….As the results of the 2020 presidential election were being certified by local officials, there were increasing attempts to delegitimize those results based on allegations of widespread voter fraud.
Numerous legal attempts failed to demonstrate such fraud and state and federal judges and Supreme Court justices dismissed case after case based on lack of demonstrable evidence and unconvincing legal arguments.
Fraud was not a factor in the election results. Nevertheless, despite such determinations, unproved allegations about fraud have continued to be claimed by various sources and precipitated an unprecedented wave of violence and insurrection.
Concerns about the integrity of the voting process have also driven states to develop and implement new voting procedures and requirements. The state of Georgia, for example, passed voting “reforms” designed to ensure security of elections and to restore voters’ confidence, but the overall effect is one that suppresses voting rights.
Provisions of the bill include using voter identification, reducing the deadline for mail-in ballots, and decreasing the number of drop boxes for absentee ballots. Furthermore, the bill bans people from providing food and drink to a voter and restricts buses and other readily moveable facilities to emergency use only. These measures will likely have disproportionate impacts on the elderly, persons with disabilities and communities of color.
Other states such as Florida recently passed similar constraints, and more than 50 restrictive bills are progressing at various stages through legislatures in 24 states….
Yet, American history is a complex and contested one: systemic racism, discrimination based on sex, class, ability, religion and other forms of social sin have compromised and denied individuals, groups and communities the right to vote. Bulwarks of voting rights have been challenged in recent years, including the Supreme Court’s dismantling of key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in its Shelby County v. Holder decision (2013).
Catholics are called to confront injustices, to uphold dignity and to promote the common good. Forms of voter suppression deny the full humanity of person, break down the solidarity among persons and communities and subvert individuals’ rights and responsibilities to contribute to and benefit from the common good.
Voter suppression laws often weaken the authority of local officials and communities, which violates the principle of subsidiarity. Equally pernicious, voter suppression laws deny voters the ability to exercise their consciences in faithful citizenship….
State Catholic Conferences must mobilize all their legislative efforts across their respective states to involve Catholic voices in decrying the purposeful destruction of ample voting possibilities in all elections. The conferences need to activate their Legislative Action Networks.
The above comes from a May 8 story by retired Cardinal Roger Mahony published by Catholic News Service.
Nobody asked you, you irrelevant embarrassment. You have no role in the church anymore.
Systemic racism= all whites are collectively guilty of crimes they did not commit.
And what in the world is this _stupid_ “people of color” business?
Newsflash 1: Caucasians have color.
Newsflash 2: Countless Caucasians are Hispanic.
From a “Sanford and Son” episode:
Officer Swanhauser:
Was the suspect colored?
Fred Sanford:
Yeah, white.
Cardinal Mahoney, Please Do Shut Up.
The role of the Church, including its bishops and other clergy, is to lead and teach clearly in matters of faith and morals.
The lay faithful, properly formed in the Faith, are to influence the temporal order. Most political issues are matters of prudential judgment. (Some, like abortion and racism, are intrinsically evil and cannot be supported by faithful Christians.)
Lay faithful should use their formed consciences to try to persuade their fellow citizens and vote accordingly (and even run for office, if so called).
When bishops are failing to lead and teach in matters of faith and morals, why are some venturing into politics, where they don’t belong?
It seems the hierarchy, as well as maybe the lay faithful, should re-read Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Decree on the Apostolate of the Lay People, from the Second Vatican Council. It would be better for all of us to work in our areas of competence.
To all of you lay faithful, thank you for working to make the world a better place, especially if you’ve ventured into the world of politics and public life.
Yet again, a disgraced old prelate trying to be relevant. Yawn.
Mahoney’s personal opinions can and should be ignored. When the Big One hits Los Angeles, hopefully it will remove all trace of Mahoney’s infamous modernist cathedral.
Mahoney is right on this issue, first of all. On the one hand he is a prelate opining about secular law, but on the other hand, we need to push back on the insidious attempts to keep people from voting. How can a person be a proud American while trying to keep people away from the ballot box? Makes zero sense to me.
