A yes and yes people

Our Sunday reading at Mass went straight to the heart of the matter. We are not a people of yes and no. We are a people of yes and yes.

How does this really elusive piece of scripture have application for a people who promote a culture of life in the midst of a culture of death?

The website http://www.priestsforlife.org/ helps give framework to what we believe and how we act. Priests for Life work to protect the lives of the unborn. They give unborn babies their yes.

They also give all people, from conception to natural death, their yes. http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/capitalpunishment.htm

http://www.priestsforlife.org/euthanasia/index.htm

They give all life issues their yes.

It is not yes for one (the unborn) and no to others (elderly, infirm and convicted). It is yes and yes and yes. . .

They also give us guidance, along with the bishops and the Holy Father, to see that some issues may conflict with others as we try to decide on a candidate for public office. In this situation, we must understand that not all issues have the same moral weight (which all Catholics already know). Some life issues eclipse others when we are deciding on which candidate to support (and maybe even which life issue to contribute to).

This, however, is not a yes to the unborn and a no to the elderly or infirm or convicted. It is a yes and a yes. Or rather, it is a Yes and a yes.

A yes and yes people

When Doubts Arise - Death Penalty

I must admit that my initial doubts about the death penalty were the result of a movement in my spirit which I could not explain. I could not say that the death penalty was always wrong. All I could say was that I had my doubts.

I alluded to the changes in my spirit in another post, and I received such a thorough response from one reader that I realized that I couldn’t have a general doubt about it; I had to find out what the Church says.

The writer had quoted some important people, but I know it is possible to take almost anything out of context and make it support one’s position. And so, I went to the place I trust.

I knew it was time to find an encyclical that addressed the topic. It is appropriate for a faithful Catholic to go to a faithful Pope for direction, especially when that Holy Father is writing an encyclical. Isn’t that what we believe as Catholics? So, here are some things I have turned up so far:

From Evangelium Vitae Section 9 (Pope John Paul II quoting Holy Scripture)

And yet God, who is always merciful even when he punishes, "put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him" (Gen 4:15). He thus gave him a distinctive sign, not to condemn him to the hatred of others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to kill him, even out of a desire to avenge Abel's death. Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this.

(St. Ambrose quoted in that same paragraph)

“God drove Cain out of his presence and sent him into exile far away from his native land, so that he passed from a life of human kindness to one which was more akin to the rude existence of a wild beast. God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide.”




So, my doubts in the death penalty remain. I still cannot say that the death penalty is always wrong. But I do believe that it is almost never right. AmericanCatholic.org has posted this: The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty in nearly all cases. Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, U.S. bishops and other Catholic leaders throughout the world have spoken out against capital punishment as act that stands in contradiction to the belief that all human life is sacred.

It is wonderful when something our spirit suspects is captured in words – and it is even better when those words come from a source we completely trust (an encyclical written by the Holy Father and supported by our bishops).

That said, how can anyone have doubts about the death penalty but continue to vote for a politician who supports abortion (or promises to keep abortion legal)? It seems like everyone, conservative and liberal, would have to acknowledge that the completely innocent deserve full protection under the law.

It is unlikely that the death penalty will end in the United States because, if it ever does come to an end, there will be no logical or rational argument left for taking the life of a completely innocent unborn baby.

When Doubts Arise - Death Penalty

American and Catholic

My thoughts:

I could vote Democrat very easily. . . except for one thing. It isn't that I am a one-issue Catholic; it's just that the death of so many babies is such a big issue that it eclipses all other issues when I stand in the voter's box. Until that is resolved, and every life is held sacred, I find it impossible to vote for a candidate who gets some issues right but promises to protect a woman's legal right to abort her unborn baby.

One glance at the Catholic Democrats website http://www.catholicdemocrats.org/ and I realize that I could be persuaded to vote for a Democrat. . . if the candidate was pro-life. I admire their concern for social justice.

But even as I become more Catholic in my approach to the death penalty and immigration issues and poverty and war. . . I become incrementally more aware of the mandate to protect life from conception to natural death. And as long as abortion is legal in the United States, we cannot delude ourselves into thinking that a Democratic platform (that protects a woman's "right" to abort her unborn baby) merits our support.

It is more than insincere to blame "Republican Politics" for abortion numbers and to lay the burden at the feet of the "Bush Recession" when the DNC promises to protect a "woman's right to choose" (to abort her baby). While a downturn in the economy may have some effect on the number of abortions that take place, the economy is not the culprit. If the economy drove the abortion industry, we would have had more abortions during the Great Depression than any time in U.S. history. No, it is a matter of whether or not abortion is protected under law - or whether or not the life of the unborn is protected under the law.

I simply must vote pro-life. And yet, I am not a one-issue Catholic. I am starting to see that my giving (and my writing) must reflect how much I care about social justice and the needs of the poor, both in the United States and throughout the world.

Here's the thing, I don't have to be a Democrat to work for social justice. St. Vincent de Paul Centers, Catholic Charities, Aid to the Church in Need, and CRS (and other Catholic groups that do so much work to help the poor and needy) - well, they have no party affiliation. They accept donations from almost anyone. Contrary to what the DNC wants Americans to believe, pro-life Catholics can promote social justice without voting Democrat. And most of them do.

It is not easy to be American and Catholic. There is no perfect politcal fit for us. Even so, we must become a constituency that represents the unborn.

American and Catholic