After reading the recently leaked email exchanges between Sandy Newman, president of Voices for Progress, and John Podesta, now head of the Hilary Clinton Campaign, about subverting the Catholic Church, I find both extreme religious intolerance and deep misunderstandings of the Catholic Church and religion in general. I am not a theologian, and have to admit that I am least among the Three Wise Monkeys in matters of faith, but I will try to explain in simple terms where the misunderstandings lie. If you have not yet had a chance to read the leaked emails, a recent post from Archbishop Chaput will serve nicely to summarize. The gist of Sandy Newman’s email is that Catholics need to rise up to demand the end of “a middle ages dictatorship” with regards to abortion and contraception, in particular. John Podesta then replies that “We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this . . . likewise Catholics United” (emphasis added).
The level of insensitivity to something that is so deeply personal, so deeply meaningful to millions of Americans, is troublesome. So is the double standard- if there was an email that surfaced that was interested in getting Jewish people to violate the Sabbath or eat pork, or one that called to free Muslim women from the restraints of their burkas- the world would be outraged. Well, I am outraged. Mess with me, and I tend to be meek and mild. Mess with Holy Mother Church, and you will raise my ire. What gall that these individuals display- they have decided that they might be able to trim what is unpalatable for them; cut away the fabric of my faith and reform it into a garment that does not suit me at all.
Why does the Democratic Party even care what the Catholic Church teaches? A simple, inconvenient truth- no practicing Catholic, in good faith, will choose to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Period. Consider that there are an estimated 80 million Americans who are self professed Catholics. Of course, the number of practicing Catholics is somewhat less. Still, it is a sizeable number for the Democratic Party to walk away from. Hence the efforts to subvert- to drive the sheep from the fold.
So we come to the age old question. It is, after all, 2016- why is the Catholic Church still teaching that abortion and contraception are wrong? Why can’t we just “get with it”? Why are we stuck with this “backward, archaic, old fashioned teaching”? Why can’t the Church leadership just change their minds?
- The Catholic Church is not a democracy. It is led by God. The Holy Spirit helps the bishops select the Pope- our earthly leader., There is a direct succession of Popes from the first; from St. Peter to Pope Francis. We don’t vote on these things. That’s a good thing. It prevents popular opinion from polluting moral teaching. Popular opinion can be wrong- look at parachute pants!
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- Church leaders have really, really, really delved into this stuff. When hormonal birth control first came out, it was talked about by the church leaders. They prayed about it extensively. They read. They discussed. They consulted the Word of God (AKA the Bible). They wrote extensive documents to lead our Church in this matter. They talked to lay women and religious sisters. Things that I don’t think about or haven’t considered- they considered.
- They
won’t change their minds because they shouldn’t. They got it right the
first time. Curious about why? Soon, I am planning on writing more about
that as well. At any rate, Catholics, in our practice of religion,
should be able to practice our faith according to our First Amendment
rights without worrying about whether we meet up with popular opinion
