Posted on 01/25/2013 1:43:15 PM PST by marshmallow
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Forty years of legalized abortion have profoundly demoralized American society, not only weakening respect for human life but undermining marriage, parenthood and individuals' sense of duty to others, said U.S. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford.
The cardinal, a former archbishop of Denver and former head of two Vatican offices, said that the legalization of abortion was itself a result of flawed ideas about freedom deeply rooted in American history.
Cardinal Stafford, 80, spoke with Catholic News Service shortly before the Jan. 25 March for Life marking the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that lifted most legal restrictions on abortion.
He said that Roe was one of a series of cultural, social, political and legal upheavals during the 1960s and early 1970s that left him deeply disillusioned with his native land and alienated from a country that he said once offered unparalleled openness to the proclamation of the Gospel.
"I don't really feel as at home now in the United States as I did prior to the 60s," he said.
Yet those upheavals, the cardinal said, trace their origins to certain "viruses" present in American political culture from the very beginning of U.S. history, particularly the understanding of liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and implicit in other founding documents.
The 18th-century Enlightenment taught that liberty was essentially a matter of "choice between various options ... whatever the individual in his or her autonomy makes a decision for," the cardinal said, drawing a contrast with the traditional Christian teaching that freedom is realized only in pursuit of virtue.
The cardinal suggested that a flawed understanding of liberty helps explain why the U.S. government once denied the freedom and dignity of black people and American Indians, treating them as less than.....
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnews.com ...
I do too. If there was a new land I could go to in order to escape a corrupt society, as my pilgrim forefathers did, I would go. America the Great is dead. Even some kind of bloody revolution that some people envision wouldn’t restore our values. Our culture is Godless and in rapid decay.
Between abortions, Homosexuals, and atheists, there is gardly any morals left in this country.
Proof of that is the laws allowing same sex marriage to pass in many states.
What happened to straight people, who are in the majority ,voting for these sick perverts.
-— Yet those upheavals, the cardinal said, trace their origins to certain “viruses” present in American political culture from the very beginning of U.S. history, particularly the understanding of liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and implicit in other founding documents.
The 18th-century Enlightenment taught that liberty was essentially a matter of “choice between various options ... whatever the individual in his or her autonomy makes a decision for,” the cardinal said, drawing a contrast with the traditional Christian teaching that freedom is realized only in pursuit of virtue -—
This may be the most important flaw in Americanism. Americans fail to distinguish between natural rights and legal rights. No one has a God-given right to sin. The idea is a simple contradiction. But most Americans believe that they have a God-given right to “say anything I want,” even if that speech is sinful. Permitting sinful speech may result in less vice overall than its criminalization, but this defense of “free speech” is entirely different from having a God-given right to “say what I want.” This erroneous principle has led to our current state of licenciousness, from homosexual “rights” to abortion “rights.”
Everyday across America massacres of innocent children occur and our politicians shed not a tear nor raise their voices in outrage because the killings occur quietly, without the use of guns. How can this be? The politicians don’t call these evil acts murder nor do they deem them illegal. They call them abortions. Murder by any other name is still murder.
Dear Cardinal Stafford, you are a national treasure.
There will be no return, no restoration nor repair for America, whose fall is written in the blood of innocent life, day after miserable day, in the USA.
Abortion has been underwritten by everyone of us who never protested, never marched, never even called, or written, or given a dime or a damn to stop it.
Christians, conservatives and Republicans and most churches have stood mute largely, stood by idley.
And we pray for Divine Assistance to save us.
I say this for my own guilt, as I am off myself tomorrow, for the first time, to a Mass and Walk, locally.
Howling for some favorite candidate to come along is useless without sacrifice and a shift in the very ground under our feet for repentance and plenty of recompense.
Then, our prayers will be heard and we will be saved.
Sir, you need to have a heart-to-heart talk wirh your church members who are pro-abortion. There are a lot of them.
Sir, you need to have a heart-to-heart talk with your church members who are pro-abortion. There are a lot of them.
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