Posted on 01/04/2012 2:38:17 PM PST by pgyanke
Dear Father,
I get my dander up when the "social justice" crowd roars. There is a place for it to be sure (we can't pick and choose which parts of our faith to follow), but some of this support comes at the expense of the bigger picture. I follow the Holy Father's words on this:
"While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."-- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (before he was Pope Benedict XVI)
Unfortunately, much of our Church in America (from leaders to lay) support the Democratic Party for its supposed support for "the working man" while ignoring its outright support (in its platform) for three of the five intrinsic policy evils (abortion, homosexual marriage and embryonic stem cell research). I take note when our prayer intentions line up ideologically with that party's rhetoric.
Here are the prayer intentions that got my attention:
2. That there may be a renewed energy for creating a more just, humane, compassionate economy.
An economy is driven by the actions of its participants. I get very concerned when well-meaning people want the economy to be humane and compassionate... the economy is a dispassionate conduit of the fruits of labor. It should be just. It can't be compassionate. It is not a social justice mechanism. This rhetoric tends to be a code for government intervention to MAKE the economy be more humane and compassionate. Anyone with open eyes can see the results we have reaped for such wrong-headed policy decisions... $15T in debt, $1.2T in annual deficits, and an ever-increasing dependent class. It isn't humane or compassionate to drive the country into bankruptcy. In a collapse, we will be equal... but equal in misery.
Our Church absolutely rejects socialism and accepts regulated capitalism as the better alternative (Nostis et Nobiscum, Rerum Novarum, Graves de Communi Re, Notre Charge Apostolique, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, Quadragesimo Anno, Summi Pontificatus, Mater et Magistra, Deus Caritas Est). Unfortunately, recent support from the Church in America has been toward government-driven social programs (leaning toward Liberation Theology). In fact, the most openly abortion-promoting duo (Obama and Pelosi) received majority Catholic Support in the last national election! That is a failure of Church leadership to even approach the truth and teach the faithful.
"The words of the Bible and of the Church fathers rang in my ears, those sharp condemnations of shepherds who are like mute dogs; in order to avoid conflicts, they let the poison spread. Peace is not the first civic duty, and a bishop whose only concern is not to have any problems and to gloss over as many conflicts as possible is an image I find repulsive."3. That there may be renewed creativity toward finding solutions to problems concerning health care, education, immigration, and respect for all life.-- Cardinal Ratzinger
The problem with our health care system is government intervention. Government intervention is not the solution. Much like the economic argument above, the health care industry fulfills a function... until the government steps in and puts greater distance between you and your doctor. Remember... the HMOs and insurance providers the government decries were first empowered by the government. The late Ted Kennedy was quoted in the early 1990s as admitting that their intent is to break the health care system so they can step in to fix it.
You can see here that the Democrats have been trying to nationalize our health care system for more than half a century. Each time, they point out how bad it is... yet, which country's health system has been better for the last 50 years? We handle the hard cases of the world and take care of the "rich" who can afford to flee their own countries' systems. The reason for this push to socialized medicine? In 1945, an AMA pamphlet quoted V.I. Lenin in stating that socialized medicine is the keystone arch to the socialist state. Of course it would be. If you control the health decisions of every American... you control every American.
On education: we are meant to be the masters of the State, not the other way around. It is inconceivable that a people educated by the State can adequately exercise control of the State. The government has no business in local education.
I will attach a letter I wrote to the USCCB on immigration rather than repeat it here.
I realize that I am reading through the lines on these intentions. However, I have been fighting this fight for many years and I recognize the enemy's language for what it is. Whether driven by a desire for political-correctness or outright support for Democratic Party rhetoric, the result is the same. These are perilous times. Many of the ills we face in our society would not be so grave if the Church simply stood up for Her values. Instead, we couch our words in the language of those who seek our ruin. These subtle word choices are not benign and not an accident. They warp fully-formed consciences to being malleable to the messages of the culture... a culture driven by the entertainment industry and the press with the full support of the Democratic Party. If we are ever going to turn things around in this country, we will have to start in the Church with recognizing those who would weaken our resistance against the evils of our day.
