Stakes are extremely high for Catholics in this Election
Đây là phần bài viết bằng Anh Ngữ tóm tắt lại những ý tưởng chính mà tác giả đã viết trong bài viết có nhan đề: "Cẩm Nang về Bầu Cử Xã Hội và Trách Nhiệm của Lương Tâm," để cho các bạn độc giả trẻ nói Anh Ngữ tham khảo và suy xét thêm....
A. The Importance of Moral Truth:
Never in the history, the fate of this country is at the highest risk; and stakes for both Christians in general, and Catholics in particular are very high. American Christians have never faced such a great challenge or ordeal to their faith and moral in their lives before than they have right now.
Secular and liberal media which is extremely anti-Christ and against the truth at its core heart are bombarding and intimidating voters at an alarming rate on a daily basis with distorted and immoral messages on almost every single issue ranging from abortion, euthanasia, gay-marriage, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, contraception to economy, financial markets, global wars against terrorism, education, healthcare, energy, and so on.
Several “mafia” mobs and moguls have used their financial power and wealth to control liberal media, to cover up the truth, and to find ways to kill the truth at its essence. It is very sad to know that Christian journalists, TV reporters, commentators, anchors, writers, cameramen, and all people who work in this profession nowadays are always ready to sell their own conscience and Christian faith without any hesitance at a very cheap price in favor of the evil forces, keep their blind eyes, and have their mouths shut for and from the truth. Nobody dares or has the nerve to say the truth, to report the truth, to defend for the truth, to stand up against the evil forces in the media, and to sacrifice his or her own life for the truth at all. America seems to come to her dead end with no way out with the moral truth and conscience.
To Christians, especially Catholics, there is nothing more urgent and important than the moral truth, and voting in this upcoming election must be considered as a moral responsibility and obligation not a free choice.
Conscience and moral values must always have or hold highest priorities in our lives than any values or issues because without moral truth and conscience, a human body and a human world can not develop, grow, and prosper at his/her full potential. Moral truth is the basic foundation of a human body, soul, mind and heart. Moral truth is what our Lord, Jesus Christ, has died and suffered on the Cross to humble Himself and to sacrifice His own life so that we are saved and kept alive.
Morality, as always, is the core teaching of our Catholic Church and the core value of our Christian or Catholic faith. Moral truth is never out of fashion no matter what this “evil” earth has turned to or the media has relentlessly painted it to. Our democracy is growing weaker because we are using up, but not replenishing, the moral resources that make our democracy possible. If moral truth does not exist, all that is left is power: whatever we can do, we may do. Moral truth works like check-and-balance of our deep soul.
Moral truth is absolute, and unchanging because they are God’s teaching that was revealed to us through the magisterium of the Church. Moral truth is non-negotiable and non-disputable issues. Critical issues such as: abortion, euthanasia, gay-marriage, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and contraception are moral truths.
B. Moral Issues of this Election:
Secular and liberal media have been fooling us for many years by shifting our main focus out of these moral principles and values, and making the economic, financial markets or war as the main issues of this election, but we as Christians and Catholics alike are not their easy targets for this deceiving scheme because we are shined by God’s true light, truth and way.
A sin, sick soul, mind and heart will not know how to solve the problems of the economy, war, or financial issue that this country is now going through these tough times. Without these moral principles and values serving as the guiding and decisive factors, nothing is possible or nothing can be done. Thus, “change we can believe in” is merely a political myth, a false promise, a trite and hollow commitment that aims to attract a sin sick soul, mind, and heart of those who are not guided by God’s true light, truth and way.
So, why do we have to pay particular attention to these moral issues?
* On the First Moral Issue of Abortion, the Catholic Church has taught us that abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide. Abortion means killing an innocent human being, and in the Ten Commandment, God ordered us that: “You shall not kill.”
Abortion also means genocide. If we count all the numbers of soldiers who sacrificed their own lives for the love and freedom of this country and the entire world against the numbers of all babies who were aborted or violently killed by their own mothers in this country alone since the legality of the abortion industry, the latter is obviously far higher than numbers of lives that were lost for noble causes of preserving and protecting peace and spreading democracy to the world.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta in her Nobel Lecture, delivered the day after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, 1979 in Oslo, Norway said:
“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.... Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but many are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing in between.”
Or during the Prayer Breakfast with former President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1997, Mother Teresa said:
“What is taking place in America is a war against the child, and if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
And in 2005, Wall-Street Journal published Mother Teresa’s words:
“America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts from God - a child - as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.”
John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Article 73 said: “Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Articles 2271 & 2272 emphasized that “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. 'A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,' 'by the very commission of the offense,' and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.”
Can. 1398 said: “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.”
Holy Scriptures further re-iterating the important and the sacredness of human life which can be found in Genesis 1:26-31, 2:4-25, & 4:1,17; James 3:9-10; Psalms 8:5-7; 127:3; 51:7; 139:13-15; 22:10-11; 106:35, 37-38, & 72:7,12; Romans 5:6-8; Amos 1:13; Luke 1:41, 18:15; 10:37; 10:25-37; & 16:19-31; Matthew 19:13-15; 19:18; & 7:12; 2 Kings 17:17-18; Galatians 1:15 & 3:38; Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17; 1 Cor. 1:30; Ephesians 2:4-5; John 10:10 & 15:17; I John 3:11-12; Isaiah 1:13-17; and Mark 2:16-17.
Pope John Paul II saw that abortion is an emblematic and singular socio-ethical problem, deserving central attention in Catholic social thought, because abortion deals specifically with the destruction of innocent life; abortion is the sheer magnitude of the problem not a social phenomenon; abortion has its own legal status that safely separates it from other justice issues; abortion is the arbitrary division of human beings into those worthy of life and those unworthy; abortion even distinguishes itself from related questions of medical ethics, such as euthanasia and assisted suicide, by the absence of any possibility of informed consent; and finally abortion differs from other major social ills such as unemployment and divorce because of its relative invisibility (USCCB Respect Life Program).
** On the Second Moral Issue of Gay or Same-Sex Marriage, or Homosexual Unions, the Catholic Church has taught us very clearly that true marriage must be the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as “marriage” undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.
CCC Nos. 2357-2359 clearly indicated: “…..Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
Holy Scriptures denounce this “sick” and “sinful” lifestyle via Genesis 1:27-28 & 18:19; Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13; Romans 1:27; I Cor. 6:9; I Timothy 1:9-10; and Mark 10:6-9.
