The following comes from a Jan. 22 story in the Washington Post.
….Last weekend, the five dioceses in Southern California held their first “One Life” event, a march and fair timed to this week’s anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide, and highlighting not only abortion but also homelessness, foster care and elderly rights. More than 10,000 people attended the Los Angeles event.
On Wednesday, more than 100 Catholic leaders — including 31 presidents of Catholic colleges and universities — released a petition calling on Congress to pass immigration reform, which the document calls “a pro-life issue.”
Kathleen Domingo, coordinator of the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Office of Life, Justice and Peace — which organized One Life — said that Archbishop José Gomez created the idea for the event in response to Francis’s emphasis on all kinds of human issues.
“His vision was a celebration of the beauty and dignity of every human life,” Domingo said of Gomez.
“Absolutely, it takes place around Roe v. Wade, because abortion is the biggest civil rights issue of our time. But we aren’t making distinctions between different things. Every human life matters — that’s the point.”
In the same spirit, Gomez created Domingo’s office in 2011 by merging the “justice and peace” office with the “life” office, which had handled efforts on abortion, end-of-life issues and capital punishment.
Catholics have been debating the proper place of abortion in the hierarchy of issues since Roe v. Wade was decided, with some saying it holds the highest theological priority and shouldn’t be muddled in with other topics that may be less black and white and less fundamental. But Francis’s framing of such issues as care for the elderly, economic inequality and loneliness as urgent — rather than abortion and same-sex marriage — has forced Catholics to consider what being an advocate of “life” means.
“My suspicion is that a number of people have gotten what we’ve come to call the memo from Pope Francis,” said Terrence Tilley, a theologian at Fordham University. “That is, we want to be a church that is pastoral and welcoming and not to war against the culture but to work to convert those who have to live in the culture.” Working against abortion goes from being a litmus test, Tilley said, “to one of the things you do.”
Convincing singular “devotion” to the abortion issue, while ignoring the other threats to the dignity of the human person, is one of the devil’s most recent masterpieces. Bravo for putting the God-given dignity of the person at the center, rather than what the Holy Father has called an “obsession” with abortion-mindedness.
“Jim”: Your comment, if understood correctly, suggests heresy. Abortion is murder, a violation of one of the Ten Commandments of God.
The “dignity of the person” relates to, well, nothing, except for pro-homosexual sexualists that want nothing more than for their demands for “dignity” and “respect” to be accorded a sacramental status. You are right that the Devil loves to push this concept, but for evil purposes.
The Zombie-Liberals of the Vatican and most of America’s bishops simply adore social liberalism. This means that, except in name only, they are not really “anti-abortion” because they fear being called “anti-woman”. They are also not really anti-homosexual sex and marriage, fornication, and adultery (which is why they see no issue about admitting divorced/remarried without annulment Catholics to communion).
Abp. Gomez is weak, and not much different than Cardinal Mahony regarding sexual ethics issues. He is much, much more interested in “immigration” and “living wage” issues. Abp. Gomez, and the Zombie-Liberal bishops so beloved of Francis twist and torture language and the True Faith to come up with “all life is precious” themes that wind up using real Catholic truths to support the demonic. Thus, we see “Humanae Vitae” as a theological basis for sexual relationships of all kinds because, the theory goes, Paul VI was all about “love” and “affirming life” so anything that does this, even free immigration, is supported by Humanae Vitae. This is truly crazy.
Christopher I am all in favor of making you in charge of fighting the imaginary zombies. You seem to be most interested in the task.
Seamless garment Jim,
It’s hard for you to type St. for a reason. You also shy away from holy water, crucifixes and the Holy name of Jesus. Still. I am in favor of informing you that it’s NOT imaginary. Even though you already know that because your name is legion, for you are many. The comment that you made about St. Christopher being the most interested in the task of unmasking that legion is truly a compliment to St. Christopher.
The devil hates God and he loves the ongoing human sacrifice slaughter of the most innocent. Read the latest words that the devil often inspires his many minions to say to others, Those words are…”Seeing life through an abortion lens is a distortion.”
Seamless garment Jim, In order for you to seek help for yourself please read Malachi Martin’s book ‘Hostage to the Devil.’ The devil is not imaginary and his minions are not imaginary either.
“Anonymous” I hate to inform you but the laicized former priest Malachi Martin was (self-admittedly) a writer of fiction. Zombies are also fiction. Your discernment of the souls and motivations of combox posters is a fiction. And another fiction is “seeing the world through an abortion lens.” Yes you are welling with rage, but stop and think about it for a moment. [The rage too.]
St Christopher, AMEN to that! You hit the nail on the head!
