Dear American Catholic Democrats

An appeal to Catholic Democrats

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**Prayers ascending for all the folks on the east coast today**


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If you are a faithful Catholic who still feels loyalty to the Democratic Party, I sympathize. After all, Catholic roots there run deep. But the Democratic Party today is not the party it once was, and we need to make an honest assessment of where the Democrats stand now, in relationship to Christ's Church.

The last two popes and the bishops have taught that there are non-negotiables for Catholics in the public square, which trump all other considerations. Let's look at what our Church says, then let's compare that to the Democrats' positions. The non-negotiables are these:

• Abortion is intrinsically evil and must never be promoted or condoned.
• Embryonic stem cell research is intrinsically evil and must never be promoted or condoned.
• Euthanasia is intrinsically evil and must never be promoted or condoned.
• The traditional understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman must always be upheld.
• The right of parents to educate their children must always be upheld.
• All other issues (for example, immigration, education, affordable housing, health and welfare, environmental issues, etc.) are considered policy issues. They are issues of prudential judgement, about which Catholics are free to disagree.

As Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix has clarified in a guide for Catholics called, Catholics in the Public Square (Shepherd's Voice):

On each of these [policy] issues, we should do our best to be informed and to support those proposed solutions that seem most likely to be effective. However, when it comes to direct attacks on innocent human life, being right on all the other issues can never justify a wrong choice on this most serious matter.

Indeed, Pope John Paul II wrote:

Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with the maximum determination. (Christifideles Laici, 38)In his letter, “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion,” 

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) wrote:

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

In a 2006 speech to European politicians, Pope Benedict XVI said the following:

As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. Among these the following emerge clearly today: 

Protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;

Recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage and its defense from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role; 

The protection of the rights of parents to educate their children.


In light of that crystal clear teaching, consider the following:


Abortion

The Democratic Party Platform 2012, on abortion (my words in black):

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion [the word "rare" was removed by the Democrats in 2008], regardless of ability to pay[this means taxpayer-funded abortions]. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.


Embryonic Stem Cell Research

The Democratic Party Platform 2012, on embryonic stem cell research:

[T]he President issued an executive order repealing the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research….


Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)

The Democrats in the States of Washington and Oregon (blue states) were the first to legalize physician-assisted suicide for their citizens. The drive for legalization in other states is also led by Democrats, including the current ballot initiative in Massachusetts (another blue state). A growing number of state Democratic platforms explicitly call for the legalization of PAS.



Marriage

The Democratic Party Platform 2012, on marriage (my words in black):

We support marriage equality [this is the euphemism for gay "marriage"] and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples…. 

We oppose discriminatory federal and state constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny equal protection of the laws to committed same-sex couples who seek the same respect and responsibilities as other married couples. We support the full repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act [the federal law that defines marriage as one man, one woman] and the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act [which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and give "federal benefits and protections" to same-sex "married" couples].

The support for gay "marriage" was added into the 2012 and was reportedly a "non-controversial" addition.


The Right of Parents to Educate Their Children

Democrats and the liberal teachers’ unions to which they are beholden go to great lengths to deny parents a real choice in their children’s education, not only opposing school vouchers for private schools, but also discouraging the growth of public charter schools, which often deviate from the leftist model.Laws that seek to limit or end the legal rights of homeschooling parents also come overwhelmingly from Democrats.




On every non-negotiable point for Catholics, the Democrats take the wrong side.


When I first wrote on this topic, I could never have predicted the threat to religious freedom we would face just a year or so later, when Obama threw down his devastating HHS mandate. I knew that in certain states, Democrat policies had tragically forced the closing of Catholic foster care and adoption agencies that had stood for generations, but I never expected a stroke of the pen to threaten the very existence of all Catholic charities, schools, hospitals, and businesses in the nation.

The normally milquetoast US bishops were so alarmed that every single one of them voiced a protest and later organized a nationwide Fortnight for Freedom, encouraging organized prayer, adoration, and fasting. Anti-HHS religious liberty rallies have been held in hundreds of cities across the land, attended by tens of thousands of concerned Catholics and other Christians. Even Pope Benedict himself publicly warned of the "grave threat" to religious freedom in America -- a threat which was not even on the radar screen until Obama, the head of the Democrats, came to power.

The trend in the Democratic Party holds not a shred of hope for its future, as it's trending all one way: Toward radical secularization, with a marginalization of and hostility toward Catholicism that is snowballing to the point where this election cycle showcased multiple Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate reassuring their Democratic base that if elected, they would force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions! And at the Democratic National Convention this year, Democrats removed the last remaining reference to God from their Platform. Only after the public got wind of the removal did they famously stage a bogus voice vote to reinstate it. For now.

