reposted from Tuesday, October 21, 2008
"...For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne,
and lay them on men's shoulders;
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."
and lay them on men's shoulders;
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."
I am a Catholic anti-abortion/pro-life voter, involved in the Gabriel Project and active donor for pro-life projects like Providence House in Naples and an ultrasound clinic in Immokalee.
The best way I can honor my Confirmation promises and follow Our Lord in good conscience is to vote for Obama.
Politics is the proper realm of the laity (Vatican II) precisely because determining the best means to the ends of the magisterium rest in the well-formed consciences of those who live in the secular world. I will fulfill this responsibility to the best of my ability.
Some of our Catholic bishops practically order us to vote for the GOP, whose actions and their fruits contradict every Catholic value of basic human dignity, just war, compassion, and options for the poor. Many bishops excommunicate Catholic Democrates in violation of canon law, claiming we commit at least the mortal sin of scandal, if not accusing us of being baby-killers. Remember, the Nazi party was extremely popular with the Church, too; even Pope Pius XII was a fan in the early days solely because the Party used the Church instead of persecuting it.
I am a pro-choice voter on issues at the beginning and end of life. There is no inconsistency here. I firmly believe that these areas of difficult decisions should be made by individuals, spouses, and families in consultation with clergy. The government should not be involved. We tried 1000 years of Christian theocracy and it failed quite miserably.
I don't think that medical procedures--be it a D&C, D&E, or even D&X--that might be mis-used for aborting God's gift of a child should be illegal. There are circumstances where our love of God and neighbor demand their performance, e.g. when the child is too malformed to survive, has already died in the womb, or if the mother will not survive if she carries to fetal viability or term. We forget that pregnancy is a matter of life and death more often than not, and should not add our own sins of pride to the mix. When I carried my first boy, I told my non-Catholic husband that all decisions must favor the child's life over my own. I refused most prenatal testing, as their only purpose was to give me information in case I wanted to abort.
I was absolutely appalled that Catholic Bishops dared to spit on the sacrament of matrimony by stepping into the middle of the Terry Schiavo case. I was so blessed that I was able to honor my own husband's wishes by holding in my arms as he died in our own home while our older boy played and sang on the floor and the younger giggled as he played "Cootie Bug" with my brother in the kitchen. My old pastor in Darien used to call it "loving them into heaven."
Our Bishops lay a very heavy burden on our children regarding abortion. Today, an average young married couple only earns $35,000. The majority of them have no health insurance at all. Meanwhile, the cost of just the doctor and hospital for having a baby has risen to $20,000 --that's a full year's take-home pay-- as more of them are delivered by CSection & the mothers subjected to intensive tests, ultrasounds, etc. I'm not surprised that 86% of women who abort--including many of these married women--do so for economic reasons. We would save more babies with universal healthcare for mothers than we would with a law against abortion.
The Koran says it better than the pro-life literature: Don't murder your children for fear of poverty. These couples may lack faith in God's Providence, but our government policies and our church programs don't support their decisions in any meaningful way. McCain, Sarah Palin, and the GOP pay us Catholics lip service--yes, that's true. So, if we make abortion illegal again--what will happen? We'll find fetuses in the dumpsters like they do all over the Philippines and Mexico, and we'll lose the opportunity to rescue the mothers' souls as well because many of them will die from complications.
The other Rush Limbaugh/Sarah Palin talking points I'm hearing don't make sense to this Catholic either. Most of their speeches are coded racism, hate-speech, and out-and-out lies:
One doesn't "win" an occupation--even General Petraeus agrees with Obama's position on Iraq and Afghanistan, while McCain doesn't even listen to the generals in the field. So, I don't put much credence in the arguments about "honoring the dead" by staying in Iraq. Bush has trashed and exhausted our military. Our standards for recruits are now so low that they enlist criminals and rascist skinheads. He has destroyed the U.S. reputation throughout the world by lying to the American people and then attacking other nations against the Catholic just war doctrine. Current U.S. policy on treatment of detainees is inhuman, un-American, and indecent. The best way to honor our fallen warriors is to restore our American values.
Obama's tax policies are exactly in line with Catholic positions. The nuns always told me, "When much is given, much is expected." I was blessed with God's gifts of talents, and the fruit of my talents belongs to HIM, not to me. I am only his steward. When I hoard more than my own prudent needs for today and the forseeable future, I insult His gifts that were meant for me to use on His behalf to promote the common good. Those who call it socialism advocate continuing to ask the poor to sacrifice a modest vacation while the rich sacrifice maybe house #6 or car #23. Is that fair? Is that just? Joe Biden was right: it isn't even patriotic to demand more of the economic pot when your neighbors barely have crumbs.
I live in Naples, FL, so I know that the mortgage meltdown wasn't caused by selling houses to poor people who couldn't afford them. That is exactly backwards from what I saw with my own eyes. The mortgage meltdown was caused by the GOP-controlled Fed putting too much money into the system, so speculators poured more of it into real estate, which forced prices up to people who needed to live in the houses instead of just investing in them and created an affordable housing crisis. The crash happened when the usurious interest rates (something Pope John Paul II constantly preached against) kicked in after the originating mortgage brokers had already sold the notes overseas. People can be really, really stupid and gullible...
We worship a living God, not one circumscribed by rules like the Pharisees. If God isn't afraid of free will, why are we? Don't try to keep the Risen Lord locked up in a gold box.
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