Catholic clergy and their puzzling support for liberal parties and candidates

Catholic clergy and their puzzling support for liberal parties and candidates...

"Your country, under the label of liberalism, rationalism, humanism, all manners of fallacy, has now committed the most abominable of acts! Justice, law, discipline are being replaced by all manners of evil, permissiveness, loss of knowledge of sin, debauchery . . . a true picture of Sodom and Gomorrha!" - Our Lady of the Roses, March 18, 1976

LifeSiteNews.com reported on August 8, 2005:

Recent U.S. and Canadian elections have brought the issue of the involvement of the Catholic Church in politics to the forefront, most notably the question of whether and under what circumstances stubbornly pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be denied Communion.

While a few heroic bishops such as Canada’s Bishop Fred Henry and US Bishop Raymond Burke have taken clear stands in saying they would refuse communion to certain politicians, the majority have remained non-committal or even stated outright that they would not refuse communion to anyone. Not surprisingly this has sent a mixed message to the faithful. Despite clearly worded directives coming from the Vatican this conflict is far from over, especially given the canonical complexity of the issue and the newness of the ground being tread.

Unfortunately this complexity (which is often overstated), combined with the rhetorical ferocity of the debate, has resulted in the obscuring of a more basic underlying issue – the systemic reluctance of seemingly most, although not all, U.S. and Canadian priests and bishops to make the life and family issues a high priority, to take consistently strong stands on them in the public sphere, and to exhort the faithful to inform themselves and vote for life before party affiliation.

A common refrain heard from faithful Catholics is that life issues such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research are under-emphasized in many dioceses and parishes; many pro-lifers complain that they have encountered uncooperative indifference and even overt hostility from pastors when they have sought to distribute material simply identifying the stances of candidates on pro-life issues.

The reasons for this reluctance are myriad. In many cases the pastor expresses concern that by allowing the distribution of politically oriented materials he will face the heavy, even ruthless hand of the bishop or bureaucrats in the diocesan central office or chancery. On a diocesan level, it may be that some Bishops fear losing their tax exemption on land and assets if they are viewed as offending powerful ‘Catholic’ politicians or becoming too politically outspoken. Perhaps the most obvious explanation, however, is a certain liberal bias in much of the U.S. and Canadian Catholic hierarchy, that is, the bishops and cardinals and their bureaucrats. It is an especially top down phenomena, depriving Catholic laity of desperately needed religious leadership.

It is no secret that historically Catholics in Canada have tended to support the Liberal party, while in the U.S. they have been Democratic supporters. Yet as both these parties have become increasingly anti-life and anti-family, historical allegiances can no longer qualify as informed Catholic voting. Catholicism is in reality party and politics blind as successive Pope's and other faithful Catholic leaders have clearly shown. Unfortunately, on the issue of political allegiances, North America's Catholic leaders and bureaucrats often put to second place their first calling to evangelise and proclaim truth.

A recent survey published by The Illinois Leader on the voting patterns of Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago sheds some light on the issue. In the past four primaries Catholic priests who voted, voted approximately 4 to 1 in favour of the Democrat party. This is not entirely surprising since Democrats have dominated Chicago politics for most of the 20th century. While these numbers vary throughout the country, the strength of the affiliation reveals that the frequently used excuse by pastors for not getting involved – they don’t want to take sides or be viewed as partisan – is often a convenient out from requests to allow material that will undermine their favoured candidate who is poor on Catholic moral issues.

In his article, Party Politics and the Priesthood, Eugene Diamond states that, “Some pastors and bishops express the concern that distributing pro-life educational material will put their tax-exempt status at risk. Such a position fails to distinguish between voter education and electioneering.” There are many well-researched voting records which “scrupulously abstain from endorsing candidates from either party but rather allow the voter to draw his own conclusion from the record.”

"Voters are free to elect whom they choose,” said the Rev. Father Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life. “But to be free, one has to be informed of the implications of one's choice, including the moral and spiritual implications. It is our mission, as spiritual leaders, to instruct them on the moral principles that should inform their decisions." The facts cry out that this mission is not being carried out.

Mr. Diamond contends that, “It would be simplistic and unwarranted, of course, to attempt to identify the policies and platforms of a particular political party with the overall teaching of the Catholic Church of the United Stated or with the positions of the Magisterium on important moral issues. Nevertheless, a published resume of congressional voting records leaves no doubt that party affiliation strongly influences one’s votes.” In the same article Mr. Diamond references this resume: “Those with 100% pro-life records consisted of 156 Republicans (86%) and 25 Democrats (14%). Among those voting consistently anti-life were 175 Democrats (92%) and 14 Republicans (8%).”

In Canada, a strong majority of Catholic Liberal Members of Parliament have supported pro-abortion and other anti-life, anti-family federal policies. Catholic Insight magazine reported that 4 out of 5 Catholic MPs, most of whom are Liberals, voted in favour of the government’s recently passed same-sex ‘marriage’ bill. The small number of Conservative Party Catholic MPs all voted against the bill. All NDP Catholic MPs supported same-sex ‘marriage’. All Catholic Prime Ministers since Pierre Trudeau, to varying degrees, have for the past few decades, cleared the way for sustained attacks on life and family by the federal government.

These numbers are especially shameful taking into consideration that many of these pro-abortion politicians were elected in districts with a strong Catholic presence. It is no longer possible to ignore the reality that while some pastors and churches have been courageous, the majority of pastors and churches have been failing in their responsibility to educate and exhort the faithful, while the faithful themselves have failed to encourage politicians and pastors to take stronger stands for life.

Now, more than ever, there is seen to be a severe need for inspired, prophetic bishops and priests to lead their faithful courageously but also to lead their nations away from the deadly path governments have been taking them. There is a need for religious leaders to put the defence of life and family before political affiliation, monetary concerns, public reputation and the trendy, lib-left ‘social justice’ issues that church leaders have tended to focus on since the 60s.

See related articles...

Priests Target Abortion Rights Pols
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/33/story_3365_1.htm...

Party Politics and the Priesthood
http://www.ignatius.com/magazines/hprweb/diamond.h...

"And I repeat again to all clergy in My Son's House: you shall not rationalize sin. Abortion is murder, and murder condemns you to hell without repentance!" - Our Lady of the Roses, November 20, 1979

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D23 - Abortion PDF
D143 - Humanism PDF
D144 - Modernism PDF
D193 - Turn back: You are on the wrong road PDF
D225 - Final Warning to the Clergy PDF
D226 - Many mitres are on the road to hell PDF

Articles...

Bishop Raymond Burke tells pro-abortion politicians they will be denied Holy Communion
https://www.tldm.org/news6/bishopburke.htm

Catholics who vote pro-abortion commit a mortal sin
https://www.tldm.org/News6/VotingPro-ChoiceJohnKerry.htm

Archbishop Burke: voting for pro-abortion candidates is a grave sin
https://www.tldm.org/news6/Burke3.htm

Bishop Galeone: Can a Catholic politician be pro-choice?
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Galeone.htm

Abortion and voting: Bishop Myers clarifies "proportional reasons": there aren't any
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Myers.htm

Bishop Gracida twelve-step program for dealing with pro-abortion "Catholics"
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Gracida.htm

Even elimination of poverty cannot justify one abortion, says Bishop Sheridan
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Sheridan3.htm

We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy. Also, email or send this web page to the news media and as many people as possible.

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