Two important dangerous aspects of the legalizing or accepting same-sex marriage were clearly pointed out by Robert E. Ritchie – Founder of America Needs Fatima, in his article published in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Times as follows:
+ The Acceptance of Same-Sex “Marriage” is Incompatible with Christianity because:
Firstly, it diverges views on reality and the natural order. In such cases, we detach ourselves from reality and attach ourselves to an illusory, utopian understanding of the thing;
Secondly, it leads to different concepts of marriage, family and society. Secularists accept same-sex “marriage,” while denying the specific reality of marriage, rooted in nature. They deny that the self-evident biological, physiological and psychological differences between men and women find their complementarity in marriage, just as they deny that the specific primary purpose of marriage is the perpetuation of the human race and the raising of children. Rejection of the Christian worldview is secularism’s negative, destructive aspect. Its “positive” aspect is the utopia of a society without moral restraints in which marriage and the family have been redefined;
Thirdly, it creates utopian societies and the loss of freedom;
Fourthly, it imposes a big threat to religion and freedom. Over the past decades, America has witnessed a rising tide of laws, decrees, regulations, and judicial decisions that favor homosexuality on one hand, and hinder and punish those who oppose them for reasons of faith and conscience on the other in California, New York and recently in Connecticut. This push Christians and all people of good will to betray their consciences by condoning, through silence or act, an attack on Divine law and the natural order. Left unchecked, this anti-Christian trend will become an unprecedented assault on the First Amendment and our American way of life that we do not hesitate to call persecution;
Fifthly, it creates a terrible problem of conscience. As the homosexual revolution is anti-Christian intolerance makes itself felt through increasingly persecutory measures, a terrible problem of conscience arises in any who resist: should we follow our consciences? Should we give in? For Catholics, the condoning of same-sex “marriage” would be tantamount to a renunciation of Faith;
Lastly, moral acceptance of same-sex “marriage” is tantamount to the denial of Divine Revelation as when a Catholic rejects a truth in moral matters that is clearly contained in Revelation, he rejects the Divine authority that guarantees that truth and the whole supernatural basis of the Faith. To deny the intrinsic evilness of the homosexual act, and even more, to recognize it as worthy of practice or acceptance in the social order is to contradict expressly Divine Revelation and the precepts of natural law.
+ Same-Sex “Marriage” Harms the Common Good because:
Firstly, legalization of homosexual unions does actually weaken private and public morality. Legal recognition of homosexual unions would obscure certain basic moral values and cause a devaluation of the institution of marriage;
Secondly, legalization of homosexual unions does actually undermine marriage and the family;
Thirdly, as reason does not support the legalization of homosexual unions because homosexual unions cannot fulfill the primary purpose of marriage, they have no rational justification; and
Lastly, legalization of homosexual unions denigrates conjugal love as it lacks a real “conjugal dimension, which represents the human and ordered form of sexuality.”
The Catholic Church’s perennial and immutable moral doctrine condemns homosexual practice. Such important documents as: Persona Humana – Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics on December 29, 1975 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons on October 1, 1986 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor in 1993; and Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons in 2003, are excellent resources for further self-conscience testing of each and every one of us prior casting our votes in this upcoming election!
*** On the Third Moral Issue of Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide, the Catholic Church has taught us that euthanasia, often disguised by the names “mercy killing,” “right-to-die,” or “peaceful death,” is also a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae – The Gospel of Life No. 73).
CCC Nos. 2276, 2277, 2278 & 2279 and Declaration on Euthanasia published by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on May 5, 1980 stated very clearly on the value of human life, and the meaning of suffering for Christians.
Our country is on a collision course with euthanasia, and those who advocate “mercy killing” have a misplaced compassion, as pointed out by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. They want to eliminate all suffering. It sounds very nice, but very unrealistic … and also very pagan. As Christians, is all suffering meaningless? Does it have no value at all? Was the suffering of Christ meaningless? Or do we not say, “We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, for by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world." Did Jesus not tell His followers to embrace the Cross? Do we not join our pain to His to save souls?
Even from a secular viewpoint, does not suffering provide an occasion to grow in wisdom, character, and compassion? The push for mercy killing is utterly pagan. Christians, Catholics and all reasonable people must oppose it.
Some years ago, the winner of a Pro-Life Essay Contest sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York was Anne Marie O’Halloran, from Maria Regina High School in Hartsale wrote the following words about euthanasia:
“One of the highest values this country holds is freedom. This has led to a situation in which individuals believe they have the right to live completely as they desire. Human beings are seen as limitless. They have the right to decide how they want to live and how they should die …. Another quality prized by our culture is power. We believe, or rather, we would like to believe, that we can control anything and everything to ensure a safe and comfortable lifestyle … Our society has created a world in which it is always possible and always considered right to take the easy way out of problems, suffering and death. That way is completely against the example Jesus set for us; it is against Christian values. We, as Christians, must form a counter-culture. We do not pray for an easy, free or painless life and death. Rather we should pray for strength to sustain and understand the life God gave us to live.”
On September 12, 1991, a statement was released by the Administrative Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops called us to reject euthanasia:
“Legalizing euthanasia would also violate American convictions about human rights and equality. The Declaration of Independence proclaims our inalienable rights to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ If our right to life itself is diminished in value, our other rights will have no meaning. To destroy the boundary between healing and killing would mark a radical departure from long-standing legal and medical traditions of our country, posing a threat of unforeseeable magnitude to vulnerable members of our society. Those who represent the interests of elderly citizens, persons with disabilities and persons with AIDS or other terminal illnesses are justifiably alarmed when some hasten to confer on them the ‘freedom’ to be killed.
We call on Catholics, and on all persons of good will, to reject proposals to legalize euthanasia. We urge families to discuss issues surrounding the care of terminally ill loved ones in light of sound moral principles and the demands of human dignity, so that patients need not feel helpless or abandoned in the face of complex decisions about their future. And we urge health care professionals, legislators and all involved in this debate to seek solutions to the problems of terminally ill patients and their families that respect the inherent worth of all human beings, especially those most in need of our love and assistance.”
Finally, the Gospel of Matthew reminded us that: “And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:40).
Our times demand courage and wisdom. May these not be lacking to any one of us, as Christian and Catholic voters!
**** On the Fourth Moral Issue of Human Cloning, the Catholic Church has taught us that “Attempts … for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation, I:6).
Human cloning also involves abortion because the “rejected” or “unsuccessful” embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone in a human being. Cloning is not a human invention. The Creator Himself planned this way of reproduction. The world-wide fear of cloning derives from a vague and confused anxiety about a technology that seems out of control. A major reason for this fear is that in today’s ‘evolutionized’ world, there is no dividing line between the animal kingdom and humans, so the same ethical standards apply to dealings with both.
The Bible, however, draws a clear line between animals and humans, and gives us ethical guidelines:
+ Humans were created separately, in God’s image, unlike the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:27). Our existence extends beyond physical death (Luke 16:19-31 & Philippians 1:23). This is nowhere indicated for animals.
+ God allowed humans to kill animals (Genesis 9:2-3). Concerning other humans, He gave the commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill'(Exodus 20:13).
+ God entrusted humans with dominion over the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:26). But humans were never told to have dominion over other humans, nor manipulate them, as would be the case if cloning humans.
Furthermore, humans are meant to have fathers and mothers, to be where possible the offspring of a sacred marriage relationship, the family ordained by God. While unfortunate circumstances in a fallen world mean that sometimes children have to be raised by only one parent, a clone could never have two parents. Thus the artificial cloning of a complete human being, because it deliberately sets out to cause such a situation, is opposed to biblical principles. There are further reasons for rejecting the artificial cloning of humans. Each fertilized egg, including those from cloning, is a new human individual. Yet perfecting the cloning technique requires many experiments. Many individuals would be enabled to commence life, only to be deliberately destroyed.
The ethical problems and potential risks of human cloning as pointed out by both Drs. T.M. Moore from Ankerberg Theological Research Institute, and Robert W. Evans from Veritas Institute for the Study of Bioethics and Public Values can be highlighted as follows:
+ Modern science has often proceeded on the idea “if we can do it, we may, and probably should.” That kind of thinking borders on the realm of presumed omniscience, the kind of attitude that says, “We are scientists, and we know what we are doing; we do not have to listen to anybody other than ourselves.”
