ST. AUGUSTINE, September 28, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although Catholic voters have received mixed signals this election year from some prelates, Bishop Felipe Estévez has sent a clear message to the faithful of his diocese: human life and family issues have top priority when deciding for whom to vote.
In a letter to the Catholics of the diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, where Estévez presides, the newly-appointed bishop urges the faithful to “take your Catholic beliefs, values, and consciences into the voting booth with you.”
While refraining from specific political endorsements, Estévez notes that it is “my responsibility to remind you that, for us Catholics, some issues are simply never morally acceptable,” beginning with those that violate the right to life.
“The taking of an innocent human life, whether inside the womb or not, and up until natural death, is always and everywhere intrinsically evil,” the bishop writes. “Such issues as embryonic stem cell research and attempts at human cloning are also direct attacks against the dignity and uniqueness of human life made in the image of God.”
Moreover, Catholics have an obligation to defend the institution of marriage, the prelate observes, calling the dignity of traditional matrimony “of central importance” which “must never be undermined because marriage is a cornerstone of any stable society.”
“Any attempts to re-define marriage as something other than between a man and a woman, should be vigorously opposed by a Catholic as contrary to reason, the natural law, and the divinely revealed truths of the Bible,” writes Estévez. “Beyond these fundamental issues, and closely related to them is the issue of religious liberty – our ability as Catholics to live our lives publically according to our faith and morals at all levels of society.
Although Estévez doesn’t specify any candidates in his recommendations, he explicitly calls for a “yes” vote on two proposed state constitutional amendments, numbers 6 and 8, which would prohibit public expenditures for abortion or abortion-related services, and which would allow state funding of faith-based organizations.
Estévez, 66, was installed as Bishop of San Augustine in June of 2011 following his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI to replace retiring bishop Victor Galeone. He was born in Cuba, and fled the communist and anti-Catholic regime of Fidel Castro through Operation Peter Pan in the early 1960s.
They read this letter at Mass last week and it is always nice to be able to post something positive about your own Bishop.
2 comments
A thought about Catholics that plan to vote third-party as kind of a “protest vote” aimed at Republicans.
Of course the point of boycotting is to non-violently force an organization to do things your way, but it can back fire. I remember hearing commentary about the Baptist Disney boycott on Catholic radio years ago. They argued against the boycott for the following reason. If Christians reject Disney entirely, Disney would be forced to focus more on the secular portion of the entertainment market. For example, maybe a children’s movie about two princes or two princesses falling in love and getting “married” and living happily ever after. Instead of boycotting, the case made was that Christians should support/pay for Disney entrainment that is consistent with Christian values and reject anything that is not.
The same kind of logic can apply if Catholics or Christians completely rejected the Republican Party. It can backfire. Republicans would still want to win, so they could try to appeal to the more secular portion of society. Perhaps adopt a pro-choice and same-sex marriage platform like the Democrats. They could still differentiate themselves from Democrats by focusing on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, strong military, etc.
Which, if they did, would only show us the futility of constantly voting Republican only because they are marginally less evil. What is the incentive for them to improve from a Christian’s point of view if they basically know they have our vote “locked up”? Aren’t blacks in the same position with respect to the Dems – Dems don’t need to do anything that actually improves blacks’ condition, in fact, it would be counter-productive. If blacks were not dependent on Dem gov’t handouts, they would have no need to vote for them (cf. successful blacks who vote Republican). In fact, constantly voting GOP because they are less evil has lead to the exact thing you believe would happen with boycotting – each election they inch closer to the Dems. We went from a Reagan, to a Bush (less pro-life than Reagan) to a McCain (less pro-life than Bush) to a Romney (less pro-life than McCain).