Why haven’t any of you here taken me up on my challenge for you to explain how Gomez can be truly pro-life while posing for photo ops with the Demoncrat leaders of the pro-abortion, pro-sodomy Demoncrat Party on the front pages of his Tidings rag?
God bless, yours in Their Hearts!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Abortion and Euthanasia are INTRINSIC EVILS.
Abortion is the torture and murder of innocent human beings – apprx 1 MILLION in the USA each year.
There is nothing proportionate in the USA to that !
Jim apparently you are a Democrat or support abortion and euthanasia.
CCC: ” 2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense.
The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.
“A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” “by the very commission of the offense,” and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.
The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy.
Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.”
ALL MORAL ISSUES are NOT EQUAL.
” 3. Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia.
For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion.
The “moral weight” remark is excellent. It comes from Cardinal Bernardin’s revised “seamless garment” statement. Intrinsic evils have greater moral weight than non-intrinsic ones. Also, “immigration” is usually a euphemism for “illegal aliens.” The Catechism (#2241) applies to legal immigrants and obliges them to obey the laws, beginning with the immigration laws. Lastly, the preferential option for the poor applies not to those in relative poverty, but to those in absolute poverty. Our homeless (“houseless,” really) are usually so by choice and their poverty is relative (not unlike the poverty of those fleeing Mexico to work here illegally). To conflate these so-called social justice issues with abortion is dishonest. Yet note how despite the bishops’ accommodationist stance, the media still ignored their One Life events. And this they call “prudential” judgment?
Jim, are you suggesting that ILLEGAL immigration is equal to the TORTURE and MURDER of approx. 1 million human beings each year for the convenience of others in the USA alone ?
You, Jim are supporting the work of the devil – confusion.
No I am not.
I am suggesting that “Every human life matters” which was the purpose of this march, not just those taken by abortion.
Seeing life through an abortion lens is a distortion.
If an innocent human being is deprived of his Right to Life, Jim,
nothing else matters.
All other things relating to life are secondary.
As Pope Benedict stated: “All moral issues are NOT EQUAL”.
Right quote Ted, but wrong analysis.
There are 10 commandments, not one, and many more Magistral teachings besides. And the weightiest among them have nothing to do with abortion.
Don’t be fooled. Abortion is evil but not the highest or the only.
MARIA and Deb i agree with you. God bless you.
‘Convincing singular “devotion” to the abortion issue, while ignoring the other threats to the dignity of the human person, is one of the devil’s most recent masterpieces.’
Jim, I’m just not getting your point here. Without life all other issues are meaningless so it must take precedence. Of course all other life issues are important but they are secondary to a direct attack on innocent life. And how can you even bring in the Devil when I believe it is precisely the Devil who gave us the seamless garment whcih enabled people to downplay this slaughter, and not focus on ending this violence, claiming other issues have the same weight.
It should have been a PRO-LIFE/ANTI ABORTION event only. The organizers, probably with the blessing of the bishops, added in homelessness, immigration reform and elder rights. These are worthy causes, but as soon as other issues are mingled with it, pro/life organizations get less attention and less funding. As Terrence Tilley said, “Working against abortion goes from being a litmus test to one of the things you do.” “One of the things you do?” That’s my point. To put a legal end to abortion, it must be THE thing an organization does. Have you ever seen an immigration march that also called for an end to abortion? I haven’t.
Any time the Washington Post does a puff piece like this on a “pro life” event, look out, something is going on. That paper is about as pro abortion as they come, and that is saying a lot. They approach every abortion story with the mindset that “abortion rights are under attack. How can we spin this story to make abortion look good and abortion foes look bad and save the abortion industry?”
So what is going on, how does one explain this story? Well it’s meant to reward and encourage those “enlightened” leaders who see that abortion is just “one of many social issues” over which reasonable people can disagree. By the same token it’s meant to deride those “unenlightened fanatics” who would claim that abortion is a heinous injustice on a par with infanticide or genocide, and stands in a class by itself. Those “fanatics” also claim that politicians who promote abortion should be given no more respect than those who promote slavery or genocide, should be treated as the abolitionists treated the pro slavery set, and that there can be no argument among reasonable people about the inherent evil of abortion, and no excuse allowed for politicians who support it.
The pro abortionists and their innumerable media allies know that if they can convince people that abortion is just one other social justice issue, no more important than any of the others, they can win the battle for elective abortion. If they can’t they will lose the battle. They are now losing because the pro lifers are dedicated, tireless and increasingly sophisticated.
