AmericanPapist Comments
One thing I've contemplated on during this election:
I thought that Pope Benedict's love of Tradition/tradition, his stern but gentle guidance of his flock away from modernism and relativism, his clarity in his writings and teachings that even those who do not have degrees in theology can understand, and his ability to influence and empower the bishops in the Church that are loyal to Magisterial teachings to share those teachings and pastorally enforce them in their diocese was going to be the definitive cause of the curtain being pulled back, shining the light on the dissenters who have lay hidden in the shadows for the last 40 years, directing dissent and infecting everything they have touched.
Pope Benedict XVI's influence has done this, but nothing on the scale of how many dissenters in the Church have been exposed thanks to a once obscure Protestant, who chose to follow the teachings of a self-described black liberation theologian for two decades, in America. Obama, the man who has been compared to Christ Himself by even some of the said Catholics and by some of his followers, has done more to expose the dissenters in the Church and force the bishops of a sleeping Catholic nation into making hard decisions than anything.
The best case scenario, for the lives of those children that will be sacrificed to Moloch under an Obama reign, would be for Obama to lose the election, yet the bishops continue riding the stern and pastoral teaching momentum that has been generated by this election.
Thanks You Mr. Peters. You do a service to our country, our faith and our Lord.
Thomas,
For a few years I've read your blog...you are amazing! Thank you for your wonderful insight and inspirational thoughts.
AmP,
Please encourage more people to check out the video at durarealidad.com
There's been too much talking already, the pictures speak for themselves. This chilling evil happens in America every single day.
AP:
Well said, particularly Point No. 4. If there is an Obama Presidency, and I do not think there will be, they should be reminded with viscera.
Last night I heard Bishop Robert Finn (from the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph) on the estimable Hugh Hewitt's radio program.
HH: Do you think, last question, Bishop Finn, thanks again for being here, if someone votes for Obama and they know they’re voting in their mind for abortion rights absolutism, could they receive, under the Church’s teaching, Communion the very next day?
RF: Well, they shouldn’t. It’s not a matter of public action, so it’s not the same scandal as a public official who places, a legislator who places a public vote in support of abortion. But no, if formal cooperation, there’s absolutely no doubt about it that if you agree with the right of abortion, you shouldn’t be, you’re in grave sin. You shouldn’t be receiving the Sacraments.
The complete transcript of Bishop Finn's interview with Hugh is available here.
In my diocese our wonderful Bishop Thomas Tobin said that he could not vote for a pro-abortion candidate because he wouldn't want such a thing on his conscience.
This year the U.S. Bishops have come as close as ever to saying that a vote for one particular candidate is a sin (isn't that basically the import of Bishop Finn's answer?).
In 2008, no Catholic who exerts a modicum of effort could fail to hear that message.
How many, I wonder, will follow the Bishops' teaching?
My view is that, sadly, it would not be a majority, surely, and probably not even a sizable minority.
Hopefully, even if their message remains unheeded, the courage displayed by our Bishops in 2008 will be a beginning and not an end . . .
That would be a sign
of "hope" and "change" in which Catholics could truly believe!
Thomas,
I failed to thank you for your blog as well. I review it everyday (along with CNA and CWNews) because I know that I can find comprehensive news and material that is loyal to the teachings of the Magisterium. It has been a relief to read your election coverage to offset the sh*te everywhere else, and it's nice to experience actual communion in thought on moral and social issues.
Brassband,
You don't know how nice it is to hear a fellow Catholic in the Northeast say that voting for Obama is morally impermissible according to Church teaching. That's rare, so it's ever so sweet to here. I live in Connecticut, a state that just beat out Rhode Island in the race for liberalism by thrusting gay marriage on us against our will. Pray that we win the right to referendum today.
With a prayer in my heart, I'm off to the polls here in Missouri. I don't think we will know the election results as soon as some pundits might think. I do know that regardless of the results, the years ahead of us will be dark and difficult.
We all need to remain vigilant and faithful, whatever the cost. My prayer is, "Father, hold back the darkness, and shine the light of Christ."
Thank you, Thomas, for keeping us all informed and inspired.
Obama's record and philosophy disqualifies him from being an acceptable Presidential candidate.
Almost but not quite. His record and philosophy disqualify him from any public office whatsoever.
This is not unique to him; the same would have been true if The Evil Woman (i.e., HRC) would have been the nominee.
His philosophy disqualifies him from the presidency? I don't think so. AmP, this was a good post, but I disagree with it. Shocking.
Kyle, what a convincing counter-argument.
Hey. It was better than, "Is not infinity!" How much it's better I'll let readers decide.
Kyle...your dissent on the com box is something that daily entertains me. Sadly that same dissent here and on your blog can make you morally responsible for those you influence to vote for and encourage the culture of death. Sad.
PMcGrath,
My wife and I were talking about the candidates...we'd both rather have seen HRC win than Obama.
Heck, I'd support a third Bill Clinton term over Obama.
He's wrong on nearly every issue.
