A week ago we posted about the murky message from the Massachusetts Catholic bishops on the mid-term elections. The murky message never clearly stated Catholics should vote against pro-abortion politicians, and what happened? A state that just 20 years ago counted 54% of the population as being Catholic and now is 38% Catholic voted largely for pro-abortion candidates for nearly every open office. That’s why we feel the search for the new Exec. Director of the Mass Catholic Conference is so important.
Even as little as 3 years ago, Cardinal O’Malley spoke much more clearly on the issue of voting for pro-abortion politicians. In this Globe article from November 2007, “O’Malley draws line with Democrats: backing abortion rights borders on scandal” he was quoted as saying:
“I think the Democratic Party, which has been in many parts of the country traditionally the party which Catholics have supported, has been extremely insensitive to the church’s position, on the gospel of life in particular, and on other moral issues.”
Acknowledging that Catholic voters in Massachusetts generally support Democratic candidates who are in favor of abortion rights, O’Malley said, “I think that, at times, it borders on scandal as far as I’m concerned.”
“However, when I challenge people about this, they say, ‘Well, bishop, we’re not supporting [abortion rights],’ ” he said. “I think there’s a need for people to very actively dissociate themselves from those unacceptable positions, and I think if they did that, then the party would have to change.”
With the Mass Catholic Conference’s Boston archdiocesan line of reporting under the control of Fr. Bryan Hehir now, there was zero mention about it being scandalous for Catholics to vote for pro-abortion politicians. Here is what the statement said:
Certain moral and social issues are fundamentally important, since human rights are at stake and must be protected to help democracy to flourish in a way that benefits every citizen. These include the defense of the sanctity of life, the family based on marriage between a man and a woman, religious freedom, and the well-being of the poor. As shifts in societal challenges are inevitable, it is also vital to determine from election to election which human rights face the greatest threat at the time of voting.
Go to the polls on Election Day and, through your choices at the ballot, act on your vision of a better society.”
So, according to the Massachusetts biships, if your vision of a better society is built primarily on care for the poor, then it was perfectly OK for you to vote for a candidate who would take care of the today’s poor people, even as he or she supports aborting millions of the unborn each year who would be the next generation of society.
This article talks about how “Catholic Voters Swung Election.” Unfortunately, the problem in Massachusetts is that they swung it against Church teachings. If the 38% of citizens who identify themselves as “Catholic” in Massachusetts had voted for pro-life candidates, we think it’s safe to say that a lot more pro-life candidates would have won and a lot more of pro-abortion politicians in office would be updating their resumes looking for new jobs.
Here’s a letter sent by a faithful Catholic to Vicar General Fr. Erikson right after the election:
Dear Fr. Erikson,
Yesterday the voters of Massachusetts went to the polls and in keeping with the Massachusetts Bishop’s Statement to Catholic voters they “…acted on their vision of a better society.”
Unfortunately that vision was to elect staunchly pro-abortion Catholic politicians – even in those cases when a strong pro-life alternative was available. As a result, each and every pro-life politician in Massachusetts was defeated.
I am extremely disappointed that the Massachusetts Bishops opted to draft such an ambiguous and cowardly statement to Catholic voters.Sincerely,
[Name]
As described by Operation Rescue, pro-lifers in MA who lost include State Senate candidates Sandi Martinez (3rd Middlesex) and Neal Heeren (Worcester-Middlesex); House candidates James Dixon (10th Middlesex), Dennis Gianatassio (28th Middlesex), and Paul Franco (13th Worcester). Mike Franco lost his race for the Governor’s Council (8th District). Pro-abortion and pro-gay pols like Martha Coakley and Barney Frank handily defeated Catholic candidates who were much more aligned with Catholic teachings on the life and family issues.
Thankfully, on a national level pro-life candidates fared well. Shortly we will have a pro-life Catholic Speaker of the House and there were pro-life gains in the U.S. Senate. National Right to Life says there were “very, very substantial” improvements in about 65 House seats.
“Either a hardcore pro-abortion candidate was defeated by a pro-life challenger, or someone with a mixed record, like on the health care bill, was replaced.” The bulk of the candidates, about 40, were “hardcore pro-abortion people” who voted for pro-life legislation “seldom if ever.”
That we still have 2 people on the search committee who have supported both pro-abortion politicians and others who publicly oppose Church teachings is scandalous!
Do the Massachusetts Bishops truly believe that abortion is murder or not?
Just imagine it is Nazi Germany in 1938. And the “life” issue at the time is not abortion, but whether or not German society should permit the holocaust of the Jews, elderly and disabled.
Further imagine that there is to be an election. And some candidates for office support the holocaust while others do not. It would be up to the German people to decide.
Under the above scenario, what would we think if the German Bishops were to issue the identical statement to the voters of Germany as was issued by the Massachusetts Bishops to the voters of our state, namely:
“Certain moral and social issues are fundamentally important, since human rights are at stake and must be protected to help democracy to flourish in a way that benefits every citizen. These include the defense of the sanctity of life, the family based on marriage between a man and a woman, religious freedom, and the well-being of the poor.”
If the German Bishops really believed that the holocaust is murder I highly doubt they would release a statement suggesting that stopping the holocaust is the moral equivalent of attending to the well-being of the poor.
So I return to my original question. Do the Massachusetts Bishops truly believe that abortion is murder or not?
David,
What do you want them to be some kind of Pro-life EXTREMISTS group or something?
What we are experiencing in Boston is de facto apostasy or loss of the faith. It is elusive because by appearance ‘The Church’ remains. In earlier historical times a Catholic bishop may have welcomed the opportunity to put his own head on the chopping block rather than let 4,000/day innocent children die.
For perspective in less than 2 months more babies are killed on American soil than the total from the tragic earthquake in Haiti. How dare they speak of Justice!
