Catholics Against Rudy

Well said Miss Beth! Indeed! I for one have always my standard on a person’s “vote-ability” that of his/her stand on life. To me, and I believe millions of others, Catholic and non-Catholic, a person willing to declare publically, without waiver, their belief that all life, from conception to natural death is sacred and must be protected, will have declared the standard from which all the rest of their beliefs will follow. It’s the measure of the person.

Exactly how does the Church oppress those with same-sex attraction. Are they given capital punishment or locked up? Or is merely saying that homosexual acts themselves are sinful and that having same-sex attraction itself is not sinful count as oppression?

Should the Church also not mention adultery either because adulterers would be oppressed?

Though those that resort to charges of homophobia prove that they know little of the Church’s actual position. The Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful out of love, because not calling a sin a sin is not charitable. You might not agree with what Jesus through his Church teaches, but to say that they teach it out of an irrational hatred of itself would be Catholicphobia.

Seems to be against all that Catholics are about to be “against”. Sounds hateful and bitter. Just go and vote and vote your values.

Mr. Dillard should remember that America was founded as a PROTESTANT country. My people, Scots-Irish came to the Colonies in the 1600s to avoid conflicts with Irish Catholics. Most people came to the Colonies to avoid organized religion.

Thomas Jefferson was so skeptical of the Catholic Church, he put into the Constitution the Separation of Church and State so no religion could be imposed on the America people.

Many brave people, including mine, fought sacrificed and died for our Constitutional freedoms. If Catholics are too fragile for our cherished freedoms, they should never have immigrated to this PROTESTANT country and should move to a Catholic Country — Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Haiti, etc. Bon Voyage!

The largest group having abortion are Catholics. One third of all abortions are spontaneous. Whom does Mr. Dillard hold responsible. Is he going to campaign against God!

The best way to avoid the need for an abortion — don’t have sex with a pro lifer! I’ve never know a liberal or feminist who needed an abortion, only conservatives from the South!

During Ireland’s potato famine, England asserted, “These potato people have no morals, we don’t know what to do with them. I’m acutely aware of the reason we left them behind, but I don’t understand why we allowed them to follow us. Certainly the sexual abuse that is currently taking place, and has been covered up for years by the Catholic Church is a measure of the ‘lack of morals.” Mr. Dillard would be far more productive if he protected these children that are being sexually abused in the Catholic Church instead of his insidious attempt to abuse women by denying them reproductive freedom.

Ted Bundy has an attitude toward women also.

Chagrined

I oppose abortion; I support birth control, except in the case where birth control is effected by abortion, i.e., with the IUD.

My Irish Catholic ancestors had too many children, were poor, and finally left the church which they considered an oppressor which wanted mainly to collect money from poor Irish miners. I feel their leaving the Christian faith because of these opinions robbed them of the faith in our Lord which they should have had. It certainly robbed me of being raised in a Christian home; my mother was adamantly atheist, and even suppressed the Protestant faith of my father who, however, died singing “We Shall Gather by the River.” I became a Catholic, having no knowledge of the Bible or any other church than the church attended by my school mates, but I got into a Catholic marrriage where my husband refused birth control even when doctors told him I would be seriously ill to have children too close together, or to have more than two–I had spent much of my first pregnancy in the hospital, and he thought of me as a disappointing breeder. I was later discovered to have the genetic disease Porphyria, which he could not have known, due to ignorant doctors. He was murdered later.

The Church I love in many ways; I am more Catholic than Protestant, but I will never agree that birth control is wrong. My first husband and I might still be together, in a covenant relationship, if it were not for filthy birth control.

Thanks for your prayers, Marymargaret. My first husband was murdered because he was a single man with a Ph.D. from a prestigious university. The murderer was a con man who wanted his credentials as a Metalurgist, to sell phony mining stock. This sounds ridiculous but our life WAS ridiculous. He was murdered after we were divorced, when our son was fourteen and I was already remarried.

My Irish ancestors managed to have fourteen children per generation even though they married “late,” over thirty. My great grandmother’s last two sons, out of fourteen sons (no daughters) were twins born to her when she was fifty-two. These babies died in an accident when they were put in a cart while they were moving from one place to another, and the cart’s stuff shifted and hit them–they were sort of “extra,” I guess. One of her other sons became a well known union leader but died in a railway accident when my mother, his tenth and last child, was two.

The worst thing is that these people totally lost their faith. I grew up in a home where my mother hated God. She had only one child, me, and her brother had two–three children born into a famil of ten siblings. They were sure into rebellion.

I never used birth control myself. I used “removal of opportunity.” My second husband was sterile, although I didn’t know that and would have had a second child.

Thanks again for prayers. May you be blessed as well. I am sure my first husband is in Heaven–he didn’t deserve his life.

Hi Mariel!

I completely understand your stance on artificial birth control. I can’t personally accept it, again because of the teachings of the Church and because most of the artificial methods available are actually abortifacients–not just the IUD.

When I was in high school in the ’70’s (I was in parochial school from K-12), we were taught the natural methods of the time. Of course, we laughingly called them Vatican Roulette, because at that time, they were not all that effective.

Now, however, the natural methods taught and endorsed by the Church are as effective, if not more so, than artificial methods. That’s a definite plus to couples who want to effectively plan their families and space their children.

The mid-1800’s and early 1900’s were indeed difficult for the Irish–I had several ancestors myself who immigrated. Once they got here, they homesteaded parts of Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah. The Colorado homesteader branch became rather famous due to a novel published in the ’70’s. We have Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican and Mormon branches in the family as well as the Catholic, although my direct lineage is Catholic. The most children I can remember any of the branches having is 6 and I remember my great-grandmother telling stories of having to run to town for a doctor (and she meant run on her own two legs), often to get back home only to have had the patient die before she got there. Times were indeed hard.

Perhaps, speculating only, you and your first husband wouldn’t have had the child-bearing difficulties you had if you had been able to take advantage of the natural methods taught.

I’m certainly not saying I’m any saint–not by any means. My mother (not quite sane) forced me on the pill when I was 13 because, as an athlete, I was delayed in certain areas–however, she swore I was fooling around. When I finally went off, I was only able to have one child before I became chronically ill. It was ten years without any method of birth control before I had another child; by the time I had my third, the previous two children had taken a huge toll on me and my third was delivered early due to her failing health in utero. Later, I was told I HAD to have my tubes tied–any future children would result in dead children and a dead me. Being the idiot I was, I complied (duh, it was almost impossible to have the 3 I DID have); the ligation led to further complications and I had to have a full hysterectomy 2 years ago.

When I was on birth control, my body went nuts–it directly led to my chronic illnesses and major migraines. It wasn’t good for me at all. I truly wish I would have left well enough alone with my body, not flooding it with all the chemicals and such, and let God do what He needed to do without me jumping in His way all the time.

I can understand your ancestors losing their faith, particularly with the hardships they endured. I can understand why you feel you need to use articial methods. But, keep in mind, it’s still a barrier to God’s will. Check out the current natural methods being taught. Or suggest them to someone who’s making the decision themselves. Maybe, just maybe, by using what the Church recommends, someone else won’t find out later what they thought was safe birth control was actually an abortifacient and not mess up their body with all the chemicals. And, as a bonus, be following God’s will.

I truly hope your life has met with some peace and serenity with the passage of time. It sounds like it was very difficult and I hope that difficulty has lessened.