Economy: Tax the rich and give their money to the poor, and damn the resulting economic decline...at least it'll be "fair".
War: Pull out now, and who cares about what happens to the Iraqis.
Healthcare: Everyone should have the same bad health care.
Should Obama win, I see a return of the misery index in our future.
so it wouldn't matter that Obama will actually reduce the number of abortions (through social policies, etc.)? the point isn't to reduce abortions? and also i guess it doesn't matter that republicans have controlled congress and the courts for most of the last 30 years, yet haven't managed to come close to overturning roe v. wade? dictating morality via law won't stop abortions; evangelization and outreach will
so it wouldn't matter that Obama will actually reduce the number of abortions (through social policies, etc.)? the point isn't to reduce abortions?
No. The point is to ELIMINATE abortion. Also, please prove that ultra-leftist policies have EVER resulted in a decline in the abortion rate. On the other hand, along with the ban on partial-birth abortion (which Clinton vetoed, remember, how's that for "reducing abortion"), the number of abortions in this country has been in steady decline since the left has been out of power.
But don't let facts get in the way.
the fact is that abortions dropped from 1.3 million to 0.8 million under clinton, and haven't dropped as much under bush.
h.m. the fact is that obama wants to strike down every law responsible for that lowering in the number of abortions and mccain would allow them to stand.
how do you respond to that?
Once again, "reducing abortions" is pure smokescreen. Obama does not believe abortions are wrong. Biden only believes they are wrong subjectively or circumstantially. Thus, if we accept the erroneous position that abortion is at worst morally neutral, there is no reason to reduce them. If abortions do in fact go down, it will be in spite of Obama, not because of him.
FOCA is somewhere far beyond troubling, yes ... honestly i can't bring myself to vote for either major party candidate. but one thing i'm reasonably convinced of is that shrill articles in 'first things' and tedious blog posts aren't really going to convince any woman not to have an abortion. i'm not sure exactly when catholicism became so obsessed with politics; all the effort spent on trying to install pro-life judges and political figures could be far better spent on addressing the actual causes of abortion (e.g., unbelief, or the fact that 22% of mothers who choose abortion do so for financial reasons, etc).
i guess the theory is that abortion is like slavery, a "great moral issue" that the world will eventually agree on? like, "oh, those WERE human beings after all, right!" but this is absurd; you're never going to convince the increasingly liberal/modern west that a fetus is a human being via political reform; if at all, it would happen through evangelization, etc.
and if i'm being completely honest, i disagree with mccain/palin on almost every issue other than FOCA/abortion. though this still isn't enough to make me vote for obama, as i mentioned.
h.m. im glad we got that concession, im sorry you are so defeatist, and alot of what you say to me demonstrates an extremely short memory. Catholics have always been active - indeed, untiring - in trying to make our world a better place. We'll be here long after Obama or McCain.
Oh yeah. New form Rich Leonardi debunking the abortions-rise-under republicans:
November 4, 2008--The Ohio Department of Health has released the latest abortion statistics, from 2007.
According to the report, abortion numbers statewide are the lowest in 12 years at 28,921 for 2007.
Hamilton County still has the third highest abortion total after Cuyahoga and Franklin Counties, but in 2007 the numbers decreased to the lowest in 12 years at 2990.
Butler County numbers are also the lowest in 12 years at 720, and Clermont County the lowest in 11 years at 289 in 2007 (263 in 1996). Warren County abortions are higher in 2007 than in the last five years at 272.
Every number means the death of a baby, and too many are still killed (even if one!), but we are grateful for every decrease--due to the vigilant work of so many to spread the pro-life truth.
The full report, including many additional statistics and perspectives, is available from the Ohio Department of Health (email datacenter@odh.ohio.gov), and our office (mail@cincinnatirighttolife.org). It will also be eventually posted on the ODH web site.
Now, to be fair, I'll grant that this does not prove the Republicans are causing it. I happen to think people are starting to come around to abortion's evil. BUT it does make mincemeat of myths that abortion rates are reduced by spiffy entitlement programs.
AmP,
I have a hunch that these self-proclaimed "third-party" voters or "abstainers" are really voting for Obama. In almost all cases, they project their opinion that McCain is actually the greater evil of the two, which is not only categorically false, but that notion has also been rejected by the bishops who have spoken clearly on this election.
I think the evidence of this can be found with a visit to the Vomitus Nova blog. One or two of them "came out" many months ago in favor of the Obamination. Then there were the so-called "undecideds" whose positions were eerily similar to those Obamabots. Today, those "undecideds" popped out of their closets as if to announce some sort of surprise. Oops, no one was fooled.
Anyhow, the point is, these "third-party"/"abstainers" have the same exact point of view as those, surprise, surprise, Obama supporters on Vomitus Nova. We're fighting a propaganda war here.
Thanks so much for this blog. You manage to somehow touch on every important aspect of it. Am just so sadden right now... sigh. But if God cleaned up Adam and Eve's mess, I am sure this is nothing for Him.
Pax Christi
Annie
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