Posts with the tag 'Catholicism'
…Oh Where, Oh Where Can They Be?
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments today on Sen. Barack Obama’s Catholic National Advisory Council:
“On May 2, I issued a news release calling on Sen. Obama to dissolve his Catholic National Advisory Council. My principal reason for doing so was his selection of dissident Catholics to advise him: for example, most of the public officials are so pro-abortion that they had a 100 percent NARAL record. On May 8, most members of the Advisory Council faxed me a letter defending themselves; I answered the same day taking them to task for their lame defense. But it now appears that my initial recommendation—to dissolve the group—may have been accepted.
“There is no mention anywhere on the Obama website of the Catholic National Advisory Council. On Friday, we placed three phone calls to his campaign: two to media relations and one to Mark Linton, Obama’s National Catholic Outreach Coordinator. We were told each time that someone would get back to us, but no one did. I then personally e-mailed Linton informing him of the three phone calls, requesting that he respond to my question: ‘I would like to know whether the Catholic National Advisory Council for Sen. Obama is still operative.’ He has not replied.
“It would appear, then, that the group no longer exists. It is not hard to understand why. After being criticized by the Catholic League, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City rebuked one of Obama’s Catholic advisors, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius: she was instructed not to present herself for Holy Communion (she is a rabid defender of abortion). At about the same time, radical Chicago priest Rev. Michael Pfleger bailed on Obama by withdrawing his name from the Advisory Council. Now we find that there is no listing for the group on the Obama website.
“Looks like the Obama campaign’s decision to quietly drop its Advisory Council didn’t work. We found out, and we’ve never been accused of being quiet.”
Of all the varied frauds in political history, none was quite so absurd as Obama’s attempt to make it appear that he had some Catholic support for the fall campaign. Catholics are about 27% of the American electorate, and they went 52%/47% for Bush in 2004 - but that doesn’t tell the whole story, as practising Catholics (ie, those who attend Mass weekly or more often) went 56% for Bush, and gave him about 1.7 million more votes than Kerry just from this demographic: that is more than 50% of Bush’s winning margin, and in Ohio and Florida the surge of Catholic votes for Bush pretty much made the difference between victory and defeat, and thus was instrumental in giving President Bush a second term. Obama would very much like to get back to Gore’s 2000 performance amongst practising Catholics, when a majority of them went for him over Bush. And so - have a Catholic outreach group and make like you give a damn about the concerns of practising Catholics.
The trouble is that there is a dearth of Democratic Catholics who can in any way, shape or form appeal to a majority of practising Catholics. Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania might have a shot at it, but Ted Kennedy? Not a chance - and when the Democratic governor of Kansas was called to account, it just made the issue all the more stark; there are Catholics, and then there are Catholics…and if you want the vote of people who take the Catholic faith seriously, then you’re going to have to drop pro-abortion fanaticism as well as a host of other leftwing desires from your program. In the end, the circle couldn’t be squared and while I suspect there will be some minor and rather creaky attempt to have a “Catholics for Obama” officially in existence, we can really just write off this attempt on the part of Obama to expand beyond his extremist, leftwing political base.
Meanwhile, McCain enjoys the support of quite a number of solid Catholics. Wonder who will win the majority of Catholic votes in November?
Tags: Barack Obama, Catholic Vote, Catholicism, John McCain
June 12th, 2008
What does a politician who’s abortion position is best desribed as “pro-abortion fanatic” do to garner votes in heavily Democratic, yet pro-life, Pennsylvania? Well, if that politician is a Democrat, he picks a couple pro-life Democrats as window dressing on a group designed to bamboozle pro-life voters - especially among Pennsylvania’s large Catholic population - into voting Obama:
Pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to announce the formation of a Catholic Advisory Council today that he will likely use to try to make inroads among pro-life Catholic voters.
However, whether Obama’s position in favor of unlimited abortions funded with taxpayer dollars goes over with Catholic voters is another question.
Senator Bob Casey and former Congressman Tim Roemer will participate in the Friday afternoon conference call to announce the formation of the advisory group.
