PRAYER & ACTION:
O Eternal Father, please help us to place Thy Divine Son as King over the United States of America, so that we may once again live, teach, and spread Thy Faith to all others, without fear of persecution from our own government or the courts. Help us to vote for those, who will act only according to Thy Will, for Thy Greater Honor and Glory, and, thus, bring about Thy Kingdom here on earth, in The Most Sacred Name of Jesus, in Unity with The Holy Ghost, and in Thy Holy, Extended Family’s Name. Amen. (Pray daily.)
Please take a look at these sites, where Bishops are speaking out on voting.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20121026/GPG010404/310260362/Bishop-urges-vote-against-candidates-who-support-abortion-gay-marriage?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
http://www.pacatholic.org/a‑statement-of-the-pennsylvania-catholic-bishops-on-the-2012-elections/
Catholics: do your due diligence —
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RESEARCH those running for office and find out where they stand on the “non-negotiables”, listed below.
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VOTE in accordance with God’s Law/The Catholic Church’s principles.
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PRAY for those, for whom you vote, that they be faithful to their stated agenda.
SUGGESTED RESOURCES FOR POLITICIANS’ STANCES:
http://nrlc.www.capwiz.com/election/home/
http://afaaction.net/
https://ivoterguide.com/?partner=AFAAction&type=S
Catholics should vote.
Catholics have a DUTY to research the candidates, who are running for office, to see what moral stances they take, no matter whether they are running for dogcatcher or President of the United States.
Why?
Because, as the new People of God, Baptized Children of God, we are answerable to God for everything we do, and if we vote according to God’s/The Church’s principles, then we will remain friends with God — in a state of grace. If we vote according to anybody else’s principles, we will sin mortally, thus killing our souls and our relationship with God. How we vote probably has a bigger impact on the outcomes of elections than anyone else’s vote, because we belong to The Church, founded directly by Jesus on St. Peter.
In the United States, the two parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Historically, the Democratic Party was known for being a friend of workers, of the lower and middle classes, and Catholics often voted for Democrats. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party did not stand up against slavery as did the Republican Party, which was actually founded to abolish slavery and which fought tooth and nail to give civil rights to black Americans. Now, it is clear, that the Democratic Party has been hijacked by special interest groups, who do not have the best interests of America at heart. It only takes a reading of the new Democratic Platform to know that Catholics, who wish to remain friends of God, cannot vote for a Democrat, unless it is absolutely clear that that Democrat supports the “non-negotiable” principles of The Catholic Church and could not be coerced into voting with the Democrat bloc, as Bart Stupak and other “pro-life” Democrats were. Read the Democrats’ Platform, here:
http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform
Following are quotes from the Democratic Platform, which deal with the Democrats’, Obama’s, and all other faithful Democratic politicians’ stances on the “non-negotiables”:
“Further, the President issued an executive order repealing the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research” — this means that baby-killing embryonic stem cell research can continue.
“The President and the Democratic Party believe that women have a right to control their reproductive choices. Democrats support access to affordable family planning services, and President Obama and Democrats will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers.” — which means that hundreds of millions of our tax dollars will continue to go to Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion-performing corporation in the U.S.
“The Affordable Care Act ensures that women have access to contraception in their health insurance plans” — which means that all Catholic-owned non-profits, including hospitals, universities, schools, etc., will have to pay, even through the insurer, for contraception, abortifacients, such as the regular birth control pill, the IUD, Norplant, Depo Povera shot, as well as sterilizations, or they will be fined thousands, if not millions of dollars a year. (See the “Life Facts” page for more info on contraception/abortion/abortifacients.) These are all contrary to God’s Law/The Catholic Church’s non-negotiable principles.
“Protecting A Woman’s Right to Choose. The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay.” — This means that the Democratic Party will force us to pay for others’ abortions/murders through the so-called Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare”. — see:
http://aclj.org/obamacare/how-obamacare-uses-taxpayer-money-pay-abortions; and:
http://cnsnews.com/blog/terence-p-jeffrey/obamacare-subsidizes-abortions-women-making-90000
“Freedom to Marry. We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples.” — which means that the Democratic Party is dedicated to destroying the God-founded institute of a family, which includes at least a couple, made up of a man and a woman, and re-engineering marriage to include two homosexual men or two lesbian women, as well as forcing the acceptance of adoption by two men or two women. The family is the smallest unit in society, and if it can be reconfigured to suit anyone but God, civil society will be destroyed.
“That’s why, in his first month in office, President Obama overturned the “global gag rule,” a ban on federal funds to foreign family planning organizations that provided information about, counseling on, or offered abortions.” — which means that the U.S. government, along with Melinda & Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc., will be able to force Third-World countries, who are in urgent need of basic necessities, to allow and even encourage their women to abort their own children, to use medical abortifacients to do so, to use condoms, which do nothing to stop and everything to spread sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, and, basically to start “eliminating” their populations, just to get material help from us — talk about genocide!!!
Let us know if you found one mention of God in the Democratic Party Platform.
Compare the Democrats’ Platform with the Republican Platform:
http://www.gop.com/2012-republican-platform_home/
Read through this Preamble — it’s not too long. It really distinguishes the Republicans from the Democrats — it actually mentions God’s Name twice!
“The 2012 Republican Platform is a statement of who we are and what we believe as a Party and our vision for a stronger and freer America.
The pursuit of opportunity has defined America from our very beginning. This is a land of opportunity. The American Dream is a dream of equal opportunity for all. And the Republican Party is the party of opportunity.
Today, that American Dream is at risk.
