Kengor_Catholic_Obama Catholic Support_012813
Several weeks ago, Archbishop Vigano gave an address at the University of Notre Dame, where he warned of a “menace” attacking religious liberty in the United States, advancing in part because many influential Catholic public figures, intellectuals, and (specifically) university professors are supportive of those spearheading the attack.
This was no doubt a reference to Catholics who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. As Pope Benedict’s diplomatic representative to the United States, Vigano was characteristically diplomatic, not naming names, but he was also surprisingly candid. He openly regretted that many American Catholics are publicly supporting “a major political party” that has “intrinsic evils among its basic principles.”
Vigano is right to point to the “major political party” as a whole. Not only is the Obama administration advancing this agenda, but so are Democratic governors like Cuomo in New York and O’Malley in Maryland.
The archbishop stressed that it’s a “grave and major problem” when Catholic faculty at Catholic institutions support those political officials who support and advance these pernicious policies. And while Vigano was addressing mainly Catholic faculty at this university gathering, what he says obviously applies to Catholics generally, well beyond college classrooms.
If I may, let me speak to those Catholics: Look, I understand your reasons why you voted for Obama and not for Mitt Romney. I don’t agree with them, but I understand. But I ask a simple question:
Do you not feel any sense of responsibility, or perhaps even a tinge of guilt, for not doing your part to at least try to change your party’s and president’s position on these major moral issues? Have you personally tried to do anything? Have you sent a letter, threatened not to provide a campaign contribution, posted something at a blog or on Facebook gently taking issue with your party and leadership?
Let me be blunt: Your president and your party, on moral issues, are taking this culture to hell in a hand-basket—and attacking your Church’s religious liberties in the process. Are you personally doing anything to try to stop that?
