Wickedness and the Catholic Vote
Wickedness and the Catholic Vote
By John Mallon
I'm not much for finger-shaking. I'm really not. However, my Bible shakes a finger at me, and it makes me very nervous:
"If I say to the wicked man, 'You shall surely die;' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his wicked conduct so that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death." (Ezek. 3:17)
I'm in no position to proclaim anyone wicked and thankfully that's not my job, but if giving tacit approval to tearing children limb from limb in their mother's womb is not wickedness, I don't know what is.
The presidential election of 1992 was won by the Catholic vote. On his first day in office that president kicked the Catholic Church in the teeth when he overturned, by executive order, all the strides made for the protection of the unborn as well as other life-related issues of central import to the Catholic Church.
The same president was reelected in 1996, thanks to the Catholic vote.
In 2000 we would not have had the nail-biter results of that election had Catholics voted according to Catholic moral principles.
Thankfully, the eventual victor of the 2000 election was a believing Christian who restored, again by executive order, the original safeguards for the unborn, especially the vitally important Mexico City Policy which prohibits American taxpayer money from funding overseas abortions.
That the first two elections represented a defeat for Catholic principles and the third a very close call, thanks to misguided Catholic voters is, in a word, a disgrace. A dis-grace. It is a call to disgust. But further, it is a call to repentance and evangelization. Many wish the US bishops would be more forceful on this, but this basically is a job for the laity, whose vocation is to take the Gospel into the world, not crowd the sanctuary with lay clerical wannabees.
Unfortunately some of those needing this evangelizing are clergy. If you've ever heard a priest say, "Well, you can't be a single issues voter" you know what I mean. Unfortunately there are still priests who remain more married to a 40-year-old "liberalism" that is immune to the light of day than to the Bride of Christ.
In short, every orthodox Catholic has a duty to engage our fellow Catholics on this matter and inform them of the facts cited above if they don't already know them. Of course, many do know them and think it's a good thing. With them, at least a seed must be planted. But I don't think those of us blessed with the gift of orthodoxy have the luxury of keeping our mouths shut anymore. We must stop waiting to hear it from the pulpit or for bishops to pronounce excommunication We've waited too long for that already. I, for one, have no tax exempt status to lose.
The point is not to be rude or attempt to "change" people, but to make them aware that, yes, you can, and sometimes must be a single issue voter when that single issue trumps all others.
Issues of social justice, peace, poverty, and so on, amount to nothing if human life is not protected. The death penalty does not trump the abortion issue because executing a tried and convicted criminal is simply not the same moral act as directly killing the unborn child in the womb. However distasteful the death penalty may be, it is not, in the language of moral theology, an intrinsically evil act as abortion is; meaning that thoughtful Catholics may disagree on the death penalty but not abortion to be in line with Catholic teaching.
What is that teaching? Try this: "It must in any case be clearly understood that whatever may be laid down by civil law in this matter, man can never obey a law which is in itself immoral, and such is the case of a law which would admit in principle the liceity of abortion. Nor can he take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it."(Declaration on Procured Abortion; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; November 18, 1974; No. 22.)
Again, there is no need to get into fights with people, just make sure they know what the Church says, and leave them to think about it, and pray for them.
Population controllers, abortion exporters and contraception distributors working through the United Nations, governments, and nongovernmental organizations have been stalled by the current US administration, but they will be poised and ready to move should the next presidential election go their way. It is they, not the Catholic Church, who wish to police people's bedrooms, not to mention telling people how many children to have, or governing your children's sexual development.
As a journalist I have seen this crowd up close and I know the vast majority of the American people have no idea how evil and vicious—wicked—this agenda really is, and what they have coming down the pike. The results of this crowd finding a friend—again—in the White House would be cataclysmic. This is the hierarchy of the Culture of Death and for Catholic voters to usher it in would be a profound tragedy.