Bob Nicholas

WAY TO GO IDAHO!, OOPS I mean Colorado. Below is a published letter from the Archbishop of Denver, CO, rebutting the ridiculus disregard for Catholic teaching by Speaker of the House and overall liberal politician Nancy Pelosi. While I pray that she come more fully in communion with the Church and recognize the err of her beliefs, I am pumped that the Church is responding in this way. It’s about time we stand up and simply state what the Church teaches.

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Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Addresses
Archbishop of Denver

ON THE SEPARATION OF SENSE AND STATE:
A CLARIFICATION FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CHURCH IN NORTHERN COLORADO

Denver, CO - Monday, August 25, 2008

To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:

Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate tend to take a hard line in talking about the “separation of Church and state.” But their idea of separation often seems to work one way. In fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrants some interest, not as a “political” issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.

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.

Interviewed on Meet the Press August 24, Speaker Pelosi was asked when human life begins. She said the following:

“I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know. The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.”

Since Speaker Pelosi has, in her words, studied the issue “for a long time,” she must know very well one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery’s Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977). Here’s how Connery concludes his study:

“The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm antiabortion attitude . . . The condemnation of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever one would want to hold about the time of animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion.”

Or to put it in the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”

Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or “ensouled.” But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.

Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today’s religious alibis for abortion and a so-called “right to choose” are nothing more than that -alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.

Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they’re famous or not - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.

The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the “separation of Church and state” does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it’s always important to know what our faith actually teaches.

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Archbishop of Denver
+James D. Conley Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

There are a lot of news stories right now about the usage of the Confederate Flag.

Now let me be very clear: I’m not sure where I stand on whether the flag is a symbol of racism. I do not know enough about the history. This is not a post intended to discuss the racial, or lack of racial, history of the flag or the Confederate army/ideals.

The Confederate Flag was used by the south during the Civil War. I am not a student of Civil War history, and so I’m not an expert. But I do want to consider one part of the argument. Just because the flag is racist or not (I’m not sure either way), is irrelevant. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights provide Free Speech. Of course this “freedom” is trampled on all of the time, but it is provided to every person in the United States.

I don’t understand why we allow ourselves to be compromised by this stuff. Remember The American President? Great movie! Here is one of my favorite lines from the movie:

“The symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.”

Should not the opposite be true as well?

As a white person I have to listen to the unReverend Jesse Jackson and other African American’s who hate white people. I dismiss them, just like I dismiss the white people who call African Americans names and speak terrible hatred from their mouths.

As a Catholic I am stuck listening to all of the ill-catechized Catholics say they want to vote for Obama who stands firm is his anti-Catholic and pro-death stance. I’m stuck listening to Gary Wills write complete junk and completely misrepresent the Church and what it means to be Catholic, let alone what it means to be obedient to the Church teachings.

As a moral and sometimes level headed person I have to live and listen to people like Hugh Heffner, Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, and every other morally degenerate person. I have to listen to the pro-death side of the homicide abortion issue tell me that a billion babies aren’t worth discussing because every woman should be able to commit murder. And I have to listen to those that would ruin our beautiful country by electing someone who doesn’t care about Americans.

But these are examples of the free speech God gave us, and which is present in our founding documents as a country. It is what makes the United States of America great.

None of them should be able to speak in public in my opinion. Not one. Not a racist, not a person who misrepresents their faith, not a propaganda spreading extremist, not someone who doesn’t care for the most innocent of us… Not one of them.

But lucky for them, and for me, our founding fathers and our God give all of us the right to free speech. President Shephard in The American President also says this,

“You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”

Let’s stop fighting unconstitutional battles in court. Let’s stop fighting about what we can and cannot say. It can all be said. The battle to fight has nothing to do with what someone says and everything to do with what we say to their soul. We will never get someone to understand God’s plan for the world by telling them to shut up.

“The battle belongs to the Lord.” We don’t have to speak to the racist, or the murderers, or the propaganda. We speak on a higher and deeper level. If we pay more attention to God’s plan, and allow Him to do His work as King and God, our words will speak to people’s souls.

A soul always longs for God.