The Morning After
Not a homily, just my personal rant on the morning after the election.
Here we are, November 3, 2004. It looks like the pro-abortion candidate for president has been defeated, little thanks to the Catholic "faithful". According to the exit poll data, Catholic voters chose President Bush in roughly the same percentages as the population at large.
In spite of Mr. Kerry's very public claims to be a Catholic while denouncing Church teaching on the sanctity of life, nearly half of us said, "that's ok, John." We believe "Thou shalt not kill", but prescription drug prices are more important. We believe in family values, but it's ok if a family is two men or two women.
We Catholics passed up an opportunity to show the politicians that we are a potent voting block. We could have made a statement. In fact, we did make a statement. We told the world that we really don't believe what we profess. We don't believe in "One holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church." What we believe is that our personal issues are more important than loving our neighbor.
We have two years until the next election. How will we spend those 104 weeks? Will church leaders bite the bullet and work for change, or will they continue to pander to the special interest groups, making Christ's Church just another social club?
Will we get back to the principles that Christ taught us or will we change Church Doctrine to reflect the latest opinion polls? Maybe we should scrap the centuries-old process of selecting the Pope and open it up to free elections. Since it doesn't look like Mr. Kerry is going to be President, maybe he can run for John Paul's job. After all, he was an altar boy.
It seems to me that this is about a lot more than just elections. What are we doing to our Church? Clearly child abuse is a great scandal. But, when historians look back on the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, what will be the greater shame? That individual priests were sinners, or that the entire US church turned it's back on our core values? That hundreds of children were abused or that millions of children were killed while half of us looked the other way, putting our own interests first?
I'm sad for our church, but hopeful that we can turn this mess around. Those of us who have an opportunity to speak from the pulpit have a great responsibilty to speak the truth. We have to be willing to tell the truth, not necessarily what people want to hear. There IS a hell and some people are going to go there. Jesus told us how to gain paradise. In John's Gospel He tells us "You are my friends if you do what I tell you." Was He kidding? I don't think so and I have a responsibility to say so.
All of us should demand that our bishops, priests, and deacons speak the truth. Instead of saying "he can't tell me how to vote", we should be insisting that the clergy tell us how to vote. Not their own opinions, but what Christ told us.
I'm glad that the majority voted to keep the present administration in office for the next four years. We dodged a bullet this time. But, what's going to happen in four years if we don't act?
Here we are, November 3, 2004. It looks like the pro-abortion candidate for president has been defeated, little thanks to the Catholic "faithful". According to the exit poll data, Catholic voters chose President Bush in roughly the same percentages as the population at large.
In spite of Mr. Kerry's very public claims to be a Catholic while denouncing Church teaching on the sanctity of life, nearly half of us said, "that's ok, John." We believe "Thou shalt not kill", but prescription drug prices are more important. We believe in family values, but it's ok if a family is two men or two women.
We Catholics passed up an opportunity to show the politicians that we are a potent voting block. We could have made a statement. In fact, we did make a statement. We told the world that we really don't believe what we profess. We don't believe in "One holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church." What we believe is that our personal issues are more important than loving our neighbor.
We have two years until the next election. How will we spend those 104 weeks? Will church leaders bite the bullet and work for change, or will they continue to pander to the special interest groups, making Christ's Church just another social club?
Will we get back to the principles that Christ taught us or will we change Church Doctrine to reflect the latest opinion polls? Maybe we should scrap the centuries-old process of selecting the Pope and open it up to free elections. Since it doesn't look like Mr. Kerry is going to be President, maybe he can run for John Paul's job. After all, he was an altar boy.
It seems to me that this is about a lot more than just elections. What are we doing to our Church? Clearly child abuse is a great scandal. But, when historians look back on the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, what will be the greater shame? That individual priests were sinners, or that the entire US church turned it's back on our core values? That hundreds of children were abused or that millions of children were killed while half of us looked the other way, putting our own interests first?
I'm sad for our church, but hopeful that we can turn this mess around. Those of us who have an opportunity to speak from the pulpit have a great responsibilty to speak the truth. We have to be willing to tell the truth, not necessarily what people want to hear. There IS a hell and some people are going to go there. Jesus told us how to gain paradise. In John's Gospel He tells us "You are my friends if you do what I tell you." Was He kidding? I don't think so and I have a responsibility to say so.
All of us should demand that our bishops, priests, and deacons speak the truth. Instead of saying "he can't tell me how to vote", we should be insisting that the clergy tell us how to vote. Not their own opinions, but what Christ told us.
I'm glad that the majority voted to keep the present administration in office for the next four years. We dodged a bullet this time. But, what's going to happen in four years if we don't act?
posted by Mike at 9:44 AM
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