As to the Cathedral, yes, it cost a boat load of money. And though I’m not skilled in architectural or artistic stuff at all, I am completely turned off by the exterior, but enwrapped by the interior, which it seems to me tries to embody the journey of God’s people from darkness into light. It isn’t your typical cathedral, for sure, but it has enduring meaning for the faithful. I actually can’t wait to go back!
Have you no shame? Listen, if you find spiritual benefit in a traditonal Church architecture, fine. I’m not here to judge your spirituality. But don’t come after me when I explain to you that your traditional Church building is, at best, 2 or 3 hundred years of modernist architecture. When Saint Peters was built, it was radical, completely set apart from Churches of its time. And it cost a bunch of dollars. Just ask Martin Luther how many indulgences had to be sold to finance it’s building!! Yet who among you would denounce St Peter’s Basilica as a modernist artificial creation? And guess what. It’s altar faces the people, people!
The only reply to your post was from you. Who exactly is coming after you? A thumbs down should not send you into a tizzy, please pray for a thicker skin and the ability to be tolerant of the views of others.
Remove–The Guilty flee where none pursue them, YFC is constantly yelling at us Traditional Catholics which is quite laughable
Given that Martin Luther may have been condemned to hell, I really don’t want to ask him anything.
Your Phell-o Katholic: “Have you no shame?”
Look who’s talking.
This is a good reason for requiring IDs to vote. It prevents voting fraud. Now let’s suppose, that some Republicans somewhere try to decide an election, by submitting tens of thousands of duplicate votes in each state county. There are now often millions of votes to be counted, so it may not be easy to detect these fraudulent vote actions. So, YFC, are you for this possibility? Why not eliminate this problem by requiring IDs? Why is that so difficult? Strengthening honesty at the ballot box is a decided good, it reinforces the belief that the US has fair and honest elections, that all can accept. So why introduce skepticism and lack of faith in our democracy, by allowing the possibility of duplicate voting by outside criminal parties?
But YFC is for eliminating IDs for a simple reason: He knows that most ballot box illegal and criminal duplicate ballots are coming from Democrats and may help decide elections in favor of the Democratic Party.
Cdl. Mahony can go straight to hell. The Church dishonors itself allowing this cover-up artist to hang around. He is no spokesman, and anyway who in their right mind would believe anything he had to say?
Anonymous…You’re exactly right but YFC thinks people of color are not smart enough to figure out how to get an ID. They, the white liberals, must lead them and take them by the hand and run their lives. I wonder how people get on planes or get health care without some form of ID. And like the Liberal big cities where crime is rampant and Black kids are being murdered everyday by criminals, they believe they know best. Guns are the enemy they say, not the person who shot these kids. (What would happen if they get rid of all guns and knives were used?)
Ronnie,
You hit the nail on the head.
Liberals unknowingly reveal their racist attitudes when they think black people are too dumb to get a photo ID.
I’ve long held that liberals’ complaints about conservatives typically result from their own psychological projections of something deep within themselves. This is a case-in-point. Systemic racism is another.
Thanks Steve! And you’re right I believe liberals are guilty of much of what they accuse conservatives of.
One day, while waiting in the DMV, a clerk broke into our line, with 5 people, recent immigrants.
He explained they needed consideration because of language difficulties.
(it turned out that this was an ongoing illegal criminal practice, for which some DMV workers were later charged).
But this proves a point, that immigrants, legal and illegal, know exactly what to do – head straight for the DMV, and get that license. With that license safely obtained, they can get a job, get a bank account, and make use of all those activities which require an ID, like voting and driving. With that license, suddenly you become a viable, active citizen, with all the benefits of citizenship. So this moaning from YFC and others about “…insidious attempts to keep people from voting” is not only incorrect, it is in reality, another fraudulent attempt to allow illegal and criminal voting practices…
Whatever your position using the mahoney as as an advocate for anything is bad, prelate ? ,how about disgraced prelate , if he is such a moral exemplar let him speak for the whole archdiocese on these matters. You should review his shameful actions and costs to this archdiocese in souls,reputation and finances this “prelate” legacy has left us.