Here are some quotes from recent popes on the evils of Socialism... including "moderate" Socialism.
As always, I welcome the opportunity to discuss these things with you and with our Bishop. Social change doesn't come from Right to Life marches, it comes through the ballot box. In this election year, I pray fervently that our Bishops will fully engage and teach the faith so our faith can free this country from its national nightmare.
God bless you.
WOW!
... JUST WOW!
Translate: Well done!
Excellent.
WOW!
... JUST WOW!
Translate: Well done!
Excellent. Good for you. Please do let us know of the good Father’s response.
Social justice is rooted in the fantasy of collective salvation which only results in wholesale individual damnation.
In a world where the state takes care of everyone, all begin to feel that they’re doing their part and they stop doing anything and stop thinking about their own soul.
It brings to mind a story posted earlier about a woman in a wheelchair hit by 3 different cars and none of the drivers stopped. I doubt that any of the drivers wanted to kill someone but they were more concerned with saving their own skins. I further suspect that all comforted themselves with the belief that someone else would be along shortly to help the victim.
Another issue is the wishing of “peace” to all after the Lord’s Prayer. A noble intention, but true peace is only achieved by the defeat of evil.
Ping
bttt
Excellent. Definitely succinct.
It seems to me that the Church “gave up” with the death of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. They gave up on the “culture war” (also with Vatican II).
Whittaker Chambers (ex-KGB) wrote extensively on the war between Man v. God in the 50’s in the USA and knew of the insidious Marxist ideology being put into all the institutions—particularly schools, and media, to promote “secular humanism” in the worldview of children. The Catholic Church even recognized the infiltration into Christianity with “Liberation Theology”—that evil Marxist ideology of zero.
Tolerance of evil (and sin) is evil. By bending over backwards for sinners—and not condemning the sins, for the evil that they are and do-—the Church tried to become “popular” with the masses and especially wanted media to like them. It was a “wink, wink” to sin.
This “tolerance is a virtue” comes right out of Marx and moral relativism....and the idea that “tolerance is good” is EVIL. You NEVER tolerate evil.
As the great Bonhoeffer said,
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
That being said, I like the current direction of Archbishop Timothy Dolan and the Pope. There is a need for a reawakening.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis
Evangelizing to the liberal Catholics is like trying to evangilize a protestant to catholicism. You literally have to sit them down, supply them with a reading list,make them read,
argue your points, stress your emphasis and then maybe after 3-6 months to 1 year you’ll have someone come around.
Writing letters to the USCCB what a colossal waste of time.
However the compositon of the USCCB will change to our favor in time..soon(and not a biblical ‘soon’).
Best to just plant a few seeds then move on. But as you move through life plant many seeds.
Protestant way of thinking, the culture, even historical bias(inventions), all ways of the devil, keep them from seeing the truth which is so cleverly hidden.Same with many liberal Catholics.
Very, very well said. I completely agree and think you expressed it exceedingly well. Periodically in my parish we run across this, and it deeply bothers me. I believe that those who spout the nonsense are perhaps well-intentioned, but that road is likewise well-known, isn’t it? To me, personally, it causes worry that those ill-equipped to discern the error inherent in those sorts of stuff will also fall into error.
Please, do let us know whatever, and whenever he replies.
You hit the “nail on the head”
I was in Church one Sunday and the prayer intention was as follows:
For the Fair and Equitable distribution of wealth, Lord Hear our Prayers!
My wife had to hold me down to the pew as I was about to explode!
Hmm?
We never gave up, ma’am.
Why do you think the church has been attacked over her stance on abortion, on contraception, on homosexuality, on sex out of wedlock, on divorce.
