishop in this way,” he commented.
Flynn said he hopes this advertisement will highlight the importance of protecting religious liberty in the Nov. 6 presidential election.
“Our country is the product of religious liberty,” Flynn stated. “When we undermine that for something as short-sighted as free contraception, everybody is in serious trouble.
“I just hope people are hearing that.”
The idea for the advertisement was the result of a group of lay Catholics asking how they could support the archbishop in his efforts to uphold religious liberty.
“I think there are a lot of people who don’t appreciate the significance of the election for the Church’s activity in this country, and also the significance of this election for Catholics in this country,” Flynn said.
In his letter, Archbishop Aquila emphasized religious freedom as a foundational American value.
“Our founding fathers understood that without these freedoms, especially religious liberty, our democratic experiment would fail,” he wrote.
However, religious liberty faces “an unprecedented threat” from the Health and Human Services mandate, which “undermines the promise of the First Amendment,” Archbishop Aquila said.
The Obama administration’s contraception mandate requires employers to provide health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their beliefs.
It has drawn nearly 40 lawsuits by more than 110 plaintiffs since its announcement earlier this year.
“No one should ever be forced to choose between integrity and charity, or to violate their conscience in business,” the archbishop said.
[Source]
Via Fr. Michael Brown.
On the feast of St Matthias I normally comment that strangely Christian tradition has never followed the example of the Apostles and chosen their successors by drawing lots. It would seem the obvious way to choose bishops if we are concerned o follow the example of the Scriptures but strangely in the return ad fontes asked for by Vatican II this never came up.
So I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the process used for electing a Coptic pope where a blindfolded boy chosen at random picks out one of three names. I wonder if any other Christians follow use random methods to choose their leaders?
Congratulations to bishop Tawadros: he has a difficult job ahead of him.
Here is an interesting blog “This Week at Vatican II” written by Monsignor John T. Myler. This post details “Five Popes at one Council” since we had the then-current Pope and four men who were to become Pope.
“Contraception is a lot cheaper than live births, especially if the live births are problematic.”
If there was ever a television show called “Liberal theologians say the darndest things” surely Fr. Reese would be on it. Since the show does not yet exist Fr. Reese had to confine himself to say this at Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in Washington, D.C. Because of course cost is the primary moral factor that can magically make an intrinsic evil somehow less intrinsically evil. Think of all the money we can save in regards to taking care of the elderly and other health care money drains. The problem with liberal theologians is that they make Jonathan Swift-like “modest proposals” that aren’t satirical essays.
Next up in an episode of “Liberal theologians say the darndest things” is Richard P. McBrien who has made many appearances on the show.
He couldn’t have foreseen, for example, the concerted efforts of his successors, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, to undermine the council, consciously or not, by the appointment of bishops and archbishops unfriendly to the council.
What he means is bishops unfriendly to “the (false) spirit of the council.” But when you become your own magisterium and know better than the last two Popes you just might be Rev. McBrien.
I did like the humble part of his article.
As I said (to a standing ovation) at the symposium held in my honor at the University of Notre Dame toward the end of April, few North American Catholics would be Catholics today if it were not for the nuns. The nuns, I insisted (to another standing ovation), are the greatest asset to the church in North America, and one hopes and prays that the Vatican will soon come to realize that as well.
I really (to a standing ovation) thought it (to a standing ovation) was well (to a standing ovation) put. I’m sure Rev. McBrien is praising Mother Angelica and her nuns for all their work here.
Don’t you just love the “Evil Vatican vs. American Nuns” narrative? Strangely I don’t think he would see the HHS mandate putting the “Little Sisters of the Poor” and other religious sisters who help the poor and the elderly out of business in the same terms.
Source via Campus Notes
A wonderful letter to be read at Mass in the Diocese of Peoria.
Dear Catholic Believers,
Since the foundation of the American Republic and the adoption of the Bill of Rights, I do not think there has ever been a time more threatening to our religious liberty than the present. Neither the president of the United States nor the current majority of the Federal Senate have been willing to even consider the Catholic community’s grave objections to those HHS mandates that would require all Catholic institutions, exempting only our church buildings, to fund abortion, sterilization, and artificial contraception. This assault upon our religious freedom is simply without precedent in the American political and legal system. Contrary to the guarantees embedded in the First Amendment, the HHS mandates attempt to now narrowly define and thereby drastically limit our traditional religious works. They grossly and intentionally intrude upon the deeply held moral convictions that have always guided our Catholic schools, hospitals, and other apostolic ministries.
