Musings of a Catholic Convert

Please vote with a properly formed conscience.  A properly formed conscience KNOWS that the most fundamental human social issue is the right to LIVE.  No other issue matters as much.  Please recognize this.  Do you need help understanding what "pro choice means"?  Please watch the video.

 An Appeal to Our Priests: Download
 A Plea for Catholic Bishops: Download
 A Plea to All Christians: Download

I hate to criticize McCain.  I know his voting record for life issues is leagues better than Obama's.  However, I NEVER EVER hear him or Governor Palin speak out against abortion.  It does not come up in debates.  It is not even on the "issues" page of John McCain's website.  Why not?  

I wrote the McCain-Palin campaign and asked why, and I've yet to receive a response.  You know, with so little time left before the vote, I don't understand why McCain doesn't go after the Christian voting bloc.  Does his campaign assume they have it all wrapped up?  Goodness, people!  Don't you know what happens when you assume?  

This is one of the most important votes in several decades and we cannot afford to put a man in office who will not fight for the unborn.  No foreign policy will ever work out unless the domestic security of our most helpless citizens, namely the unborn, are protected.  I appreciate the stance on strict interpreters of the constitution as judicial appointments.  Great.  But please speak out against the atrocities of the abortion industry and the culture of death in the US.  Call it what it is - murder.  Remind people, often swayed by slick speech and a clean face, that the "choice" in pro-choice is the decision to KILL a living innocent human being.  Remind them that we do not have the right to kill at will.  Stand for life.  We will stand with you.  We won't abandon you.  Please speak out.  

Before you jump to any conclusions, I was not abused as a child, nor have I ever abused a child.  Let's just set that record straight.  I do know a few people who were abused as children, but that's not why I leave.  To be honest, there is no one thing that makes me leave.  No abuse in my past, no abuse in my family, never talked with anybody about their past abuse, no one thing that I can think of, no "trigger".  Anytime I hear about a child being abducted, or hurt, or aborted, or abandoned, or neglected, I can't just sit there and listen.

I want to vomit.

I want to weep.

I want to get the images out of my mind.

I ache all over.

I leave the room if I can.

I can't get them out of my mind.

I pray. 

Depending when this occurs, this pattern continues until I fall asleep from exhaustion.  I'm there right now.  That's why I'm typing this.  What set me off?  Several things actually, but we're in this 40 days of prayer and fasting to put an end to abortion and I'm just bombarded with emails and articles.  Nothing wrong with that.  I'm just especially sensitive.  I should be sensitive to the horror of abortion, right?  Duh!  Of course.  But it's more than that for me.  It's the reason why I can't eat (and I love to eat) or sleep.  It has to stop.  Abortion and abuse have to end, not so I can sleep at night, but because it is an atrocity.  

Every day I pray for an end to abortion, euthanasia, abuse and neglect.  I see the faces of the tiny babies, the children, the spouses, the innocent victims.  I hear them crying.  I see them crying, screaming, sobbing.  I pray more.

God change the hearts of these wicked people.  Don't let them hurt someone again.  Comfort the afflicted.  Have mercy on the souls of those innocents.  Protect my children.  Give my country leaders who understand the dignity of the human person FULLY and not just some socio-economic buzz words.  Change hearts.  End this holocaust.  Open the eyes of voters to see how critical the right to life is.  Guide them beyond the media hype and the constant equivocation that would make it seem abortion and life issues are just another political platform.  God PLEASE save those babies.  Save those embryos in the labs.  Don't let those lives be snuffed out in the name of scientific advancement.  God, please change our hearts as your creation.  Renew in us a wonder and reverence for our creation in YOUR image.  Don't let the abuser rest at night or day.  Don't let the abortion supporter sleep at night.  Don't let any of them have rest.  Bring to their mind the gravity of their sin.  Weigh it so heavily on their heart and mind that they are forced to reckon with it.  Drive them to their knees.  For it is then that they will turn to you, broken and repentant.  I know you take no pleasure in seeing them hurt, but that you rejoice in their return to you and to the dignity of your creation.  Only you can change them.  I'm just one guy.  I'm too scared to do a lot of things, but I pray because I know you listen.  For those who have sinned against you, Lord, myself included, show us your great mercy.  Remind us that we are never beyond the reach of your grace, that our ability to sin is not greater than your ability to forgive us.  Teach us repentance, guide us in pennance, restore us.  God have mercy on us all, especially on those who cannot speak up for themselves.

