The most damning result of the poll is that Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly favor Mitt Romney by only nine percent (51 to 42). This compares with nearly a 30 point gap the other way for those who attend Mass very rarely or not at all. Why isn’t there a comparable gap against Obama by regularly practicing Catholics? This represents a colossal Catholic failure.Absolutely! A colossal failure in teaching Catholics the faith. The only reason people sitting in the pew week after week listening to scripture readings and hearing homilies can hold this position is that they have not been taught the faith. Pabulum from the pulpit cannot form correct consciences. Most Catholics believe their feelings and opinions are "conscience" and they can legitimately follow them without sin. Far from the truth!
Conscience is an act of the intellect. It is conscience that should inform and direct feelings and opinions instead of the other way around. Conscience is the "voice of truth" that must be properly formed so it conforms to the natural law and the doctrines of the Church. A sound conscience will feel guilty when guilt is appropriate for evil acts and feel morally upright when decisions are morally sound. A person who feels no guilt over committing an atrocity is a sociopath whose conscience is dead.There is an excellent booklet put out by Leaflet Missal Company that should be read by every Catholic before the election. It's called A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters by Fr. Stephen Torraco. I recommend it and urge you to order and read it and share it with your Catholic and Christian friends. Friends don't let friends make decisions that send them headlong down the road to hell without trying to put the brakes on. Pray the rosary for Obama Catholics (an oxymoron) and give them the booklet. That's a recipe for soul-saving.
There are many who are "shocked" at these particular polling results, but I wonder Why? To most people, there is NO discernible difference between Obama White and Obama Black. They are both anti-Catholic, pro-abortion and pro-sodomy. The fault should lie directly with the GOP who seem to have Democrats in Republican Sheep's Clothing infiltrators who keep giving us Democrats with an "R" as a party. The Democrats NEVER compromise--Republicans EXPECT compromise aka lukewarmness. It's time to support a new party as has been done in this country's past. Until we take our vote elsewhere, as we do with boycotts, the GOP will keep sending us candidates that we cannot vote for, in good conscience. The Lesser of Two Evils is Still Evil, and AB Lori said it best: “This is a big moment for Catholic voters to step back from their party affiliation,” said Archbishop Lori. “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”
ReplyDeletehttp://lesseroftwoevilsisstillevil.blogspot.com
The Apocalypse Of Saint John (Revelation) 15-16 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=73&ch=3&l=16#x
Not all pro-life, pro-traditional family Catholics take part in all the polls. it is impossible I get so many of them from different organizations by telephone, on line and and by snail mail. Also, many of the Catholics who voted for and are going to vote for President Obama I have found come from Catholic families that really never practiced the faith. Many come from families where the children were baptized, but the mother or father or both have had two or more marriages, so the families are so disfunctional that most in the families really do not know about or just do not believe in the teachings of the church. You can see why.
ReplyDeleteI consider myself a faithful Catholic and attend Mass more than weekly, and I also picked picked up the Bishop's citizenship guide last Sunday. If we go by Bishop Lori's guidelines, a "Good" Catholic can not vote for either candidate. However, it is our duty to vote as citizens of this great nation. I make a pro and con list for each candidate and pick the one with the most pros. In this case, it is Obama who I believe offers more for the 'least of these' than Romney. Just my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteEither candidate is "good" for us, both have shady issues .
ReplyDeleteAs a faithful Catholic I cannot vote for evil and those who embrace evil. As a US citizen it is my duty to vote and it is also a privilege !
I am Praying and my eyes are fixed on the good God.
Old Joe,
ReplyDeleteThat idea works but only if your pro and con list doesn't mix intrinsic evils and matters of prudential judgment. If you make your list with abortion and euthanasia which are incontrovertible with things like Obamacare, food stamps, etc. it's a problem and you can end up in moral cooperation with serious evils.
Here's how Fr. Toracco answers the question, "What if all the candidates from whom I have to choose are pro-abortion? Do I have to abstain from voting at all?"
Here's his answer: "Obviously, one of these candidates is going to win the election. Thus, in this dilemma, you should do your best to judge which candidate would do the least moral harm. However...you should not place a candidate who is pro-capital punishment (and anti-abortion) in the same moral category as a candidate who is pro-abortion. Faced which such a set of candidates, there would be no moral dilemma, and the clear moral obligation would be to vote for the candidate who is pro-capital punishment, not necessarily because he is pro-capital punishment, but because he is anti-abortion. (Father discussed in an earlier question why capital punishment is not an intrinsic evil according to Catholic moral doctrine.)"
Father goes on to answer the question "is it a mortal sin to vote for a pro-abortion candidate?" Here's what he says: " Except in the case in which a voter is faced with all pro-abortion candidates (in which case...he or she strives to determine which of them would cause the least damage in this regard), a candidate who promotes abortion disqualifies himself from receiving a Catholic's vote. This is because being pro-abortion cannot simply be placed alongside the candidate's other positions on Medicare and unemployment, for example; and this is because abortion is intrinsically evil and cannot be morally justified for any reason or set of circumstances."
