Politics: Now this is a commencement speech!

Earlier this week, I posted about Notre Dame's commencement. Well, St. Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH could certainly teach more famous ND who to invite to be a commencement speaker, that is if ND would like to come back into the fold of CATHOLIC colleges and universities!

Here is the text of Cardinal Arinze's words to the Graduating Class of 2009:

The Contribution of a Catholic University to the Life and Mission of the Church

1. A Day of joy
It is a joy to participate at the Commencement events of a young and dynamic Catholic liberal arts college such as Thomas More College. From what I have learned, this dear institution is dedicated to forming students intellectually and spiritually within the Catholic intellectual tradition and with unapologetic fidelity to the Magistetium, or the Teaching Authority of the Church.

May I, therefore, propose to you some reflections on "The Contribution of a Catholic University to the Life and Mission of the Church'*. A serious and authentic Catholic College or University has to strive to provide its students rigorous education on relations between faith and reason, on Specialization and Orientation, and on Science and Ethics. Students need a realistic and dynamic philosophy of life that shows them how to make a synthesis between religion and daily life. There will thus result an acceptable integral development of the human person. And the Catholic College or University will have succeeded in forming and turning out model Christians who are good citizens.

These will now be the elements for our reflection.

2. Faith and Reason
There is no doubt that human reason is capable of arriving at objective truth. The natural sciences and the field of sound philosophy are examples of what the Human mind has been able to achieve. Reason, however, cannot arrive at the depth and height of everything, especially as regards the deeper truths concerning God and religion. Faith is knowledge of divine and spiritual realities made available to us by God who freely reveals himself without any merit on our own. By faith, God brings us to knowledge which we would never have attained by natural reason. Reason and faith are related.

"Faith asks that its object be understood with the help of reason; and at the summit of its searching reason acknowledges that it cannot do without what faith presents" (John Paul II; Fides et Ratio, 42).

Both reason and faith come from God, the first in the natural order, and the second in the supernatural. God is truth. Truth does not contradict itself (cf Fides et Ratio, 43; Summa Contra Gentiles I, 7). It was Thomas Aquinas who said: "whatever its source, truth is of die Holy Spirit" (I-II, 109, 1 ad 1). Faith needs reason in order to be articulated in a sound theological synthesis. Reason needs faith in order not to deprive people of the riches of God's revelation. A Catholic College or University is expected to make a dynamic presentation of this basic truth. Sound philosophy and healthy theology go hand in hand. Reflections on Holy Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of the Church are thus presented, under the guiding interpretation of the Church's Magisterium, in a way that does honour to a university.

As Pope John Paul II says in the Apostolic Constitution, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Catholic Universities "are called to explore courageously the riches of Revelation and of nature so that the united endeavour of intelligence and faith will enable people to come to the full measure of their humanity, created in the image and likeness of God, renewed even more marvelously, after sin, in Christ, and called to shrine forth in the light of the Spirit" (Ex Corde Ecd, 5).

If a Catholic College or University adopts this attitude of "courageous creativity and rigorous fidelity" (op. cit., 8), it will be able to contribute much to promote a healthy synthesis between faith and culture in society. We all recall the famous statement of Pope John Paul II: "The synthesis between culture and faith is a necessity not only for culture, but also of faith... A faith that does not become culture is a faith that is not fully received, not entirely thought through and not faithfully lived" (John Paul II: Autograph Letter instituting the Pont. Council for Culture, 20 May 1982, in AAS 74 (1983)683-688).

3. Specialization and Basic Orientation
We need specialists in the various fields of human endeavour: law, medicine, surgery, physics, biotechnology, psychological sciences, computer science, aviation, space exploration and various industrial technologies. But the growing
citizen, the student, and indeed every adult needs an important basic orientation in life. Before being a neurosurgeon or a legal luminary, a person is first of all brother, sister, spouse, parent, citizen or colleague. A basic orientation of the human being to human love and life, to family, to citizenship, to work, to solidarity and interdependence, and indeed to life on earth in general, is necessary. It is not an optional.

