Thanks for your article. May all our bishops emulate the strong defense of human life that particular bishops have shown, as you have identified.

I have a few suggestions that I would wish the bishops to consider strongly. First is the counsel in Michael’s 10/23 post: that, whatever the results on Nov 4, “We need to put pro-life candidates in local positions – our Towns, School Boards, Cities and states …”

Then I’d suggest the bishops adopt as the root of their teaching, God’s Command: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself“, recognizing every innocent, helpless human being in its mother’s womb as neighbor to us all. Americans can protect (love) these neighbors by simply electing government officials who will respect the dignity of each of the more than 3,000 of such neighbors deprived – each and every day through the brutality of abortion – of their rights to live, grow and love.

Bishops ought to appeal to ALL (not just those who are catholic) of the 50% of citizens eligible to vote who consistently refrain from doing so. Clearly these aren’t abortion ideologues, else they’d certainly vote with such ideologues’ consistent enthusiasm to spread abortion and other, related means of legal killing.

God’s Commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself“ applies to each of these non-voters, just as it applies to all the rest of us. That non-voters (whether caused by their indifference, sloth, forgetfulness or whatever), waste personal ballots that could be critical in saving lives of innocent human beings from merciless death, is an injustice that they, personally, need to correct by caring and voting. After all, they (and we) have been COMMANDED to love, not to kill, our neighbors and, surely not in so cowardly a fashion as aborting innocent, helpless human beings!

How important is the role of non-voters? Think of only 2% of them being persuaded to vote pro-life; then think of 3% to 5%. The result: The pro-life cause would be won – permanently! How so? Well, 2% of 50 percent of all eligible votes is about 8% of the votes usually cast for either side of the issue of life vs death, while 3% of 50% would be 12%, and so on. And remember, non-voters surely don’t tend to be abortion ideologues!

Now, there is a second set of neighbors whose lives have been severely jeopardized through the same political/legal machinations that doom the unborn. They are women who become pregnant by ne’er-do-wells, who then threaten these frightened, pregnant women violently to “abort that kid”. These brutal ne’er-do-wells fully know that no one looks to see if the woman’s “choice” was voluntary or frighteningly compelled, since the law mindlessly protects every “right to choose”, the mantra of the culture of death!

Some law! It becomes a traumatic “catch 22” for the distressed and frightened woman! Such women deserve better persons voted into political office and through these, better justices appointed, than they and their babies have been granted of late!

Voters can and must correct these appalling injustices. Love, through the power of ballots, will do it. How could anyone possessing the power of a ballot ever justify not using it to help critically needy neighbors? Such a small effort; such a decisive, merciful result!!

Peace,

Jakes

Reading 1
Eph 4:1-6

Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.

Again……this was good article.

you’ve asked why we have to suffer with bad bishops, who do not do their pastoral duties.

I do not ask why God wants me to suffer. I merely accept that He does, and that His reasons are good, as He is good.

But, at the parish level in our Diocese, we don’t speak of unpleasant things like abortion. We just selectively speak of the gospel message of love in terms of giving to the poor and other “United Way” types of social action that make people feel good. We don’t talk about things that might upset people.

You see, the Church has a lot of problems, what with the shortage of priests and the combining of parishes. We are turned inward and have important tasks that take priority, like personnel policies, fund raising, and planning. We have no energy left to expend in the public square.

That is the reality of the leadership of our bishops. Their public statements show concern for moral issues, but their actions send a different message to the faithful.

So the few laity who care act independently in organizations like Right to Life. But, many in our parish will vote for pro-abortion candidates because they have not been challenged to do otherwise by their Church.

The few who are looking for guidance get lost in the twaddle of the bishops document on “Faithful Citizenship” with its admonitions against single issue voting, and confused by the bishops’ debates about communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians. In their confusion, they respond to carefully crafted political messages from pro-abortion candidates that are aimed at Catholics.

At the “retail level”, as they say in politics, the Church is not a player in the abortion debate because of a lack of real leadership. Real leadership requires action, not documents.