Where We Stand

Less than five days from what is sure to be--for good or ill--the most pivotal election of our generation, I would like to take a final opportunity to say what must be said, to tell you what every Catholic must know... in short, to help you, as a Catholic voter, inform your conscience before you approach your local polling station.

First, as I have said before, the suggestion that abortion is "just one issue among many" is diabolical. Of course, we must not be single-issue voters, but there are issues (i.e. any of the life issues)that carry more weight, morally, than others. The destruction of innocent human life, from conception to natural death, is always an unspeakable crime and must be opposed, over and above any social or economic considerations. Put another way, aborted children cannot benefit from a secure Iraq or low gas prices.

Second, the suggestion that "nothing will really change" regarding abortion is blatantly false. This election is arguably the most important election for the life issues to date, for two reasons: 1) the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) and 2) the Supreme Court.

For those who are not familiar with the Freedom of Choice Act (i.e. most of the voting populace), you can and should read about it here. FOCA is the most permissive piece of abortion legislation since Roe v. Wade; it will lift all state and federal restrictions on abortion and require taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. Senator Obama has sworn to sign the bill into law immediately upon taking office.

Further, the next president could make from two to six Supreme Court appointments, depending on whether or not he is elected to a second term. As the next two Justices who are likely to retire are pro-abortion, it is all the more imperative that a pro-life candidate is elected. The possibility of Roe v. Wade (by all accounts the most shoddy and overturnable legislation in the history of Supreme Court jurisprudence)being overturned, once thought impossible, may well be within sight, but only if a pro-life candidate is elected to the presidency.

This is where we stand. As Catholics, we are required to vote with an informed conscience. And a Catholic cannot, in good conscience, vote for a pro-abotion candidate... without grave cause. But here's the thing: what cause could possibly outweigh the destruction of 45 million human persons, not to mention the countless broken hearts and broken homes, the many women and men who have been deeply wounded, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, by the unspeakable crime of abortion?



Mary Immaculate, patroness of the United States, pray for us!

In His peace.

A Home-grown Holocaust

Heated rhetoric, non-sequitors and eptithets are generally not effective forms of argument, still less evangelization. There are, however, ideas and behaviors that are simply evil--I would even say diabolical--and should be named as such.

The suggestion that abortion is just one issue among many, and that citizens must not vote on this single issue, is such an idea. Let me be quite clear: THIS IS A LURE OF THE DEVIL. It is, perhaps, the chief means by which he sways good men and women--unwittingly--to his cause, the destruction of human life. He fills their minds with false or misguided compassion for the poor, the oppressed, the sons of war, whose lives they feel would be better served in voting for a pro-abortion candidate. Again, I say, this is a lie of Satan!

Consider, for a moment, the implications of such a position. The God-given right to life, and the defense of life, which is the primary purpose for which governments are formed, is the cornerstone of our nation. Remove the cornerstone and all the others, the many and varied rights and liberties that we as Americans enjoy, come falling down. When governments take it upon themselves to decide when life begins, and the termination of life becomes a multi-billion dollar industry that preys upon the most innocent and defensless... when we blind ourselves to our own home-grown holocaust with transparent euphemisms and deafen ourselves to the silent screams of 4,000 unborn children every day, then we throw our futures away with the minute and mangled corpses that litter the bio-waste bins.

My brothers and sisters, do not be deceived! Seek always and everywhere the will of God, even and especially in the voting booth. The Lord says, "to whom much has been given, much shall be expected" (Luke 12:48). And we have been given so much; we hold within our hands the lives thousands, millions, of innocents. Do any of us desire to stand before Christ in judgement and explain why we did not stay the hand of the abortionist when the opportunity arose? Our Lord also says, "as you did to these least of my brothers, you did to me" (Matthew 21:40). Shall we be counted among the people of Jerusalem who, though they hailed Him as their King just days before, cried for His crucifixion, or simply said nothing at all? Shall we say with Pilate, "What is truth?" and wash our hands of all accountability? God forvive us!

I have a challenge for you all. Jesus, as always, is our best model for prayer. He was disciplined in silence and solitude; He was led by the Spirit into the desert where he fasted and prayed for forty days. In immitation of our Lord, and for the sake of the thousands unborn children for whom He gave is own life, I ask that you participate in the national 40 Days for Life campaign. Devote yourselves, I beg you, to prayer and fasting from September 24-November 2. And pray, especially, for wisdom from the Holy Spirit, to vote in conformity with the will of God, which is always the preservation of human life.

Below is an excellent video from Catholicvote.com. I encourage all to watch it with a listening heart.



In His peace.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

In ancient Rome, Christians would rescue weak, deformed and unwanted infants that had been left to die by exposure. That traditon continues today; two thousand years later, the Catholic Church is still the first and best advocate of the most vulnerable among us, from conception to natural death.

As I have said before, this is not a political blog; my purpose is to witness to Jesus and His Gospel, to provide a uniquely Catholic perspective to every facet of life. To that end, I must--again--denounce Senator Obama as a man opposed to that Gospel and to Christ insofar as he is opposed to the sanctity and integrity of human life. The video below will explain in painful detail what I mean.



Pray for life, pray for our leaders... O Lord, have mercy upon our nation!

In His peace.

Render Unto Caesar

This is not a political blog, and intentionally so. My purpose here is to witness to the perennial truths of the Gospel, not to advocate one policy over another or one politician over another, though I could and, in certain circumstances, should. However, Senator Barack Obama's abuse of Scripture, both Hebrew and Christian, in support of a fundamentally flawed and self-contradictory view of religious pluralism, impels me to speak out.

There are two things that distinguished the Roman Empire, which in many ways provides an ancient model for our American "empire": 1) supreme religious plurality and tolerance and 2) emperor worship. Among the many and varied cults that crowded the temples of the Eternal City, the worship of the emperor as the bringer of national prosperity and security was, as they say, an institution. Chesterton warned, "abolish the God and the government becomes the God" (Christendom in Dublin). While Rome did not exactly abolish God, it did the next worse thing, exalting in a national pantheon every deity who ever claimed dominion over the fates of men, which unfortunately included the likes of Nero and Domitian.

Thus it is imperative to remember that the first-century Christians were not persecuted for their tolerance of the Hebrew god, but for their intolerance of every other god, including the mighty Caesar. They were persecuted for their insistence that such titles as "son of God" were the sole property of the Son of Man, and rigidly refused to make the small concession of lending them to the emperor. Saint John speaks of this bitter trial in his Apocalypse:

Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast [the Emperor]. They worshipped the dragon [Satan] because it gave its authority to the beast; they also worshipped the beast and said, "Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?" (13:3, 4)

Senator Obama erroneously suggests that democracy requires that believers "translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific values", even as he chides secularists for their lack of religious vocabulary in a clever, but ultimately transparent attempt at moderation. What to make of such a proposal? Why cannot Senator Obama and his fellow progressives see that morality divorced from religion is wholly subjective and arbitrary, totally dependent upon the whims of the individual or the mob? When Lincoln boldly declared that our nation was "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal", he was really making two mutually dependent theological assertions, that men are created and that they are equal. The proposition that all men are created by God, therefore no man is God, and therefore no man may rule another is the only sure foundation of democracy. It was the Creed that cut the chains of a race enslaved.

The Roman martyrs would not leave their religious language at the door of the Forum, and so were left to the the lion's mouth in the Colosseum. The lesson here: religious pluralism is no guarantee of religious freedom and can (paradoxically) usurp that fundamental right. Let us not be deceived by false prophets who cry "peace, peace," or even "hope, hope".