Catholics, as unpleasant as it may be, it's time to wake up to the reality of what has happened. A once-proud party in which faithful Catholics could feel comfortable is now positioning itself as an enemy of the Church. The Democratic Party of 2012 is nothing like the Democratic Party of our grandparents, which still had a solid moral grounding. Catholic Democrats today are being used for votes, and they are either unaware or unwilling to admit that the party they love no longer exists -- and is not coming back.


To all sincere Catholics who have not yet left the Democratic Party: Please consider that the Democratic Party has long ago left you.


Related post: Catholics: Why it's not a sin to vote for Romney



Posted by Leila @ Little Catholic Bubble at 12:16 AM 75 comments



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Saturday, October 27, 2012

A new low

I know. I just posted yesterday. But this cannot wait.

It's a new low for the nation, I am sure. If you haven't seen it yet, I apologize for being the one to show it to you. (To make it almost all better, be sure to watch the parody at the very end of the post.)

Here is the Obama campaign ad that has everyone talking (and/or vomiting):




Okay, so I'm just going to throw out some stream-of-consciousness thoughts about this juvenile, double-entendre ad, and you can feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.

1) Tacky and creepy.

2) Insulting and degrading.

3) Unbecoming the office of the President of the United States.

4) Is this really where we are now? How did we get here? When did this happen? Even when I was a stupid, immature, irreverent, foul-mouthed, foul-acting, M-TV generation teenager, I never wanted the adults in society to act like adolescents. But the President of the United States is okay with this crap? My constant question: Where have all the grown-ups gone?

5) Obama is nothing if not the "sexual rights" and abortion president. The reduction of women to their reproductive (or non-reproductive) organs is the … can't think of any other word … obsession of this president and his campaign. I have never seen anything like it.

6) What kind of wife would allow her husband to put out an ad which invites women to think of having sex with him? This degrades Michelle Obama. No self-respecting conservative woman I know would stand for it.

7) Would Mr. Obama be proud to play this ad for his young daughters? I'm already so disgusted with how often he and Michelle trot those poor girls out as poster children for why abortion is so badly needed for their "success", so for all I know he would be proud to share a laugh with them over this crude spot implying Dad's deflowering of young women. Oddly, Obama is on record as saying that before they need those abortions, he is "going to teach them first of all about values and morals." Just what are these "values and morals" that mean so much to you and that you wish to impart to your daughters, Mr. Obama? Do you think they'll buy it, when you put out an ad like this? You are either clueless or you have no integrity, and neither option is acceptable in a president (or a daddy).

(Thankfully, I'm not the only one who thought of the implications for Obama's own daughters. It is quite troubling.)

8) What about other pre-teen and teen girls who see this, who may or may not come from stable homes? Does Obama care about the message it sends them? The single biggest indicator for poverty in this nation is not race but single motherhood, i.e., childbearing before marriage. It is a national catastrophe that no one wants to talk about, and the leader of our land thinks thinks it's cute to showcase the very type of casual attitude about sex that devastates so many women and children and families across America. Where is the hope in these dismal statistics, which no massive government entitlement program can fix? But sure, Obama, go ahead and keep us chuckling with innuendos about single young women losing their virginity. There aren't any consequences at all to that sort of thing, right? It's a laugh riot.

9) This ad makes me think of Obama's bff, Planned Parenthood. I mean, this girl is the perfect PP client. She will need all their services. Enlightened women and girls think and act like her, and PP will provide contraceptives, STD screenings, pregnancy tests, morning after pills, surgical and chemical abortions, you name it. A vote for Obama is a vote for what they'll need, hopefully for free! Obama and Planned Parenthood go together like don't say it, Leila, do not say it a hand and glove.

10) My daughters are 18 and 21, the target age for this bizarre and creepy ad. They both were repulsed, and I asked my 21-year-old to expand on that. She said:

"I think it's degrading to women. I think it's sexist. I don't see any young men doing these videos [saying], "Before, I was a boy. Now, I am a man" for voting for Barack. It's absurd that someone's womanhood is dependent on voting for Barack Obama. It's disturbing that they want us to think of voting for the President in terms of sex with him. Why would I want to think about him in that way? It belittles our country that we appeal to people in that crude of a manner. It is a disgrace to our country. My final comment: I hope he loses."

Me too, honey.

11) Mr. Obama and his entire administration can not be voted out of office fast enough. I am saddened and horrified more and more each day about what we have become, how classless we are, how far we have fallen. I cannot wait until this sad and desperate campaign of sex and lies is finally over.

12) Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus, deliver us.

13) Even though you might want to cry, I want to leave you laughing! This Steven Crowder parody of the ad brilliantly exposes its inanity. I think even Obama supporters will find it utterly hilarious:





There, don't you feel better? I do!