I am a nurse. In my day to day practice my patients thank me, express their appreciation for the care I give, even give me hugs or promises to remember me in their prayers. Now, the things they are offering their appreciation for are nothing more than me ‘doing my job’. I try daily to perform my duties with love which is no more than each of my clients deserve.

My point is that no matter that I am only doing my job, having people, whether it be my clients, my friends, or my children, express their appreciation and support builds me up and helps me in my journey. I would imagine a little bit of geniune appreciation sprinkled on a bishop from his flock would lighten his load a bit as well.

“When you’ve done all that you are supposed to do, still say, ‘I am an unworthy servant’.” Luke 17:10

Sir, I wish to respond to a few of the issues that you have brought up.
First is the reporting of these congressional representatives not to the Bishops, but to the laity, whom you say seem to be favoring abortion. It is the responsibility of the Bishop of whom this representative represents to respond to an obstinate supporter of abortion, as we have seen the good bishop do in the case of Congressman Kennedy. He IS challenging Congressman Kennedy on his Catholic identity. The issue at hand IS to define what it is to be Catholic, and what that means to someone who claims that identity as a politician, but fails to act in accordance with that identity. The faithful are scandalized to see that nothing is done about such self-proclaimed Catholics separating themselves from their church and it’s teachings. Imposing consequences from the heirarchy WOULD have a chance of working here because what it means to be Catholic would be defined for Catholics (and non-Catholics alike), hopefully in a uniform manner. Catholics need to see what would be imposed on a politician who insists on publicly and persistently supporting abortion. Catholic identity of such people needs to be called into question and even revoked from them on the critical life and death issue of abortion. Either they believe and act in accordance with Church teaching, or they aren’t Catholic and should not present themselves for Holy Communion until they renounce this belief in the acceptance of abortion. All the bishops must act in unity to impose this restriction, and if the politiicans themselves refuse to obey their bishops in abstaining from Communion, then they themselves are in mortal sin. People need to know this. The Bishops must speak out and define this for us. Bishop Tobin is doing this, and I appreciate and commend him, but I feel that a more stringent response is required for people these days to get the point, and for the gift of repentance for these individuals to take place. I also agree with you that prayer will be the answer. If we all agree to spiritually adopt our congressman and pray for their conversion before the Blessed Sacrament in Adoration that the conversions will take place. Renewing our devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament and pleading before Him for the souls of these individuals to be converted and for the lives of the babies in the womb to be spared from abortion is the answer!

We certainly appreciate the support of our bishops. It gets frustrating at times to look around and see so much opposition on basic issues of life. We certainly need and deserve the pastoral support of the hierarchy — and of all those who are employed by the hierarchy.

But pro-abortion politicians are not thumbing their noses at the hierarchy, except where doing so helps their political support among the laity. In some cases, they are using the laity, offering promises of support for favored causes — and sometimes delivering on those promises — in exchange for silence on the question of abortion. In other cases, they simply reflect the political views of the electorate. There do seem to be two prevailing views here. The first is a passive view in which many within the electorate don’t particularly like abortion, but they also don’t see how it affects them. Therefore, they ignore it as an issue and vote their perceived interest about everything else. The second is an active support of abortion within the electorate that these representatives have tapped into successfully.

In either case, the representatives themselves aren’t the primary targets of our evangelization efforts. If Nancy Pelosi, for example, suddenly becomes pro-life in an outspoken manner, she will get immediately trounced in the next Democratic primary for her district, and given the political realities of San Francisco, whoever trounces her will become the next representative. The only way to change this is to evangelize the people of San Francisco.

Education, protest and prayer have a chance of working here. Imposing consequences directed from the hierarchy at the politicians has almost no chance of succeeding. That is one reason I like this particular letter so much. Bishop Tobin says a few things that allow a reasonable person to conclude that he is concerned with Congressman Kennedy’s soul, namely, “What does it mean to be a Catholic?” – a question which he proceeds to answer. He also says a few things that indicate his concern for the Church as a whole: “Congressman Kennedy, I write these words not to embarrass you…. But your description of your relationship with the Church is now a matter of public record, and it needs to be challenged.”

This is what our bishops must do: they must shepherd and teach. The famous and the powerful are their direct charges because only a bishop can hope to break through all the flotsam that stands between a famous or powerful person and a proper understanding of the Church. And the bishops have a positive obligation to ensure that they — and they alone — speak for the Church in the important matters of faith and morals.

The rest is up to us.

You are courageous, articulate, and AWESOME servant of God and His Church!

Our prayers are with you!

Keep up God’s good work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7oWym29yNs