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She stated that the best way to prevent abortion was to reduce unwanted pregnancies, which is best done through contraception according to her.

When reminded that her church, the Catholic Church, is against contraception, she openly admitted she knows and that it doesn’t matter. She also openly admitted that sometimes abortion is necessary and she doesn’t always agree with her Church or political party.

I leave it to canonists, and I am sure they will weigh in, but it seems like this is a public profession of such that could trigger a Canon 915 related denial of communion. Presuming that her Bishop has, or will, counsel the Senator and she refuses to publicly recant her pro-abortion positions, it would seem that would constitute obstinately manifesting in grave sin given her position as a member of the United States Senate.

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What a load of Bovine Excrement!

I am sure she tipped Planned Parenthood and NARAL ahead of time that she was giving this speech to try and trick us ignernt red-staters into voting for baby-killers. Otherwise, there might have been a decline in donations to her Presidential campaign (upcoming). After all Planned Parenthood would likely go out of business if abortions were safe and rare. Neither of which would be true today. PP makes a significant amount of money providing executions of babies in utero and partially out of utero.

Safe? When half the patients involved in a procedure die?

Rare? When it would mean going out of business?

Common ground? What’s the common ground between these two positions?

1. Abortion at any time you want. And that is what safe, legal and rare means. You can have it any time you want. Theoretically, we hope you don’t but will support you wholeheartedly if you do and maybe even do it anyway if you change your mind in the middle right before it’s too late.

2. No abortion. Ever. Mind you this does not include removal of ectopic pregnancies where the intent is to save the mother’s life and the resulting death is an unintended consequence, or similar circumstances.

Waiting….

Waiting….

Waiting….

Waiting….

(sound of crickets chirping)

The post Hillary Is An Idiot appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

So what’s the prognosis? Well, Specter’s promotion to Chairman of the Judiciary committee looks to be in doubt at least a little. All those RSY(tm) folks out there are trying to launch a grass-roots campaign to deny him the slot. Personally, I think he should not get it, but probably will. Unfortunately.

In the meantime, there’s a lot of Dems out there saying some nutty stuff. I believe Maureen Dowd or Paul Krugman was the one who said President Bush leads a group of America Haters.

Michael Moore is pleading with Dems to not commit suicide. Isn’t that a violation of their rights Michael?

X42 (That’s the most recent previous occupant of the Oval Office. Can’t bring myself to type it.) has told the Dems to shut up and stop whining. Wish he was that wise when HE was in office.

Overall there’s a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Liberals, and by that I mean the Professional Liberals(tm) that work at it for a living, are totally flabbergasted that anyone with a brain could not vote for them and their kind. Therefore all us RSY(tm) folks are idiots. Makes sense to me…

So what is my Catholic spin on this?

Well, the forces of EVIL were dealt a serious blow on Tuesday. It will be significantly more likely that there will be at least 3 more conservative leaning Justices on the Supreme Court. Possibly 4. That will be enough to overturn Roe v. Wade if a case can be brought to the Court. Standing in the way will be every Professional Liberal(tm) in the country from NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Catholics for a Free Choice on down to the MSM. It will take a heck of a lot of courage to get all these men/women onto the Court and a case brought forth. But it MUST be done. We have been handed an opportunity that doesn’t come around often. We can literally save millions of lives that would have otherwise died had Kerry won.

Additionally, I hope to see the war on terror proceed apace and successfully. I believe that there is enough evidence that does link Saddam Hussein to terrorists. Things like the training camp with the 737 on the ground where men trained on how to take over a plane with KNIVES AND BOXCUTTERS. There there are the meetings between the Hussein regime and 9/11 hijackers prior to the attack. While we haven’t found massive stockpiles of WMD’s we HAVE found rockets and other projectiles that were capable of being or WERE LOADED with Sarin gas and other chemical weapons. Each one would have capable of killing 10s of thousands of people in an urban setting. There is also some evidence that WMDs that did exist were taken to Syria prior to the war, possibly aided by Russia. Add to that the defiance of UN resolution after resolution and his internal terror programs, rape rooms, mass graves and other atrocities and I don’t see how we could not do this. What went on in Bosnia was not as bad as this and yet we “had” to go there. Why is one different than the other?