Yet such a prerogative surely belongs to God alone. This hubris of science, following the flood the Lord, surveying the arrogant attempt of fallen men to build a city and tower to celebrate their own technological genius and ability, lamented that, having begun on such a hubristic path, humans would not be restrained to do whatever their fertile-albeit fallen-imaginations might concoct (Genesis 11:6).
+ Human reductionism is the second problem area from a Biblical and Christian perspective. Years of animal experimentation in the development of drugs and treatments have solidified in the minds of many “scientists” that humans are just like animals, only a little more complex (all those feelings and stuff). For Christians this is a serious problem, for we understand the Scriptures to teach that human beings are not simply advanced animals; they are the image-bearers of God, and whatever else that means, it is a designation unique to human beings, one that animals do not share (Genesis 1:26-28).
As the image-bearers of God certainly we would expect some kinds of deference, some deeper considerations to be given before we apply the fruit of animal research directly to human beings and communities. This reductionism approach of modern evolutionary science to the question of the nature of human beings has, as recently as the last century, led to human disaster on a massive scale.
For example, in cloning Dolly, researchers began with 277 fertilized eggs from which only 29 reached that stage in development necessary, the rest would be destroyed or considered as wasteful materials or commodities, and the chances of successfully duplicating a creature without variations, and without complication, is extremely slim.
+ Human reductionism also leads to the degradation and devaluation of human life. If the human being amounts to little more than a shopping mall of genes, available on demand for the future betterment of the race, then the genes are more important than any individual carrier thereof. The fixation on genes can lead us to believe that thins like affections, minds, and consciences—the very stuff of the soul (1 Timothy 1:5)—do not exist, and, thus, need not be taken seriously in seeking to solve problems relevant to the human situation. If human beings are not the image-bearers of God, if they are only animals, to be manipulated, improved, refined, and, yes, cloned, then there is no reason to think that any of those notions of “humanity,” “humaneness,” or “human-kindness,” ideas that had their origins in the days when we thought otherwise about the kind of beings people are, should have any more utility in the brave new world we are creating.
+ One of the potential risks involved in cloning a human being is the high rate of experimental casualties that are involved in the process. Yet another source of potential risk lies the possible reduction in bio-diversity. There is a need to maintain of the human species a sufficient level of genetic diversity in order to ensure our ongoing survival and heal. Imagine in a society where a considerable number of the population were cloned from the DNA of only a few individuals, it would become increasingly difficult for each subsequent generation to find genetically safe partners due to the same reason for which close relatives are discouraged from marrying and mating with one another.
+ Yet another potential risk lies in the possibility of social control being exercised by the very few. The future, indeed, is held in the hands of those who understand and control these levers of power with only the slightest degree of accountability to the public at large.
+ Finally, there are a host of social concerns that also readily attach themselves to the pursuit of human cloning. Single individuals, unmarried couples, and homosexuals having children through assisted reproductive technologies made available through human cloning will likely grow in both popularity and acceptability in our society. The public already becomes downright giddy when yet another Hollywood celebrity issues a statement through a publicist announcing that she is expecting a child, but refusing to disclose the identify of the “father” (a term used loosely today to reference, not the role that a man plays in a child’s life, but merely its production).
Already, some gay-rights advocates are arguing that such sexual preferences prove to have a biological basis, and should genetic screening measures lead to the termination of identified “gay embryos” that homosexuals would have a moral obligation to produce gay children through human cloning It is also the case that cloning requires a host womb. As such, it is likely that surrogate motherhood would likely increase in our society as well.
Indeed seeking cures for cancer and AIDS are worthy and noble causes. However, such goals do not justify the defacement of the image of God in man. The time for Christians and Catholics to be speaking and working for a true change in the consensus of thinking about human cloning is now, and, as a former President once asked of his cabinet, “If not us, who; if not now, when?”
***** On the Fifth Moral Issue of Embryonic Stem Cell Research, the Catholic Church has taught us that human embryos are human beings, thus “respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo” (Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family, No. 4b).
In his 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II wrote: "Human embryos obtained in vitro are human beings and are subjects with rights; their dignity and right to life must be respected from the first moment of their existence. It is immoral to produce human embryos destined to be exploited as disposable 'biological material'" (1,5).
On June 29, 2001, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote on behalf of the nation's Catholic bishops to President George W. Bush, urging him not to authorize federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. "Government must not treat any living human being as research material, as a mere means for benefit to others," wrote Bishop Fiorenza. Pope John Paul II made the same request during a private meeting with President Bush on July 23, 2001.
CCC No. 2274, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation (Donum Vitae) published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, and Holy Scriptures (Genesis 4:8; 4:10; & 9:5-6; 1 John 3:11-12; Romans 1:28; and Ephesians 5:8-11) are excellent resources for further understanding of this important teaching of the Church.
****** On the Sixth Moral Issue of Contraception, the Catholic Church has taught us that “When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as ‘arbiters’ of the divine plan and they ‘manipulate’ and degrade human sexuality-and with it themselves and their married partner-by altering its value of ‘total’ self-giving” (Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio of Pope John Paul II on the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World – No.32).
Further teachings of Pope Paul VI via His encyclical letter Humanae Vitae on the Regulation of Birth – No. 16, CCC Nos. 2370 & 2399, and Holy Scriptures (Genesis 1:27-28; Psalms 127:3-5; 1 Chronicles 25:5 & 26:4-5; Hosea 9:10-17; Exodus 23:25-26; Deuteronomy 23:2; 25:5-10; & 25:11-12; Leviticus 20:13-16; & 21:17-20; Romans 1:25-27; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; Acts 5:1-11; Galatians 5:20 & 6:7; Matthew 21:19; Mark 11:14; and 1 Cor. 6:19-20) are obvious moral guidelines for us, Catholics, in examining the candidates’ position on this important moral issue.
C. Cross-Examination of Candidates’ Voting Records on Moral Issues:
Without any doubt, as Catholics we all know that two candidates for Republican ticket are strongly pro-life, pro-family, against contraception, and support all ethical and moral values that we really need in this time of indecency, immoral and sinful world. They are strong advocates for the “Culture of Life.”
On the other hand, two candidates for the Democratic ticket are 100% pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and against both Catholic teachings and family values.
Senator Barack Obama has vowed that he “will make preserving women’s rights under Roe vs. Wade a priority as president.” Even worst, he is a co-sponsor of the “Freedom of Choice Act,” a bill that would invalidate virtually all state and federal limitations on abortion, including partial-birth abortion, and mainstream media has ignored Obama’s radical abortion record. He apparently does not know the difference between a fetus and an infant.
Senator Joe Biden is another type of Catholic “in question” who opposes his own Catholic Faith and still wants to be a Catholic. His voting records are 100% out-of-sync with the Church’s teachings. His former Bishop did not allow him to give any speech at Diocesan Catholic schools. Since giving out his anti-Christ remarks about abortion on NBC “Meet the Press,” Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson of the Knights of Columbus along with 2 Cardinals, 2 Archbishops and 10 Bishops around the nation have publicly corrected his blunt view on this important moral issue of abortion.
The Bishops said:
“It is plainly false to assert that the answer to the question of when human life begins is limited to the realm of personal and private faith and that therefore there is no basis for preferring one position over another. Resistance to abortion is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion, and the senator knows very well as a lawmaker that all law involves the imposition of some people's convictions on everyone else. That is the nature of the law. American Catholics have allowed themselves to be bullied into accepting the destruction of more than a million developing unborn children a year. Other people have imposed their 'pro-choice' beliefs on American society without any remorse for decades" (LifeSiteNews on September 15, 2008).