In YFC’s upside down leftist world, trying to prevent voter fraud and stolen elections (like the last one) is in a phrase “voter suppression”. The Left lies no matter what comes out of their mouths…YFC sees beauty in architectural blights like the Los Angeles Cathedral, but then again everything is yellow to the jaundice eye
Lies lies lies lies
There was minimal voter fraud, the election was not stolen. Even Republican election officials agree. Trump appointed judges agree.
It doesn’t even make sense. i\If Dems stole the Presidential election, why didn’t they also steal down ballot races? It doesn’t even make logical sense.
Keep saying lies.
However the truth is otherwise.
According to the Maricopa Arizona Audit account, they are finding “significant discrepancies between the number of ballots therein and the batch reports included in the boxes”.
Why won;t Dominion and the Maricopa county allow the lawfully elected state senate access to the data base and voting machines?
The same ratio of nonexistent votes were injected everywhere, which is why the number of ballots in Maricopa, or anywhere, will not match the number of recorded votes.
And that’s why there were 159,633,396 votes reported cast, compared to the 128,838,342 in 2016, 126,849,299 in 2012, and 129,446,839 in 2008. Occam’s Razor indicates there were at least 30 million fake digital votes for which there are no ballots to be found.
YFC the election was stolen, and now we have a doddering incompetent fool who couldn’t run a lemonade stand.Inflation is rising, instability has returned to the middle east, China has his sights on Taiwan, etc etc… you live in the most mismanaged state in history yet you want to impose the same policies on the rest of us. The only solution is the break up of USA into confederations, CA can keep its homelessness, sodomy, incest and whatever else you creeps do to each other.
Really mouse, is that so?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/04/28/fact-check-false-claim-arizona-audit-found-evidence-election-fraud/4860721001/
YFC,
I’m not going to weigh- in on whether the election was stolen because I have questions but haven’t yet seen the evidence. But I will comment on a faulty statement.
When a criminal engages in election fraud, he can do so in many ways. This has everything to do with time and logistics. If a thief could break into a house and take everything of value, he would. He doesn’t, though, because he has neither the time nor the concealment to do so. Therefore, most thieves target only certain items
Elections are no different. Some criminals do have the time to make down-ballot votes: Most would like to, but they have neither the time nor the logistical methods to do so.
YFC,
Republicans do not engage in voter suppression any more than Democrats. In fact, I strongly suspect that Democrats engage much more in voter intimidation.
Secondly, using common sense principles (e.g. Photo ID) to enhance election integrity (e.g. one man – one vote) is crucial to any democracy. Democrats seek to thwart this by making it much easier to cheat.
While all adults should have the right to vote, not all voters have the intellect, knowledge, wisdom, or will to make good, deliberative choices. You could say that being able to get a photo ID and knowing where to show up on election day is the test to determine if someone has sufficient will, intellect, knowledge, and wisdom to vote.
Even people without the will and intellect to vote are able to comply with simple voting requirements. If people don’t care enough to even do this, maybe they aren’t ready to vote. If this is the case, why would you want them to vote? Maybe this is part of the reason why our government has become so corrupt and dysfunctional.
YFC USA Today? Really? I wonder could they be part of the deep state or fake news. You betcha!
I was in that cathedral, once. I had an uneasy flashback to my Cold War childhood, and kept looking at the walls for the Civil Defense signs.
As to the Cathedral, I wonder if, in the Middle Ages, the critics considered the new Cathedrals ‘modernist’ and wished for their destruction. Now we consider them ‘classics’.
As to voting, yes the clergy can not tell for whom to vote. However, the Clergy should remind the faithful to study the platforms and statements of the candidates according to Church teaching. Then register and vote.
“I wonder if, in the Middle Ages, the critics considered the new Cathedrals ‘modernist’ and wished for their destruction.”
No.
You have to forgive Mike M, he is incapable of defending the Faith why should he be expected to think the LA Cathedral is the monstrosity that it is
mikem,
Many of the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages evoke within the human psyche the Transcendent. They are like great works of art.
The L.A. cathedral, on the other hand, it doesn’t evoke the Transcendent but, instead, evokes the greatness and worship of Man. It would make for a great Masonic temple.
