While the CNS (Cardinal Newman Society, not Catholic News Service) starts a petition against Obama delivering the commencement address at Notre Dame in May, and while commenters at this blog and elsewhere vent that this is the end of support for ND, not to mention the church in America, it's worth noting that Notre Dame students themselves appear somewhat more pro-Obama than even the country at large.
In a mock election before last year's real election, the Democratic ticket won 52.6 percent of the vote followed by the Republican ticket of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, which won 41.1 percent of the vote. A total of 2,692 undergraduates and graduate students voted.
And according to the write-up, abortion as a standalone category didn't figure high the students' priorities--just as it did not for the electorate and Catholic voters at large:
The most important issue for those who voted was the economy, with 41.5 percent of the votes, followed by foreign policy at 17.7 percent. Of the remaining issues, 9.8 percent chose energy and the environment as the most important issue in the election, 9.5 percent chose other, 7.7 percent chose abortion, 6.2 percent chose the Iraq War, 3.3 percent chose education, 3.2 percent chose civil liberties and one percent chose immigration.
[Hat tip to Notre Dame's own Cathleen Kaveny.]
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Hi Mary-
In response to your query, I offer exactly what the CCC/2 has to say, as if the Word of God - the Ultimate Authority- isn't enough. Someone can make whatever they want of the below. To me, it's clear - if you take part in, enable, allow, permit, vote for someone who is in favor of abortion or anything related to the slaughter of an innocent baby, it's wrong. Period. But, anyone can manipulate it to whatever they want. We can walk around Bible-illiterate all our lives if we choose to - that's the easy way. We don't think we're accountable that way. If we dare crack open the Instruction Booklet and we'll see what Papa has to say.
If protecting an innocent defenseless life isn't the highest on the list of MUST DOs, what is? The ECONOMY? Again, did we check with JESUS on that one? I didn't think so.
Brother Joe is right when he wrote, "The teaching on abortion is not opinion." Check Psalm 139:13 and read the above CCC.
As a veteran, I cackle at those who compare the war to abortion. Hitler killed 6 million; Abortionists have killed 50 million. So, really, they're right. There is no comparison.
BTW, every soul in our military is a VOLUNTEER. Everybody who was serving on Election Day 2008 was already in or enlisted after the Iraq War STARTED. They had a CHOICE.
How about that defenseless baby in the womb. NO CHOICE.
God bless,
A former sleeper
Here is the CCC (2270-2275)
ABORTION
2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law: You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
2272 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.
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation: "The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death." "The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined....As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."
2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being. Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual.... It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."
2275 "One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival. It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material. Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity which are unique and unrepeatable.
Mary - I'm sorry you got blasted personally for trying to have a conversation on this blog. It's not the blog author, its the commenters.
On much of the Catholic blogosphere anything other than rabid condemnation of Obama as Hitler results in ad hominem attacks and wild speculation about one's personal life.
Not exactly marching toward unity, love or any of the other teachings of Jesus that I'm familiar with.
I have, and will continue, to call it the perfidy of mixing political rhetoric with Church teaching. Very deceitful indeed.
I don't see any "personal blasting," Cindy. I apologize for anything I conveyed that may have appeared personally attacking in nature.
I do not, however, apologize for passing on any Scripture or Doctrine that some may not want to hear.
You speak of "unity" and "other teachings of JESUS." A quick check with Sacred Scripture shares with us that, actually, Jesus did not come to unify but to divide. That is exactly what is occurring present day. No Ph D needed on why.
We have distanced ourselves from the very fiber that made us a once strong and solid nation in the United States and have turned, in its place, to other means for our sustenance.
Not unlike Aaron and the rest of the ingrates right after God did a little thing by parting the Red Sea and saving their helpless butts - all while Moses was up receiving some Word from I Am.
And we wonder why we are where are.
I don't hate, but I have already shared what God Hates (according to that Scripture again), one of which being hands that shed innocent blood.
And there's nothing perfidious about that.
May His Grace and Peace comfort all of us as we continue our journey through the Desert, a place we have freely accepted as adequate.
Joe,
"I see exactly where you are coming from and quite frankly used to be there myself. I am guessing that you contracept or are sterilized. I do not mean this to offend you or anyone who may this, but it was only in my repentance of this grave sin, did The Lord Jesus pull the veil from eyes."
The next time you happen to be talking with the Lord Jesus, thank Him for pulling the veil off of your eyes; then ask Him to pry that dagger out of your hand and soften your heart while He's at it.
You crossed a major line here buddy, and you need to apologize. Remember Paul's admonition in 1 Corinthians 13:
"
1
1 If I speak in human and angelic tongues 2 but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
2
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
3
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4
3 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,
5
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests"
Your presumption about another's sex life and its attendant morality/immorality is a sin against charity.
Man up and apologize. Then ask for forgiveness.
In Saint Luke's gospel (13/31ff) the Pharisees warned Our Lord: "... leave this area because Herod wants to kill you." Jesus replied, "GO AND TELL THAT FOX, 'BEHOLD, I CAST OUT DEMONS AND I PERFORM HEALINGS TODAY AND TOMORROW, AND ON THE THIRD DAY I ACCOMPLISH MY PURPOSE.'" "Telling" our dear President Obama, as Jesus responded to the death threat, is THE way to go when the Church is threatened by the popularity and the value system of today's foxes, like the ones with political power!
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