Posted on 11/05/2008 10:42:55 AM PST by Alex Murphy
November 5, 2008 (insidecatholic.com) - When the U.S. bishops hold their annual meeting in Baltimore next week, one item on the agenda will be approval of the new Order for the Blessing of the Child in the Womb.
The blessing, according to the USCCB, "was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage in the parish prayers for and recognition of the gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society." If approved by the bishops, the Blessing of the Child in the Womb will be incorporated into the Book of Blessings.
It couldn't come at a better time.
The election of Barack Obama sets the stage for a series of potential executive and congressional acts that could remove all the limits set on abortion since the Roe v. Wade decision. The most pernicious of these is the "Freedom of Choice Act," which Obama has promised will be the first bill he signs into law as president.
It is estimated that FOCA alone would result in 125,000 more abortions a year in the United States. That figure does not take into account other measures, such as Obama's pledge not to renew the Mexico City Policy and to repeal the Hyde amendment. As a result of Obama's victory, there will not only be hundreds of thousands of additional abortions, but American taxpayers will be paying for them.
Polls of Catholic voters prior to the election suggested that Obama might win a majority of self-identified Catholic voters. A more significant measure of Obama's Catholic support will be the percentage of regular Mass-attending Catholics who voted for him.
But regardless of the final statistics, it is clear that the Obama-Biden ticket received substantial help from Catholics working for parishes and chanceries, as well as a number of high-profile Catholic politicians and jurists. They successfully promoted the flaws of "Faithful Citizenship" to Catholics nationwide, neutralizing any advantage the Church's pro-life and pro-marriage teachings might offer to McCain-Palin.
"Faithful Citizenship" stated that, under certain circumstances, a Catholic could in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights for "other grave reasons" as long as they do not intend to support that position (34-35).
It's a strange argument that allows Catholics to send a politician with an undeniably extreme abortion record into the Oval Office and yet somehow bear no responsibility for what happens to unborn children as a result. One can only wonder what "grave reasons" the bishops could have had in mind that would outweigh the 4,000 unborn children who are aborted each day.
Many bishops -- including Bishops Vann, Farrell, Vasa, Martino, and Chaput -- stepped forward in the last months to correct misinterpretations of "Faithful Citizenship," but it was too late. History will show that Catholics helped to vote into office a president whose record contradicts our most fundamental moral belief -- the sanctity of human life.
When the bishops meet next week and approve the Blessing of the Child in the Womb, just as important will be the steps they take in convincing the president-elect to change his mind about the Freedom of Choice Act.
Change, after all, can be a good thing.
For many Catholics, the most important letter after “C” for Catholic is “D” for Democrat, and I don’t think we can change their minds. For many, the “D” even trumps the “C”.
Like I asked before...how many millions of Catholics voted for this bastard?
Dear God they should be haning their heads in shame.
Frankly, any Catholic that voted for hussein obama can kiss my fuzzy arse....dumbasses......hope your union job was worth it....
I don’t consider anybody in my “Catholic” family Catholic, if Catholic means you can only have one master.
And there are a lot more liberal “Catholics” than my family.
I wish the fake Catholics would leave the church.
Show me just one Catholic bishop who will speak up against coveting your neighbors’ goods. That is why Catholics ignored the Bishops on abortion. They know abortion is wrong but overlooked the Dems on that point because those same politicians pandered to their covetousness. Same for protestants and evangelical pastors, leaders and activists. American politics and government at all levels is driven by government-mediated coveting. Until the Church takes a stand against this we can expect to sink deeper and deper into socialism and, oh yeah, abortion.
75% McCain, 25% Obama - Evangelicals*
54% McCain, 44% Obama - Weekly church-goers
51% McCain, 49% Obama - White Catholics*
45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholics
38% McCain, 61% Obama - Occasional churchgoers
21% McCain, 78% Obama - American Jews
* Note that Fox News' demographic breakdown lists White Catholics as 52% McCain, 47% Obama, agrees with Evangelicals as 75% McCain but does not provide a percentage of Evangelicals supporting Obama, and does not give numbers for any other groups.
Cafeteria Catholics....they pick and choose which doctrines they want to follow. If the candidate has a (D) next to their name, they will for him, even if he is in favor of ugly sinful things.
There's a good chunck of mass-going Catholics that are Democrates. I'm sure most of their children aren't practicing at all since there is nothing distinguishing their parents from the prevailing culture.
I’m having a difficult time separating my faith from the culture. It’s hard to go to Mass and know that a large percentage of those hypocrits voted for Obama and you know, it wasn’t even because of their wish for the common good, i.e., peace and justice - but because they are comfortable with the Joe Biden argument - personally opposed to abortion yadayada yada.
Early last night on Fox, 3 large groups of voters in Ohio were analyzed as to how they were voting.
Evangelicals broke convincing for McCain versus those in favor of Obama. I don’t recall these figures clearly, but I believe Obama only netted around 36 percent with this group.
The Unions was sort of the reverse of that ratio but in considering the Unions, that still isn’t that awful.
But Catholics in Ohio, the percentage I took note of was about 52 percent for McCain, 48 percent for Obama. Close to equal.
Yes, consideration should be taken as to how to deal with these Catholics. They should not be permitted to remain in the Church as far as I am concerned.
By the way, Ohio is home to the famous Franciscan University in Steubenville (birthplace of Dean Martin as well). I’d hope that University supported McCain.
so HALF of the Catholics tossed out the abortion issue and voted for the “free-stuff” kind of guy.
Nice. THEY should be proud! (makes me very tired...I can’t believe they have no values...and can’t imaginge how we fix it.)
Huh! I think I read the exact opposite, that catholics went for Obama big time in Pa. I hope you are right. But how many more might have voted life if ol’ Catholic Scranton Joe was named as excommunicated for his disgusting actions? I bet that would’ve been a millstone around Obama’a neck. Shame on the bishops.
Freegards
I feel like we’re the sinning Jewish nation in Old Testament times.
I am a traditional Catholic. There is not now, and never could there ever have been a possibility that I would give my vote to a supporter of abortion, no matter the other issues. The sanctity of human life is the paramount issue that trumps all others by such a height as to be insurmountable under any circumstance.
“Catholics” who support pro-abortion candidates ARE NOT CATHOLICS!!! They are heretics and apostates... always the worst enemies of the Church. They may think themselves Catholic, but nothing could be further from the truth. They are aiding and abetting the devil, and doing so with their full intellect and free will. They are thus culpable to grave sin… and suffer automatic excommunication from the Church.
These impostures are not now, nor have they ever been considered in communion with the Catholic Church. Thus, if they receive Holy Communion, then they do so sacrilegiously. They are guilty of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
I feel a powerful sadness when I run into a fellow church goer who lets it be known that they are a Democrat, which is often.
Hopefully, the bishops will ask all those who voted for the 0bamination to stand at next Sunday’s Masses - then excommunicate the lot of them publicly!
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