It would be risky to produce citizens who specialize in one little area of life but have no viable vision of the whole of life. While no one pretends to know something about everything, it would be even more dangerous to have to deal with a person who parades himself as knowing everything about a tiny aspect of life, and who is therefore lost in discussing or understanding anything except his own area of specialization.

A Catholic College or University has an important role in providing this basic orientation in life. Inspired by the Catholic faith, it strives in the light of the Gospel to bring students to appreciate the beautiful, the good and the true. The meeting with Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, in the Church and through the Church, provides a viable Church community in which life endeavours can be seen in a healthy synthesis. A young and lively liberal arts Catholic College is well positioned to provide this orientation.

4. Science and Ethics
The human being who explores the frontiers of science and technology is the same human being who is spouse, father, mother, son, daughter, citizen, ruler, company director, bank official, medical doctor, merchant, or otherwise. Relationship with one's neighbour is an important dimension to be considered in human action.

Even more important are man's relations with God. He is our Creator. We are his creatures. "It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture" (Ps 100:3). Divine Providence keeps everything in existence and in the divinely established order. A human being who dares to deny God theoretical and practical recognition should be considered ridiculous. "Without the Creator", testifies the Second Vatican Council, "the creature would disappear... When God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible" (Gaudium et Spes, 36).

Secularism stands condemned because it is an effort to conduct life as if God did not exist, as if God were interfering. Pope Benedict XVI condemns this ideology because it "presents itself in culture as planning of the world and of humanity without reference to Transcendence, invades every aspect of daily life and develops a mentality in which God is in reality absent, totally or in part, from human existence or consciousness" (Address to Plenary Assembly of the Pont. Council for Culture, on 8 March, 2008).

The scientist, therefore, should not regard whatever is physically possible as also morally lawful. Human action has to take into account the natural law, the eternal law of God written into human nature. Pope John Paul II, when he visited Mount Sinai in 2000, said that before God wrote and gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, he already wrote them into the human heart. That is why people of all religions and cultures, when they are not weighed down by ideology or human weakness, can recognize most of the dictates of the Ten Commandments. A Catholic College or University educates students to appreciate that moral rules of right and wrong apply also to science, technology, politics, trade and commerce, and indeed to all human endeavours.

5. Philosophy of Life. Map for Life Journey
Nostra Aetate notes that people seek in the various religions answers to the profound and fundamental questions which accompany and torment human existence on earth: what is man? Where do we come from? What is the purpose of life? What is goodness and what is sin? How do we explain sorrows, sickness, death? What is the path to true happiness? What happens after death? What can we know about God? A Catholic College or University has the hard and important task of orienting its students to face these fundamental questions. Providentially, God has not left us only at die level of philosophy and reason alone. The Eternal Father has in the fullness of time sent his Only-begotten Son to be our Saviour (cf Heb 1:1; Roman Missal: Euch. Prayer IV). Jesus Christ, God from God, Light from Light, has shown us the way to the Father. He himself tells us that he is "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6). Those who follow him will not be walking in the darkness but will have the light of life (cf Jn 8:12). "The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of him who was to come, namely, Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of die Father and his love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear" (Gaudium et Spes, 22).

Jesus Christ is the key to our understanding ourselves, of the purpose of our life on earth, and of what we should do or not do in order to make a success of our earthly pilgrimage. A Catholic College or University helps its citizens to get oriented by this philosophy of life, by this essential road map. Jesus is the light that has come into the world (cf Jn 3:19), the true light that enlightens everyone (cf Jn 1:9), "the light of the world" Qn 8:12) who says to us: "Walk while you have the light" Qn 12:35).

6. Religion and Daily Life

The person who goes to Mass on Sunday is the same person who goes to work on Monday. The same person is Christian and citizen. The believer is the same person who is a family member, a work colleague, a medical practitioner and a member of Congress, an official of the United Nations. The Christian must learn to make a synthesis between his duties as a citizen and his religious practices. There must be no divorce between these two dimensions of his life.

