Moral Coherence and Voting: Courageous Bishop Daniel Jenky Calls Catholic Citizens to Loyalty to the Lord First
I therefore call upon every practicing Catholic in this Diocese to vote.
For those who hope for salvation, no political loyalty can ever take precedence over loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel of Life. God is not mocked, and as the Bible clearly teaches, after this passing instant of life on earth, God's great mercy in time will give way to God's perfect judgment in eternity.
Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C. BISHOP OF PEORIA
PrintPEORIA, IL (Catholic Online) - On November 6, 2012, Americans head to polling places all over the Nation to vote. Along with Congressional contests and ballot initiatives, they will be asked to choose a President and Vice president. The choice is between Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan or Barack Obama and Joseph Biden. Oh, I know there are other options - but to vote for them is to eliminate the effect of your vote.
U.S. Catholics can determine the outcome of this Presidential election. That is if we act in a manner which is, to use words of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "morally coherent". That phrase was used in an instruction released in 2002 entitled a "Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life".
Here is an excerpt, "The social doctrine of the Church is not an intrusion into the government of individual countries. It is a question of the lay Catholic's duty to be morally coherent, found within one's conscience, which is one and indivisible. Living and acting in conformity with one's own conscience on questions of politics is not slavish acceptance of positions alien to politics or some kind of 'confessionalism', but rather the way in which Christians offer their concrete contribution so that, through political life, society will become more just and more consistent with the dignity of the human person."
The same congregation repeatedly addressed the primacy of the Right to Life. Here is one example: "The first right of the human person is his life. He has other goods and some are more precious, but this one is fundamental - the condition of all the others. Hence it must be protected above all others. It does not belong to society, nor does it belong to public authority in any form to recognize this right for some and not for others" (Declaration on Procured Abortion (1974), no. 11. I)
To insist upon the fundamental Human Right to Life is not single issue politics. Human rights are goods of human persons. When there is no human person to exercise them all the rhetoric extolling them is sloganeering and sophistry. Nor is our position only a matter of adherence to our "religious" beliefs. It is a response to the truth revealed by the Natural Law and confirmed by medical science. The Child in the womb is our neighbor. It is always and everywhere wrong to kill him or her through procured abortion.
So too with our obligation to defend Marriage and the family and society founded upon it. Marriage is the preeminent and the most fundamental of all human social institutions. It is a relationship defined by nature and protected by the natural law that binds all men and women. It finds its foundation in the order of creation. Civil institutions do not create marriage nor can they create a "right" to marry for those who are incapable of marriage. The institutions of government should, when acting properly, defend marriage against those who would redefine it.
Government has long regulated marriage for the common good. The ban on polygamy and age requirements were enforced in order to ensure that there was a mature decision at the basis of the Marriage contract. Heterosexual marriage, procreation, and the nurturing of children form the foundation for the family, and the family forms the foundation of civil society.
To "limit" marriage to heterosexual couples is not discriminatory now, nor has it ever been. Homosexual couples cannot bring into existence what marriage intends by its very definition. To now "confer" the benefits that have been conferred in the past only to stable married couples and families to homosexual paramours is bad public policy.
We are living under what Pope Benedict XVI called a "Dictatorship of Relativism" in the West. When there is a wholesale effort to deny the existence of anything objectively true which can be known by all and form the basis of our common life, then there is no real freedom. Instead, we teeter on the brink of anarchy. On January 19, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the Bishops of Region IV in the United States gathered in Rome for their ad limina visit.
He warned them of a "radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres". He told them that the "seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion."
The pope's admonition to defend religious freedom came the day before Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, issued a mandate requiring all employers, including Catholic and other religious employers, to cover sterilization, ...
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Rob, Once again, I find myself agreeing with you. When it comes to voting our Catholic Faith, of course Love of brother and sister in Christ is the cornerstone. When it comes to building anything, Love is the answer. I agree hands down. No ifs or buts. I hope I have not conveyed in my writing otherwise. However, I am very much concerned about any ethnicity that is Catholic, Not voting Catholic Values. Not living Catholic Values..but living Catholic Examples. And I do not say I am w/o sin. I walk in as much justice and holiness as the Lord bestows upon me, and it grieves me to see Catholics/Christians in name, and vote with a pagan heart. It is my Love and Concern for others for which I write. Blessings...
THERE WAS NO PRO-LIFE CANDIDATE IN THIS ELECTION. There was one who was up front about being pro-abortion, and one who lied and pretended not to be. And we Catholics are utter fools for accepting either.
Continued in-fighting is not going to solve our problems as Church. Speaking the truth is one thing, demonizing those who perhaps are less formed than we, trying to proclaim who is a good catholic and not, will only increase the divide and render us irrelevant. We seem to have developed this moral checklist that somehow equates to being a good catholic. Unless you say and do the following, we'll you aren't catholic.