Domestically, I hope that we get the budget back into balance or at least on track. People forget that we have fought two regional wars back to back and had a HUGE hit on our economy prior to that. We are helping to rebuild these countries so that they don’t stay homes to terrorists. We lost 1,000,000 jobs in the 3 months right after 9/11 and were still dealing with a recession that started in the previous administration. That we still have an unemployment rate at 5.5% is astounding to me. We have ecoonomic growth in the 3.5% range quarterly.

What does that mean from a Catholic perspective?

Well, if President Bush can spend some more time refining the compassionate conservative paradigm and promoting faith-based initiatives, I would be ecstatic. I believe that these are more authentic ways of promoting Catholic social doctrine than throwing tax dollars at large, unresponsive, bloated, inefficient bureaucracies. I believe that the more compassionate and proper response to poverty and hunger is to help people get out of those situations, rather than shove money at them that also requires them to stay in those situations. There is no compassion in creating a permanent underclass that is paid for by tax dollars. That is NOT mercy.

I believe that I have the duty to help others as to my ability and maybe even more. But it is a violation of my rights and free will to take from me forcibly to create that permanent underclass. If what the government does socially does no good, then it is wrong to do it. We should be finding a way of making the poor and hungry and sick able to take care of themselves and therefore to take care of others. Christ always put a requirement on people when He helped them. Often it was to go and sin no more. Or to go and tell no one.

Which is harder? To go and tell no one or to sin no more? Or to help someone raise themselve’s from poverty?

The post Post Election Stuff appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

I believe that when you respect life from the beginning, that is at conception, you will have a better chance at making good decisions.

Why is that, Fric?

Because that person will have a more properly formed conscience. Note that I am not saying a perfectly formed conscience. Nor am I saying that this will guarantee that a person will make the morally and ethically correct decision every single time. I am saying that this will better prepare a person to make those decisions than someone who has little or no respect for human life as God’s own creation.

Let’s look at the the words of Christ and the 10 Commandments. When asked Christ said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord you God with all your heart mind and strength. The second greatest was to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Then we have the Thou Shalt not Covet commandments. The things not to covet? Thy neighor’s wife and thy neighbor’s goods. As Catholics we separate these into the 9th and 10th commandments for a specific reason. While both are about wanting what another has that you do not, the subjects of the coveting are totally different.

Coveting goods is about greed and envy. It is about being concerned with the things of the world. Coveting people is about dehumanizing them and turning them into objects. This is a huge slap at the dignity of all men and how the universe is ordered. It turns the world upside down. It puts you at the top of the heap and orders creation to satisfy you. God is replaced by you whether you realize it or not. It makes all people, not just the one coveted, into objects created to satiate your desires for comfort, wealth, sex and anything else you desire. You may not act on all of these desires or even recognize them, but they will be evident in how you conduct yourself.

So, Fric, what does this have to do with the election?

Glad you asked! This mindset is the one that says that life begins at whatever point the courts say, no matter what common sense and science tells us. It tells us that because science can do a thing, it should. So we get a push to create clones of humans. And for what purpose? Is the traditional way of creating humans going out of fashion? Considering the amount of sex that permeates the culture, I doubt it. So why create man from a petrie dish? It seems to me that the only reason is to 1. play God, 2. make replacement parts and 3. create stem cells for science. Can anyone truly make the case that it is moral to create people for the sole purpose of destroying them?

And you can make the exact same argument when it comes to fetal stem cell research. Even though there has never been a single successful result of fetal stem cell research, scientists and those who see people as commodities insist that this is the only hope for people with Alzheimers and other diseases. Never mind that honest scientists admit this is a lie. Never mind that adult stem cell research has shown success. Never mind that these people create babies that they call embryos, an accurate though dehumanizing term, for the sole intention to destroy them in order to do research that leads no where.

When you have this mindset or at least support these things even though you say you are “personally opposed”, what does this say about your own values and character? To me it says that you believe people have no inherent dignity or value, despite what the faith you profess to believe says. When you say that your faith is strong and very personal but that you cannot impose that faith on others, what are you really saying? I think you are saying you don’t really believe what your faith teaches you. Faith without works is dead. That seems to mean that you must live and breathe your faith. You must act on it. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Christ turns away those professing believers because they did not do their faith.

