In a sweeping pastoral statement to be made
public today, the leader of more than 1 million North Jersey Catholics
urges them to vote “in defense of marriage and life,” and warns that the
passage of same-sex marriage laws might lead to a government crackdown
on their religious freedoms.
CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Archbishop John Myers of the Diocese of Newark
Newark Archbishop John J. Myers said the statement on gay
marriage was not timed to coincide with the November election, now
little more than a month away, and that he was not calling on Catholics
to vote for a particular candidate. But he said they should examine the
“full spectrum” of each candidate, including how they stand on abortion
and “a proper backing of marriage.”
He also said in the statement, a copy of which was provided
to The Record before its release, that Catholics who disagree with the
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on marriage should “refrain from
receiving Holy Communion.” He said he issued the statement because of
what he described as a lack of clarity on the subject by other bishops.
“It’s not 100 percent for either party,” Myers said in an
interview Monday at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in
Newark. “The basic point is that we must defend what we believe to be
the truth. That includes voting, speaking out, contacting officials.”
The statement is being issued amid a politically charged
atmosphere at a time when some other Catholic leaders have been
criticized for talking politics from the pulpit. President Obama
declared his support for same-sex marriage in May. His Republican
challenger, Mitt Romney, opposes it.
Myers said he had been thinking about issuing a statement on
the subject for about a year. He acknowledged that portions would be
considered controversial and said he expected a “heated discussion”
about the statement, which will be published online today. Parishioners
in churches across the archdiocese, which covers Bergen, Hudson, Essex
and Union counties, will be handed letters at church this weekend
telling them about the statement and directing them to where it can be
read.
Officials with a Catholic social justice group and an
advocacy group for the separation of church and state said other Roman
Catholic Church leaders have made recent statements that appear designed
to influence the presidential election. Federal law allows non-profits
receiving tax exemptions to advocate for issues, but not for candidates.
In Washington State, regulators recently warned a bishop
against holding a fundraiser to oppose a same-sex marriage proposal on
the November ballot. A Peoria, Ill., bishop recently compared Obama to
Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Last month, a Manhattan parish priest
published a letter supporting Romney, citing his opposition to abortion,
same-sex marriage and to elements of the national health insurance law
that require coverage for contraceptives. The priest has since
apologized.
Myers’ statement did not cross the line into political
advocacy, experts and politicians said, because he doesn’t mention any
candidates.
“It appears that the archbishop is treading awfully close to
the line,” said Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, the
Democratic state committee chairman. “I’m sure he is not crossing the
line. I just think it’s an unfortunate coincidence in timing. … You’d
have to ask the archbishop why the letter doesn’t come out in March or
December.”
Myers said he intended to release the statement in March but it was delayed as he recovered from surgery for a detached retina.
He said he doesn’t believe polls that show a majority of
Catholics support same-sex marriage. According to a recent survey by the
Pew Research Center, 53 percent of American Catholics favor same-sex
marriage, and the number rises to 72 percent among those between the
ages of 18 and 34. But Myers acknowledged that a large number of
Catholics seem to be at odds with church teaching, and that he wanted to
reach out to them with his statement.
“No one has said things clearly to them for years,” he said.
Myers, 71, said modern culture and the media have led to the
social acceptance of same-sex marriage. Homosexual acts are a sin, he
said, but homosexuality is not. He wrote that it is possible for gay
people to be married to members of the opposite sex and live “good,
faithful and even joyous married lives. It is a lie to say that they are
living, or have lived, a lie.”
An erosion of the traditional family, caused by the
prevalence of divorce and contraception, is to blame for the social
acceptance of same-sex marriage, Myers said. Procreation is an essential
part of marriage, he said, but he said that men and women who cannot
have children are not the same as gay couples because they are “not
intentionally excluding children.”
The statement appeared to compare gay marriage to incest.
“Even those who propose radically altering the definition of marriage
would not advocate allowing two brothers or sisters or an uncle and his
nephew to marry (say, for the tax benefits, or for hospital visiting
privileges),” he wrote.
Marriage between a man and woman is based on natural laws
that cannot be redefined by government, he wrote. He called on Catholics
and “other men and women of good will” to defend traditional marriage.
“We must exercise our right to vote in defense of marriage and life,” he wrote.
Steven Goldstein, the chairman of Garden State Equality, New
Jersey’s largest gay-rights group, said he would let Myers’ statement
“speak for itself.” “When people on the other side of the issue shoot themselves
in the foot, one doesn’t need to pile on,” he said. “It is not the job
of government to reflect the values of one particular faith or another.”
