{"id":13100,"date":"2012-09-30T21:44:11","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T01:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/?p=13100"},"modified":"2012-09-30T21:44:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T01:44:11","slug":"take-your-catholic-beliefs-values-and-consciences-into-the-voting-booth-with-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2012\/09\/take-your-catholic-beliefs-values-and-consciences-into-the-voting-booth-with-you\/","title":{"rendered":"“Take your Catholic beliefs, values, and consciences into the voting booth with you.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. AUGUSTINE, September 28, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although Catholic voters have received mixed signals this election year from some prelates, Bishop Felipe Est\u00e9vez has sent a clear message to the faithful of his diocese: human life and family issues have top priority when deciding for whom to vote.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In a letter to the Catholics of the diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, where Est\u00e9vez presides, the newly-appointed bishop urges the faithful to \u201ctake your Catholic beliefs, values, and consciences into the voting booth with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

While refraining from specific political endorsements, Est\u00e9vez notes that it is \u201cmy responsibility to remind you that, for us Catholics, some issues are simply never morally acceptable,\u201d beginning with those that violate the right to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe taking of an innocent human life, whether inside the womb or not, and up until natural death, is always and everywhere intrinsically evil,\u201d the bishop writes. \u201cSuch issues as embryonic stem cell research and attempts at human cloning are also direct attacks against the dignity and uniqueness of human life made in the image of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, Catholics have an obligation to defend the institution of marriage, the prelate observes, calling the dignity of traditional matrimony \u201cof central importance\u201d which \u201cmust never be undermined because marriage is a cornerstone of any stable society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny attempts to re-define marriage as something other than between a man and a woman, should be vigorously opposed by a Catholic as contrary to reason, the natural law, and the divinely revealed truths of the Bible,\u201d writes Est\u00e9vez. \u201cBeyond these fundamental issues, and closely related to them is the issue of religious liberty \u2013 our ability as Catholics to live our lives publically according to our faith and morals at all levels of society.<\/p>\n

Although Est\u00e9vez doesn\u2019t specify any candidates in his recommendations, he explicitly calls for a \u201cyes\u201d vote on two proposed state constitutional amendments, numbers 6 and 8, which would prohibit public expenditures for abortion or abortion-related services, and which would allow state funding of faith-based organizations.<\/p>\n

Est\u00e9vez, 66, was installed as Bishop of San Augustine in June of 2011 following his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI to replace retiring bishop Victor Galeone. He was born in Cuba, and fled the communist and anti-Catholic regime of Fidel Castro through Operation Peter Pan in the early 1960s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They read this letter<\/a> at Mass last week and it is always nice to be able to post something positive about your own Bishop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. AUGUSTINE, September 28, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although Catholic voters have received mixed signals this election year from some prelates, Bishop Felipe Est\u00e9vez has sent a clear message to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13103,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13100\/revisions\/13103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}