Hudson and Fournier: Catholic Countdown to Election 2102, Day 28. Joy Allen and Morally Coherent Catholics

By Deal W. Hudson & Keith A. Fournier
10/9/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Morally Coherent Catholic Voters like Joy Allen may soon become the real story of the 2012 US Presidential election

Morally coherent Catholics insist that there are moral truths which should inform our life together in every truly just and free society and fundamental human rights which must be recognized as rightfully belonging to all men and women. Catholics are not one more "interest group" which can be pandered to or push called

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Joy Allen, a Catholic from Pittsburgh, appeared Monday on Fox & Friends, telling the story of the two calls she received from the Obama campaign. Those callers -- "practicing Catholics voting for Obama" -- both read from the same script stating Obama was not pro-abortion and Planned Parenthood did not promote abortion. The callers, both women, also praised the so-called "Nuns-on-the-Bus."

But, each call ended with the following question, "How can you support a "Mormon" who does not believe in Jesus Christ?" Allen responded by saying she was supporting Mitt Romney and would never support a pro-abortion politician like President Obama. Joy Allen's story, first reported here at Catholic Online, was described by the Obama campaign as "categorically false." The question remains whether the campaign, after Monday's interview, will be challenged by the media again on these push calls.

Watch this video and make up your own mind who is telling the truth. The interviewers, understandably, are more interested in the anti-Mormon question than the misrepresentations of Obama and the Catholic faith, but it's to Allen's credit that she witnessed to the truth of her faith, clearly and emphatically. Joy Allen is a courageous and morally coherent Catholic. One cannot be a morally coherent Catholic and hold what is euphemistically called a "pro-choice" position on abortion or fail to defend true marriage and the family and society founded upon it.

Catholics will determine the outcome of this election if we act in a manner which is "morally coherent". The phrase "morally coherent" was used in an instruction released in 2002 entitled a "Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life" issued by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was directed to "the Bishops of the Catholic Church and, in a particular way, to Catholic politicians and all lay members of the faithful called to participate in the political life of democratic societies." 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. "There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called 'spiritual life', with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called 'secular' life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture. The branch, engrafted to the vine which is Christ, bears its fruit in every sphere of existence and activity."

"In fact, every area of the lay faithful's lives, as different as they are, enters into the plan of God, who desires that these very areas be the 'places in time' where the love of Christ is revealed and realized for both the glory of the Father and service of others. 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."

Insisting that the fundamental Human Right to Life be recognized in the positive or civil law of the Nation is not about engaging in single issue politics. Human rights - such as the Natural Law Right to Life - and human freedoms - such as the freedom to be born - are goods of human persons. When there is no human person to exercise them all the rhetoric extolling them is nothing but empty air and sloganeering. Nor is our position only a matter of our adherence to our religious beliefs. It is a response to the truth as 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 take innocent human life. The child in the womb is innocent human life. It is thus wrong to intentionally kill him or her through procured abortion.

The embryonic human person, the child in the womb, the disabled, the needy and the elderly are all members of our human family. We can never condone their intentional killing. It is never a moral choice but a crime, whether the positive law prosecutes it or not. Our clear opposition to the judicial manufacture of a "right" to take innocent human life in the womb must never take a back seat to any other concern in the public policy ...

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

Kasoy
7 months ago
A "must" read for all Catholics is the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). If you don't have the CCC book, you can read it at www.vatican.va (http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM). Catholics who truly want to learn the teachings of the church should read the the whole CCC. It is not enough to read the Bible and go to Sunday Mass. It's our responsibility to understand our Catholic faith.
mike robertson
7 months ago
There you go again, Catholic democrats. It is socialism led by the evil man you support which has ruined 3rd world economies and is turning us into a basket case like Greece. We need lower taxes, less government spending, leaving Constitutionally-mandated duties to the government like national defense, etc...This will help poor and middle class people like me here and around the world. We at the bottom end need for there to be more millionaires and profitable businesses. And we need those who are better off than us to do better than they are doing now. Get rid of your kindergarten-economics, Catholic democrats, which says that I need for the wealthy to be worse off in order for me to be better off.

Of course the main reasons to vote against the evil man you support is that he favors infanticide against baby girls even after they survive the initial attempt to kill them. He wants the doctors to be free to finish the job. And the evil man you support thinks he knows more about the definition of marriage than God does. If a sodomite union is marriage, so is polygamy, bigamy and incest (among consenting adults-i.e. an 18-year-old woman marrying her 45-year-old father. The bride's high school classmates could serve as maids of honor.

Here's to you, Catholic democrats and your pet social programs-I hope your share is more than thirty pieces of silver.
Tom McGuire
7 months ago
Who is the audience of these articles? I assume the majority who read your articles share your view of marriage, right to life and religious freedom. Those who do not are not convinced by your rational arguments. There are other issues. What about the issue of capitalism that Francis M Holmes raises. What about the impact of globalization on the poor especially in developing countries. Are these not issues to be considered in an election?
Missy
7 months ago
I agree with Frances. I'm getting ready to teach a homeschooling class on Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. He references many, many bible passages regarding the foolishness of borrowing money. The more you have, the more you can give. Maybe all priests & bishops can take Financial Peace as a quick course on money.
Robert Burford
7 months ago
"How can you support a Mormon who does not believe in Jesus Christ?" That part got me. I am not anti Mormon or anti Muslum. I am pro Jesus Christ and take seriously His mandate to make disciples of all nations and to love one another. You will know them by their works. Not sure if either Presidential candidate is God fearing. Obama with his attacks on religious freedom , life and marriage and Romney who does not have a clue how about working class middle america seeking entitlements and a handout. and both treat immigrants as not human. As in most elections since 1964 the choice is the least of two evils. The last Presidential candidate I liked was Jimmy Carter. He is still one of my favorite presidents because he chose to do the right thing and not the most popular, A president with guts. It cost him a second term but since being president is the most respected of all the presently living expresidents.
Frances M. Holmes
7 months ago
Unfortunately many of our priests and bishops are confused, oppose Paul Ryan's focus on getting our huge deficits in control as though it is a strike against the poor. This deficit spending is dangerous and immoral. If all of us are in the position of Greece, how can that be helpful to the poor? Our priests need training in common sense or basic economics by realizing that the free market is tied into Natural Law (See "Church and the Market" by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. and Rev. Robert Sirico's "Defending the Free Market" which proves that competition and the free market provide for the dignity of man by boosting the economy, providing dignity through work and more taxes by an increase of income to all. Many still are not on board in recognzing Obama's attack on religious liberty and ignored his numerous promises to Planned Parenthood that nothing would stand in the way for providing them unlimited abortions without parental notification and his promise of socialism through redistribution of wealth!! We are in need of good shepherds.
DarthJ
7 months ago
Virgil Goode 2012! Don't vote for the lesser of two evils, vote Goode!

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