If you do a pro-con list on intrinsic evils you come up with Obama Biden avidly favoring these intrinsic evils: abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, contraception, and same sex marriage. Obama has a record supporting all these things and is a champion of Planned Parenthood, the largest child-killing organization in the country.
Romney is a mixed bag, but Ryan is very solid on the life issues. Romney has promised to select strict constitutionalists as judges vs. Obama having a record of naming the most liberal judicial activists who all support abortion and the gay agenda.
I think the choice is pretty stark when you compare the two tickets (and the party platforms) on intrinsic evils.
Old Joe, you sound like a concerned citizen, but I hope you will compare the radical position of Obama who even favors killing the child born alive after abortion to Romney and Ryan who can be expected to support limiting funding to Planned Parenthood and signing abortion restrictions. They will clearly do less damage to the helpless than the Obama/Biden team. As for which group is harder on the poor, the last four years have hurt the poor more than any other groups, especially poor blacks.
I hope you join the 54 day rosary novena for the election. I'll be posting about it in the next day or two.
No Jeanne, "either candidate" is NOT "good for us." Obama's assault on the Church is unique and, if you look at history, frightening. If he is elected the marginalization of Christians will escalate. He is talking now about freedom of speech and religious liberty, but his actions show exactly how sincere that talk is. Read the history in the Third Reich which began with a fairly low level assault on the Church and only in the later days became serious persecution.
ReplyDeletePabulum from the pulpit is right. To the extent I can glean a point from most homilies I hear, it seems to work out to something on the order of: we need to be nicer to each other, and to ourselves. For as long as I can remember, most priests have tried to blunt the edges of the Gospel. The end result is to make the Gospel seem like no big deal.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Old Joe: the "least of these" is the unborn child. Obama is at war against the unborn child.
Thanks so much Mary Ann , and thanks for the tip on the booklet to purchase and hand out to family and friends ...a must also!
ReplyDeletePray and fasting is what is needed.
The Rosary Novena is a must .
Let us join together and pray that God will deliver us from this EVIL administration .
God Have Mercy on them and the whole world .
You're right, Jeanne, prayer and fasting are musts! They are the power that undergirds all our efforts. May God protect us from all evil and restore America to a land that gives glory to God.
ReplyDeleteThe failure both as Catholic and as citizens is the same. It is the failure to be adequately informed. There is a huge difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on both faith and citizenship issues. Romney is far from ideal but it is also far better than Obama.
ReplyDeleteThose who believe otherwise should see 2016 Obama's America and reflect on the fact that Dinesh D'Souza pulled his punches. They should also reflect on Mitt Romney's charitable giving and his family and contrast that too with Obama.
Obama is overtly anti-American and Romney is overtly pro-American. Obama is in favor not only of partial birth abortion but of killing children who have been born alive after a botched abortion. He claims to be a Christian but shows no sign of actually being one instead he celebrates Islamic holidays and speaks Islamic Arabic greetings to Islamic gatherings.
Those are only a couple of things to think about. I will have no problem whatsoever voting for Romney although I could wish for a more Conservative candidate.
The Booklets have by ordered .
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting that information , I will be passing them out to family and friends !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R4KtYVF-74&feature=youtu.be
ReplyDeleteKeyes to the Republic Vol. 1 President Obama and Mitt Romney
I agree with Alan Keyes to a point. Romney stands for some of the same things, but is not as radically committed to them. He is pro-abortion but would he force taxpayers to fund abortion? Is he committed to judges who are judicial activists? Is he committed to Planned Parenthood? Would he mandate contraception?
ReplyDeleteIn Catholic moral theology, when one has to choose between two candidates who both support intrinsic evils, it is moral to choose the one who will do the least harm. I believe a Catholic can legitimately vote for Romney on that basis. I don't think he can vote for Obama who is so extreme he supports infanticide.
Some will disagree with me on this, but I think a legitimate moral position can be made to refrain from voting in the presidential race and focusing on the other races. I will probably vote against Obama, but I will not condemn those who decide they can't vote for Romney as a legitimate alternative. On the other hand, fiscal policies that delay the collapse of the country may give us more time to repent and Romney is certainly the better choice there
I'm not crazy about Romney, but we are stuck with him as our nominee. I fear a vote for anybody else will be a vote for Obama, and we HAVE to get rid of Obama. If the 2000 elections taught us anything, it is that every vote counts.
ReplyDeleteI think these “polls” are propaganda to discourage us when we need to keep working harder. I belong to (and am very active in) Saint John the Beloved in McLean and I don’t know a single Catholic who is pro-Obama, except for the Hispanic guy who does our lawn (and who doesn’t go to Mass except for Dec 12th and Good Friday) and we aren’t going to renew his contract next season anyway.
ReplyDelete