On the issue of the Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) research, Marjorie Dannenfelser - President of Susan B. Anthony List was appalled by Joe Biden’s “caustic comments on disabled children” by saying:
“Senator Biden outrageously implied that Americans who refuse to sacrifice innocent human life in the name of unproven, desperate attempts to cure our nation's ills through embryo-destructive research somehow don't really care about children. I am a mother of five children, one with a mental disability. The fact that Joe Biden questioned the compassion of parents like me - Governor Sarah Palin, among them - makes me sputter in disbelief. Compassion can never be built upon callous disregard for human life. I want to talk to him about compassion - and not the kind that leads to the gas chamber" (LifeSiteNews on September 10, 2008).
On the same ESC issue, Senator Barack Obama criticized Bush administration funding restrictions for "handcuffing" scientific progress, while Senator John McCain said that, while ESC is acceptable, moral and ethical values should not be violated by creating embryos specifically for stem cell harvesting (LifeSiteNews on September 19, 2008).
With these above-mention reasons, there is no doubt why top Vatican Judge of the Apostolic Signatura, Archbishop Raymond Burke, has warned the Democratic Party that is at risk of becoming the “Party of Death” for its hard-line advocacy for abortion and euthanasia (LifeSiteNews on September 20, 2008). As Catholics, we can not promote candidates whose views and actions are for the culture of death anymore.
As Catholics, we must exercise our cherished right and our solemn duty as Americans and as Catholics to vote and to support pro-life and pro-family values. We Catholics are called to look at politics as we are called to look at everything - through the lens of our faith. We should be guided in evaluating the important issues facing our state and nation by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church.
The most important of these issues is "the inalienable right to life of every innocent human person," which "outweighs other concerns where Catholics may use prudential judgment." The right to life is the right through which all others flow. To the extent candidates reject this fundamental right by supporting an objective evil, such as legal abortion, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research, Catholics should consider them less acceptable for public office.
Finally, we must remember that “to vote for a candidate who supports these intrinsic evils because her or she supports these evils is to participate in a grave moral evil. It can never be justified.”
D. Stakes are Extremely High:
For evangelical Christians and Catholics voters alike, the stakes are extremely high in this critical election on several dimensions of spiritual, conscience and private sphere.
In his note entitled “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion,” Cardinal-then Joseph Ratzinger said:
“A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.”
Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment.
There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.
In short, voting for pro-choice candidates who strongly promote and advocate for the culture of death means automatically ex-communicate ourselves from the Catholic Church; denounce our Catholic Faith which we have received in the Baptism; purposely fight against God’s will for life (abundant life) on this earth; spit on God’s face; and completely destroy our own conscience and soul which is the temple of the Holy Spirit and God’s image in us. Are we ready to do this?
It is very strange and odd, however, to witness several members of our own Catholic Faith who just receive Holy Communion on Sunday Mass, and proudly have “Barrack Obama’s sticker” on the back of their cars. What type of messages are they trying to “sell” or “evangelize” to other Catholic parishioners and non-Christians, if not for demoting the culture of life and God’s civilization of love and hope?
Of course, I do not have any rights to judge the actions of these Catholic parishioners, but I do believe God in the Heaven will surely take a note of it and will never let this slip through when they are face-to-face with Him on later days.
Evangelical Christians and Catholics voters alike are not “properties” of any political party. Rather, we are and we must be God’s own instruments to renew the face of this earth and more importantly the fate of many future generations to come in this country. A country without moral principles and values is a country of death and evils.
Thus, if we decide to vote along the racial or party lines without seriously putting God into consideration and check; we turn our back against God and return His abundant goodness and blessings for evil forces, not for good causes. If then, how can we face God and justify our “mean” and “evil” actions on the Final Judgment Day because we let the immoral truth and evil forces to win and dominate the hearts, souls and minds of many future generations to come of our own children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on?
God gives us “freedom” to do anything we want and we have learned the cost of this “freedom” through the obvious example of the former Adam. Whether we choose to let the moral truth talk, grow, and prosper or the immoral truth control and destroy this nation; whether we choose to please or displease, to respect or disrespect our Almighty God; whether we choose to promote the culture of life and the civilization of love or to demote it, whether we choose to fully restore God’s moral values and principles or to let the evils spread wide their wings of fear, hatred, and racial madness, it is totally up to each and everyone of us, and we must know how to justify these choices or actions when we face God. How can we glorify God in public squares if we let the racial and party lines bother and act against our deep consciences and God’s eternal and absolute truth on these moral principles and values?
In Living the Gospel of Life, the U.S. Bishops reminded us, “We get the public officials we deserve. Their virtue -- or lack thereof – is a judgment not only on them, but on us. Because of this, we urge our fellow citizens to see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest” (No. 34).
If the platform of that party today contradicts the platform of the Gospel and the moral law, we as Catholics need to have the inner freedom to depart from personal, family, or community tradition and vote instead for the candidate and party that best reflect God’s law. We are free to belong to the political party of our choice, but first we belong to Jesus Christ.
And belonging to Him means that there are certain things we can no longer assent to or go along with, including in politics and the voting booth (Voting with a Clear Conscience by Father Frank Pavone, No.6).
If we choose to let secular and liberal media cover up the moral truth and fool us with their hostile attacks on pro-life candidates, and hatred attitudes towards God’s moral truth, values and principles, we really betray God’s expectation and hope on us as His own sons and daughters on this earth. Vicious and bias attacks on pro-life candidates can not be tolerance, and we as Catholics must never let this happen! We must let our own consciences speak for the moral truth through the ballot we place in this upcoming election.
As far as proposing a sound moral solution to solve the economic turmoil threatening American citizens, U.S. Bishops, represented by Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, chairman of the Episcopal Conference’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development affirmed that “our faith and moral principles can help guide the search for just and effective responses to this tough situation.”
The prelate emphasized the human and moral dimensions of the crisis by saying:
“Economic arrangements, structures and remedies should have as a fundamental purpose safeguarding human life and dignity. A scandalous search for excessive economic rewards which gets to the point of exacerbating the vulnerable is an example of an economic ethic that places economic gain above all other values. This ignores the impact of economic decisions on the lives of real people as well as the ethical dimension of the choices we make and the moral responsibility we have for their effect on people” (Zenit News on September 29, 2008).
Tackling or promising to solve the economic problems without taking into full and serious consideration of all moral aspects and ethical values, to me, is just merely a poor and ill ‘tactic,’ or a type of cunning politics!
We must not let ourselves to be guided by evils to wrong paths which we have never known before and soon realized at later times. Let God's Truth, Way and Light be our only Guild of our own consciences in this very important election.
In the Mass, we say "Yes" to God, however outside the Mass we say "No" to our Catholic Faith, and we can not say "Yes" to secular values, but say "No" to Christian Morality Values either!
Stakes are not that high though if we do let our well-informed conscience, God’s truth, God’s moral principles and values, and God’s teachings have an obvious chance to shine on every corner of this earth, especially through this vital election of our country.
May you and I have enough strength and courage from our Almighty God to stand up against all the odds, all the evil but “hidden” forces, especially against our own racial and party lines to denounce evils and protect the moral truth by choosing pro-life candidates!
May God’s eternal peace be always present in our hearts, souls and minds!