I am a different “Anon.”
mikem– it is a good idea to study history, starting in the ancient world, and take some classes in the Humanities, art, literature, classical music, architecture, culture, etc. The modern era is very unique in the arts (including architecture) in that it rejects traditional structure, balance, harmony, and beauty, and the wisdom and learning of the ages. It also is extremely irrational and rebellious, and even crudely rejects God and Nature, and is extremely dehumanizing. A product of mentally unbalanced, very sick minds, especially those who were “shell-shocked” and deeply emotionally wounded by World War I, as well as other deeply shocking, dehumanizing, culturally destructive events and developments, lots of which was launched in the advent of the Industrial Age. The only shining triumph of modernity is Science. Everything else is pretty much degraded and destroyed.
The Industrial Revolutions (there were several of them) and the advent of Modern Science and Technology brought both good and bad to society. One sad result is the undermining of stability of society and daily life, constant adaptation to new ways of living– and the breakups of old ways, dehunanization, mechanization; life no longer natural and slow-paced– going too fast at breakneck speeds, with new forms of transportation (train, car, airplane, etc.); the questioning and devaluing of all solid, time-tested truths and ways of living, ripping to shreds all excellent, traditional standards in every field. Nihilism, atheism, socialism, meaninglessness of life and of existence, rejection of God and traditional Christianity, rejection of traditional Christian morality, secularization, and minimalizing the value of the individual human being prevailed, along with mental illness, isolation, poor socialization, family disintegration– darkening and disintegrating Western Culture. So– today, our arts, architecture, etc. reflect all of this tragic modernistic stuff. Not healthy, not good for us, out-of-tune with Nature– and rejecting of the beautiful, life-giving inspirations of God, our Creator.
Absolutely appalling.
Allegations about election fraud have “precipitated an unprecedented wave of violence and insurrection”?
What planet are you on?
You’re a disgrace.
Cardinal is right about warning the faithful about the activities of the fascists trying to take over the country.
Mahoney’s a little bit confused by who the fascists are. The radical Left are the ones engaged in massive voter fraud and voter suppression with their cohorts in the fake news & tech companies aiding & abetting their evil tactics.
I am tired of hearing the same bogus socialist democrat talking points.
Getting closer and closer to meeting his Maker and this is what he is thinking about??
He has never been held to account for all the damage he has done, he is consulted by the pope and is a regular at the LA REC so in his hubris he must believe he has some moral authority to speak publicly. I don’t think he loves God or fears satan.
This Leftist who destroyed the Los Angeles Archdiocese just will not keep his mouth shut and retire already and pray for his sins.
Many sexually abused Catholic children, and many of the Catholic Faithful, have been extremely harmed by Mahoney’s lies, deceptions, criminal child rapist priest cover-ups. I will never forget the tragic film, “Deliver Us From Evil.” Nor his evil, sacrilegious REC’s. Nor his sacrilegious teachings on the Eucharist, and deliberately harming poor Mother Angelica. Mahony should have been severely reprimanded and laicized by Pope St.John Paul II. Right or wrong– Mahony has no authority, in Christ’s Name, to speak any more, on anything.
Anon , Amen ! the film you mentioned I have also seen , his depositions posted online along with his leaked emails years ago show him for what he is . Mother Angelica is I believe in heaven , remembered with devotion and love . The mahony will have no such fond and holy remembrances , much less talk of sainthood.
When Mother Angelica was so badly hurt by Mahony for chastising him regarding his false, sacrilegious statements on the Holy Eucharist, and later became extremely ill and died– I actually had the occasion to say to Mahony one day, very deeply hurt– “You know, your cruel actions probably killed poor Mother Angelica!” He did not reply, he acted cordial, self-assured, and just changed the subject. I doubt that he took me seriously– he is too huge as a powerful Catholic leader and public figure. I just quietly left, deeply hurt and absolutely stunned at all this “bad Catholic Cardinal” had done wrong.
Unfortunately, this kind of irresponsible reporting smacks of pushing an agenda that is only secular. Seems “leaders” of The Church spend more time involved in secular politics than feeding and tending their sheep.
