and kill the innocent child. They now use the police power of the State to secure this fictional "right." Is reaching into the first sanctuary of the human race and killing the first immigrants, the first refugees, properly called "progressive"?   

Defending the intentional killing of children in the womb at any time and for any reason is grounded in a counterfeit notion of "freedom" as a raw power over those who are vulnerable and not wanted. Those who defend this practice are not "progressives", in any proper sense of the word, they are barbarians.

2) Marriage, Family and Society

Some within the movement currently called "progressive" are committed to a future where homosexual sexual practices are considered morally equivalent to the sexual expression of marital love between a man and a woman and the positive law enforces the equivalency.  Is that really "progressive"?

The positive law of the Nation, under their agenda, will force us to call to be a marriage what can never be a marriage - or face the punitive police power of the State. They want homosexual relationships, incapable of achieving the ends of marriage, to be given the same legal status as a marriage. The new Orwellian "newspeak" surrounding this campaign calls it supporting the "freedom to marry", when it is in reality, opposing marriage.

Marriage is not simply a "religious" construct.  The Natural Law reveals - and the cross cultural history of civilization affirms - that marriage is between a man and a woman, open to children and intended for life. Marriage is the foundation for the family which is the privileged place for the formation of virtue and character in children, our future citizens. The family is the first society, first economy, first school, first civilizing and mediating institution and first government. Defending true and authentic marriage between a man and a woman is defending the common good of society.

Added to all of this, there is a game plan: make defending marriage sound "religious" and then argue that such "religious" positions have no place in public policy. However, marriage as between one man and one woman is not only a "religious" position. It is an objective and ontological truth which cannot be changed by changing the definition of a word and then using the police power of the State to force us all to bend the knee to the new definition. To confine marriage to heterosexual couples is not discriminatory. Homosexual couples cannot bring into existence what marriage intends by its very definition.

3) Religious Freedom

We close by reminding our readers of the policy concern which strikes at the very heart of the mission of our Church and our participation in it, no matter our state in life or vocation, religious freedom. In May of 2011, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences gathered in Rome for its 17th annual plenary session. Its theme was "Universal Rights in a World of Diversity - The Case of Religious Freedom". The gathering reflected the deep concerns the Holy See has repeatedly expressed over growing threats to the fundamental human right to Religious Freedom.

Pope Benedict XVI told the Pontifical Academy, "Since man enjoys the capacity for a free personal choice in truth, and since God expects of man a free response to his call, the right to religious freedom should be viewed as innate to the fundamental dignity of every human person, in keeping with the innate openness of the human heart to God. In fact, authentic freedom of religion will permit the human person to attain fulfillment and will thus contribute to the common good of society."

"Aware of the developments in culture and society, the Second Vatican Council proposed a renewed anthropological foundation to religious freedom. The Council Fathers stated that all people are "impelled by nature and also bound by our moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth"

Only months into his pontificate, in December of 2005, the Pope told the Roman Curia: "The Second Vatican Council, recognizing and making its own an essential principle of the modern State with the Decree on Religious Freedom, has recovered the deepest patrimony of the Church. By so doing she can be conscious of being in full harmony with the teaching of Jesus himself (cf. Mt 22: 21), as well as with the Church of the martyrs of all time."

"The ancient Church naturally prayed for the emperors and political leaders out of duty (cf. I Tm 2: 2); but while she prayed for the emperors, she refused to worship them and thereby clearly rejected the religion of the State. The martyrs of the early Church died for their faith in that God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one's own faith - a profession that no State can impose but which, ...
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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: catholic Vote, progress, progressive, Faithful citizenship, HHS Mandate, Pro-Life, pro-Marriage, pro-Freedom, Religious Liberty, Religious Freedom, Deal W Hudson, Keith A Fournier

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