Doing one’s faith means voting and acting what you say is your conscience on all matters. It means you cannot vote to uphold abortion, gay marriage, cloning, fetal stem cell research and euthanasia. All these things are intrinsically evil and disordered. They turn God’s Will on its head and create a culture of death.

When you begin your day on the wrong side of these issues as one of the candidates does, how can I trust you to make correct decisions on anything else? Your world view is disordered from the beginning. I cannot trust you to make the correct judgement because you value things that should never be valued. I don’t care what you say you believe. I look at your actions and voting record and see what you really believe. Therefore I cannot in conscience vote for you. That would be cooperating with evil.

Mark Shea calls that party by the way, the Evil Party. He calls the other one the Stupid Party. After you get over the initial shock and or insult depending on your affiliation, you realize how correct he is. The Evil Party promotes all five of those non-negotiables as basic tenets of their beliefs. Sure they also say they are for helping the poor and the little man, etc. etc. But how can you help people by treating them as chattel and aborting them out of existence and devalueing the institution of marriage?

The Stupid Party on the other hand gives good lip service to life issues and will sometimes rise to the challenge of fighting evil. Sometimes they do a bang up job. Sometimes they give in entirely. Sometimes they fight to no avail. In the end little changes at the political level of discourse. We must change hearts and minds at the local level for that to happen. The Stupid Party also does little to reach out to the hearts and minds of those that are hurt most by the Evil Party, minorities and the poor.

I disagree with the idea that only more government programs will cure poverty and ignorance. The last 40 years of failures should convince anyone of that. I think their philosophy of a helping hand up is far superior to a helping hand out. That said, they don’t do much to really promote that because they are fearful of being called mean spirited and cruel, out to kill seniors and starve children. That is the rhetoric of the Evil Party by the way.

Does all this mean that I think the Stupid Party is above reproach and has perfect values? Of course not. But I find that the candidates of the Stupid Party value life far more than the Evil Party. And I would rather be Stupid than Evil when Christ comes again. I think I’ll have less to answer for.

The post Values and Decision Making appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

As the Election approaches, the one thing that comes to mind is that I can’t believe that it’s as close as it seems to be. One candidate seems to exude confidence, leadership, character and morality. The other exudes a sense of desperation, pandering, dishonesty, opportunism, globalism, indifference to to his faith’s basic tenets and a general lack of direction.

I think you know which is which. While the first candidate has done much I agree with, he’s also done some things I don’t like. A lot. But overall, I trust him to do the right thing with conviction and certitude. The other guy has done pretty much NOTHING I agree with. And even when he has taken stands I might agree with they are trumped by opposite positions he has taken before and after on these positions. I don’t know where he really stands at any given time. The only thing I can say is that I think he would make the wrong decisions almost every time when it gets down to crunch time.

I go with character and trust every time.

The post The Election appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

In addition, the role of bloggers in Rathergate is discussed, including in an article about the possibilities of additional “campaign finance” reform that is sure to surface in the wake of Swiftvets. If the MSM and lefties (and McCain) get their way, the day is soon coming when all we’ll get from the MSM is what a candidate wants us to hear. No private citizen or group will get any voice beyond a blog or website (and you can bet those will be under the scope next) in political campaigns.

Perhaps a bit off topic, but blogging has definitely arrived, and its fun to be a part of this world shaking little trend, even in this modest way.

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OK. What to say here? Are we to be glad to see a pro-abortion governor gone? Or are we saddened to see what heart-ache and pain this is going to cause this man’s wife and children?

He had to come out and step down because it was going to cause conflicts for the state government? Was someone going to blackmail him? If so, was there something else going on here?

This is why the life issues are so important. This is why being chaste according to your status is so important.

On the other hand, I can also see some made for cable movies made about this man and the courageous choice he has made. All for the glory of homosexuality, never mind if that is why he came out or if he stays with his family. He will become an icon of the left most likely.