Chris Pumpelly, a spokesman for Catholics United, a
non-partisan social justice advocacy group, said it used to be unusual
for Catholic leaders to make political statements. Now, he said, it has
become the norm. And he said Myers’ call for Catholics who disagree with
the church about same-sex marriage to refrain from Communion will
alienate members of the faith.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “This is another example of the
church hierarchy making it a more partisan and political church. They
have a unified political message.”
A Seton Hall ethics professor, the Rev. Jerome Bracken, said
it is important for Catholic leaders to clarify their teachings, adding
that it is not the same as telling people how to vote.
“You need information to help you vote your conscience,” he said.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, said Myers did not appear to have
crossed the line into political advocacy. Four years ago, his group
asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Bishop Arthur J.
Serratelli of the Paterson
Diocese for a statement about abortion that compared Obama, without
using his name, to King Herod, who had St. John the Baptist beheaded.
The Paterson
Diocese attorney, Ken Mullaney, said the IRS never investigated and
that Serratelli had “learned his lesson” after Lynn made an issue of the
statement. He said Serratelli has no plans to follow Myers with his own
statement about same-sex marriage.
Myers said Monday that government has already encroached on
religious freedom, citing the new health care plan’s requirement for
contraception coverage and the prosecution of church leaders in Canada
for speaking out against homosexuality. The health care plan, after a
compromise, no longer requires full contraception coverage at
religiously affiliated institutions, but it does require insurance
companies to offer free birth control coverage.
Near the end of his statement, Myers expresses fear that gay marriage will lead to a further erosion of religious freedom.
“How long would the state permit churches, schools or
parents to teach their children that homosexual activity is contrary to
the natural law if homosexual marriage were a civil right?” he wrote.
And whoever is against us is against us. And Christ.
Those government officials who support the HHS mandate are "against" us and therefore to vote for them is to vote against Christ and His Church. Many of our bishops are doing all that they can to make clear our duty to vote with a moral compass and to realize how we are or are not cooperating with a moral evil in these times of clear choice between good and evil.
There are always many men and women of good will about whom Christ speaks in the Gospel, those many who, though they do not have the fullest relationship with Christ in His Church, yet believe in some aspects of Scripture and Tradition and therefore may be willing to join with the Church in pursuing the common good.
"By common good is to be understood 'the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.' The common good concerns the life of all. It calls for prudence from each, and even more from those who exercise the office of authority." (CCC 1906)
We have seen tragically that increasing numbers of our elected officials are acting counter to the common good by attacking our freedom of religion because such religious freedom is a "fundamental and inalienable right of the human person" given by God and not to be taken away by man. "First, the common good presupposes respect for the person as such. In the name of the common good, public authorities are bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person... such as "the right to act according to a sound norm of conscience and to safeguard . . . privacy, and rightful freedom also in matters of religion." (CCC 1907)
Currently our society is set on a course which will increasingly prevent the fulfillment of the vocation of believers. Catholics, because we possess the fulness of the Christian Faith as handed down in Scripture and Tradition, are the first and most deeply to be affected. There are already many others of Christian Faith, believers in non-Christian religions and many non-believers who understand what is at stake in our struggle for religious freedom and have joined us in the fight.
A Pew Research poll recently revealed disturbing facts about Catholics as reported by Dr. Jeff Mirus in CatholicCulture.org:
"Now, the American bishops have clearly identified the HHS mandate as a gross abrogation of religious liberty, and they have made it clear this violation is a key Catholic concern in the current campaign, the kind of concern that would prompt anybody with profound Catholic sympathies to vote against (candidates who promote the HHS mandate). And yet only 51 percent of regular Catholic churchgoers state that they are willing to do so. This failure of churchgoing Catholics to defend their own religious freedom and the rights of the Church is the most significant revelation in the Pew poll."
If many Catholics have already given up their religion, it is a very small step from that to giving up their religious freedom.
SPRINGFIELD, IL, September 25, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The bishop of Springfield, Illinois has issued a hard-hitting letter in his diocesan paper, slamming the Democratic Party platform’s support for abortion and gay ‘marriage’ and urging Catholics to bring their consciences to the ballot box.
Citing the events that transpired at the Democratic National Convention when the last remaining reference to God was removed, and then reintroduced into the party platform, Bishop John Paprocki insisted that this debacle was not the worst of the DNC platform problems, and that the platform’s pro-homosexual agenda and pro-abortion planks “explicitly endorse intrinsic evils.”
Bishop John Paprocki
This year the Democratic party platform took the most extreme position on abortion of any of the party’s platforms, expressing support for abortion on demand with taxpayer funding. Bishop Paprocki also noted that while previous platforms had said that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare,” the new platform removed “rare,” leaving only “safe and legal.” CLICK ‘LIKE’ IF YOU ARE PRO-LIFE!