Because we resisted and continue to resist all of these.
Very good, pg. I do have one, perhaps a major quibble.
When you accept the language of the opposition, you’ve already surrendered, by accepting their assumptions and their starting point, their premise.
This language is here “social justice”! It is a propagandistic phrase, which, according to Thomas Sowell, can mean anything the speaker wants it to mean. Aren’t we all, left, right, Communist or Nazi for “social justice”?! Raise your hand if you are for “social injustice”, thank you.
Read Thomas Sowell’s musings on cosmic justice, which is what the Left and their sympathizers are atempting to achieve.
Really????????? I am talking about the empty pews in the churches and ...
the massive numbers of cafeteria catholics—the exodus after Vatican II—the “Ted Kennedy era” where those “Catholics” like Ted Kennedy were celebrated by the Church-—regardless of the evil activities and their promotion of evil in law. The leading Catholics for decades were outright Marxists and the Church looked the other way-—as at University of Notre Dame. where my son graduated-—and they promoted the “Vagina Monologues”. I wrote and complained to them for promoting such evil debasing fare—using vulgarity to refer to a woman’s body in such a vile manner-along with the promotion of pedophilia—but they continued to show it, year after year. (Very Catholic!)
No excommunication for the leading Catholics in American politics==those Marxist promoting politicians that received tons of adulation and praise their entire evil reign. The destruction that the Ted Kennedy-type Catholics did to education and our health systems, and Rule of Law is despicable—and these “people” won by a landslide with the Catholic Vote, as all the Marxists do.
This proves that the Catholic Church is negligent, ineffective, or promoting godlessness.
Just now the “Catholic” colleges are starting to really fight the popular culture-—which they celebrated for years—actually PROMOTING “secular humanism”.....just like at my son’s “Catholic” school where they were promoting vile concepts to impressionable young men and women. That very school gave Obama a platform for his evil ideology. I had another child at Boston College-—as if the Jesuits never formed and shaped outright Marxists and Atheists—I see that that school is also no different from Berkeley where another of my kids attended.
If that is NOT capitulation to the Popular Culture-—then I don’t know what is.
I am talking about the decades where the pedophilia was brushed under the rug-—this protection of “homosexuality” —to not offend the homosexual agenda-—this collapsing to APA “standards”. Not dealing with pederasty—the true elephant in the Catholic closet-—this Sandusky practice—so much a part of homosexuality which the Church has the power to expose—to protect the children from the normalization of homosexuality.
I am still waiting for the report—that report that the Catholic priests who were abusing all the boys-—that they themselves were abused by men when they were boys.....this “learned” behavior-—like in Afghanistan-—The idea that this “urge” is genetic is a ruse. The Catholic Church needs to KILL THAT IDEA—and they have the power and the resources to do it and they haven’t done it yet.
I am waiting for the Catholic Church to expose the homosexual agenda. They are the only force strong enough to do it before we end up like Ancient Greece or like Afghanistan. Time is NOW—since Jerry Brown is now starting to destroy the morality and sexual identity formation of kindergarteners as I speak.
The Church could have ended this movement 20 years ago—but they chose to not only hide the Truth-—they allowed it to get stronger and gain a toe-hold in our legal system—and now the military. If that doesn’t ruin the idea of God and God’s Design—and Natural Law Theory and the total concept of Theism—then I don’t know what does!
The Catholic Church—as most Christian Churches—have allowed the culture to become a cesspool in the name of “tolerance” and “pluralism” from the 1970’s to Pope Benedict who looks to be trying to turn the tide-—God Bless him-—but it may just be too late for America—because now evil is written into the laws.
You make a good point. Thank you.
These people didn't win in landslides and didn't do so with the Catholic vote. The Catholic vote is split down the middle (nearly 50/50 depending on the election). We're not electing evil with a landslide of Catholic votes, we're making ourselves irrelevant by not standing strong for our own values.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.