The Second Vatican Council is rather clear: "The split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age... Therefore, let there be no false opposition between professional and social activities on the one part, and religious life on the other. The Christian who neglects his temporal duties neglects his duties towards his neighbour and even God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation" (Gaudium et Spes, 43). These are strong words coming from a General Council of the Church.

Apply this to Mr Paddy Smyth of whom it has been said: 'Paddy Smyth always went to Mass; he never missed a Sunday. But Paddy Smyth went to hell, for what he did on Monday". The reason is that for Paddy Smyth, religion was an affair of one hour in church on Sunday. But on Monday where he was in parliament or Congress, or in the trade union meeting, or in the medical unit, he did not allow his religion to influence his action. He had not learned to make a vital synthesis between religion and life.

We can also in this light see the mistake of politicians who regard the Church as interfering in politics when the Pope or the Bishops speak on contraception, abortion, strange new definitions of family, the rights of workers, the education of children or what moral standards should guide the mass media. While the Church has no mandate from Christ to produce recipes for the solution of political or economic questions, the Church has the duty to invoke the light of the Gospel on various areas of human endeavour, on matters of right and wrong and on the morality of human acts in general (cf Benedict XVI: Deus Cariias Est, 28). In the complicated world of today, where all kinds of ideas are struggling for the right of citizenship, a university student needs a clear and viable orientation on the relationship between religion and life. The Catholic College or University is ideally positioned to help him see the light and equip himself for a significant contribution in society.

Here may I recommend to every Catholic student or graduate the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church". This excellent 525-page document produced by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace contains the best presentation of Catholic doctrine on such social matters as creation, the human person and his rights, the common good, social life, family, marriage, work, economy, the political community, the international community, justice, peace, war and ecology.

7. Integral Development of ihe Human Person

The Catholic College or University can do much to provide an education for the human person which is not partial or incomplete, but integral and all-embracing. Such education should help the human being to develop in all dimensions: physical, mental, spiritual and religious. The Christian thus becomes and behaves as a "new man in Christ" (cf Eph 2:15).

Too often people equate education with certificates, or with what can be tested in written or oral examinations. No doubt, we absolutely need intellectual development. But what does it profit us if a student is an intellectual giant but a moral baby; if he or she knows the year of the Battle of Waterloo and the amount of rainfall in Brazil; if he or she can shoot out mathematical or historical facts like a computer but is unfortunately a problem for the parents, corrosive acid among companions in the College, a drug addict and sexual pervert, a disgrace to the school, a waste-pipe in the place of work and Case number 23 for the Criminal Police? It is clear that intellectual development is not enough.

Deserving of special mention is education in the use of freedom. Pope Benedict stressed it when he spoke to Catholic educators in the United States on 17 April 2008 in the Catholic University of America. "While we have sought diligently to engage the intellect of our young, perhaps we have neglected the will. Subsequently we observe, with distress, the notion of freedom being distorted. Freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in — a participation in Being itself. Hence authentic freedom can never be attained by turning away from God. Such a choice would ultimately disregard the very truth we need in order to understand ourselves".

The Holy Father continues and says that educators owe it in all "intellectual charity" to lead their students to the truth so that they exercise freedom in relation to truth. We can add that this is very necessary in the intellectual world of today where many people deny the objectivity of moral truth and where moral relativism is regarded as the accepted thing. A person who holds that certain actions, like direct abortion, are always objectively wrong, is regarded as "judgmental", or as imposing his views on others. The exercise of freedom in pursuit of the truth is very much a part of integral education. If a Catholic College or University does not help in this way, should we not say that it has failed in one of its important roles?

8. Catholic University to form model Christian Citizens
If a Catholic College or University answers to its vocation in the ways outlined above, then it will be educating, forming and releasing into society model citizens who will be a credit to their families, their College, the Church and the State. It will prepare for us members of Congress or the Senate who will not say "I am a Catholic, but..."; but rather those who will say "I am a Catholic, and therefore..." They will be coherent both as Catholics and as citizens. Their religion will not be just a matter of an hour or two on Sunday, but will also provide a vital synthesis for their activities on Monday through Saturday, and from January to December.