To those who might criticize him for speaking on a political matter, the bishop wrote: “My job is not to tell you for whom you should vote. But I do have a duty to speak out on moral issues. I would be abdicating this duty if I remained silent out of fear of sounding ‘political’ and didn’t say anything about the morality of these issues.”
Remarking on the Republican Party Platform as a contrast, Paprocki said, “there is nothing in it that supports or promotes an intrinsic evil or a serious sin.”
Preempting a frequent criticism of the Republican party’s position permitting the use of capital punishment, the bishop cited Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 2267) which outlines the circumstances under which capital punishment is permissible. That paragraph states: “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”
Bishop Paprocki also corrected those who argue for prioritizing the preferential option for the poor over human rights for the preborn and defense of marriage in determining one’s vote: “One might argue for different methods in the platform to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments about the most effective means of achieving morally desirable ends, not intrinsic evils.”
“Again,” the bishop concluded, “I am not telling you which party or which candidates to vote for or against, but I am saying that you need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.”
Pilgrimage to begin Rosary Novena for Life and Liberty
Prayer resources for life and liberty available at www.usccb.org/freedom
WASHINGTON—
A Mass and Pilgrimage for Life and Liberty at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington is slated for Sunday, Oct. 14 at 12 noon EDT.
Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, will celebrate the liturgy and pilgrimage as part of the U.S. bishops’ annual Respect Life prayer campaign. His homily will focus on the noted quote from Thomas Jefferson: “The god who gave us life gave us liberty.”
Mass will be preceded by time for confessions starting at 10 a.m. Following Mass, there will be Eucharistic Adoration. Shortly thereafter, attendees will recite the rosary as part of the first day of the Rosary Novena for Life and Liberty. At the conclusion of the rosary, Archbishop Lori will offer a 10-minute reflection. The event will conclude with benediction at 2:30 p.m. EWTN television will carry the Mass and Pilgrimage live.
Further details about the October prayer campaign can be found at www.usccb.org/freedom. Resources include the downloadable Rosary Novena for Life and Liberty, recommended for use by individuals or groups from October 14-22, and a Holy Hour for Life and Liberty. The resources provide assistance during the Year of Faith which begins October 11. Among materials are those to help people learn more about courageous forebears in the faith and to follow their example.
Particular emphasis will be given to two saints to be canonized October 21: Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a young Mohawk woman to become the first Native American saint, and Blessed Marianne Cope, a German nun from the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, N.Y., who aided St. Damien of Molokai in ministering to lepers in Hawaii.
The Reverend John Reutemann, assisted by the Reverend Michael Paris and the Reverend Mister Sam Plummer celebrated a solemn high Mass of the Roman rite for the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross on Friday, September 14 at the church of the Sacred Heart in La Plata, Maryland. The ministers were assisted by seminarians and priests attending in choir of the Archdiocese of Washington.The Reverend Father Paris processes to the altar together with the ministers. The ministers enter and depart the sanctuary wearing birettas which are removed in reverence for the word of God and the Eucharist. The Reverend Father Reutemann celebrates the divine liturgy of the Eucharist at the altar decorated with six canles for the most solemn worship of the Church The paten is brought to the altar veiled for serving the consecrated Body of Christ in the communion of the priest Priests and deacons who attended the Mass in choir receive communion. "Ecce, Agnus Dei": the priest shows the consecrated host to the people as they prepare to receive the Body of Christ The communion of the faithful
The benediction concludes the Mass and is followed by the Last Gospel and Leonine prayers.
The following excerpt comes from a September 14 story on LifeSiteNews.com.
A priest who helped found a gay ‘marriage’ advocacy group for Catholics has been suspended from distributing the sacraments or representing himself publicly as a cleric by his bishop.The National Catholic Register reported Monday that Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles had spoken to Rev. Joseph Palacios, co-founder of Catholics for Equality, a small group created two years ago with strong connections to the Human Rights Campaign.
Palacios described the purpose of his outreach at Princeton University in February 2011, where he called the Church’s faithful the key target for effecting cultural shift in favor of homosexuality.“The denominations are already lined up. The only group that isn’t lined up is the Catholics,” said Palacios, who was wearing a Roman collar. In Maine and California, where efforts at marriage redefinition failed, he said, “it was 3-5% of Catholics that could have been moved. If there had been a campaign to shift the Catholic movable middle, we would have won.”He also noted that efforts would be made to recast marriage for homosexuals as a “pro-life” issue to reach young Catholics under the Jesuit value of cura personalis: “If we want to win Catholics over, … pro-life means pro-gay, meaning pro your child, pro your family.”