Nearly two thousand years ago, after our Savior had been bound, beaten, scourged, mocked, and crowned with thorns, a pagan Roman Procurator displayed Jesus to a hostile crowd by sarcastically declaring: “Behold your King.” The mob roared back: “We have no king but Caesar.” Today, Catholic politicians, bureaucrats, and their electoral supporters who callously enable the destruction of innocent human life in the womb also thereby reject Jesus as their Lord. They are objectively guilty of grave sin. For those who hope for salvation, no political loyalty can ever take precedence over loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel of Life. God is not mocked, and as the Bible clearly teaches, after this passing instant of life on earth, God’s great mercy in time will give way to God’s perfect judgment in eternity.
I therefore call upon every practicing Catholic in this Diocese to vote. Be faithful to Christ and to your Catholic Faith. May God guide and protect His Holy Church, and may God bless America.
Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC
Catholic Bishop of Peoria
This subject does remind me of something Archbishop Chaput said back in 2007.
I think there are legitimate reasons you could vote in favor of someone who wouldn’t be where the church is on abortion, but it would have to be a reason that you could confidently explain to Jesus and the victims of abortion when you meet them at the Judgment…and we will meet them. That’s the only criterion. It can’t be that we favor a particular party, or that we’re hostile to the war, or so on.
In other news from Thomas Peters at Catholic Vote:
Next Tuesday, America heads to the polls.
But before that, on Sunday, Catholics across the country will go to Mass.
When I go to Mass this Sunday I’ll be using the social app Foursquare to check in and announce via Facebook and Twitter that I’m “celebrating my First Amendment right to religious liberty by attending Mass.”
You don’t have to use Foursquare to participate, simply update your Facebook and/or Twitter account with some sort of announcement this Sunday that you are going to Mass (I think Facebook and Foursquare do this best). The Twitter hashtag we are using is #CHECKINSUNDAY.
Just this week Pope Benedict said our Catholic faith is personal but not private.
I have mixed feelings about this initiative considering that the Obama Administration has tried to redefine religious freedom as meaning the right to go to Mass, services, etc. To actually live out your faith by their redefinition – not so much. Still I am more in favor of this than against it.
For Holy Days of Obligation they should have a "I went to Mass" sticker like the "I Voted" sticker.
— ➡️Curt Jester⬅️ (@CurtJester) October 31, 2012
While I Tweeted this rather jokingly, it actually might be a rather cool idea to help remind other Catholics.
Greg and Jennifer Willits have left Sirius satellite radio and have returned to their roots in podcasting. They released a reboot episode today of “The Catholics Next Door”.
As an early listener of the Rosary Army podcast I am delighted to be able to listen to them again instead of only via a “best of” podcast from their radio show. I just love their energetic creativity that addresses the new evangelization and the personal call to holiness done in such a way as not to scare off all but hardcore Catholics. The way they use both humor and address serious struggles in such a frank way is one I admire.
I quite enjoyed the reboot episode and once again they are stepping out into the deep putting God and family first and displaying a trust in God worthy of imitation.
You can find it on iTunes or subscribe directly at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thecatholicsnextdoor
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – If anyone thinks the Vatican newspaper is still a staid broadsheet that publishes only religious news and harsh papal edicts, consider this: On Tuesday it ran not one but five articles about the new James Bond film.
“Skyfall” gets a rave review in l’Osservatore Romano, which calls it one of the best of the 23 James Bond films made over the past 50 years.
In the main article, titled “007 License to Cry,” the newspaper says the latest incarnation of the world’s most famous spy is a rather good one because it makes him less of a cliché, and “more human, capable of being moved and of crying: in a word, more real”. [Source]
Can I have a License to Cry that l’Osservatore Romano published five articles on the new Bond film? I like engaging the culture but it can go overboard.
After the l’Osservatore Romano recommended some of the best rock albums I previously created this.
