extreme Catholic 

 
The war over the "Good Catholic" label

It started with the rush to the keyboards and microphones: "Attention everyone: Kennedy was a good Catholic as well as being a good Liberal"

Here's an incomplete list of what I am talking about:

Complex legacy of a Catholic Abortion rights stance drew criticism, but work embodied teachings: Boston Globe, Michael Paulson

He made me proud to be a Catholic: National Catholic Reporter, Maureen Fiedler

I think the yardstick being used here is that Kennedy was successful in exploiting his Catholic identity to achieve his liberal political agenda. There's a certain tone of admiration and triumph that he wasn't officially criticized by the Church and never denied the platform when he sought it to speak as a Catholic.

What would I believe a good Catholic politician would do? It isn't a matter of taking orders from a bishop but letting the teachings of the Church permeate how you think and act. Why? Because Catholics believe that the Church speaks for Christ, and especially so when it declares an intersection between important universal moral teaching and public policy.

The "Kennedy is a good Catholic" advocates either ignore this or respond -- "look at the whole man".

This could be your standard or mine, but it not God's. Cardinal O'Connor made the point to several New York politicians, that sanctions from the Church were secondary to the peril that you risk ones own salvation by advancing, even in a remote way, the murder of the unborn. I would be moved by that.

The "Good Catholic" label given by pro-choice liberals may be permanently retired. Born in 1932, Kennedy may have been the last politician who sought and who had a distinct appeal to Catholics. The Catholic voting bloc doesn't exist in 2009. As political creatures, we are all assimilated now into the American voter. Partly because of demographics and partly because what might be called an "Catholic agenda" can't be identified apart from the "Democratic Party agenda" apart from the right to life issues. The threat of losing its tax exempt status is the muzzle stifling the Church's voice.

Many questions come up and when the Church has a clear teaching on a serious moral matter, I withhold the "good Catholic" label from the politician who opposes and undermines it. It's no longer about Ted Kennedy now. He exists in eternity now without rank, money, or privilege but in God's mercy. It is about us and whether we can, as Catholics, pull the voting levers for Catholics who promote a disregard for the culture of life, and can justify that choice as we appear before the same merciful God who has judged the late Senator.

Labels: catholic, church-state, kennedy, politics

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:50 AM   Permalink  

 
A right to health care

Where did the idea of "positive rights" enforceable by law become popular with the Catholic Church?

It takes some capital and labor to provide health care, education, clothing, food, shelter. These are essential for all, and the purpose of alms is to make a provision for people unable to purchase from their own wealth to obtain them.

I can understand committed socialists like Obama to advocate nationalization of health care as consistent with federal control of the economic life and liberty on the installment plan -- but why has the Church been so enthusiastic to embrace a federal bureaucracy -- one committed to promoting abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and rationing of health care.

I know ACORN is funded by the Campaign for Human Development which in turn is funded by donations collected at Mass from Church-going Catholics, but that's not even a significant part of the Church. Yet it seems all of the agencies of the Church with involvement in health care and the alleviation of poverty are on board with Obamacare and "positive rights".

Labels: charity, church, church-state

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:26 PM   Permalink  

 
"We have a Vatican II president," John O'Malley informs us in a revealing America magazine article: Catholic Culture. Diogenes

It seems that just as Bill Clinton was a "black president," even though he was white, so too Barack Obama is a "Catholic president" even though he is Protestant.

To understand the political translation, you must first understand the-- wait for it!-- spirit of Vatican II. You see, the "spirit of Vatican II' transformed human nature-- or at least our way of understanding human nature. (from Barack Obama and Vatican II: America)

The council hoped that this new style of being, which brings with it a new way of proceeding, would lead to cooperation among all persons of good will—Catholics and non-Catholics, Christians and non-Christians, believers and non-believers—on the new, massive, and sometimes terrifying problems that face humanity today.

Obama makes no distinction between the culture and ethnography of the United States which is, of course, Christian, and its government which is neither Christian nor non-Christian. Since taking the oath ("...so help me God") Obama has only used the word "Christian" to deny that the country is Christian. In O'Malley's worldview, a Christian who denies Christ is a better Christian than one who affirms Christ. Affirmed Catholic identity is incompatible with "good will".