Đây là phần bài viết bằng Anh Ngữ tóm tắt lại những ý tưởng chính mà tác giả đã viết trong bài viết có nhan đề: "Cẩm Nang về Bầu Cử Xã Hội và Trách Nhiệm của Lương Tâm," để cho các bạn độc giả trẻ nói Anh Ngữ tham khảo và suy xét thêm....
A. The Importance of Moral Truth:
Never in the history, the fate of this country is at the highest risk; and stakes for both Christians in general, and Catholics in particular are very high. American Christians have never faced such a great challenge or ordeal to their faith and moral in their lives before than they have right now.
Secular and liberal media which is extremely anti-Christ and against the truth at its core heart are bombarding and intimidating voters at an alarming rate on a daily basis with distorted and immoral messages on almost every single issue ranging from abortion, euthanasia, gay-marriage, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, contraception to economy, financial markets, global wars against terrorism, education, healthcare, energy, and so on.
Several “mafia” mobs and moguls have used their financial power and wealth to control liberal media, to cover up the truth, and to find ways to kill the truth at its essence. It is very sad to know that Christian journalists, TV reporters, commentators, anchors, writers, cameramen, and all people who work in this profession nowadays are always ready to sell their own conscience and Christian faith without any hesitance at a very cheap price in favor of the evil forces, keep their blind eyes, and have their mouths shut for and from the truth. Nobody dares or has the nerve to say the truth, to report the truth, to defend for the truth, to stand up against the evil forces in the media, and to sacrifice his or her own life for the truth at all. America seems to come to her dead end with no way out with the moral truth and conscience.
To Christians, especially Catholics, there is nothing more urgent and important than the moral truth, and voting in this upcoming election must be considered as a moral responsibility and obligation not a free choice.
Conscience and moral values must always have or hold highest priorities in our lives than any values or issues because without moral truth and conscience, a human body and a human world can not develop, grow, and prosper at his/her full potential. Moral truth is the basic foundation of a human body, soul, mind and heart. Moral truth is what our Lord, Jesus Christ, has died and suffered on the Cross to humble Himself and to sacrifice His own life so that we are saved and kept alive.
Morality, as always, is the core teaching of our Catholic Church and the core value of our Christian or Catholic faith. Moral truth is never out of fashion no matter what this “evil” earth has turned to or the media has relentlessly painted it to. Our democracy is growing weaker because we are using up, but not replenishing, the moral resources that make our democracy possible. If moral truth does not exist, all that is left is power: whatever we can do, we may do. Moral truth works like check-and-balance of our deep soul.
Moral truth is absolute, and unchanging because they are God’s teaching that was revealed to us through the magisterium of the Church. Moral truth is non-negotiable and non-disputable issues. Critical issues such as: abortion, euthanasia, gay-marriage, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and contraception are moral truths.
B. Moral Issues of this Election:
Secular and liberal media have been fooling us for many years by shifting our main focus out of these moral principles and values, and making the economic, financial markets or war as the main issues of this election, but we as Christians and Catholics alike are not their easy targets for this deceiving scheme because we are shined by God’s true light, truth and way.
A sin, sick soul, mind and heart will not know how to solve the problems of the economy, war, or financial issue that this country is now going through these tough times. Without these moral principles and values serving as the guiding and decisive factors, nothing is possible or nothing can be done. Thus, “change we can believe in” is merely a political myth, a false promise, a trite and hollow commitment that aims to attract a sin sick soul, mind, and heart of those who are not guided by God’s true light, truth and way.
So, why do we have to pay particular attention to these moral issues?
* On the First Moral Issue of Abortion, the Catholic Church has taught us that abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide. Abortion means killing an innocent human being, and in the Ten Commandment, God ordered us that: “You shall not kill.”
Abortion also means genocide. If we count all the numbers of soldiers who sacrificed their own lives for the love and freedom of this country and the entire world against the numbers of all babies who were aborted or violently killed by their own mothers in this country alone since the legality of the abortion industry, the latter is obviously far higher than numbers of lives that were lost for noble causes of preserving and protecting peace and spreading democracy to the world.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta in her Nobel Lecture, delivered the day after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, 1979 in Oslo, Norway said:
“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.... Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but many are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing in between.”
Or during the Prayer Breakfast with former President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1997, Mother Teresa said:
“What is taking place in America is a war against the child, and if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
And in 2005, Wall-Street Journal published Mother Teresa’s words:
“America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts from God - a child - as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.”
John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Article 73 said: “Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Articles 2271 & 2272 emphasized that “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. 'A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,' 'by the very commission of the offense,' and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.”
Can. 1398 said: “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.”
Holy Scriptures further re-iterating the important and the sacredness of human life which can be found in Genesis 1:26-31, 2:4-25, & 4:1,17; James 3:9-10; Psalms 8:5-7; 127:3; 51:7; 139:13-15; 22:10-11; 106:35, 37-38, & 72:7,12; Romans 5:6-8; Amos 1:13; Luke 1:41, 18:15; 10:37; 10:25-37; & 16:19-31; Matthew 19:13-15; 19:18; & 7:12; 2 Kings 17:17-18; Galatians 1:15 & 3:38; Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17; 1 Cor. 1:30; Ephesians 2:4-5; John 10:10 & 15:17; I John 3:11-12; Isaiah 1:13-17; and Mark 2:16-17.
Pope John Paul II saw that abortion is an emblematic and singular socio-ethical problem, deserving central attention in Catholic social thought, because abortion deals specifically with the destruction of innocent life; abortion is the sheer magnitude of the problem not a social phenomenon; abortion has its own legal status that safely separates it from other justice issues; abortion is the arbitrary division of human beings into those worthy of life and those unworthy; abortion even distinguishes itself from related questions of medical ethics, such as euthanasia and assisted suicide, by the absence of any possibility of informed consent; and finally abortion differs from other major social ills such as unemployment and divorce because of its relative invisibility (USCCB Respect Life Program).
** On the Second Moral Issue of Gay or Same-Sex Marriage, or Homosexual Unions, the Catholic Church has taught us very clearly that true marriage must be the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as “marriage” undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.
CCC Nos. 2357-2359 clearly indicated: “…..Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
Holy Scriptures denounce this “sick” and “sinful” lifestyle via Genesis 1:27-28 & 18:19; Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13; Romans 1:27; I Cor. 6:9; I Timothy 1:9-10; and Mark 10:6-9.