Our nation faces unprecedented uncertainty with great fiscal and economic challenges, and under the current Administration has suffered through the longest and most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Many Americans have experienced the burden of lost jobs, lost homes, and lost hopes. Our middle class has felt that burden most acutely. Meanwhile, the federal government has expanded its size and scope, its borrowing and spending, its debt and deficit. Federalism is threatened and liberty retreats.
For the world, this has been four years of lost American leadership, leadership that depends upon economic vitality and peace through strength.
Put simply: The times call for trustworthy leadership and honest talk about the challenges we face. Our nation and our people cannot afford the status quo. We must begin anew, with profound changes in the way government operates; the way it budgets, taxes, and regulates. Jefferson’s vision of a “wise and frugal government” must be restored.
Providence has put us at the fork in the road, and we must answer the question: If not us, who? If not now, when?
That is the choice facing the American people this November. Every voter will be asked to choose between the chronic high unemployment and the unsustainable debt produced by a big government entitlement society, or a positive, optimistic view of an opportunity society, where any American who works hard, dreams big and follows the rules can achieve anything he or she wants.
The American people possess vast reserves of courage and determination and the capacity to hear the truth and chart a strong course. They are eager for the opportunity to take on life’s challenges and, through faith and hard work, transform the future for the better. They are the most generous people on earth, giving sacrificially of their time, talent, and treasure.
This platform affirms that America has always been a place of grand dreams and even grander realities; and so it will be again, if we return government to its proper role, making it smaller and smarter. If we restructure government’s most important domestic programs to avoid their fiscal collapse. If we keep taxation, litigation, and regulation to a minimum. If we celebrate success, entrepreneurship, and innovation. If we lift up the middle class. If we hand over to the next generation a legacy of growth and prosperity, rather than entitlements and indebtedness.
That same commitment must be present both here at home and abroad. We are a party that knows the difference between international acclaim and world leadership. We will lift the torch of freedom and democracy to inspire all those who would be free. As President Reagan issued the clarion call to “tear down this Wall,” so must we always stand against tyranny and oppression. We will always support and cherish our men and women in uniform who defend our liberties with their lives.
As we embark upon this critical mission, we are not without guidance. We possess an owner’s manual: the Constitution of the United States, the greatest political document ever written. That sacred document shows us the path forward. Trust the people. Limit government. Respect federalism. Guarantee opportunity, not outcomes. Adhere to the rule of law. Reaffirm that our rights come from God, are protected by government, and that the only just government is one that truly governs with the consent of the governed.
The principles written in the Constitution are secured by the character of the American people. President George Washington said in his first inaugural address: “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.” Values matter. Character counts.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand these great truths. They share a positive vision for America – a vision of America renewed and strong. They know America’s best days lay ahead. It will take honest results-oriented, conservative leadership to enact good policies for our people. They will provide it.
We respectfully submit this platform to the American people. It is both a vision of where we are headed and an invitation to join us in that journey. It is about the great dreams and opportunities that have always been America and must remain the essence of America for generations to come.
May God continue to shed his grace on the United States of America.
Governor Bob McDonnell, Chairman
Senator John Hoeven, Co-Chair
Congressman Marsha Blackburn, Co-Chair
http://www.ewtn.com/vote/brief_catechism.htm
FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES
There is a hierarchy of truths in Catholic Social teaching. Defending innocent human life, protecting marriage and concern for the poor are at the top of it. To not compromise on these positions is not, contrary to what some may assert, to engage in “single issue” politics. Rather, it is to judge all other important issues through a lens of truth and a genuine concern for the “common good” of all. Catholic Online – www.catholic.org
Based on Church teachings, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Encyclicals of the Pope, and issue papers from the Office of the Doctrine of the Faith, the following five issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law.
Intrinsically evil actions are those that fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no person who rea1ly wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.
1. Abortion
The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is “never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it” (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide. The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s, who should not suffer death for others’ sins.
Another sub-set issue within this subject area that is non-negotiable pertains to Human Reproductive Technologies, which includes the Church’s position against Contraception, In-Vitro Fertilization and Sterilization.
2. Euthanasia
Often disguised by the name “mercy killing;’ euthanasia is also a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person. In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Human embryos are human beings. “Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo” (CRF 4b). Recent scientific advances show that medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can often be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.
4. Human Cloning
“Attempts … for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union” (RHL 1:6). Human cloning also involves abortion because the “rejected” or “unsuccessful” embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.
5. Homosexual “Marriage”
True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as “marriage” undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement. “When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time ina legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral” (UHP 10).
Issues That Are Not Non-Negotiable
Some issues allow for a diversity of opinion, and Catholics are permitted leeway in endorsing or opposing particular policies. This is the case with the questions of when to go to war and when to apply the death penalty. Though the Church urges caution regarding both of these issues, it acknowledges that the state has the right to employ them in some circumstances (CCC 2309, 2267).
Pope Benedict XVI, when he was still Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, spoke of this in a document dealing with when Catholics may receive Communion:
“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia” (WRHC 3).
The same is true of many other issues that are the subject of political debate: the best way to help the poor, to manage the economy, to protect the environment, to handle immigration, and to provide education, health care, and retirement security. Catholics may legitimately take different approaches to these issues. While the underlying principles (such as solidarity with the poor) are non-negotiable, the specific applications being debated politically admit of many options, and so are not “non-negotiable.”
Reference Resources:
CCC = Catechism of the Catholic Church
CPL = Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Notes on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life
CRF = Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family
EV = John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, (the Gospe1 of Life)
RHL = Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation
UHP = Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons
WRHC = Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion, General Principles
Catholic Answers Action – www.caaction.com
Catholic Online – www.catholic.org
(http://www.stjoseph-marysville.org/faqnonnegotiables.html)
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