Where is the penance from these leaders who covered up horrific, sinful and criminal acts. Penance for the victims and their families, torn apart and now seeing evidence the cycle of abuse continues to the next generation. Yet no significant prosecutions. Curtailing all my giving to The Church and Catholic in name only organizations, publications etc. that are openly pushing secular agendas. I believe the warnings about all of this began on May 13th. I pray for the victims and Holy Mother Church.
Pure communist agitprop. Anyone legally qualified to vote can if they choose to. What BS.
They cannot. That is this whole discussion about. Some racial and economic groups are targeted to keep them away from voting — their voices never to be heard, despite being legal.
Can you tell me who some of them are, and I will personally go help them get ID.
Please get involved with a voters rights organization like the League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote or Let America Vote. There are several more and you will want to research them to make sure that your values align with theirs.
For shame YFC, St. Peter’s is purposely beautiful. Lifts the heart and mind to God. The altar was used for hundreds of years with the priest leading people to God even if it can be used otherwise now. Always canards from you, why?
You can’t wait to go back? Why can’t you go back now? My parish has been fully opened since Christmas. What are you waiting for? We are now in an endemic, we are no longer in a pandemic. It’s a disgrace what the shepherds have done to the flock.
A perfect reverse weathercock.
Scratching my head in wonderment as to why Mahoney could possibly think anyone with integrity would care what he thinks
The Marxist propaganda that Mahony is spewing comes straight from the pits of hell.
Unless Mahony has been a poll observer, he is not qualified to opine on this issue. I have been a poll observer for the Election Integrity Project since 2012. I have seen, documented and reported election irregularities. They are widespread and uncontrolled. One example is ballot harvesting at senior living and skilled nursing facilities. You can still vote if you’re on a ventilator or in a coma. It is not uncommon for a paid political staffer to collect all the absentee ballots for the residents of a particular address and drop them off at a polling place. Who filled them out? As long as the outside of the envelope was signed, anyone could have filled out the ballot inside.
Roger Mahony, notice I did not use the title Cardinal, is one of the major reasons that I have little respect for Archbishop Gomez.
When we finish Mahoney bashing, let us consider the issue of purported voter suppression. Is it happening as we speak? Figuratively, Yes! My take is that it is the responsibility of the state government to make voting as easy as possible for as many registered voters as possible. What I am observing in the news is an effort to make voting more difficult for more people. So, what is easy voting for more people? What does it look like? My vision is that the state should send ballots to all registered voters a month before the election date. Each registered voter must return their ballot by election date. They can do that by using monitored drop boxes convenient to every neighborhood, dropping the ballot off at a local city hall, or dropping it off at a voter registrar’s office. How easy is that? Anything more than that is voter suppression, don’t you think?
There is no voter suppression and Cardinal Mahoney should keep quiet. For you Bob, some nice clarity. Go back to sleep now.
Bob One why do people like you oppose Voter ID, when we know there is always fraud in every election…
Can I suggest that well before the next election – and definitely not during election season – if you have questions about how they prevent voter fraud, call the office of registrar of voters and ask them! One year, my name was not on the rolls, and I had to vote a provisional ballot and I was worried about the secrecy of my vote and all the rest. I politely inquired, and got a very nice detailed response and I definitely got the sense they were happy to tell me about the procedures they use, and were able to verify that my provisional ballot was indeed counted and counted secretely. That was 20 years ago or so.
Where I live, you can also track your ballot. Type in some information and it can tell you whether your ballot has been mailed, received, verified, opened, and counted. Its actually a pretty amazing system. I believe it works throughout California.
And about 2 years ago I went to a house party and I was chatting with a person who works for the city but not for the elections department. During election season, they pull in city employees from other departments, and he explained how much training they have to go through, and in his case, his job was to determine whether the signature on the ballot envelope matched the signatures on file. They only need to do this when the computer can’t decide whether or not it’s a valid signature match or in cases where the computer wants to reject a ballot. And the computer (and when the computer can’t decide a human being like him) is shown basically all of the signatures on file for that person. Not only is it the signature you used whenever you regeistered, but also your DMV signatures, your state tax signatures, etc. They can have as many as 20 signatures or more to compare to.
