Open letter to Bishop DeWane of the Diocese of Venice

His Excellency Frank DeWane

Bishop of the Diocese of Venice

Excellency:

I am a widow with two sons, losing my husband to cancer when they were 3 and 5. My older boy is now at DePaul, a financial sacrifice I am happy to bear.

When you first were elevated, I had great hopes because of your background in social justice issues at the United Nations. (You may remember my email at that time explaining how our farmworkers and construction laborers are victimized by our tax code.) I was encouraged as you moved to educate our priests against those embracing the anti-Catholic immigration policy rhetoric that is endemic down here. I was very hopeful after hearing you speak on pro-life issues at your first pro-life mass St. Andrew's, emphasizing the importance of support programs like Projects Gabriel to lessen the very real economic hardships we ask women to shoulder in choosing life over abortion. The homily for your mass at St John Neumann's that year was so good that my older boy actually listened and we discussed your comments that evening.

I was very pleased to read this years' USCCB Faithful Citizenship paper, finally recognizing that there are many sins in our culture that our votes as citizens must address.

Do you remember the parable of the disobedient son? Those who actually do Our Lord's will have not been those who agree with us with their lips while destroying us with their policies. I am not so pleased that once again I am threatened with excommunication because I refuse to support liars trying once again to manipulate the Catholic vote. Scripture reminds us again and again that we will know good from evil not by listening but by looking to the fruit. How many years will our bishops demand we eat rotten fruit?

Our Lord said in John 23: "They tie up heavy burdens ³ (hard to carry) and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them."

I demand more prophetic speech of our Catholic leaders. Stop taking the easy way out.

I'm a Catholic firmly committed to voting Democratic this year. I recognize my Lord's voice, and will not be confused by those crying "Lord, Lord" with their lips while murdering our children by abortion and war with their policies.

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From the Naples Daily News today:

I, too, am a pro-life Catholic. That is one of the three main reasons why I am voting for Obama.

Many young couples face doctor & hospital bills for pregnancy that are more than half of their take home pay for a year. More families than ever have no insurance & don't qualify for help. When I was a corporate controller twenty years ago, the cost of adding maternity benefits to our health plan was a scandal, and it's gotten worse. Pregnancy issues consume nearly half our annual national health bill, with care for chronic conditions the balance.

I'm sick to death of GOP lip service to Catholics and the insistence of our bishops that overturning Roe vs Wade is essential despite fact that the issue is primarily an economic one. Even in the Philippines, Australia, and Mexico are liberalizing the law because people finally got sick of all the dead women and fetuses thrown in the trash. Women murder their children when they have neither hope or help to bear them; 85% of abortions here in the USA are for economic reasons.

We must take the health care burden off families. Our businesses need this burden lifted as well to be competitive in the world market and give us some hope of keeping a strong dollar.

Second, I'm voting Obama to restore our world reputation and our military standards that McCain's policies would continue to trash! Our young men and women are being abused by the GOP. We now let skinhead racists and people with criminal records into the army.

By most standards, we're already a second-rate for quality of life, health statistics, education... Today the AP reported that al-Qaida hopes McCain is elected so that they can further their agenda of bankrupting the USA and reducing our voice on the world stage to a third-rate nation. Remember, it worked in Afghanistan to destroy communist Russia, their competitor in the oil market.

Lastly, I'd like to remind my fellow Italians and our Jewish neighbors that our grandparents weren't "white" either in the 1920s and the same screams of "socialist" were hurled at them. Edgar J Hoover of the FBI and other racists said the same thing of us when we pulled together as a nation in the 1960s for civil rights. DO ALL OF YOU HAVE ALZHEIMERS????

When one party declares war on more than half of America, each one of us has the responsibility to stand up and denounce them.

The place we do that is the ballot box, with a vote for Barack Obama.