Labels: catholic, church-state, obama, poltics

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:18 AM   Permalink  

 
Georgetown University Hid Religious Symbols at White House Request: FoxNews

The Reuters caption for the photo:

April 14: President Obama speaks about the economy at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall. The school covered up religious symbols bearing the name of Jesus during Obama's remarks at the behest of the White House.

Catholic League: On Georgetown's cowardice

The Catholic League summarizes it well. I think we are making regress here: First it was separation of Church and State, then it was separation of religion from public life, and then we have arrived at separation of Catholic imagery from Catholic institutions -- of course on a voluntary basis. Just remember, this is the time of the green wood.

[Luke 23:27] A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"

Labels: catholic, church-state, culture, obama

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:11 PM   Permalink  

 
Catholic League: CATHOLIC DEMOCRATS CHIDE POPE

On January 29, nearly 50 Catholic Democratic congressmen sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI stating their concerns over Bishop Richard Williamson’s comments questioning the historical record on the Holocaust. The bishop belongs to the St. Pius X Society; he is one of four bishops who recently had his excommunication lifted by the pope. The congressmen implored the pope to denounce the bishop’s views.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“The congressmen’s letter to the pope smacks of posturing and hypocrisy, and is factually wrong. They begin by saying ‘we are writing to express our deep concerns with your decision to reinstate Bishop Richard Williamson to communion with the Catholic Church….’ The fact is that the pope did not reinstate the bishop to communion with the Church—he merely lifted the excommunication of the four bishops in this group. In order for the bishops to be fully reinstated, they would have to express their fidelity to the teachings of the Church, as well as the norms of Vatican II. In other words, the letter is based on a false predicate.

“Facts aside, this kind of posturing is a disgrace: for American congressmen to lecture the pope about an event in which he was personally victimized, and about which he has long condemned, is nothing short of arrogant.

“The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. They beg the pope to ‘publicly state your unequivocal position on this matter so that it is clear where the Church stands….’ How ironic that most of these very same Catholics fail to speak with clarity about what the Church teaches on abortion. Of the 47 signatories, the majority have a 100 percent NARAL score (meaning they vote with the radical pro-abortion group on every issue). The leader of this group, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, never agrees with the Catholic Church on abortion—her NARAL score is 100 percent.

“One more thing: they addressed the pope not as a head of state but as a ‘spiritual leader.’ Didn’t they ever hear of respecting separation of church and state?”

Also: Washington Post (Saturday 1/31)

And complete text of letter and list of signers on Rep. DeLauro's congressional web Site

Excellent response by the Catholic League. It is mind boggling hypocrisy for these CINO's to demand of the Pope an unequivocal position. The letter makes a pathetic presumption that by lifting the excommunication on Williamson, he gives credibility to Holocaust deniers. That's twisted logic from a Jack Chic comic.

It would be interesting for the signatories to have a retreat with a delegate of the Pope to reflect upon what is the "unequivocal" teaching of Christ's Church.

My own Congressman Joseph Crowley signed the letter.

Labels: catholic, church-state, politics, pope

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:30 PM   Permalink  

 
Is this a Catholic prayer?

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, offered the following prayer at opening session of the House of Representatives:

Dear friends, let us remind ourselves in this special place, on this special day, that we are in the presence of God.

Lord, we praise You at this historic moment. You are the loving Father of us all, the merciful, the compassionate, the source of all wisdom, the giver of all gifts.

We have so much to thank You for, dear God -- for our lives, our families, for our freedom and our opportunities, for our Nation and for the historic choice of leadership it has just made and, indeed, for the age-old values that are still enshrined in our Constitution and in our hearts.

Sustain the Members of the 111th Congress in courage and in confidence as they face the daunting needs of this special time. Challenge them, Lord, not to forget the hungry and the homeless, the unborn and the immigrant, those without access to good education or decent health care, and those many men and women caught in a cycle of poverty from which they cannot escape without our help.

Let our Representatives be builders of a better world--a world without war or violence, without oppression or corruption--builders of a new world whose foundations are human dignity, the values of family life and respect for the laws of nature.