I have always equated my walk with Christ very similar to my practice of ninjutsu. In this martial art, there is always a focus on the basics. The basic postures, punching, kicking and tumbling. It is only when those skills are done to the point that they are almost inistict that somone can master more advanced fighting techniques. They form the bedrock of the art. In our advanced class problems in technique are always because of a failure in the basics. I see our Catholic faith in much the same way. When we have that encounter with Christ and profess our belief, we begin a journey. That journey involves a period of the basics and the beginning of a relationship. Our practice of faith always has to come from it's primary source and from that source we form the foundation that shapes our practice of the faith. Love of God and neighbor have to be the cornerstone...that is the basic principle. Someone does not profess belief and then all of the sudden is able to live out every jot and tittle of our Catholic faith. The conversion of the soul and the process of repentence takes time. Sometimes folks have a Saul/Paul moment, and sometimes God chooses to work with them more gently and over long periods of time.
As I have planned large men's conferences over the years, I always ensure that at least one talk is devoted to conversion and repentence. We all need it. And the moment we only see the sin of our brothers and sisters and not our own, then we really have become nothing more than pharisees who are in love with the law and forgot that the law was nothing more than the telescope at which to see God. A "basic" principle that is so badly needed in our time is to acknowledge our identity. We are all sons and daughters of God. God loves us all. Our neighbors are not just the child in the womb but also the rabid pro-abortion advocate. We are called to love both. But if all we do is work hard to evict people from the church because they don't tow the line, well don't be suprised when that focus turns on you, a sinner, and you are shown the door.
Marriage as defined by the state, and marriage defined spiritually have long been sundered. To be legally married, and to be married in the Church are wholly separate things. The words may be the same, but the purpose is intrinsically different. Marriage in the legal sense mostly affects taxes.
I may be missing something, but I don't understand spending so much time trying to insist marriage means the same thing in both contexts rather than explaining that they don't. When two people are married, they do so in the church and it's spiritual. To be married by the state is just paperwork for convenience.
@Jake, I also found Romney's stance, or lack-thereof disappointing. He seemed to become a slave to party politics when he began running. Obama also disappointed me greatly during this campaign. While I've voted for second-terms on the most recent two presidents, I feel we badly need more viable choices.
Peace and goodness to all, thus say the Lord " Fear not, I am with you"
First of all, we have a great opportunity in our times to make the light of Jesus Christ shine in
this world which is in most darkness.Secondly, I am a bit confuse in how the laws on our country function for example a mother who kill her three months old baby or three years old child is consider insane or mentally ill and indee she is. She gets to be all over the media, and everyone is talking about her being evil.On the other hand, a mother kills a three months old baby in her womb, and it is o.k., and she is even encourage,and support to do it by same government. Wouldn't this be more insane and evil or the same because they are still both her children.There is no logic on these practices. Finally, Let us cry out and demand our rigths for us and those who has no rights and voice in the womb in faithfulness and love to our Lord Jesus Christ who strenght us. In conclusion, Let us not fear hostility but embrace it with obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ for He is our true freedom and life. No one has any power to take Him away from our heart.
Little brother Jose
I have read everything I could find on Romney's stance on abortion and I could only find contradictions. So this issue is a wash as far as both candidates are concerned. As far as who is for the poor and needy, which my Lord Jesus Christ cradled in his arms, i think it is rather evident. My vote is going Democrat.
As an aside to this, we need to view most of the elite media coverage as part of the Obama campaign. 3 examples that come to mind are:
1) Remember all the front page print and tv news stories regarding gasoline prices and those hurt by them at the end of the Bush Administration in 2008 when gasoline was less than $2/gallon? Well, prices have since doubled, but we don't hear nearly as much about it with Mr. Obama as President. The Freerepublic says the ratio is 4 Bush gasoline stories to 1 Obama gasoline story.
2) There were 575 troops killed in Afghanistan during the 7 Bush years, and more than 1,300 troops were killed in 3 1/2 years under President Obama. You'd never know this by the proportion of news coverage.
3) Same with the back and forth on Libya regarding what was said, who knew when, yes, no, maybe, etc.
My point is that Bishop Jenky courageously spoke for the Catholic Church, and against the efforts of the elite media.
Let us remember that our loyalty is to Christ... not only to Christ FIRST, but to Christ ALONE.
...NOT to either political party or any other ideology.
Neither party is "The Godly One."
WOW! To All of you posting. Very Interesting. And keeping with the Faith!
@ Jackie, may I ask , Where in Oregon? I know it is a very liberal and Democratic state, but ...
@Deacon Keith: Personal Note: Oregon was one of the states in my travels, where I met quite a few "stung" by the Jesuits. There are some persons who think like the Pres. of Pro-Choice, in that they "... have the right to dissent and freedom of conscience". It is sad, but some have gone as far as leaving the Church. Let me be clear. I am not attributing these negations to the Jesuits.
I am saying, that WE INDEED ARE THE CHURCH MILITANT. The Church is being attacked from within and without. This needs to Show Through Our Voting! Blessings to All...