Hudson & Fournier: Catholic Countdown to Election 2012 - Day 39: Language, Manners and Catholic Action

9/29/2012

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covering the Columbus, Cleveland-Akron, Dayton, and Youngstown media markets.

It's amazing to us that Obama's stance against the Partial Birth Abortion Act as a state senator in Illinois, in other words, his pro-infanticide stance, never permeated awareness in Catholic voters around the nation in 2008.

2012 promises to be a different matter and the Susan B. Anthony-List is doing its part, as it always does! Given that Obama supporters are calling Catholics and saying Obama "is not pro-abortion," the message of the SBA-List ad may be obvious to many, but not to enough.

We thought our eyes must be deceiving us when we saw the news that the University of Notre Dame was inviting President Obama once again to their campus. The occasion is the "tradition" at Notre Dame of inviting presidential candidates to speak. The press release from Notre Dame reads:

Continuing a long-standing tradition, Father Jenkins [University president] and Rocheleau [student body president] addressed letters to each of the presidential aspirants, offering Notre Dame as a "forum for serious political discussion" on important issues facing the nation. The intent of the invitations, which include the candidates' running mates, is to provide the campus community a firsthand impression of the contenders and their messages.

Given the uproar following Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame in 2008, this particular "tradition" should have been ignored, at least for this election cycle. Traditions are not ends in themselves. They make sense only if they serve a worthy purpose, and no good purpose is served by inviting to the leading Catholic university of our nation the President who has knowingly violated the religious liberty of Catholics and their institutions.

There's much chatter in the media about a recent Pew poll showing that Obama has opened up a significant lead (54 percent to 39 percent) among Catholic voters. Well, the devil, as they say, is in the details, especially when it comes to interpreting polls. If you go to the Pew web site and look at the actual study, you will see that Romney continues to lead Obama among white Catholics.

Once Pew added Hispanic voters to the white Catholic voters, the overall Catholic number changed dramatically, since only 24 percent of Hispanic voters presently support Romney. What is described as a "surge" is simply the addition of self-identified Hispanic Catholic voters to white Catholic voters.

We strongly question the Pew story here for two reasons: 1) At present, Hispanic Catholic voters are still less than 20 percent of the overall Catholic vote in the U.S., and 2) the real battle among Catholic voters is among white Catholics -- that is where the election will be won or lost.

If polling starts to show Romney's lead over Obama among white Catholics weakening or strengthening then that will be news! That Hispanic voters, whether Catholic or not, will not be voting for the GOP candidate is to be expected after the unfortunate immigration meltdown among Republicans in 2005. Remember, George W. Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in the 2004 election -- those numbers will not return for a long, long time.

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Deal W. Hudson is president of the Pennsylvania Catholics Networks and former publisher/editor of Crisis Magazine. Deacon Keith Fournier is the Editor in Chief of Catholic Online and a constitutional lawyer who is currently writing his dissertation for the PhD in Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Abortion, Pro-Life, Susan B Anthony List, Obama, Romney, Biden, Ryan, Republican, Democrat, campaign 2012, Social Justce, Deal Hudson, Deacon Keith Fournier

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1 - 10 of 24 Comments

Judy Claar
7 months ago
Catherine, Very well said! I wholeheartedly agree. Catholics must speak up about intrinsic evil with their vote by voting the R/R ticket. Romney took no guff from Obama at the P. Debates last night. Good for him! Romney spoke of Life and Religious Freedom and the Constitution, and I believe him. Obama said NOT one word in regard to any one of those topics.

After last night, Romney has now made it crystal clear, to Any Catholic's reasoning, WHO to vote for.

Of course, they really should have already known it. Now, it is unmistakable. Their is no excuse to vote for intrinsic evil. Blessings...
Rob
7 months ago
Larry, I agree with you somewhat. His lack of experience is precisely why I did not vote for him. However, I think we have to be honest about the opposition this president has faced from the House GOP. The president is not a king and he can't unilaterally fix the issues at hand without the cooperation of the other governing bodies. When you have one body who has fought everything this president has tried to do...record number of fillibusters, etc, how in the world is he supposed to do it? They have tried meeting half way, but the House says no. They won't work with the man, never had and made it a point not to. I agree, all the blame Bush nonsense needs to stop, but at the end of the day, it takes the three branches of government working together to get things done and we have a House that doesn't play nice with others. They do not have a 12% approval rating for nothing.

