What some Catholics are thinking about
Tonight I attended a parish educational event on “Faithful Citizenship.” We had three speakers, one who spoke about the USCCB’s document “Faithful Citizenship,” one who spoke about the activities of the state Catholic Conference, and one who spoke about a ballot initiative on gay marriage.
There were about 40 people in attendance, admittedly a sparse turnout in a parish of almost 3,000 families. After hearing the presenters, we wrote down our questions on 3×5 cards, which were read one at a time. I thought folks might be interested in some of the questions that were asked. Since I’m pressed for time, I’m omitting the answers, but I can say that in general they hewed very closely to the ideas presented in Faithful Citizenship.
“What is the bishops’ position on immigration? I’m concerned about people who come to this country illegally.”
“Are the bishops’ concerned that the Campaign for Human Development has made donations to ACORN?”
“If both candidates in an election seem morally unacceptable, can you in good conscience abstain from voting?”
“Why do the bishops talk so much about abortion and gay rights and rarely talk about the war in Iraq or poverty.”
“Since only Congress can make laws and the President only enforces them, can’t we discount Roe v. Wade when voting for the office of President?”
“Section 38 of Faithful Citizenship states that the choices of individual voters can affect their salvation. Can the panel please comment?”
“Since the Democratic Party is a pro-choice party and abortion is an intrinsic evil, how can a Catholic support Democrats?”
Here is a link to some answers to these questions per an NCR posting:
Shortcut to: http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2213
As someone who has spent the last 20 years in behavioral health, this article resonates with me and makes much more sense than almost anything that I have seen from individual bishops who, supposedly, are our Catholic teachers.
Peter, 40 may be a small group, but the questions are pretty good. I doubt that you’d get anything like that turnout or complexity in my little parish, alas.
Hopefully the discussion was constructive/useful/engaged/all of the above. It seems to have taken place within the framework of Faithful Citizenship, but I know there are a lot of groups who are distributing alt Voter Guides, and some parishes (and bishops) are cooperating, despite the express objection of the bishops conference. They can look pretty similar, as evidenced by this NCR piece: http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2211
I haven’t seen evidence of such a push here in Brooklyn, but again, we’re probably considered lost souls.
Bill DeHaas — thank you for the link.
See my comment in the thread above.
Please note the gay mariage issue is big in California (prop *).
In Orange County, the Bishop removed a Newman chaplain who addmitted he was gay and urged folks to vote against propr 8, which would ban gay marriage there.
The Bishop has told the priest not to exervcise his faculties and has removed all support of him,
i found theis interesting as many diocese kep supporting priest sex abusers removed from ministry, but there is clearly a hard line from hierarch to priest about bucking the party line.
See also today in the Wisconsin State Journal, an open letter from catholics complainin gabout their Bishop not listening and takin ga hard line with those who disagree.
Interestingly, the article notes many catholics blaming the JPII bishops, and of course, the Bishop and his supporters firing back
See how these Christians love one another…
More of a Church imploding slowly,
We can talk about all the importan tpoints of the Gospel in politics, but behavior by the hierarchy in man yareas belies that not only in the one or two issues they push hard, but in the manner in which they treat a faithful whom I guess they see only as poor sheepies.
Bob:
It is Prop 8. Fresno County, not Orange County …. although the distinction is meaningless.
Hello Bob and Jimmy (and all),
I moved very recently to Merced, CA, quite nearby Fresno. But I did not hear about this incident until today. I wonder, might this bishop have disciplined this chaplain because the chaplain was violating a general principle that clergy should refrain from encouraging those they minister to to vote in any particular manner with regard to any candidate or ballot initiative, and not because the bishop supports Proposition 8?
Given that most hierarchs today behave like Vatican lackeys, Peter, I suspect they would not approve of their subordinates (priests) exercising independent, critical thinking and sharing same with the “sheep” (us) — at least if such judgments amount to “dissent,” “disobedience toward the Magisterium,” etc.
According to a news report, the bishop criticized his priest for scandalizing the local parish community and the whole church, and for contradicting church teaching:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14055
Frankly, I doubt there’s much scandal today — given all we’ve had to endure these past several years with revelations of episcopal coverups, secret payoffs, victim intimidation, lies, deceit, ad nauseum.
The good and holy bishop has room to talk. Yeh.