I now have reports from four different dioceses in various parts of the country on how the bishops’ document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” is being used to clear the way for Catholics to support Obama.
The most egregious “teaching” of the document goes like this: Democrats agree with 90% of the Church’s social teaching, Republican’s 10%. So the fact that the GOP is pro-life is offset by the weight of the many other issues –minimum wage, national health insurance, etc. — supported by the Democrats.
Conclusion: Catholics can ignore the pro-life and marriage issues.
Another way the document is being taught is to line up a long list of “intrinsic evils.” Yes, the Republicans hold the line on one or two intrinsic evils, but the Democrats care about measures to eliminate a longer list of “intrinsic evils.” It won’t be mentioned that the latter group of “evils” are not intrinsically evil in the same way as killing unborn life; the former must be opposed in any and all ways, including legislation; the latter opposed by prudential means.
But the conclusion is the same: Catholics can ignore the differences between Republicans and Democrats on the life and marriage issues.
Those who have been tasked to teach “Forming Consciences” in parishes around the country include staff from the local chanceries and the USCCB. Often those staff will have “peace and justice” attached to the description of their employment or their association with Catholic institutions.
I have yet to hear anyone associated with the “peace and justice” crowd accurately describe the proper priority of the life issues in “faithful citizenship.” [article]
No surprise here that the same people who turned the documents of Vatican II into some nebulous Spirit of Vatican II would do the same to the USCCB’s document. When you use the hermeneutic of “I am going to vote for Sen. Obama anyway” it is amazing what documents can then yield. Kind of like National Catholic Reporter’s new editor who wrote this year that he would rather have the bishops go to Hell than for him not to vote Democrat.
These stories corroborate my thesis that most of the damage to the Catholic Church is being done at the middle management level. The bishops should be paying more attention to what is being taught by their staff, both at the conference and the chanceries.
Totally agree with that assessment. The parish and diocesan spin doctors are hard at work all over the place.
14 comments
Hi Jeff –
I really enjoy your blog. Just thought I’d leave you the link to a copy of a letter that I wrote to our local paper here in Peachtree City, GA. Recently, someone who apparently claims to be Catholic wrote in to the paper to use Pope Benedict’s statement in 2004 (he was then Cardinal) to justify voting for Obama…I just couldn’t let that one go! The Church herself is very, very clear on the issue of voting and pro-life candidates, and I know some excellent priests who give clear teaching on this. Unfortunately, they’re not the priests who are getting the press!
http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/31395
Susan Bertram
The Faithful Citizenship document has convinced me personally that I cannot in good conscience vote for either candidate. Both of them are pretty bad, in my opinion, on a whole host of issues, especially pertaining to life.
I found this much more valuable and accurate. So much so that I included it (with the author’s permission) in my parish’s Sunday bulletin:
http://www.thegodpod.com/thegp/content/it-sin-vote
What was most appalling was the video that accompanied the Faithful Citizenship document…
In it, one of the laypersons who was interviewed for the video said that that abortion is an intrinsic evil and for that matter, so is racism…there is not only the equivocation of abortion to racism, but a tacit implication that John McCain is racist based on the juxtaposition of the two issues. (He might as well have said, “You may not want to vote for Barack Obama because of his stance on abortion, but then again, you have this racist, John McCain…”)
Then again, racism and abortion are intrinsically linked since Margaret Sanger established Planned Parenthood as a way to promote eugenics.
Does this mean that I don’t have to go to Confession for gagging when local requests for prayers for the unborn were translated into prayers for “a consistent life ethic”? Objectively, it was a perfectly good term, but lately it is used to mean every other social justice issue thrown in to divert us from the weight of 50 million dead children, and counting.
Don’t forget that Catholic schools and colleges are staffed almost exclusively with the leftist “peace and justice” type of Catholics. They impart their ignorant and dissident views to students, who then go on to believe absurd things such as supporting same-sex unions in civil society is the Catholic thing to do because Catholic social teaching requires that we oppose discrimination and injustice in society. The P&J loonies teach their students to support anything with “peace” or “justice” in its description and to oppose anything labeled with “war” or “discrimination”. That’s probably why the left is beginning to refer to legal abortion as “reproductive justice”. Anyone want to bet what the Pavlovian response of Catholic students will be to that one?
Do not blame the “middle-management.” The responsibility lies squarely on the bishops’ shoulders. They are grown men anointed to teach. So teach, already. And any teacher knows that part of teaching is making sure the student is not confused.
The misuse of the “Seamless Garment of Life” argument has been so predictable and so consistent from the get-go, that the cynic may be tempted to think that the argument was always INTENDED to be confusing.
Why should this suprise many of us? The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been shilling for the left for years.
“In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:16)
Kate Adams, as an ex teacher, I’m with you on this one.
Sawyer,
I’m a Catholic HS teacher. There are many, many of us working in Catholic schools that are faithful to the Magisterium, work hard to educate ourselves in the fullness of the teachings of the Church, and try our best everyday to present those teachings to young people in a dynamic and counter-cultural way. Yes, there are some nuts in the candy bar, but please don’t give up hope. Our young people deserve our best, and many of us get up every day praying to give that to them.
Elise, well God bless you for your work. But I have given up hope. I dispute your claim that “there are many, many of us working in Catholic schools.” The evidence points strongly to the contrary, at least it points to the faithful being vastly outnumbered and ostracized. My experience is in California, which might be different from scattered pockets of faithfulness elsewhere in the country. I, too, teach in a Catholic HS, and here’s the situation: in a religion department of 13 members, 11 will vote for Obama and about that many will probably vote “no” on Proposition 8. Faculty members (none in religion, though) are open about being in same-sex unions and this is accepted by the administration and staff. Some teachers in the religion department don’t even attend Sunday Mass. Most of them are products of Jesuit colleges and graduate schools. It almost goes without saying that the prevailing opinion is that the Church’s doctrine is wrong regarding the male priesthood, contraception, and homosexual acts. I have looked into other Catholic schools in the region (the Bay Area) and the state, but none give evidence of being any better. The Catholic students hardly practice the faith because it’s not valued in their families. Faithfulness to Christ and his Church in such circumstances is a painful cross to bear. I have no confidence in the ability of Catholic schools to provide a Catholic education because they are thoroughly infected with leftist dissenters who believe that they’re faithful Catholics, only they’re faithful to what faithfulness will mean after faithfulness has been redefined by a future (more “enlightened”) Pope; and they teach their students in accord with their “progressive” understanding of a future faithfulness. I went into this vocation with earnest and eager enthusiasm to serve Christ and his Church with my knowledge and gifts. My experience has led me to conclude that the work of Catholic education, under present circumstances, is frustratingly futile. But my students would never suspect that I am miserable. I always teach them with care, professionalism, energy and interest. I just have come to believe that it’s mostly a waste of my time and life.
I’m so sorry for your situation and even more sorry that you’ve lost hope, as it is a necessary and sustaining part of our faith. I will pray for you. While it may seem as if you are “outnumbered” where you are, you have an entire cloud of witnesses both here and in eternity that are with you. I pray that you find prayerful support where you are soon.
Elise
Elise, thank you for your prayers and encouragement. On the topic of hope, though, I would want to clarify that the theological virtue of hope (placing our trust in Christ’s promises) is different from hoping for particular outcomes in the temporal order. Regarding the latter, I have given up hope that Catholic schools (generally) will or can provide an authentic education in Catholic faith, given present circumstances in the Church and the world; that is a lack of hope about an aspect of the temporal order. Regarding the former, I do have hope that by persevering in grace despite difficult and discouraging temporal circumstances I will obtain the joy of eternal beatitude.