AmericanPapist Comments
Catholics should not forget Senator Biden's leading role in blocking judicial nominees who are pro-life. Who gets to nominate candidates for the federal bench, from top to bottom, is a critical issue in the coming election. Think carefully about the role the courts play in our civil life when deciding for whom to cast your vote.
Sen. Biden led the fight against Judge Robert Bork's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Biden didn't act alone, of course, but as Senate Judiciary Chair he was the point man in the successful effort to defeat this brilliant, principled jurist.
And after Judge Bork's defeat who ended up taking that vacant seat on the Supreme Court?
Justice Anthony Kennedy, collaborator in the outrageous Casey plurality opinion that preserved Roe's abortion license.
Biden also piloted the savage attacks upon Justice Thomas.
Who knew so many politicians studied Church history so deeply? There's no way anyone could read Agustine or Aquinas or Pope Pius IX or anyone else who's been mentioned in the past few days and conclude that they or the Church has ever been ambiguous about abortion without purposely trying to reach that conclusion. The more I hear the more inclined I am to see active defiance rather than unwitting ignorance in these politicians.
If Biden is not permitted to speak in Catholic Schools by his local ordinary, how can he possibly be permitted to receive Communion?
Wouldn't receiving Communion provide scandal to young people confused about why he can't speak at Catholic schools?
One would easily conclude that public speaking is MORE sacred than Communion, since one is restricted and one is not.
It's time for Biden's local ordinary to do what should have been done long ago: deny Communion for the sake of Biden's soul, and formally excommunicate him if he will not publicly renouncing genocide.
The temptation is to say that we are in no position to judge the state of another person's soul - but what the heck!
Yes indeed they are giving scandal to the faithful but ultimately they will be judged by the One who knows all - including the contents of their hearts and minds.
Nevertheless, we don't have to VOTE for these silly twits and we don't have to encourage anyone else to do so.
After the Bishops have dealt with Pelosi's misrepresentation of Catholic belief, it would be great if they would turn their attention to Sean Hannity and his statements on contraception. Even if not explicitly, he has clearly implied--through references to his seminary studies--that his beliefs are acceptable Catholic thought. He, too, is misrepresenting Church teaching in the public forum.
When the Pelosi story first came out I had said that St. Thomas Aquinas is usually the one used for this dodge, so at least using St. Augustine instead was a dodge. This has been a common tactic among pro-abortion Catholics, despite how stupid the argument is. It only shows that they are the ones not willing to change with science.
I recall several years ago, before Catholics for a Free Choice site got revamped, they had a page similar to Catholic Answers on quoting the Church Fathers and so on. Naturally they had quotes and a whole bunch of gunk attempting to justify their position.
I would bet that this was what they were circulating among the pro abort Catholics on the Hill, ESPECIALLY because their justification sounds identical..
I wonder if anyone is up for doing a web archive search...??
Fr. Tony:
With all due respect, the last time I checked, Sean Hannity was not the Speaker of the House, nor does he hold in public office. Mrs Pelosi, the speaker of the House, is the highest ranking politician in the Country who also happens to be "Catholic", although I tend to view her as "quasi-Catholic".
Thus, she is in a position to directly influence legislation that relates to Abortion and Life issues.
Pax et bonum
Notice the cop out: Roe is in their opinion a COMPROMISE position to balance all the diverse opinions of the American people who are of course divided on this issue.
The obvious counter to this is.... if this is the consensus view, then why did it have to go through the Supreme Court instead of Congress?
After all, if "the majority" or the "consensus view" was that abortion ought to be legal, then state after state and the federal congress itself have the power to pass those kinds of laws....which of course didn't happen.
The second line of reasoning is that there's some sort of moral obligation on the part of politicians to accept Supreme Court rulings (Dred Scott, Ferguson, etc) because they supposedly serve the common good or the "national consensus" which of course is absurd. Even if Roe was somehow sacrosanct, there's no reason for Biden or other Catholic politicians to FUND Planned Parenthood via Title X or "education" funds both here and abroad!
Even if abortion had to be legal there's no reason for underage (statutory rape victims) laws allowing minors to be taken across state lines or practices that keep the abortion providers free from scrutiny, etc.
It's entirely legal for Americans to buy and own machine guns and 20mm rifles. Very expensive and hard to do, but still legal. And yet there is no push to make it more well known, easier, and common is there?
It's legal, but there's no moral obligation to promote, carry water for and subsidize the industries that'd benefit is there?
The fact that so many "Catholic" politicians feel the need to make this "choice" for "choice" shows that either they're ignorant of Catholic ethics (entirely plausible) or have bad consciences and have never had to answer for it in their home parishes, dioceses, or peer groups.
Perhaps someone else has already done this, but it would be an interesting exercise to examine the timeline of the record of some of these long-serving Catholic Senators . . . Biden and Kennedy were originally anti-abortion, as was protestant Al Gore when he was representing Tennessee.
When the pro-abortion and feminists forces took over control of the Dem. party at the national level, slavish devotion to Roe became the norm for any figure seeking national office or stature. The late Gov. Robert Casey's banishment at the 1992 convention was one of the high points of the pro-aborts' control of the levers of power at the DNC.
