The Presidential election clock ticks down the days to November. People in tune with all sides of every issue are scratching their heads and pondering who to vote for. Everyone I’ve talked to knows they want a change, but they are not satisfied with the options on the ballot. Naturally, I cannot cover every issue.
In the realm of pro-life, neither candidate has made a truly strong stand. McCain seems to want to listen to his conservative constituents more, but he has not quite grasped the entire definition of life. Embryonic stem cell research, to be precise, is his big stumbling block.
There is a National Catholics for McCain Committee that is ready to receive advice and pump the message of protecting life from conception to natural death into the machine that is McCain. The caveat is that we, as constituents, have to do a lot of heavy lifting still and keep pulling “the party” closer to the truth.
On the other side, the Obama-nation has completely lost touch with life. Senator Obama earned a 100 percent rating on women’s health issues from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. His running mate, Senator Joe Biden, is a Catholic (in name only) and is well known for his pro-abortion legislative positions.
Biden has never been one to respect his Catholic faith. Campaigning in 2005 on behalf of Kentucky Democrats Biden went on record saying, “The next Republican that tells me I’m not religious I’m going to shove my rosary beads down their throat” (Lexington Herald-Leader, 10/24/2005). Pardon me, but them’s fight’n words!
I don’t pretend to be a Doctor of the Faith, but I can say with more than a fair amount of certainty that the Church is quite clear that Rosaries are not to be used as weapons of mass destruction and that life begins at the moment of creation. Ecumenical Councils and Papal Encyclicals over the centuries have repeatedly defined life’s beginnings at conception.
In addition, Church leaders are consistent regarding the admonition of public officials who support abortion and call for their abstention from Communion. Archbishop Raymond Burke specifically illustrated this point:
“Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege. If it is done deliberately in mortal sin it is a sacrilege… For example, if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenseless human lives. A person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life.”
Sadly, Obama and Biden are purposely sitting in the dark. Their headquarters has a “Roman Catholics for Obama ‘08,” but this group is comprised mostly of Catholics for a Free Choice and other such dissidents who would rather see life wither away than find a real, tangible ways to help women and children in need.