Another priest who was openly gay, Tony Adams, was quietly removed from the Equality founding board that year after his remarks calling Pope Benedict XVI a “childish idiot” and closeted homosexual were revealed.Palacios told the National Catholic Register that he and his bishop “mutually agreed” that the priest would not minister publicly while promoting a redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples. “We agreed that I would stay on inactive status as long as I am politically active,” he said.
The priest, who is also on the board of governors of the Human Rights Campaign, appears as “Dr. Joseph Palacios” on the Equality website.
Tod Tamberg, director of media relations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, told the Register that Palacios “is on inactive leave without faculties.” “He should not be wearing a Roman collar, should not be celebrating Mass, nor may he present himself as a priest in public,” he said. Tamberg didn’t return calls from LifeSiteNews.com for further comment.The Cardinal Newman Society reported in June that Palacios’ status as a priest has been uncertain ever since Palacios told the watchdog group he was a “retired” priest of Los Angeles and an ex-Jesuit, and wouldn’t elaborate.
Although Georgetown University told the Newman group that Palacios is no longer a member of the faculty at its sociology department, the former Jesuit is still listed on Georgetown’s website as teaching at least one summer sociology course.To read original story, click here.
The director of the Holy See Press Office has issued a new statement on the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"The very serious attack organised against the United States diplomatic mission in Libya, which led to the death of the ambassador and of other functionaries, calls for the firmest possible condemnation on the part of the Holy See," said Father Federico Lombardi, SJ. "Nothing, in fact, can justify the activity of terrorist organisations and homicidal violence."
"Along with our sadness, mourning and prayers for the victims, we again express the hope that, despite this latest tragedy, the international community may discover the most favorable ways to continue its commitment in favor of peace in Libya and the entire Middle East," he added.
Archduke Imre of Austria, oldest son of Princess Marie-Astrid of Luxembourg and Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria, married his American fiancée, Kathleen Walker, in Washington D.C. on September 8 at Saint Mary, Mother of God, Catholic Church. Monsignor Charles Pope celebrated the Solemn High Mass which followed a short wedding service in English.
The couple first met in October 2010 at a Missa Cantata in honour of Blessed Karl of Austria, Imre's great-grandfather. The Missa was held in the same church where they will marry. The archduke and the former communications director of the Arlington Diocesan Catholic Charities and well known pro-life activist announced their engagement in December of last year.
It's the first Luxembourg related wedding this year. Imre's cousin Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume will marry in October, while his brother Archduke Christoph will tie the knot in December.
With a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” let us close this convention by praying for this land that we so cherish and love:
Let us Pray.
Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank you for showering your blessings upon this our beloved nation. Bless all here present, and all across this great land, who work hard for the day when a greater portion of your justice, and a more ample measure of your care for the poor and suffering, may prevail in these United States. Help us to see that a society’s greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and neediest among us.
We beseech you, almighty God to shed your grace on this noble experiment in ordered liberty, which began with the confident assertion of inalienable rights bestowed upon us by you: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.
We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty. May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love. Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care, as even now we beg the protection of your mighty arm upon our men and women in uniform.
We praise and thank you for granting us the life and the liberty by which we can pursue happiness. Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Empower us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community. May we welcome those who yearn to breathe free and to pursue happiness in this land of freedom, adding their gifts to those whose families have lived here for centuries.
We praise and thank you for the American genius of government of the people, by the people and for the people. Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask your guidance for those who govern us: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Congress, the Supreme Court, and all those, including Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office. Make them all worthy to serve you by serving our country. Help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself. With your grace, may all Americans choose wisely as we consider the future course of public policy.
And finally Lord, we beseech your benediction on all of us who depart from here this evening, and on all those, in every land, who yearn to conduct their lives in freedom and justice. We beg you to remember, as we pledge to remember, those who are not free; those who suffer for freedom’s cause; those who are poor, out of work, needy, sick, or alone; those who are persecuted for their religious convictions, those still ravaged by war.
And most of all, God Almighty, we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country.
For we are indeed “one nation under God,” and “in God we trust.”
So dear God, bless America. You who live and reign forever and ever.
Card. Burke: "Prophétis meis"
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Non relíquit hóminem nocére eis: et corrípuit pro eis reges.
Nolíte tángere christos meos: et in prophétis meis nolíte malignári.
-- Sanctae Mariae in Sabbat...
"Ecce, Agnus Dei": the priest shows the consecrated host to the people as they prepare to receive the Body of Christ