Methinks Fr.Tony is an apologist for the Abortion Party aka Democratic Party, so he is desparately trying to change the subject. Tom
Ft Tony,
Father Tom at HLI addressed Hannity..when the Bishops stood silent...
http://www.hli.org/
article_hanni..._euteneuer.html
FYI...
http://www.democratsforlife.org
In response to the question of why Representative Pelosi has been publicly corrected, while Senator Biden has not -- could this be a form of gender bias on the part of the bishops?
It is true that Rep. Pelosi is the Speaker of the House, but now that Sen. Biden is a candidate for Vice President of the United States, it appears his misunderstandings and misstatements must be corrected as well.
If gender bias is a factor here, it does not further the work of the Church. Many women see bishops and priests as ready, willing and able to correct the sins of women, but decidedly unwilling to keep homosexual men out of seminaries, rectories, schools -- i.e., the priesthood.
Further, the weakness of the bishops -- and priests, too, where they have been in a position to act -- in reporting, laicizing and turning over to civil authorities those for whom they are responsible and against whom credible accusations of abuse have been made, also has weakened the perceived authority of the hierarchy.
So when perceived authority and credibility are needed -- as, for example, right now -- those assets are lacking.
Clare,
I seriously doubt that gender bias is at work here. It's the ham-handed and very public way that Pelosi went out on a limb with her looney intrepretation of Catholic theology. Also the timing probably has a lot to do with the bishops reaction as well. Last year was not an election year for the Presidency. Although I often disagree with Pelosi politically, I never thought she was this inept/arrogant.
Tom
ps: Has the New York Slimes, the alleged newspaper of record, been following this story?
Tom,
Re: Gender bias
Thank you -- I hope you are right.
I don't believe the "Slimes" has covered the story at all -- not even via AP.
I wonder if anyone has pointed out to Pelosi and Biden that quoting St. Augustine about abortion is kind of like quoting the American Constitution prohibiting women voters, not banning slavery, or any number of things. Made sense then, but has since been refined and clarified by newer discoveries and knowledge.
I find it interesting that (devout, informed Catholic) Tim Russert _didn't_ press Sen. Biden about the Church's clear teaching while Tom Brokaw _did_ point this out to Rep. Pelosi. Mr. Russert did, however, keep handing shovels to Sen. Biden as he kept digging himself deeper into silliness. I guess with the Hillary/Obama drama at the forefront of the news last year, no one paid attention to this interview.
Hopefully, and sooner rather than later, the bishops will be as outspoken with respect to Biden as with Pelosi. It's an easy and natural transition to make.
But, perhaps that transfer will be made more aggressively by the politicians themselves. Catholics might be inclined to vote Dem for "social justice" reasons, but they are also overwhelmingly pro-life. Pro-life Catholics seem more inclined to vote for non-Catholic pro-abortion politicians, because you can't expect a non-Catholic to hold Catholic views. But a Catholic politician is different, and Biden was definitely chosen to court Catholic votes. To highlight how a Catholic Dem brazenly misrepresents the Faith is a great way to undermine Catholic support for the ticket. If the Republicans are smart, they'll capitalize on it, they'll make the transition from Pelosi to Biden, they'll bring the bishops' words to bear on Biden.
AmP, maybe you should set your countdown thingy to when Bp. Niederauer's Sept 5 statement is due...
There have always been 2 camps and there will always be two...READ in the Bible: 1 JOHN CHAPTER 3 VERSES 10,11,12...HERE,GOD MAKES THE DISTINCTION AND CLARIFIES THE DIFFERENCE . IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHICH GROUP YOU ARE IN , READ THIS. IT IS EITHER ONE OR THE OTHER. HERE,IN THIS LIFE, YOU GET A CHOICE WHICH FATHER TO WHOM YOU BELONG.DO YOU KNOW WHO YOUR REAL FATHER IS? God wants you to know.
The question I want answered is when are we going to burn the books written by the dissenting theologians that we got and "studied" in our youth? When? Not surely when someone ends up in hell? Not surely when we have so called "ardent" Catholics gross misunderstanding of the beginning of life? When?
You can and should correct them all day long...but it still goes on.
The important thing to remember, it is not the responsibility of our shepherds to make sure we get to heaven. That's our individual responsibility. It IS the responsibility of our shepherds to make sure that, if one of the Church's children should wake up in hell one morning, he won't have to wonder how he got there. That requires the kind of clear speaking we're getting right now.
CTrent: Of course Sean Hannity is not in public office, but he is a public figure with a very public voice. Both Meet the Press and talk radio are major public platforms from which Catholics of varying degrees of loyalty should not be misinforming others about Catholic teaching.
TJM: Nope, I am no apologist for the Democrats. I'm registered in a different party; I will not vote for any pro-legal-abortion candidate; I've done jail time for participating in Operation Rescue; I've started a pro-life group in my parish. . . .
Nor am I trying to change the subject, although perhaps I see the subject as a little broader: public figures (not neccessarily office-holders) who publicly misrepresent Church teaching.
God bless!
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