Wednesday, June 26, 2013

It is time to defend our Church . . .

I'm constantly amazed at the lack of knowledge about their own Church by many Catholics. I had a relative who thought abortion was only wrong after three months. I see people giggling and whispering greetings and grins with people on their way to receive Communion. An in-law told me that memorizing the Baltimore Catechism was too 'boring' for children and we should keep things 'light' and interesting in CCD classes. Obviously, the last election proved to us that many Catholics are totally uninformed about their Faith or perceive their political party to be more important than their Faith.

What has amazed me the most, however, are the politicians that claim to be Catholics yet adhere to all that is not Catholic. They are a bad example. They are writing their own religion and making it more political than spiritual.

Recently, Father Pavone Challenged Nancy Pelosi to come out of her self-made religious comfort zone and face the truth of the Church as it should apply to her. He spoke the reality of what it is to be a real Catholic and she came back with this ignorant retort:


My faith is very deep and has been my whole life. I love my faith and my faith has nothing to do with whoever he is. The arrogance of it all! It’s like something ancient, medieval…The Church taught me as I was growing up that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live up to a moral standard. And I respect women’s judgment and values to do that.
 
Whether this priest thinks his judgment should be another woman’s judgment is absolutely ridiculous to me. But nonetheless it’s what they say. I grant the Church where they are on abortion. That’s where they are, that’s where they have to be. But my faith isn’t about what their position is. My faith is about, Christ is my savior, the church is his church, and has nothing to do with Priests for Life…I wouldn’t even dignify whatever it is they said. It was a highly emotional statement that they made. If it were more intellectual I might have paid attention to it. He was acting hysterically.
 
In her first paragraph, she is correct that we do have free will but the free will should be exercised within the rules and guidelines of our Faith. It doesn't mean we have a right to go against the precepts of our religion in order to have life as we want it. There is nothing Catholic about claiming free will in order to sin. If you say you respect a  woman's judgment and that judgment is in favor killing her unborn baby, you are not defending your Faith. It is interesting . . . She claims her free will gives her license to promote sinful behavior but she is in full support of the rules of being a staunch Democrat. Guess being a Democrat doesn't have the same free will!

A priest is trained in the Church to support what the Church stands for in all matters. A priest can judge and say when something is blatantly sinful like killing an unborn baby. The Ten Commandments are pretty straightforward on that score ' Thou Shalt Not Kill'. Didn't notice any translations saying 'except as Pelosi deems it inadvisable.

You can't have a well-formed Catholic Faith without knowing the Faith. If, as she says, her faith is what it is and Christ is her savior, then you would think she would want to abide by all that Jesus came down to earth and died for in our place. If anyone is hysterical, it is her retort to common sense and what the Church is actually about. Christ founded the Church. God gave us the Ten Commandments. Jesus died for our sins. Ms. Pelosi is trying to advocate everyone living according to their comforts rather than conforming to the Word of God.

Strangely, the voices of reason in our Church, today, are few and far between. This woman has been a 'catholic' with roots in a church of her own making for years. God bless, Father Pavone for finally pointing out her errors. Her own pastor hasn't seen fit to do so for years and has been distributing Communion to her without question. Either she doesn't truly believe in the Real Presence or her pastor doesn't to bestow the Body of Christ knowing in his heart that she is not obeying the laws of the Church.

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