DC is broken. It's clearly not about us anymore and hasn't been for a long time. Those in power just don't care. And to me when I look at where we are, it's just too painfully evident.
catherine
7 months ago
A few good Bishops who speak out the truth is not enough to stem the tide againt intrinsic evil. All must speak in unison but they do not and Obama has the Catholic vote and will win a second term.
God help us all born and unborn!
Larry
7 months ago
I understand why many people are enamored of Obama. He and his family represent many things that were the civil rights issues of the 1970s - segregation, black and white relationships, education, minority achievement, women's rights, etc. I was thinking of voting for him because of these issues but I was too familiar with his background and knew his background would lead us where we are now generally (community organizer, trained by Jeremiah Wright's teachings and other religious leaders similar in sentiment, Saul Alinsky, etc.) What I've learned about who his mother was and her views of the world, who his father was and his attitudes and who supposedly his mentor in Hawaii was all lead me to realize that he has too many influences and attitudes that does not support what the USA stands for among countries in the world. ---
When someone keeps blaming predecessors for the problems he or she cannot overcome (it's Bush's fault) even if he did not know how bad it was, then this is not the man for the job. He can't do it, improve things for all of us, he can't change things from within, he blames too many others and really takes little responsibility for his policies and actions or inactions - that sounds like an amature or teenager, not a man of substance. Though he says nice phrases, the buck does not stop with him, in his mind. ---
If you can't cut it - get out of the way and let another person do what they can to make things better - Obama's experience was as a student, professor, short stints as senator of Illinois and US Congress and much of the time in the US congress he was preparing to run for President - voting present in the Illinois senate and gearing up for a presidential run and writing 2 books in the US congress. No real experience and it shows!
carolyn
7 months ago
true witness, legal abortion does not make abortion safe for women. In abortion, a human being is being violently attacked , and being torn apart limb by limb, and getting their brains sucked out. Of course you would want to help another human being if that was happening. but you don't want to try and stop the abortionists from killing innocent life. You wouldn't want to try to correct the lies that young women are told about abortion that the fetus is only a clump of cells.You wouldn't want to do what you can do to save the lives of the innocent human babies. There is more support for saving wildlife or humane society than for human unborn. Human life deserves more respect than that.
J. Bob
7 months ago
"True Witness",
and what do you think the mandated "morning after" pill does?

In one respect, someone is lying, and at the Last Judgement, what will one say to those aborted souls in the witness box?
vance
7 months ago
True Witness, You, me, or anyone do not have the right to kill another human being under any circumstance. "Judge not lest you be judged" is a stale old cop out used by abortion fans for years. If a person commits an evil because he wants to do the evil, he is evil. Period. There are evil people doing evil deeds everyday. Just because you personally approve of their evil does not diminish their evil deeds one iota. They are still evil. God gave us laws to follow and obey. Yes, you or I can "Choose" to follow and obey or not, BUT there are consequences for not following and obeying God's laws. It doesn't matter whether or not you believe. God is still there. He is not going anywhere. We can run but we cannot hide.
JoAnn
7 months ago
True Witness: Then how about standing next to an abortionist and watch him/her tear a baby out of a mother's womb piece by piece. No difference. They are both human beings. You're either trying to save a life or you're not. Jesus told us to go out into all nations and spread the gospel. Or, as you say, "force" His creed on others. Whether abortion is legal or not, it is still immoral, a great evil and a grievous sin to support it. I know Jesus weeps for every baby that is sent to its death because a mother thinks it is "inconvenient." You would not be judging, you would be doing God's will. By voting for Obama, you might as well be performing abortions yourself. God bless.
True Witness
7 months ago
Mac asks: If you saw someone next to you being attacked viciously with intent to mortally wound, would you just stand by and wait for the attacker to "resolve it" with his creator?

That is a different issue.

Some argue a fetus is not a being. We catholics differ in that belief. And that is why I say it is the aborters belief and her conscience that dictates what she will do with her unwanted pregnancy (and I will not judge, least I be judged, and leave her and her creator to resolve the matter). Is best for her to do what she will do anyway using good health care, than abolishing the abortion law and have her using coat hangers to get rid of the fetus.

If a human being is being violently attacked, I would whatever needs to be done to help the victim, of course.
True Witness
7 months ago
J. Bob

Remember that lying is a sin. You are not saying the truth regarding the president mandates abortions, ie., HHS .

Because others may impose the creed on me, something I do not wish to endure, I will not impose my credo on others. Remember, do unto others.... Etc.

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