Two important dangerous aspects of the legalizing or accepting same-sex marriage were clearly pointed out by Robert E. Ritchie – Founder of America Needs Fatima, in his article published in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Times as follows:
+ The Acceptance of Same-Sex “Marriage” is Incompatible with Christianity because:
Firstly, it diverges views on reality and the natural order. In such cases, we detach ourselves from reality and attach ourselves to an illusory, utopian understanding of the thing;
Secondly, it leads to different concepts of marriage, family and society. Secularists accept same-sex “marriage,” while denying the specific reality of marriage, rooted in nature. They deny that the self-evident biological, physiological and psychological differences between men and women find their complementarity in marriage, just as they deny that the specific primary purpose of marriage is the perpetuation of the human race and the raising of children. Rejection of the Christian worldview is secularism’s negative, destructive aspect. Its “positive” aspect is the utopia of a society without moral restraints in which marriage and the family have been redefined;
Thirdly, it creates utopian societies and the loss of freedom;
Fourthly, it imposes a big threat to religion and freedom. Over the past decades, America has witnessed a rising tide of laws, decrees, regulations, and judicial decisions that favor homosexuality on one hand, and hinder and punish those who oppose them for reasons of faith and conscience on the other in California, New York and recently in Connecticut. This push Christians and all people of good will to betray their consciences by condoning, through silence or act, an attack on Divine law and the natural order. Left unchecked, this anti-Christian trend will become an unprecedented assault on the First Amendment and our American way of life that we do not hesitate to call persecution;
Fifthly, it creates a terrible problem of conscience. As the homosexual revolution is anti-Christian intolerance makes itself felt through increasingly persecutory measures, a terrible problem of conscience arises in any who resist: should we follow our consciences? Should we give in? For Catholics, the condoning of same-sex “marriage” would be tantamount to a renunciation of Faith;
Lastly, moral acceptance of same-sex “marriage” is tantamount to the denial of Divine Revelation as when a Catholic rejects a truth in moral matters that is clearly contained in Revelation, he rejects the Divine authority that guarantees that truth and the whole supernatural basis of the Faith. To deny the intrinsic evilness of the homosexual act, and even more, to recognize it as worthy of practice or acceptance in the social order is to contradict expressly Divine Revelation and the precepts of natural law.
+ Same-Sex “Marriage” Harms the Common Good because:
Firstly, legalization of homosexual unions does actually weaken private and public morality. Legal recognition of homosexual unions would obscure certain basic moral values and cause a devaluation of the institution of marriage;
Secondly, legalization of homosexual unions does actually undermine marriage and the family;
Thirdly, as reason does not support the legalization of homosexual unions because homosexual unions cannot fulfill the primary purpose of marriage, they have no rational justification; and
Lastly, legalization of homosexual unions denigrates conjugal love as it lacks a real “conjugal dimension, which represents the human and ordered form of sexuality.”
The Catholic Church’s perennial and immutable moral doctrine condemns homosexual practice. Such important documents as: Persona Humana – Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics on December 29, 1975 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons on October 1, 1986 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor in 1993; and Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons in 2003, are excellent resources for further self-conscience testing of each and every one of us prior casting our votes in this upcoming election!
*** On the Third Moral Issue of Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide, the Catholic Church has taught us that euthanasia, often disguised by the names “mercy killing,” “right-to-die,” or “peaceful death,” is also a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae – The Gospel of Life No. 73).
CCC Nos. 2276, 2277, 2278 & 2279 and Declaration on Euthanasia published by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on May 5, 1980 stated very clearly on the value of human life, and the meaning of suffering for Christians.
Our country is on a collision course with euthanasia, and those who advocate “mercy killing” have a misplaced compassion, as pointed out by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. They want to eliminate all suffering. It sounds very nice, but very unrealistic … and also very pagan. As Christians, is all suffering meaningless? Does it have no value at all? Was the suffering of Christ meaningless? Or do we not say, “We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, for by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world." Did Jesus not tell His followers to embrace the Cross? Do we not join our pain to His to save souls?
Even from a secular viewpoint, does not suffering provide an occasion to grow in wisdom, character, and compassion? The push for mercy killing is utterly pagan. Christians, Catholics and all reasonable people must oppose it.
Some years ago, the winner of a Pro-Life Essay Contest sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York was Anne Marie O’Halloran, from Maria Regina High School in Hartsale wrote the following words about euthanasia:
“One of the highest values this country holds is freedom. This has led to a situation in which individuals believe they have the right to live completely as they desire. Human beings are seen as limitless. They have the right to decide how they want to live and how they should die …. Another quality prized by our culture is power. We believe, or rather, we would like to believe, that we can control anything and everything to ensure a safe and comfortable lifestyle … Our society has created a world in which it is always possible and always considered right to take the easy way out of problems, suffering and death. That way is completely against the example Jesus set for us; it is against Christian values. We, as Christians, must form a counter-culture. We do not pray for an easy, free or painless life and death. Rather we should pray for strength to sustain and understand the life God gave us to live.”
On September 12, 1991, a statement was released by the Administrative Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops called us to reject euthanasia:
“Legalizing euthanasia would also violate American convictions about human rights and equality. The Declaration of Independence proclaims our inalienable rights to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ If our right to life itself is diminished in value, our other rights will have no meaning. To destroy the boundary between healing and killing would mark a radical departure from long-standing legal and medical traditions of our country, posing a threat of unforeseeable magnitude to vulnerable members of our society. Those who represent the interests of elderly citizens, persons with disabilities and persons with AIDS or other terminal illnesses are justifiably alarmed when some hasten to confer on them the ‘freedom’ to be killed.
We call on Catholics, and on all persons of good will, to reject proposals to legalize euthanasia. We urge families to discuss issues surrounding the care of terminally ill loved ones in light of sound moral principles and the demands of human dignity, so that patients need not feel helpless or abandoned in the face of complex decisions about their future. And we urge health care professionals, legislators and all involved in this debate to seek solutions to the problems of terminally ill patients and their families that respect the inherent worth of all human beings, especially those most in need of our love and assistance.”
Finally, the Gospel of Matthew reminded us that: “And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:40).
Our times demand courage and wisdom. May these not be lacking to any one of us, as Christian and Catholic voters!
**** On the Fourth Moral Issue of Human Cloning, the Catholic Church has taught us that “Attempts … for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation, I:6).
Human cloning also involves abortion because the “rejected” or “unsuccessful” embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone in a human being. Cloning is not a human invention. The Creator Himself planned this way of reproduction. The world-wide fear of cloning derives from a vague and confused anxiety about a technology that seems out of control. A major reason for this fear is that in today’s ‘evolutionized’ world, there is no dividing line between the animal kingdom and humans, so the same ethical standards apply to dealings with both.
The Bible, however, draws a clear line between animals and humans, and gives us ethical guidelines:
+ Humans were created separately, in God’s image, unlike the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:27). Our existence extends beyond physical death (Luke 16:19-31 & Philippians 1:23). This is nowhere indicated for animals.
+ God allowed humans to kill animals (Genesis 9:2-3). Concerning other humans, He gave the commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill'(Exodus 20:13).
+ God entrusted humans with dominion over the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:26). But humans were never told to have dominion over other humans, nor manipulate them, as would be the case if cloning humans.
Furthermore, humans are meant to have fathers and mothers, to be where possible the offspring of a sacred marriage relationship, the family ordained by God. While unfortunate circumstances in a fallen world mean that sometimes children have to be raised by only one parent, a clone could never have two parents. Thus the artificial cloning of a complete human being, because it deliberately sets out to cause such a situation, is opposed to biblical principles. There are further reasons for rejecting the artificial cloning of humans. Each fertilized egg, including those from cloning, is a new human individual. Yet perfecting the cloning technique requires many experiments. Many individuals would be enabled to commence life, only to be deliberately destroyed.
The ethical problems and potential risks of human cloning as pointed out by both Drs. T.M. Moore from Ankerberg Theological Research Institute, and Robert W. Evans from Veritas Institute for the Study of Bioethics and Public Values can be highlighted as follows:
+ Modern science has often proceeded on the idea “if we can do it, we may, and probably should.” That kind of thinking borders on the realm of presumed omniscience, the kind of attitude that says, “We are scientists, and we know what we are doing; we do not have to listen to anybody other than ourselves.”