If I may I’ll read between the lines a bit on the Bishops statement (that Hehir probably put together)
These include the defense of the sanctity of life,(Sanctity means Holiness, So why don’t the Bishops offer funerals for the 4,000? Or perhaps publicly bless the dumpsters that serves as the crypt for these innocent?) the family based on marriage between a man and a woman,(see it is a family ‘based’ on one man one woman, from this ‘base’ we understand…diversity etc,) religious freedom (as opposed to one constrained by dogma or the magisterium), and the well-being of the poor (As Mother Theresa said so well (and I paraphrase) – a nation that kills its own children lives in true poverty)
I believe that in the wisdom and supernatural prudence of The Rock of St. Peter, in order to avoid true schism, Boston and other modernist diocese like her will be left to die. Their assets will be stolen or squandered, their relics abused, their glorious histories forgotten, their ‘programs’ will return to the ash heap and in the end the remnant will remain with the valid sacraments seeking holiness and finding little in places other than family and the guidance of the few Holy churchmen left.
When this will happen is a matter of opinion.
There are those who believe it already has.
Vote your vision indeed.
May I suggest the Latin Mass?
Joe,
I’ve signed the letter. Thanks for keeping up the pressure.
Three measures from the bishops 40 years ago would have prevented legalized abortion on demand. Even now these measures could have a good effect.
1) Proclaim loudly the doctrine on Original Sin. The souls of the poor babies go into eternity with the stain of Original Sin, and therefore can never see God. Contemplation of the sorrow of the good God would add supernatural motivation to the efforts to end abortion, which includes voting properly.
2) Excommunicate any Catholic who publicly promotes legalized abortion, including politicians.
3) Have parishes enlist 20 – 50 parishioners to pray the Rosary at the mills as often as possible. Having 10,000 Catholics peacefully shutting down traffic into the clinic areas would severely limit business, but even more, would send a clear signal that the Church will not tolerate killing.
Jerry,
A priest in this diocese can rent a bus and bring parishioners to foxwoods casino but is forbidden to take the same rented bus to an abortion clinic.
to repeat
A priest in this diocese can rent a bus and bring parishioners to foxwoods casino but is forbidden to take the same rented bus to an abortion clinic.
And in case you missed it twice
A priest in this diocese can rent a bus and bring parishioners to foxwoods casino but is forbidden to take the same rented bus to an abortion clinic.
Go ahead, try to convince me we are not in a state of apostasy.
Hi LastCatholic,
Why would I try to convince anyone we’re not in a state of apostasy? Ha!
In the early 90′s, the monthly Rosary in Brookline ran several buses from outlying parishes. After the Salvi shootings, the diocese shut that all down. Cardinal Law abused his authority to cause a divide among pro-lifers by prohibiting prayer at the mills. He was a master of manipulation. He never had anything to do with the Rosary, but met with Gov Weld (baby killer) while telling us to desist.
The Pilot, while sometimes running our paid ads for the vigil, was never friendly. They would happily run articles by Fr. Hehir, however.
The bigger problem in the archdiocese is the sex-ed in the schools. They’re busy whetting kids appetites, leaving them easy prey for Planned Parenthood and the homos.
Jerry,
I don’t think you can say ‘homo’ any more.
Do you think that our diocese is de facto in schism?
If this is the case it doesn’t seem plausible that its cause
is a simple ‘falling away’.
As we know Law is an old Harvard Man to some degree as certainly is Hehir. Do you think it is complete lunacy to suggest free masonry? The heresy of modernism as a cause is a complete slam dunk for any thinking person who has read the documents but a worldly ‘outside’ force seems to be driving error.
If de facto schism means that, were one able to resurrect any Doctor of the Church and bring him to an average Mass, he would run away in horror? Then, yes, I agree.
Please, please, don’t tempt me to sign onto the freemasonry charge. I’m still recovering from bringing up Communism in the previous thread. But, if one recognizes Communism as a Judeo-Masonic invention (cf. Rev. Dennis Fahey), then one could think we’re saying the same thing.
Everyone should read Pascendi from St. Pius X. And Leo XIII on secret societies. And Piux IX on liberalism. And there’s much more from those great popes, who were gifts from God to guide us through the current chastisement.
As regular readers of the blog know, we want to encourage comments and discussion. Recently some of the comments have gone fairly far from the main topic at hand and we are being asked to take sides in those off-topic reader-to-reader debates. We are asking readers to please keep comments immediately relevant to our posted content. All others that go in a different direction will be moderated and/or removed.
I know my comment has nothing to do with this post, but I wonder if you would consider promoting the new Catholic radio staion in Boston on your blog. Queen of Martyrs, WQOM, 1060 AM.
It carries programs from EWTN plus programs produced by the station’s owners who are located in Buffalo.
The station can help fill the catechetical gaps we have have in Boston.
Newly “minted” Cardinal Raymond Burke is seen as the titular head of the group who oppose giving communion to abortion Catholic politicans. Here is St. Louis, he was “run out of town on a rail” for his beliefs. I have emails from the Chancery to back my claim. “Time” also has alluded to such. There is a similar story from Scranton where the bishop who supported Burke was forced to resign. Therefore, there is more at work here than meets the eye. Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia had something to do with this. He came from the Vatican to St. Louis and then to Philly leaving his nun sister behind to watch over the Chancery. She evidently filed reports on the disruptive behavior of then Archbishop Burke and Rigali used his contacfts in the Vatican to have him “canned”. Bishop Burke (now Cardinal in the Vatican) brought the Latin Mass to St. Louis. Once he was removed, the bishop administrator (Bishop Herman) did a visitation of the Latin Rite Church. Their “anti abortion sermons” were shut down and the aggressive priest was sent back to Europe.