Would voter ID help any better? Maybe. But I have walked away from these experiences feeling pretty darned good that the system works. I actually think it works better than walking into the polling place, since the people working there are basically volunteers and not particularly well trained, it’s usually in a dimly lit garage, and I doubt any of them have any training in how to spot a fake ID.
It actually took me many years before I used mail in ballots because I LOVE going to the polling place. But I’m a convert after learning how well the system handles mail in ballots and how I can track the progress of my ballot through the system.
So by all means, email your voter registrar’s office and ask what they do to prevent voter fraud.
Your Phell-o Katholic, “Can I suggest . . .”
No.
I don’t oppose voter ID. I think it is a good thing! The DMV and the Election Department have my signature on file. The computers can compare it to the one on the ballot envelope in a matter of a nanosecond. If it were not for the hackers in the cyber world, I would prefer to vote by phone or computer.
With the unprecedented amount of voter fraud that occurred in the 2020 election, Mahoney should just shut up and close his eyes again and go back to reading the LA Times and CNN and the legacy media that informs his world. He is completely ignorant of the issues involved in the fraud and which are now coming to light in the audits in Maricopa County and other areas around the country. Lack of chain of custody for ballots, voter ID, machines that can be hacked, are among a host of issues that are being addressed in the attempt to make only legal votes count.
Audits are beginning around the country and the initial results of the Maricopa County audit are showing what we all knew and suspected: massive fraud and manipulation of the machines. Much of this comes down to media. My experience with the religious and clergy in this country is that most are only informed by legacy media and the MSM which have the Leftist agenda as their narrative. They get the LA Times delivered to them, watch CNN, and rarely, if ever, read or watch deeper than what is presented on these platforms. A 60-second sound bite saying there was no voter fraud is what they hear.
Archbishop Gomez seemed surprised when Biden began lifting abortion restrictions. Really? How ignorant can you be? I’m sorry but their involvement in politics is only illustrating their ignorance as this Cardinal so aptly demonstrates.
Joe, I agree that everyone should take the time to listen/read the real news, and not accept junk reports of what is happening in the world. To that point, the ballots in Arizona were counted three times, and the bi-partisan election commission agreed that they were valid, and that the count was accurate.he group that was hired to audit the ballots knows nothing about how to do an audit. If I were going to hire some group to do an audit, I would hire an audit firm that didn’t have “Ninja” in its name; one that had done audits before, like one of the big six audit firms. Every false piece of data coming out of the Maricopa County “Ninja” audit has been rebuked. It is all junk. You have been sucked into the web of the people who hate democracy.
Anonymous “the ballots in Arizona were counted three times, and the bi-partisan election commission agreed that they were valid”. Well we’ll see what the recount In Maricopa County shows. Don’t you just love it when the Far Left claims it was a so-called “by-partisan commission” which determined the accuracy of the elections. As for the so-called “Ninja” audit likewise identifying it as “junk” and by those mean people who hate democracy…LOL What is the Left afraid of?
I totally agree with the people above. The left has destroyed the Archdiocese. They are now extreme left. The Pope is following his political place or origin, Venezuela, a socialist/communist country. Now the Pope wants to bring it to the United States. Now friends with biden a socialist/communist and the Pope puts fear in the Bishops/Archbishops that if they vote against Pelosi it could be bad for them and biden. Even thought Pelosi and biden are giving the OK to MURDER unborn children up to the day of birth. This is not the Catholic religion I was brought up in…..George Soros is most likely involved with the Vatican. I feel if the Pope wants to help the world, move out of Rome and let the homeless move into the Vatican. The Catholic Church has so much money but they distribute it they way they want….sure do not help the sisters that have given their life to God. But the Priests move into nice places and have good lives. I am just saying….this whole picture is not right anymore. I feel really bad about all of this happening now. We do not even have a Pope backing Jesus Christ anymore.
The pope isn’t from Venezuela. I’ll just try to be polite and leave my comment there.