Yet such a prerogative surely belongs to God alone. This hubris of science, following the flood the Lord, surveying the arrogant attempt of fallen men to build a city and tower to celebrate their own technological genius and ability, lamented that, having begun on such a hubristic path, humans would not be restrained to do whatever their fertile-albeit fallen-imaginations might concoct (Genesis 11:6).
+ Human reductionism is the second problem area from a Biblical and Christian perspective. Years of animal experimentation in the development of drugs and treatments have solidified in the minds of many “scientists” that humans are just like animals, only a little more complex (all those feelings and stuff). For Christians this is a serious problem, for we understand the Scriptures to teach that human beings are not simply advanced animals; they are the image-bearers of God, and whatever else that means, it is a designation unique to human beings, one that animals do not share (Genesis 1:26-28).
As the image-bearers of God certainly we would expect some kinds of deference, some deeper considerations to be given before we apply the fruit of animal research directly to human beings and communities. This reductionism approach of modern evolutionary science to the question of the nature of human beings has, as recently as the last century, led to human disaster on a massive scale.
For example, in cloning Dolly, researchers began with 277 fertilized eggs from which only 29 reached that stage in development necessary, the rest would be destroyed or considered as wasteful materials or commodities, and the chances of successfully duplicating a creature without variations, and without complication, is extremely slim.
+ Human reductionism also leads to the degradation and devaluation of human life. If the human being amounts to little more than a shopping mall of genes, available on demand for the future betterment of the race, then the genes are more important than any individual carrier thereof. The fixation on genes can lead us to believe that thins like affections, minds, and consciences—the very stuff of the soul (1 Timothy 1:5)—do not exist, and, thus, need not be taken seriously in seeking to solve problems relevant to the human situation. If human beings are not the image-bearers of God, if they are only animals, to be manipulated, improved, refined, and, yes, cloned, then there is no reason to think that any of those notions of “humanity,” “humaneness,” or “human-kindness,” ideas that had their origins in the days when we thought otherwise about the kind of beings people are, should have any more utility in the brave new world we are creating.
+ One of the potential risks involved in cloning a human being is the high rate of experimental casualties that are involved in the process. Yet another source of potential risk lies the possible reduction in bio-diversity. There is a need to maintain of the human species a sufficient level of genetic diversity in order to ensure our ongoing survival and heal. Imagine in a society where a considerable number of the population were cloned from the DNA of only a few individuals, it would become increasingly difficult for each subsequent generation to find genetically safe partners due to the same reason for which close relatives are discouraged from marrying and mating with one another.
+ Yet another potential risk lies in the possibility of social control being exercised by the very few. The future, indeed, is held in the hands of those who understand and control these levers of power with only the slightest degree of accountability to the public at large.
+ Finally, there are a host of social concerns that also readily attach themselves to the pursuit of human cloning. Single individuals, unmarried couples, and homosexuals having children through assisted reproductive technologies made available through human cloning will likely grow in both popularity and acceptability in our society. The public already becomes downright giddy when yet another Hollywood celebrity issues a statement through a publicist announcing that she is expecting a child, but refusing to disclose the identify of the “father” (a term used loosely today to reference, not the role that a man plays in a child’s life, but merely its production).
Already, some gay-rights advocates are arguing that such sexual preferences prove to have a biological basis, and should genetic screening measures lead to the termination of identified “gay embryos” that homosexuals would have a moral obligation to produce gay children through human cloning It is also the case that cloning requires a host womb. As such, it is likely that surrogate motherhood would likely increase in our society as well.
Indeed seeking cures for cancer and AIDS are worthy and noble causes. However, such goals do not justify the defacement of the image of God in man. The time for Christians and Catholics to be speaking and working for a true change in the consensus of thinking about human cloning is now, and, as a former President once asked of his cabinet, “If not us, who; if not now, when?”
***** On the Fifth Moral Issue of Embryonic Stem Cell Research, the Catholic Church has taught us that human embryos are human beings, thus “respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo” (Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family, No. 4b).
In his 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II wrote: "Human embryos obtained in vitro are human beings and are subjects with rights; their dignity and right to life must be respected from the first moment of their existence. It is immoral to produce human embryos destined to be exploited as disposable 'biological material'" (1,5).
On June 29, 2001, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote on behalf of the nation's Catholic bishops to President George W. Bush, urging him not to authorize federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. "Government must not treat any living human being as research material, as a mere means for benefit to others," wrote Bishop Fiorenza. Pope John Paul II made the same request during a private meeting with President Bush on July 23, 2001.
CCC No. 2274, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation (Donum Vitae) published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, and Holy Scriptures (Genesis 4:8; 4:10; & 9:5-6; 1 John 3:11-12; Romans 1:28; and Ephesians 5:8-11) are excellent resources for further understanding of this important teaching of the Church.
****** On the Sixth Moral Issue of Contraception, the Catholic Church has taught us that “When couples, by means of recourse to contraception, separate these two meanings that God the Creator has inscribed in the being of man and woman and in the dynamism of their sexual communion, they act as ‘arbiters’ of the divine plan and they ‘manipulate’ and degrade human sexuality-and with it themselves and their married partner-by altering its value of ‘total’ self-giving” (Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio of Pope John Paul II on the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World – No.32).
Further teachings of Pope Paul VI via His encyclical letter Humanae Vitae on the Regulation of Birth – No. 16, CCC Nos. 2370 & 2399, and Holy Scriptures (Genesis 1:27-28; Psalms 127:3-5; 1 Chronicles 25:5 & 26:4-5; Hosea 9:10-17; Exodus 23:25-26; Deuteronomy 23:2; 25:5-10; & 25:11-12; Leviticus 20:13-16; & 21:17-20; Romans 1:25-27; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; Acts 5:1-11; Galatians 5:20 & 6:7; Matthew 21:19; Mark 11:14; and 1 Cor. 6:19-20) are obvious moral guidelines for us, Catholics, in examining the candidates’ position on this important moral issue.
C. Cross-Examination of Candidates’ Voting Records on Moral Issues:
Without any doubt, as Catholics we all know that two candidates for Republican ticket are strongly pro-life, pro-family, against contraception, and support all ethical and moral values that we really need in this time of indecency, immoral and sinful world. They are strong advocates for the “Culture of Life.”
On the other hand, two candidates for the Democratic ticket are 100% pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and against both Catholic teachings and family values.
Senator Barack Obama has vowed that he “will make preserving women’s rights under Roe vs. Wade a priority as president.” Even worst, he is a co-sponsor of the “Freedom of Choice Act,” a bill that would invalidate virtually all state and federal limitations on abortion, including partial-birth abortion, and mainstream media has ignored Obama’s radical abortion record. He apparently does not know the difference between a fetus and an infant.
Senator Joe Biden is another type of Catholic “in question” who opposes his own Catholic Faith and still wants to be a Catholic. His voting records are 100% out-of-sync with the Church’s teachings. His former Bishop did not allow him to give any speech at Diocesan Catholic schools. Since giving out his anti-Christ remarks about abortion on NBC “Meet the Press,” Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson of the Knights of Columbus along with 2 Cardinals, 2 Archbishops and 10 Bishops around the nation have publicly corrected his blunt view on this important moral issue of abortion.
The Bishops said:
“It is plainly false to assert that the answer to the question of when human life begins is limited to the realm of personal and private faith and that therefore there is no basis for preferring one position over another. Resistance to abortion is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion, and the senator knows very well as a lawmaker that all law involves the imposition of some people's convictions on everyone else. That is the nature of the law. American Catholics have allowed themselves to be bullied into accepting the destruction of more than a million developing unborn children a year. Other people have imposed their 'pro-choice' beliefs on American society without any remorse for decades" (LifeSiteNews on September 15, 2008).
