AmericanPapist Comments
Thomas, I urge you to do whatever you can (directly or indirectly, though your prominent contacts) to get in touch with the bishops of the three Michigan dioceses -- at least Bp. Carlson. Why? They need to FORCE that rag (CT/CW) to do what is fair and just, under pain of loss of "authoriz[ation]" to publish as a "Catholic" paper. The newspaper must be forced to publish -- IMMEDIATELY -- an edition that has a full-page ad in favor of the pro-life opponent of ex-Catholic (excommunicated) Granholm, with no further endorsements/ads for the pro-abort. Thanx.
I'm not sure how urgent it is to get in touch with bishops at this point on this issue, but what I wanted to say was that I think the Michigan Catholic has it right: decline all ads for candidates.
Personally, I'm in favor of the Michigan Catholic's position. Ned McGrath's a very smart man - just don't accept ads from either party. It's so easy!
Now that the CT/CW has taken the plunge, however, they're in a pretty pickle. It was a bad decision. It'll be interesting to see if they back away from it under pressure.
Before you get too far afield being upset about the allegedly-not-Catholic-enough governor, remember the anti-Catholic challenger.
Dick DeVos has done business in China for years, while the Chinese communist government has persecuted anyone they find who tries to practice Catholicism. Or pretty much any type of Christianity. Torture and imprisonment -- it's not just for the Falun Gong anymore! (See here)
And Dick DeVos knew all this, even as he met with high-ranking Chinese officials.
Francis X, Presley-
Does buying something "made in china" make me anti-catholic?? That's indirectly giving money to the Chinese government.
Great post, Tom. Thanks for giving me the heads-up. I'll put up a link from Fumare to your post.
I'm all for social good and social justice; but when people use it as an excuse not to care about abortion or other issues of the soul then we have a problem.
Here in Wisconsin we have an amendment to afirm that marriage is between one man and one woman. Believeing people are to vote YES to the wording of the amendment. Archbishop Dolan has one of his priests running around telling people to vote NO! This is to the dismay of the other bishops in te state, especially Bishop Morlino in Madison who is trying to refute them.
About a month ago, the Catholic Weekly ran a short notice that said it would be allowing ads from any candidates who wanted to advertise in it. That the ads were a public service and not an endorsement.
For the next four weeks, ads from Devos were rather prominent, without any ads from Granholm. This week's Catholic Weekly appears to be the first time that Granholm has taken advantage of this public service.
This week also featured in the letters to the editor an accusation that allowing the Devos ads to run for three weeks without 'giving' an ad to Granholm was an endorsement.
So, it seems the policy of the Catholic Weekly is to allow any ads from any candidate who wanted to present themselves to Catholic voters. The way it's ended up happening has been Devos: 4 weeks, Granholm: 1 week. Let's leave it at that, and not move into presumption of intent. I'd say they did what they said they would - let candidates run ads.
A public service? By this point of election season, my idea of a public service would be to find a media outlet that ISN'T littered with political ads.
The fact is that the newspaper either accepts all the ads or none. They cannot make distinctions and only run some ads - it would essentially be endorsing one candidate over another - something that would negate their tax-exemption. My wife worked for the diocesan paper in Spokane and they had the same problem (though I'm quite sure that the only one troubled by the anti-catholic, anti-life ads was my wife).
"They cannot make distinctions"
I cannot image a NRA running an anti-hunting add!
It is the JOB of a Catholic newspaper to teach and uphold Catholic teaching.
Outsourcing jobs is a morally neutral issue. Killing the unborn, and changing the definition of marriage to be anything other than between 1 man and 1 woman is grave moral evil - as taught by the Catholic Church.
In response to Francis X. Presley, the "China Attack" is complete spin. Outsourcing jobs to China didn't take away ANY Mich. jobs, it created more. Opening up a global market is GOOD for Michigan's economy!
In response to the fact that China is anti-christian, does that mean that it's unethical to sell them soap?
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