The post NJ Governor Quits and Comes Out of the Closet appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

Apparently Johnny-boy thinks a religious advisor who insults Christians is OK. Personally, I doubt it matters to people of deep, traditional (read historic and conservative) faith anyway, as they aren’t likely to vote for a pro-abort candidate.

Of course this is only marginally better than his previous choice (also courtesy of NM). This one was a real piece of work… Choice quote from that article:

“When in college, Mara was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports the convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism. After graduating, Mara spoke at rallies held by ACT-UP, the anti-Catholic group that disrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989 by spitting the Eucharist on the floor.”

It really shows how much he understands religion and the role it plays, doesn’t it?

The post Kerry Picks Anti-“Under God” Religion Advisor appeared first on CatholicManiacs.

Every liberal, pro-abort, big-government, socialist Democrat in America can go to any church in the country and make speeches at Sunday services to promote their campaigns.

Why anyone should find this incongruous I don’t know…

A few brave Catholic Bishops and a well-placed Cardinal or two remind people that if you hold positions contrary to the Church on certain issues, you are in a state of sin, possibly grave. Specifically when it comes to certain non-negotiables like abortion, gay “marriage”, euthanasia, human cloning and embryonic stem cell research… But mostly abortion. If you hold these contrary positions publicly and continuously by voting for these things over and over, even after being corrected, you obstinately persist in grave sin and can be denied communion. Of course if you have any integrity you should refrain from it anyway, but that’s another story.

Along comes every social liberal screaming “Separation of Church and state!!!!”

My response is…

SO!!!!!!!!

The constitution does NOT require anyone to leave their religion at the altar each Sunday. It simply requires that no laws be made by Congress (and the states as of the 14th Amendment I think it is) to establish a national (or state) church like the Church of England for instance. It also requires that no laws prohibit the free exercise of religion, which used to be understood that the state can’t persecute minority religions. As a Catholic that is important considering the severe and forgotten discrimination Catholics faced for much of this country’s history.

That said, I’d also like someone to show me a quote or comment by any Bishop or Cardinal or Pope that tells any politician how to vote. That is what these liberals are screaming about isn’t it? But I don’t see it happening. I see them telling these politicians that there are consequences to their votes and they must recognize that.

Of course to a liberal, telling them there are consequences to things they do is tantamount to telling them not to do something. They don’t like being told there are responsibilities that go along with rights and that no right is unlimited. They don’t like limits unless it’s on someone else.

Definition: A liberal is someone whose interests are not at stake at the moment.

Anyway, the thing that always annoys me the most is the hypocrisy of these guys. Dems can go preach on Sunday all day long all the time. Yet the Catholic Church can’t remind it’s own members of the rules governing this venerable 2000 year institution? Outside of Mass? Privately? Publicly? At all?

And what about this idea that the Church should be stripped of its tax-exempt status? Hello!!! Anybody seen what liberal think tanks, the unions and who knows how many non-profits do to get Democrats elected, never mind members’ opinions. What about their status?

Finally, I find it very chilling indeed that no one seems to be screaming from the rooftops about this on the civil liberties, libertarian or conservative side at all. Does no one see this attempt by non-governmental groups and individual politicians as a sly way to silence us without actually using direct government actions? When you silence the biggest one, what’s to stop these people from silencing the rest of us? There is a direct and definite movement (has been for years really) to silence any kind of thought, idea, voting, legislation and candidate that may have any kind of influence from religion. Especially Christian.

This effectively removes any devout believer from ever holding office or a position of authority.

Why?

Because no one… NO ONE… can separate their conscience from their voting or support for things. What you support shows your values and your conscience quite nicely. You can’t truly be personally opposed to something and then say others should have the right to do it when you are talking about something like abortion. If you believe abortion to be killing a baby, then how can you say you can’t force your religion on others?

Can you be personally opposed to slavery, but not want to impose that belief on others?

What about rape?

Incest?

Child molestation?

It’s simply not possible. Everyone’s conscience is formed by their belief or lackthereof in religious precepts. It’s part of what separates us from the beasts of the wild.

It seems to me that some of us are closing that gap though. Day by day. Abortion by abortion.

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