Will you pray with me?  Will you help?  It has to stop.  We can't ignore the horrors all around us.  We need to pray.  We need to fast.  We need to speak out.  Please take time, even now if you can, and pray to end abortion in this country.  Pray for an end to abuse.  Don't know how to pray?  Just tell God.  He's listening.  He listens to me when I'm eloquent and when I'm babbling.  I know He'll listen to you as well.  

Excellencies,

We, the Catholics in the United States of America, need you now more than ever.  We are in need of your shepherding and your teaching.  We are in need of clarity regarding social evils.  We are in need of clarity regarding our social and political duties as faithful citizens.  We are in need of a properly formed conscience.  We can't do it on our own.  There are too many distractions, too many slick video edits and sound bytes.  We are distracted.  We are confused.  Deep down, faithful Catholics want to do what's right, but we often cannot discern the correct path to take.  So much is hidden and obscured.  Many priests and lay leaders are afraid to speak up because of fear of losing a tax status or being sued.  We need your help!

We are aware of the faithful citizenship documents published by the USCCB.  Tell me, how are parishes supposed to get that information?  How are the laypersons going to receive that document and, furthermore, how will they understand what you are trying to teach us?  We need you, as our Bishops, to explain things to us.  Explain to us when life begins.  Explain to us why the right to life is a fundamental issue that cannot be lumped together as just another social issue.  Tell us why we cannot support a candidate who opposes the right to life.  Share with us why claiming personal opposition to abortion while voting "pro choice" is still support for abortion.  Teach us that the Catholic Church has never and will never change her position on abortion and euthenasia. 

We need your help.  We beg for your help.  There are already a few Bishops who have begun to educate the public, and for that we are grateful, but we beg for all of our Bishops to stand up and speak out.  November will be here soon.  Citizens will go to vote, but who will they vote for?  Whose rhetoric will be slick enough to get their vote?  Will the truth of the Faith be in the hearts and minds of the people at the polls, or will people even know that the Faith matters in politics?

We love you.  You are our Bishops.  God has appointed you as our shepherds for a reason.  Please help us and guide us.

Sincerely,

Catholics from every parish, mission, and diocese in the United States of America

Let me share a recent article with you.  Or have I already done this?

From Yahoo News:

DENVER - Two prominent Roman Catholic archbishops say House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic Democrat, misstated church teachings about abortion in a recent television appearance, the latest sign that the U.S. Catholic hierarchy will not stay silent about politics this election year.

In an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Pelosi said "doctors of the church" have not been able to define when life begins and that "over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy."

Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, citing the teaching responsibility entrusted to bishops, issued a statement late Monday that read, in part: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable."

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput and his auxiliary bishop, James Conley, said in a statement posted on the archdiocesan Web site: "Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them."

Abortion "is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it," the statement continued.

Over the weekend, Chaput said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Democratic vice presidential nominee-in-waiting Sen. Joseph Biden should refrain from receiving Communion because of his abortion stance.

A Pelosi spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.⁷²

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.⁷³

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.⁷⁴

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.⁷⁵

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.⁷⁶

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,"⁷⁷ "by the very commission of the offense,"⁷⁸ and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.⁷⁹ The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:

"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."⁸⁰

"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."⁸¹

2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.

Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual. . . . It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."⁸²

2275 "One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival."⁸³

"It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material."⁸⁴

"Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity"⁸⁵ which are unique and unrepeatable.

Euthanasia

2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.

2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.

Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.

2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.