A Catholic College or University is also expected to inspire a generation of model Christian parents and to motive some students to opt for the priestly life or for the consecrated state. This is our prayer. This is our hope for Thomas More College and for all Catholic Colleges or Universities. By the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Thomas More, may God pour his abundant blessings on the new graduates, all the students, their parents and the President, Faculty, Friends and Supporters of Thomas More College. May your contribution to the mission of the Church be dynamic, constant and to the point.

Francis Cardinal Arinze May 2009

Wow ... the Cardinal sure knows how to explain what a CATHOLIC college or university should be all about! Thank you, and bless you, dear Cardinal Arinze for your wonderful words of wisdom!

Pope Benedict XVI

Wooo hooo ... way to go, Holy Father!

HT: the ever gracious, Alice at Cottage Blessings!

Politics: Mr. Obama needs a lesson in civics

OK, here I go getting political again ... but I just couldn't let this go. And this is not so much political as a civics clarification.

Wednesday evening I was listening to NPR radio and heard Mr. McCain's comments on the financial crisis and the need to put off tonight's debate to ensure the Congress focuses on fixing that and avoids bi-partisan politics. Sounds appropriate.

Mr. Obama agreed with Mr. McCain -- that the crisis needs to be handled immediately but said that putting off the debate was a bad idea. Something along the lines of, "the American people need to hear from the men who will be running this country". Mr. Obama said that "in 40 days" this problem will be inherited by either Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain.

Uh ... no ....

First of all, if this crisis continues for 40 days, there won't be anything to "inherit".

Second of all, in 40 days the election will decide who will be the next President of the United States. BUTin 40 days there will NOT be a switch in power. Mr. Bush would continue in the White House until Inauguration Day in January.

Mr. Obama ... you might want to double-check the job description before applying.

Politics: Catholic Vote . com revisited

Here's a comment I rec'd today from a " Kathy O'Leary " based on a post I wrote a week or so ago about Catholicvote.com:

Yesterday I received an email with a "grassroots video" produced by
Catholicvote.com.

The video and website, Catholicvote.com were produced by
Fidelis. They have very strong ties to the Republican Party and to the McCain
campaign. In February of this year they issued a press release endorsing John
McCain for president and their website includes articles from Deal Hudson who is
an advisor to the McCain campaign as a member of the “Catholic Outreach
Committee”. They have given campaign contributions only to republicans and even supported republican Senator Rick Santorum over Bob Casey, a pro-life Catholic
democrat, during the 2006 election cycle.

If you forward this video or link to the website in your official capacity you may be in violation of IRS regulations and Church policy. You will also be distributing materials that contradict Church teaching.Among other things, the video glorifies US economic and military power. This runs contrary to Catholic Social Teaching which emphasizes a preferential option for the poor and solidarity. It also runs contrary to the Cathecism which teaches us that "Respect for and development of human life require peace."

There is more than one intrinsic evil at issue this year. They include genocide, racism, torture, targeting non-combatants and engaging in unjust wars. They are all life issues and they all require our attention as Catholics. Whether we vote Republican or Democrat this year what defines us is that we are Catholic. Don't let the political parties redefine what it means to be CATHOLIC.

Vote the Common Good!www.votethecommongood.com

Now, normally, I'd be thrilled to get such a long comment from someone I don't know. But I read this, re-read it, and just wasn't impressed! And why:

1. anyone who gives my little blog even a cursory reading would see that I am probably a staunch, card-carrying Republican, so for me to find out the film's producers have "They have very strong ties to the Republican Party and to the McCain campaign" doesn't really bother me much.
2. supporting what is true, good and rationale in this campaign year for me IS the Republican party so I don't have a problem with "contributions only to republicans". I have yet to hear a Democrat explain life issues rationally -- Senator Biden claims that when life begins is "just a matter of religion" -- uh, no even a 10th grade biology student learns that LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION. Nancy Pelosi, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE UNITED STATES, doesn't have her facts correct and yet by her own admission, she has "studied this matter for years"! HUH??????
3. obviously Ms. O'Leary has no clue what this blog is all about -- a modest (but not very humble) homeschooling mom occasionally waxing poetic about her family, their learning adventures and general Catholic truths, teachings and festivities. Her comment that "f you forward this video or link to the website in your official capacity you may be in violation of IRS regulations and Church policy" is just nonsensical -- as is much of the idea that relgion shouldn't come into politics and that just because it's true for you doesn't mean it's true for everyone else. Wasn't it Pilate who asked "What is Truth?" (John 18:38)
4. finally, the "life issues" described in Ms. O'Leary's comment can only be mentioned to cloud the overall issue. If someone doesn't understand the dignity of human life, the idea that the human person is DIFFERENT from animals, that our nature is imbued with something special since we are made in the image and likeness of God ... than that person is not a Christian or a Catholic. No matter how much a wolf calls itself a sheep, it is still a wolf, period! The sancticity of life starts at the moment of conception and continues until the moment of natural death -- this precept includes "genocide, racism, torture, targeting non-combatants and engaging in unjust wars" and the only time such a precept is suspended is when innocent lives are at stake. Period. Until we can get Democrats who talk truth ... who talk rational .... who talk with a logical base ... the only way for this blogger to vote is Republican!

But thank you, Ms. O'Leary, for giving me a chance to vent a few of MY feelings about this political year ... to elucidate the reason why the Republicans make sense and the Democrats make empty statements. Thank you.

Politics: Catholic Vote.com

Register to vote and then vote your conscience ....

Visit Catholicvote.com

Archbishop Chaput: Makes the NYT List!

First, let me explain that I really like, respect and appreciate all the many things Archbishop Charles Chaput has done for his flock in Northern Colorado. we only lived there for two years -- but were IMMENSELY impressed with his shepherd ways.

This is a man who is small in physical stature but a giant in spiritual leadership. He takes on the wrong-doers and commends those who are trying to do the good. He is humble enough to throw out a pitch at a Rockies home-game (where they got creamed!) and man enough to go toe-to-toe with "Catholic" dems like Nancy Pelosi.

I'm a big fan. And the family and I keep him in our prayers even though we are no longer his Colorado sheep.

And I was so pleased to read on EWTN's news-site that his latest book, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life is on the New York Times Best-seller list (beating out Joe Biden's Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics by one point, 27th for the week of September 14th).

Knowing how erudite is the good Archbishop and further, knowing that he thinks, meditates, prays and thinks some more before writing a word -- this book is a must-read for all those wanting to be good Catholics and still "render unto Caesar".

Congratulations, Archbishop Chaput on yet another job well-done -- his earlier book, Living the Catholic Faith: Rediscovering the Basics is an amazing example of his cutting through the rhetoric to get to the heart of the issues.

I'll have Paul smoke a cigar for this latest!

Politics: McCain & Palin rally

OK, I'm getting really political lately on here, but I'd like both the Dems and Reps to understand that the old stereotypes don't work -- I'm neither a hurache wearing, no shaving feminist with John Lennon glasses Dem nor am I a balding, over-the-hill white guy smoking a cigar. I'm an educated white woman who sees the rationale in most of the Republican platform.

So, what will the kiddoes and I be doing on Wednesday, September 10th?

Joining Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin for a

Rally at Fairfax High School

Wanna join in?

Prayer: Nine-week Election Novena

It starts today!

Please pray with us the Nine-Week Election Novena prayer that the Priests for Life have created:

O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord,
Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.

We thank you for the privilege
Of being able to organize ourselves politically
And of knowing that political loyalty
Does not have to mean disloyalty to you.

We thank you for your law,
Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged
And recognized as higher than any human law.

We thank you for the opportunity that this election year puts before us,
To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote,
But to influence countless others to vote,
And to vote correctly.

Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened.
Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation,
Their response to you requires that they be politically active.
Awaken your people to know that they are not called to be a sect fleeing the world
But rather a community of faith renewing the world.

Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer
Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth;
That the same eyes that read your Word
Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot,
And that they do not cease to be Christians
When they enter the voting booth.

Awaken your people to a commitment to justice
To the sanctity of marriage and the family,
To the dignity of each individual human life,
And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin,
And not one moment later.

Lord, we rejoice today
That we are citizens of your kingdom.
May that make us all the more committed
To being faithful citizens on earth.We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen!

Politics: McCain & Palin -- what a ticket

I don't usually get political here, but the announcement yesterday is too good to miss.

We're quite excited around here... we are so proud of Senator McCain for naming Governor Palin as his running mate. What a wonderful example of pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family! Here's a GREAT POST by my 4real friend, Red Cardigan, that says much better what I would like to write.

Further, Palin is a great counterpart to McCain -- she's young and open to new ways of doing things and he's experienced and traditional; she's a working mom with a special needs child, children who accompany her to work (and who she introduced first in accepting the running mate status) and he's a family man with seven children who are not actively campaigning for him but who are very close to him; she is pro-life and wouldn't abort her downs syndrome baby while he gets a "zero" from Planned Parenthood (which seems like a great reason to vote for him .... after all, who would get a 100 from Planned Parenthood? Nero .... Caligula .... Hitler ... Stalin ...?)

This should be a very exciting election .... an election which will be historic not because of the sex, race, or creed of the candidates but because we all have a chance to realize that right-to-life, pro-life, etc are simply names for common sense -- it's wrong to kill for selfish, self-centered "choices" ...

The Democrats, The Election and THE CHURCH

For those of you who might not realize this, we are a Catholic family. We are very active, devout Catholics who try our best to live our faith in a very secular world. Unfortunately, there are some folks out there -- particularly politicians -- who CLAIM they are Catholic and then completely disregard all the Church's teachings on life issues, social justice, etc.

During the Democrat's Convention (and in the journalistic love-fest prior to the opening), one particularly outspoken "Catholic", Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, made some amazingly erroneous comments about Catholicism. Thank God we have strong Catholic leaders who are willing to step out and correct these statements.

Below is a letter the good Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and the Auxiliary Bishop Conley wrote to the Archdiocese of Denver (an area that covers Catholics from north of Colorado Springs to the Wyoming border, covering most of the upper half of the "big square state"). I've quoted it in it's entirety as it is necessary for ALL Catholics to fully understand the position of the Catholic Church and Her teachings on what have become "political issues":

ON THE SEPARATION OF SENSE AND STATE: A CLARIFICATION FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CHURCH IN NORTHERN COLORADO

Monday, August 25, 2008

To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:
Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate tend to take a hard line in talking about the "separation of Church and state." But their idea of separation often seems to work one way. In fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrants some interest, not as a "political" issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them.

Interviewed on Meet the Press August 24, Speaker Pelosi was asked when human life begins. She said the following:
"I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose."

Since Speaker Pelosi has, in her words, studied the issue "for a long time," she must know very well one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery's Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977). Here's how Connery concludes his study:"The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm antiabortion attitude . . . The condemnation of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever one would want to hold about the time of animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion."

Or to put it in the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
"Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder."

Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homicide; others that it was tantamount to homicide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or "ensouled." But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In ahort, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.

Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today's religious alibis for abortion and a so-called "right to choose" are nothing more than that - alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief. Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it.

Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they're famous or not - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith. The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the "separation of Church and state" does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it's always important to know what our faith actually teaches.

+Charles J. Chaput,
O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver
+James D. Conley
Auxiliary Bishop of
Denver
###

My hopes in quoting this entire letter, signed by both the Archbishop and the Auxiliary Bishop, is that Catholics who are unsure of Church teachings, seek the answers through competent authorities and not rely on political personality with a host of agendas of their own. Archbishop Chaput has just written an excellent book on this particular issue of separation of Church and State: Render Unto Ceasar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life. A book ALL Catholics should read!

Another thing we can all do is PRAY! Please join me in the Nine-Week Election Novena staring on September 1st and ending on November 4th (Election Day).