Lord, we pray: Make us always proud of those we have chosen to lead us so that, with their leadership and Your loving care, You may always be proud of us and of these United States of America. Amen.

I had 500 chars in make a comment on the over at Catholic Culture

(1) "...the merciful, the compassionate" is frankly, a typical Muslim invocation of the name of the One-God-who-is-not-the-Holy-Trinity.

(2) The jump from the Constitution which doesn't mention the role Congress in remembering the hungry and the homeless is breathtaking. Charitable giving in Catholic experience has always been a matter of private choice and not the government's mandate.

(3) "Lord..make us proud" better spoken as "Lord...make us humble -- and always be in awe of You"

Labels: catholic, church-state, social justice

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:38 PM   Permalink  

 
The Deacon's Bench: Catholic teacher loses job for marrying without annulment

I side with the school on this one. During the time I was contributing on a daily basis to this blog I covered the story of Michelle McCusker fired for refusing to get married after getting pregnant in defiance of the school's teacher's code of conduct to live according to Catholic teaching. The ACLU took up the case, I guess the ACLU lost because they last updated the case status in 2006.

Labels: church-state, marriage

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:50 PM   Permalink  

 
Venezuela: Chavez supporters occupy cardinal's residence: Catholic World News

Caracas, Feb. 28, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have occupied the residence of the Archbishop of Caracas, the newspaper El Pais reports.

Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino denounced the action by members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Cardinal Urosa Savino said: "Interrupting our work is an act of violence."

President Chavez has frequently denounced the Catholic hierarchy of Venezuela, charging that the bishops are undermining his government by criticizing his tendencies toward autocratic government and mob rule. Chavez supporters have become steadily more aggressive in their hostility toward the nation's bishops.

It's an extension of the policy of the bishops of the Western Hemisphere who argue there should be no borders, no wall, no barriers to migration, and the laws which order society to impose them are manifestly unjust.

What we have here is a migration from inferior housing to better housing. Why shouldn't the people of Venezuela have access to quality of housing enjoyed by the Catholic hierarchy?

What privileges the Cardinal's residence in a way that doesn't also privilege the US border?

Labels: church-state, immigration

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:51 AM   Permalink  

 
The Romney Speech

I think the Romney speech is one of the best of the decade. It was in the opinion of this Catholic better than the Kennedy speech with its misunderstood "absolute wall".

Romney said much of what Kennedy should have said. Of course, both Romney and I have some 48 years of perspective to know what bad fruit that speech brought.

The problem isn't the intrusion of the Church into the state but the purgation of morality from political life. Here I quote Romney quoting Adams: In John Adams’ words: 'We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people.' We are a moral and religious people. Not Atheists are amoral, but some are.

My fear with atheists is simple -- if rights don't come from God, do they exist? And if they exist, what authority granted them and does that authority possess the ability to take them back? Please don't say "The People" The image of the Reign of Terror pops into my head.

Romney is enough of a politician to address the outrage from atheists. I'll keep looking for atheist blogs that might address the source of our rights.

Labels: church-state, politics, romney

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:17 PM   Permalink  

 
John Kennedy was wrong

The famous speech that John Kennedy gave in West Virgina has been received by the popular culture as an excellent example of how a deeply religious person could reconcile belief in God, in particular Christianity and more in particular the Catholic faith.

Kennedy said that "my Church does not speak for me" Kerry twisted that into "my Church does not speak -to- me."

Both politicians wanted to show their identification with this "tribe", but were willing to ignore its teachings, and yet unwilling to break their association with it.

For Kennedy the issue in 1960 was direct state support for Catholic schools. (He was opposed to it.) This issue reappeared in the 1980's as the movement for school choice.

Kennedy was politically correct in his speech and it helped get him elected. What has been the consequence to his soul is a matter for God, what has been the consequence to Catholic schools is another matter for parents and students today.

Romney, I suspect will echo Kennedy and not Kerry.

text of John Kennedy's speech 'I Believe in an America Where the Separation of Church and State is Absolute' September 12, 1960, address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association

extreme catholic 2004

Labels: church-state, jfk, politics

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:11 AM   Permalink