The participation and leadership of the two pro-life politicians is an obvious clue that Obama wants to siphon some of the pro-life Catholic vote away from eventual Republican nominee John McCain.
“Obama has two high profile pro-lifers in prominent roles on this Council,” CBN News correspondent David Brody observes.
“[They] have taken flack from the Democratic Party in the past because they are not pro-choice. The Obama campaign is clearly trying to send a message,” he explains. “They want Catholics and evangelicals to know that while Obama may be pro-choice, the pro-life point of view is not going to be so easily discounted.”
The timing of the announcement of the Catholic advisory group comes just before a weekend debate at Messiah College in Pennsylvania featuring Obama and Hillary Clinton that will focus on faith issues.
For his part, John McCain has already received the endorsement of pro-life Catholic stalwarts and has his own Catholic outreach group.
It may be Obama’s goal to convince pro-life voters that their views will matter, but pro-life voters are, I believe, wise enough to know that when it comes to judicial appointments and spending on “birth control” programs, an Obama Administration will toe the most extreme, NARAL/PP line on abortion. The chances of an Obama Administration doing anything to advance the pro-life agenda are the same as the chances Obama will come out in favor of banning affirmative action.
This is the most cynical action to date on the part of Obama - clearly designed to boost him in pro-life Pennsylvania; I don’t buy the story that Obama is going to make a large play for pro-life votes in the Fall. He’ll take what he can get, of course, but to run in favor of anything pro-life in September would be too damaging to Obama on the left. Once the Pennsylvania vote is in, I think we’ll see Obama’s pro-life outreach atrophy.
Tags: abortion, Barack Obama, Catholicism, John McCain
April 12th, 2008
Re-emphasising his earlier statements:
New Orleans, Mar 8, 2008 (CNA).- Senator John McCain made efforts on Friday to do more than just distance himself from the anti-Catholic teachings of John Hagee by repudiating any comments made by the well known televangelist.
In an interview with the Associated Press the Republican presidential candidate said, “We’ve had a dignified campaign, and I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee’s, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics”.
McCain also brought up the fact that he sent his children to Catholic schools as proof of his acceptance of Catholics. “I sent two of my children to Catholic school. I categorically reject and repudiate any statement that was made that was anti-Catholic, both in intent and nature. I categorically reject it, and I repudiate it,” McCain said.
He also tried to strike a conciliatory tone for his campaign by saying, “we can’t have that in this campaign. We’re trying to unite the country. We’re uniting the country, not dividing it.”
For this Catholic, the matter is now closed.
Tags: Catholicism, Hagee, John McCain
March 10th, 2008
Well, you’ll want to - if you want to gain the GOP nomination:
San Antonio, TX, Dec 20, 2007 (CNA).- The Republican presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, has been garnering attention in the media with his surge in political polls. However, a campaign stop this Sunday by Huckabee at a mega-church whose pastor sees Hitler as linked to the Catholic Church, could soon steal the spotlight.
According to Mike Huckabee’s campaign website, the controversial stop at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas will take place this Sunday, December 23. He will speak at the church’s two Sunday services at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m.
The Catholic League’s president, Bill Donahue, told CNA that the pastor of the church, Rev. John Hagee, is militantly anti-Catholic.
As the senior pastor of Cornerstone, Rev. Hagee is best known for his “End-Time” writing but also focuses on bringing evangelical Protestants and Jews together.
The Catholic League asserts that John Hagee has another goal as well, “slandering the Catholic Church.”
Hagee has the long-standing litany of anti-Catholicism down pat - Crusades, Inquisition and Hitler; its all our fault, ’cause the Pope is the Anti-Christ (which Pope isn’t determined - though our guess is that its whomever happens to be Pope at the moment). While almost all Catholics and Protestants are working more and more closely together - expressing that unity Our Lord desired - there are still some out there who wish to keep the old, worn out hatreds alive. Hagee is one such, and while he’s welcome to his views, I don’t think it appropriate that a man who wishes to be President of the United States should hob-nob with the likes of Hagee. My hope is that Governor Huckabee will find something else to do on Sunday.