Every election cycle we get stories about people upset by Catholic voting guides or strong statements from some bishops. The narrative is almost always that “somebody is telling me who to vote for.” The fault is with the bishop or the voting guide.
No doubt one or more of the Israelites griped something to the same effect when Moses delivered the Ten Commandments. “How dare you dictate to me denying my right to (insert favorite sin).”
“The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.” (G. K. Chesterton)
Now really it is the case that when these guidelines are given regarding moral principles and voting it is not about telling you for whom you can vote for. It would be more accurate to say they help you to determine who you can’t vote for if the candidate meets some disqualifying criteria. In what is mostly a two party system like ours the idea that one candidate is eliminated does not mean that you must choose the other. This is a prudential judgement and act of your conscience where you might decide to go all Don Quixote instead of just choosing the other dominant candidate with whatever certified lesser evil rating.
Those that do get mad about voting guides and staunch bishop statements have been misdirected from the real problem. The real problem is politicians who endorse and cooperate with intrinsic evils. The fact that with Catholic help we are putting forth morally unqualified candidates is a big part of the problem. In one political season we had usually five non-negotiables listed in voting guides. This time around we added religious freedom. It makes me wonder what intrinsic evil we are going to be adding next time?
The reason people get mad about moral guidelines regarding voting is that they are attached more to their political party than to their faith. Go ahead an put your trust in princes.
One of those bishops that party first Catholics get upset about is Archbishop Chaput who recently said:
“We’re Catholics before we’re Democrats. We’re Catholics before we’re Republicans. We’re even Catholics before we’re Americans because we know that God has a demand on us prior to any government demand on us,” … “And this has been the story of the martyrs through the centuries,”
One of the indicators of the party first Catholic is that they will quickly diminish whatever flaws their favorite candidate has. The flaws of their candidate fade in the glare of the other candidate’s flaws. This can also happen with those who choose a candidate not because they really like them, but because they have determined they would be a lesser evil that would more contribute to the common good. In the current political situation I have seen this with some Catholic supporters of Gov. Romney and that even though he was nowhere near their preferred candidate, the also seem to gloss over his flaws. That somehow a lesser evil is just really not all that evil.
I bring this up because in my own political examination of conscience I have to keep reminding myself of this fact. Gov. Romney is a seriously flawed candidate who just really is not a social conservative. His answers to social conservatives are reflexive and don’t really show any serious commitment to the pro-life cause or other important issues regarding the family. I would certainly love to be proved wrong. Now President Obama has done some really bad things, but one more that sticks in my craw is having to support Gov. Romney as a deterrent. While I will give my vote to the Governor, I will not give my soul to him in ignoring his flaws and ignoring any intrinsic evils he does support. It is natural that when we support a candidate we really want to like them even in the case when we are really voting against the other guy. This is one reason I really liked Dale Price’s Romney for President. Sigh. He stated his reason for support while not diminishing serious problems with him.
What is frustrating is that if Gov. Romney does win it means that at least for eight years we are stuck with a morally compromised candidate. If he wins he is the GOP candidate next time and the Democratic candidate next time will no doubt be totally morally unacceptable. The candidates we have available is a case of garbage in garbage out as we go from the Primaries to the General election.
I seriously doubt that within my lifetime in a Presidential election I will ever have a choice between two candidates based totally on prudential decisions. Wow wouldn’t that be nice to not have to choose which candidate supports less intrinsic evils when playing Catholic voting guide Bingo.
Jimmy Akin on Bad Church art.
Some years ago I went to a travelling exhibit of the Vatican art treasures.
One thing leapt out at my really clearly: In contrast to all the art treasures from previous centuries, the “art treasures” from the mid-2oth century onward were terrible.
Sometime I want to post a picture of the “Millennium vestments” they designed for John Paul II. They look like some kind of alien dignitary costume from Star Trek Voyager.
And bad Catholic art is by no means confined to the travelling art treasures exhibit.
But his post is not just a showcase of bad Catholic art, but also about Catholic art education and the good work the Chesterton Academy is doing.
Jimmy also links to an article published in the Nov-Dec 2012 issue of Catholic Answers Magazine titled Horus Manure: Debunking the Jesus/Horus Connection by Jon Sorensen. The author really deserves some kind of award for that pun.