Our Duties Towards God and Country

Dear Friends in Christ,   As we near the November elections, we are again being deluged with advertisements telling us how some politician is too untrustworthy, too extreme, or too hygienically challenged to be worthy of your vote. Opponents attack one another with carefully selected quotes, scary music, and the sorts of manipulated images that, to say the least, stretch the limits of fair play.    While this is all to be expected, we must not grant the advertisers' - whatever their political motivations - the satisfaction of our being emotionally manipulated into ignoring the issues. It is our duty as Christians, to both God and country, to soberly assess each issue and candidate and to apply the teachings of our Faith to the decisions at hand. The teachings of the Church should be the objective norm on the basis of which we form our consciences so we can make such sober judgments, and rise above the political back and forth which only confuses.    I would like to point out two documents as being particularly helpful in forming our consciences in an authentically Catholic way, which are not overly long or complicated.   The bishops of Wisconsin recently published a wonderful letter that further clarifies the USCCB's "Faithful Citizenship" document. It outlines and prioritizes the essential considerations for faithful Catholics who take up their responsibility to vote. While I would encourage you to read the entire letter - it is only two pages in length - a couple of passages are worth special notice:   First and foremost, the right to life of every human person-from conception to natural death-is the primary and thus most essential of all human rights. Faith teaches and human reason confirms that human life is not a privilege bestowed on us by others, but rather a right that society must recognize and protect....   Due to its service to life, including the procreation and necessary formation of new citizens, marriage is a social-not just a sacred-good that government needs to recognize, encourage, and protect.   The bishops also remind us of the essential link between the issues of life and marriage, and those of the poor, and of proper and responsible stewardship of the environment. If we were to abandon our reason to the winds of political debate, we would likely be confused into thinking that we must choose between the unborn and the poor, or between marriage and the environment. But these are false choices, even if we notice that the political options given often present these issues as being in opposition. We should always remember that the poorest of the poor is the human person in the womb that is menaced with abortion.    We must be good stewards of God's creation, but never at the expense of a single human person. So we reject any "environmentalism" that entails environment-polluting chemical contraception, or that sees human beings as an obstacle to the flourishing of the planet. Any politician who accepts and endorses this insanity can not earn our support.    Similarly, we must not accept the false notion of "justice" that would diminish the institution of natural marriage between one man and one woman, or that would silence those who remind us of this basic truth. And solidarity with and service of the poor and marginalized is not an option for Christians; but we reject again any false solutions, such as those that see contraception and abortion as means to eradicate poverty. In today's difficult economic circumstances, any plan to help the poor and the unemployed must include the rebuilding of a healthy economy that will generate new job opportunities.       The second document is from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and is relatively brief and understandable: "On the Participation of Catholics in Political Life". Placed firmly within the whole of Catholic teaching, it cautions against making mistaken compromises based on a certain form of relativism that we hear quite often in the political season:   Furthermore, it is not unusual to hear the opinion expressed in the public sphere that such ethical pluralism is the very condition for democracy. As a result, citizens claim complete autonomy with regard to their moral choices, and lawmakers maintain that they are respecting this freedom of choice by enacting laws which ignore the principles of natural ethics and yield to ephemeral cultural and moral trends, as if every possible outlook on life were of equal value.   This warning against "ethical pluralism", the false view that every moral and ethical opinion is of equal value, is important because of how often we hear: "Of course as a Catholic I believe that, but I can't force others to agree with me." This is a lie. It is necessary that we vote according to our properly-formed consciences as Catholic Christians.    We know that the people with whom we disagree about life and justice issues are more than willing to force their views on society; but we must not let them do so. We have to stand up for what we believe, and cannot check our Faith outside the voting booth. We have the grave moral responsibility to exercise our vote in accordance with the constant teachings of our Church.   Every human being comes into being at the moment of fertilization - in this the Church agrees with the latest embryological scientific definitions. We take the further step of insisting that every human being is a person who has the right to life from the moment he or she comes into being until he or she dies naturally. This is the right, as these documents make clear, upon which every other right is based, so it cannot be merely counted as one among many in a pluralistic society.    Let's turn off the advertisements and really think and pray this year, carefully discerning how we should make the best use of our vote for the common good of society.    Sincerely yours in Christ,  Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula Interim President, Human Life International

HLI LifeLines #3: Men and Abortion Every person who honestly considers the abortion issue knows that abortion does grave harm to women. What many people don't necessarily know, however, is the harm that abortion does to the partners of those women who have abortions. Raymond DeSouza discusses this phenomenon in this latest episode of LifeLines. See the video here...