Tags: anti-Catholicism, bigotry, Catholic League, Catholicism, Mike Huckabee
December 22nd, 2007
The priest of my parish once opined in my hearing that the war is a “stupid war”. It was in the nature of an offhand comment, but I think it touched upon a core belief of this good priest - that war is stupid, and thus this war is stupid, too. I cannot believe that this priest so filled with love of God and neighbor would think that the people who fight the war are stupid, or that those who agree with the war policy are stupid. Still, it cannot be ignore that throughout Catholic history, war has been held to be a regretable necessity at best, and an incredible evil at worst. What about the Crusades? A long-delayed counter-attack - most of the time, the Church from the get-go was working to limit war in one way or another - the first bit of arms control was the Church’s attempt to ban the use of crossbows, after all, as an un-Christian weapon. It also cannot be denied - or ignored - that both the late, great John Paul II and the current Pope Benedict XVI have not had kind things to say of our effort in Iraq.
Since the start of the Iraq campaign, when lefty commenters discover I am Catholic, it follows swiftly that they will quote John Paul II or Benedict the XVI and then ask how I, as a Catholic, can support something supposedly condemned by such high authority. Quite simple - because these fine Popes are, in my opinion, wrong and I am completely free to disagree with them on the matter of the war in general and the liberation of Iraq in particular. Here are some words from Father Neuhaus on the matter:
The statement (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship - PDF) goes on to say: “We do not have specific competence in political, economic, and military strategies and do not assess particular tactics, but we can, as teachers, share a moral tradition to help inform policy choices. Our Catholic teaching on war and peace offers hard questions, not easy answers. Our nation must now focus more on the ethics of exit than on the ethics of intervention.”
Exactly. People may argue until the cows come home about the rightness or wrongness of what was done in 2003, but the question now is what is required for a “responsible transition,” recognizing that such a transition entails many considerations, including stability in the Middle East, the credibility of American power in world affairs, and the prospect of securing a government of law and basic decency for the Iraqi people.
In other words, not only does the Church not condemn the initial action of 2003, but it also does not command anything like the cut-and-run demands of the American political left. In fact, it would be morally wrong for America, at this point, to precipitously withdraw. We must focus on the exit, but the exit may take quite a long time and actually require a great deal more fighting before it can be completed. And focus on the exit we have - the whole program of American strategy in Iraq is to focus on the exit. But it is to be a responsible exit which improves the situation, not make it worse.
As the statement notes, the Church does not have the competance to rule on matters of political expediency or military strategy - it is, after, a group dedicated to the worship of God and bringing people to salvation; this long and difficult task means that the Church has little time to study the campaigns of Patton or the particulars of American internal politics. It is refreshing, by the way, to have an organization which will say where it is unable to judge. The Church judges matters of faith and morals. I cannot deny the Trinity and remain a Christian - a matter of faith. I cannot deny that extra-marital sex is disordered - a matter of morals. But in matters of politics, economics and war, it is up to me to act as my conscience - instructed by the Church on faith and morals - dictates. My Catholic-instructed conscience tells me that as hard as the task is, we must fight until victory is achieved - not just in Iraq, but in the entire War on Terrorism.
Tags: Catholicism, Christianity, morality
November 18th, 2007
Pope Benedict’s first visit to America:
Baltimore, Nov 12, 2007 (CNA).- Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., has announced that Pope Benedict will be making his first visit to the United States April 15-20. The plans for the five day voyage will include an address at the United Nations in New York and a stop in Washington D.C.
The Pope’s itinerary will begin with an April 16 meeting with President George W. Bush at the White House, followed by a gathering with the U.S. bishops at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
On Thursday, April 17, the American public will have its first chance to see Benedict XVI at a Mass to be held at the new Washington Nationals stadium. Later in the day the Pope will also take place in an inter-religious event at the John Paul II Cultural Center.
The New York leg of the papal visit will begin with a historic address to the UN on Friday.
The UN bit will be useful - one of those rare times when truth and morality are actually spoken in that tomb of international decency.
Tags: Catholicism, Pope Benedict
November 13th, 2007
