Gosh, I Wonder Why So Many Catholics Have Left The Church
Today I celebrated my own personal feast day of "scold the priest after Mass". I propose this feast day should be established church wide across the United States, and should definitely fall on the Sunday before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Because today, I was informed by my pastor, in an ad-hoc address from the altar following mass, that, in his "opinion" abortion will not be solved "legislatively" and that therefore we Catholics have to "do more" to end the culture of abortion (unclear what "do more" means specifically). In and of itself this is a fair point, but let me give some context: on the Sunday immediately preceding Election Day, about 70 days ago, this same priest gave a homily detailing issues we are obligated to consider when deciding our vote. And on that Sunday immediately preceding Election Day, did this same priest mention abortion even once? He did not. While he mentioned the homeless, the hungry, the disenfranchised and the poor, he did not mention the unborn. He did not mention the fact that one Presidential candidate ran on a pro-life platform, and the other did not. Therefore, it was rather ironic to be told 70 days later that Father did not believe abortion could be defeated "legislatively": but of course he's absolutely right, if the unofficial policy of American Catholic clergy is to sit idly by as 50% of Catholics vote for a candidate who not only supports abortion, but pushes through legislation that forces taxpayers to fund same.
Kathleen, I commend you for doing this. You've done well, and I assume that the Holy Spirit was speaking through you at the time. The wording you use that "his position is not helpful" is precise and descriptive of the entire USCCB non-strategy on politics, and I have seen it first-hand in my diocese.
ReplyDeleteMy pastor, who I like, recently preached powerfully in a Sunday homily against the HHS mandate. Then he followed his remarks against the mandate, which he condemned in no uncertain terms, with the line "Now I'm not telling anybody how to vote...." My thought immediately was "Oh, brother, there's the knee-jerk." Why not just leave that last line off? I actually think they are afraid that if they are too serious on the issue, people will leave the Catholic Church. But having met many conservative ex-Catholics, I'm with Kathleen; the opposite effect is more often the case.
The priests down here (including a bishop at the church where I sometimes attend Mass) used no such disclaimers. Might be the difference between Texas and your hyper-battleground state (and bused-in "watchdogs", media, IRS agents, etc.).
ReplyDeleteP.S. Sadly, the weakness before the election may well have worked. I've heard several references on National Review podcasts about how Obama carried Catholics in Ohio. Of course there are lots of reasons why that may have happened.