On the issue of the Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) research, Marjorie Dannenfelser - President of Susan B. Anthony List was appalled by Joe Biden’s “caustic comments on disabled children” by saying:
“Senator Biden outrageously implied that Americans who refuse to sacrifice innocent human life in the name of unproven, desperate attempts to cure our nation's ills through embryo-destructive research somehow don't really care about children. I am a mother of five children, one with a mental disability. The fact that Joe Biden questioned the compassion of parents like me - Governor Sarah Palin, among them - makes me sputter in disbelief. Compassion can never be built upon callous disregard for human life. I want to talk to him about compassion - and not the kind that leads to the gas chamber" (LifeSiteNews on September 10, 2008).
On the same ESC issue, Senator Barack Obama criticized Bush administration funding restrictions for "handcuffing" scientific progress, while Senator John McCain said that, while ESC is acceptable, moral and ethical values should not be violated by creating embryos specifically for stem cell harvesting (LifeSiteNews on September 19, 2008).
With these above-mention reasons, there is no doubt why top Vatican Judge of the Apostolic Signatura, Archbishop Raymond Burke, has warned the Democratic Party that is at risk of becoming the “Party of Death” for its hard-line advocacy for abortion and euthanasia (LifeSiteNews on September 20, 2008). As Catholics, we can not promote candidates whose views and actions are for the culture of death anymore.
As Catholics, we must exercise our cherished right and our solemn duty as Americans and as Catholics to vote and to support pro-life and pro-family values. We Catholics are called to look at politics as we are called to look at everything - through the lens of our faith. We should be guided in evaluating the important issues facing our state and nation by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church.
The most important of these issues is "the inalienable right to life of every innocent human person," which "outweighs other concerns where Catholics may use prudential judgment." The right to life is the right through which all others flow. To the extent candidates reject this fundamental right by supporting an objective evil, such as legal abortion, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research, Catholics should consider them less acceptable for public office.
Finally, we must remember that “to vote for a candidate who supports these intrinsic evils because her or she supports these evils is to participate in a grave moral evil. It can never be justified.”
D. Stakes are Extremely High:
For evangelical Christians and Catholics voters alike, the stakes are extremely high in this critical election on several dimensions of spiritual, conscience and private sphere.
In his note entitled “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion,” Cardinal-then Joseph Ratzinger said:
“A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.”
Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment.
There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.
In short, voting for pro-choice candidates who strongly promote and advocate for the culture of death means automatically ex-communicate ourselves from the Catholic Church; denounce our Catholic Faith which we have received in the Baptism; purposely fight against God’s will for life (abundant life) on this earth; spit on God’s face; and completely destroy our own conscience and soul which is the temple of the Holy Spirit and God’s image in us. Are we ready to do this?
It is very strange and odd, however, to witness several members of our own Catholic Faith who just receive Holy Communion on Sunday Mass, and proudly have “Barrack Obama’s sticker” on the back of their cars. What type of messages are they trying to “sell” or “evangelize” to other Catholic parishioners and non-Christians, if not for demoting the culture of life and God’s civilization of love and hope?
Of course, I do not have any rights to judge the actions of these Catholic parishioners, but I do believe God in the Heaven will surely take a note of it and will never let this slip through when they are face-to-face with Him on later days.
Evangelical Christians and Catholics voters alike are not “properties” of any political party. Rather, we are and we must be God’s own instruments to renew the face of this earth and more importantly the fate of many future generations to come in this country. A country without moral principles and values is a country of death and evils.
Thus, if we decide to vote along the racial or party lines without seriously putting God into consideration and check; we turn our back against God and return His abundant goodness and blessings for evil forces, not for good causes. If then, how can we face God and justify our “mean” and “evil” actions on the Final Judgment Day because we let the immoral truth and evil forces to win and dominate the hearts, souls and minds of many future generations to come of our own children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on?
God gives us “freedom” to do anything we want and we have learned the cost of this “freedom” through the obvious example of the former Adam. Whether we choose to let the moral truth talk, grow, and prosper or the immoral truth control and destroy this nation; whether we choose to please or displease, to respect or disrespect our Almighty God; whether we choose to promote the culture of life and the civilization of love or to demote it, whether we choose to fully restore God’s moral values and principles or to let the evils spread wide their wings of fear, hatred, and racial madness, it is totally up to each and everyone of us, and we must know how to justify these choices or actions when we face God. How can we glorify God in public squares if we let the racial and party lines bother and act against our deep consciences and God’s eternal and absolute truth on these moral principles and values?
In Living the Gospel of Life, the U.S. Bishops reminded us, “We get the public officials we deserve. Their virtue -- or lack thereof – is a judgment not only on them, but on us. Because of this, we urge our fellow citizens to see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest” (No. 34).
If the platform of that party today contradicts the platform of the Gospel and the moral law, we as Catholics need to have the inner freedom to depart from personal, family, or community tradition and vote instead for the candidate and party that best reflect God’s law. We are free to belong to the political party of our choice, but first we belong to Jesus Christ.
And belonging to Him means that there are certain things we can no longer assent to or go along with, including in politics and the voting booth (Voting with a Clear Conscience by Father Frank Pavone, No.6).
If we choose to let secular and liberal media cover up the moral truth and fool us with their hostile attacks on pro-life candidates, and hatred attitudes towards God’s moral truth, values and principles, we really betray God’s expectation and hope on us as His own sons and daughters on this earth. Vicious and bias attacks on pro-life candidates can not be tolerance, and we as Catholics must never let this happen! We must let our own consciences speak for the moral truth through the ballot we place in this upcoming election.
As far as proposing a sound moral solution to solve the economic turmoil threatening American citizens, U.S. Bishops, represented by Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, chairman of the Episcopal Conference’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development affirmed that “our faith and moral principles can help guide the search for just and effective responses to this tough situation.”
The prelate emphasized the human and moral dimensions of the crisis by saying:
“Economic arrangements, structures and remedies should have as a fundamental purpose safeguarding human life and dignity. A scandalous search for excessive economic rewards which gets to the point of exacerbating the vulnerable is an example of an economic ethic that places economic gain above all other values. This ignores the impact of economic decisions on the lives of real people as well as the ethical dimension of the choices we make and the moral responsibility we have for their effect on people” (Zenit News on September 29, 2008).
Tackling or promising to solve the economic problems without taking into full and serious consideration of all moral aspects and ethical values, to me, is just merely a poor and ill ‘tactic,’ or a type of cunning politics!
We must not let ourselves to be guided by evils to wrong paths which we have never known before and soon realized at later times. Let God's Truth, Way and Light be our only Guild of our own consciences in this very important election.
In the Mass, we say "Yes" to God, however outside the Mass we say "No" to our Catholic Faith, and we can not say "Yes" to secular values, but say "No" to Christian Morality Values either!
Stakes are not that high though if we do let our well-informed conscience, God’s truth, God’s moral principles and values, and God’s teachings have an obvious chance to shine on every corner of this earth, especially through this vital election of our country.
May you and I have enough strength and courage from our Almighty God to stand up against all the odds, all the evil but “hidden” forces, especially against our own racial and party lines to denounce evils and protect the moral truth by choosing pro-life candidates!
May God’s eternal peace be always present in our hearts, souls and minds!