Mr. Allen:
Regarding: “Democrats and the Catholic Vote”, by Mark Shields.
Despite his correct characterization of “Catholics for a Free Choice” as “absolutely unflinching champions of abortion on demand,” Mr. Shields represents the party that clings to these views weekly on PBS. If I hadn't read this article, I wouldn't in a million years know he was professing to be pro-life, and I see him practically every week on The News Hour.
Mr. Shields' sites Commonweal as a publication which apparently he and his like-minded Catholics respect. However, no self respecting Catholic that I know would subscribe to this publication. To suggest that Tim Russert is “the enormously fair-minded host of Meet the Press is an immediate indicator of his lost sense of what constitutes fair.
He states that the DNC is snubbing the Catholics in the Democratic Party. With all due respect to Mr. Shields' intelligence, this appears to be a blind spot that won't go away for Democratic Catholics. Actually it never will because at the heart of this problem is a dark love of “Cafeteria Catholicism.”
Why should the Democratic Party have respect for those who call themselves Catholic, but when push comes to shove, cave into “the ends justifying the means?” Catholics, who are party loyalists, think that their agenda, however noble it might be, somehow cannot be won by adhering to the immutable laws which the Lord our God has given us. They jettison their faith every time it looks like it might not serve their purpose under the guise that their own agenda is so important that even God and His Church must step aside.
“Will any national Democratic leader have the decency and the intelligence to apologize to Catholic voters for the Democratic National Committee's insults? I wonder.” What kind of comment is this? If Mr. Shields has any sort of objection to the DNC policy, evidently it is not enough to enable him to break free of the hold that the pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-euthanasia, pro-birth-control party has on him.
In reality, the Democratic Party is only anti-orthodox Catholic. They are quite comfortable with dissident Catholics. And for their own purposes, dissident Catholics are quite comfortable with the Democratic Party.
The last piece of despicable behavior is to suggest that Catholics should not be “single-issue” voters. This is the heart of the intention of this article.
The “single-issue” philosophy suggests that there are some issues that are so important that all other issues give way in voting for a particular candidate. Mr. Shields suggests that Catholics are more sophisticated than that: “But Catholics, as they have shown to the consternation of conservatives time and again, are anything but single-issue voters.”
The philosophy Mr. Shields articulates will never get rid of abortion. It is too preoccupied with getting “everything else” lined up first. Therefore it is not pro-life, it is pro-abortion.
Regards,
Jerry Bonney
P.S. This is a dangerous article to publish. Since there were no comments, that I know of, can I assume you agree with this article? I had assumed Catholic Exchange was an orthodox Catholic web site.
Mr. Bonney:
Thanks for your feedback. I couldn't agree with you more about Mr. Shields. He is a disgrace in the ranks of the faithful. However, his article is definitely newsworthy in that it demonstrates a glimmer of hope for Mr. Shields and his legion of misguided followers.
Your unfortunate post script suggests that we should not have posted the piece on Catholic Exchange. I beg to differ. Faithful Catholics must not stay in the bunker, sir. We must remain informed, join the debate, be in the world but not of the world, and serve as salt and light to our fellow Catholics lost in a culture of death so ardently promoted by Democratic Party loyalists like Mr. Shields. Bringing Mr. Shields' public dissent from Democratic Party orthodoxy to the attention of our Catholic online community has led to an aggressive campaign by the Catholic League to compel the DNC to disassociate itself from “Catholics for a Free Choice”. It may also have led faithful Catholics to pray for Mr. Shields' conversion, and wayward Catholics to consider abandoning their knee-jerk pro-abortion position. (Nor do I believe an editor's note was required — our readers are intelligent enough to draw their own conclusions from such a column.)
Evangelization must begin within our own Catholic ranks, Mr. Bonney. The fact that Mr. Shields has revealed himself to have a pro-life conscience should be communicated far and wide in hopes that the scales will fall from the eyes of other wayward Catholics and an authentic pro-life culture can be re-established in our land.
Yours in Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor, CE
The Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews
Dear Catholic Exchange,
Regarding the answer you give to your quiz question of who authored the epistle to the Hebrews. You are wrong!! The author of this epistle is St. Paul. Always was, always will be! You are not Catholic if you don't believe that!
Paulette
Dear Paulette,
It was Origen who wrote in the 2nd Century that “God alone” knows who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews. Paul was a favorite theoretical author for the epistle (along with Apollos and various other candidates), but he remains only that: a theoretical author. Certainly the Church does not bind us to some dogma that Paul is the author. So you can, in fact, be quite Catholic and remain agnostic about the human author of the epistle. We are bound by dogma to regard it as inspired. But as with many books of Scripture, our faith in its inspiration is not dependent on knowing the name of the human writer.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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