“So what is going on, how does one explain this story? Well it’s meant to reward and encourage those “enlightened” leaders who see that abortion is just “one of many social issues” over which reasonable people can disagree.”
But isn’t this exactly what the Archbishop is doing with the “One Life” event? Portraying abortion as just one among many “life issues”?
There are people who are against abortion, but not against stem cell research, or euthenasia. Or birth control.
The point is if people know that human life is sacred; that all human life has dignity, they make the correct choices.
That’s exactly what the archbishop is doing and that is why the WAPO gives him favorable publicity.
If I remember correctly last week EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo stated that
“Faith in Public Life” who sponsored the petition signed by 100 Catholic Educators is funded for the most part by atheist / socialist GEORGE SOROS.
Yes, and for verification of that check out the website https://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-118.cfm
Mr. Soros has funded a multiplicity of subversive endeavors from his vast wealth. He has promoted the legalization of drug use, elective abortion, and many other things opposed by the Church. He is probably the last person on earth that the pro life movement should have anything to do with. The fact that he is tied in any way to One Life LA is reason enough for the pro life movement to shunt it.
Socialism, Marxism, Communism,
approving of ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is not going to bring people to the Faith.
And may drive many away.
On Dec 6, 1983 at Fordham University, now deceased Cardinal Joseph Bernardin gave his heretical “Seamless Garment” speech equating all sins to being equal.
Such as abortion and euthanasia, with illegal immigration, tax policy, employment generation, etc.
He purposely confused the “Right to Life” itself, with social issues. This gave his Democratic politician buddies cover for their murderous positions on Abortion.
“One Life LA” should do their own thing on dates not related to stopping ABORTION and Euthanasia – at some other time of the year.
The Bishop and his staff are merely trying to DILUTE and HIJACK the life and death ISSUES of ABORTION and Euthanasia for their own political purposes.
People of ALL religious beliefs banned together to March for Life, not for ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION or any other issues.
Gomez’s buddy Cardinal Sean O’Malley tried to dilute the anti-abortion issue with social issues when he spoke in DC.
Gomez, O’Malley, and Gerald Kikanis even politicized Holy Mass for publicity at the border for their issue in support of ILLEGAL Immigration.
(ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION violates the teaching of the Church CCC 2241.)
No wonder that bad Bishops do not tell people to read the Bible and CCC – so they can BS the un-catechised Catholics to being their political patsies.
Keep them in the dark and preach your own version of the Faith.
The same is true of the Death Penalty – CCC 2267.
Then they have the lying nerve to state “OneLife LA” has nothing to do with politics ! ! ! ! !
Tell us another one.
One reason why progress is being made in restoring respect for human life from conception to natural death is that the pro lifers see it as an exceptional issue, recognizing the mortal danger that abortion poses to our society. No other social issue today strikes at the root of the American Experiment as does abortion. Trying to have it treated as just another social issue prevents people form giving this unique issue the attention and commitment it calls for – a clever ploy by the abortion industry. It also provides pro abortion politicians with the cover and license they need to aggressively promote abortion while NOW wearing a pro life label, and, I think every pro lifer will agree, we’ve had more than our fill of that. Also it makes it even easier for the rabidly pro abortion media to trash the pro life movement while also NOW wearing a pro life label by supporting this reincarnated “seamless garment” approach. One has only to read the WAPO’s article above to anticipate the kind of treatment the pro lifers would get from the media. Immigration gets top billing while the life issues are dismissed with the disparaging sentence to the effect that “some people” are getting the memo of Pope Francis. Thank God for our dedicated and knowledgeable pro lifers who are seeing this trap and avoiding it. May God continue to bless and enlighten them.
“Rodney” outstanding commentary.
Three additional things: (1) many in the pro-life movement are not Catholic, but “evangelical” (or “pentacostal” and the like), who have no problem seeing the “culture of death” that the abortion industry represents and how it is separate and apart from all else; (2) political parties and the hacks that serve them fall all over themselves to embrace the Cuomo thesis of keeping hands off of the decisionmaking of others (while at the same time giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, because they provide some breast exams and the like); and (3) too many clerics, like Abp. Cupich and Abp. Gomez, simply do not care much about abortion and do all they can to avoid the hard work, and unpopular work, of shouting out “No” to the murderous abortion industry, to Planned Parenthood, to the Democratic Party (which is really “Murder, Inc.” in the USA), and to all the celebrities that like to spout off about the “sacredness” of a “woman’s right to control her own body”.
Catholics are deceived by their own priests, bishops and cardinals on a daily basis by their whining, simpering, feminized curtsies to the political power of the Left and its chief ally, the abortion industry. Sadly, the Vatican, too, does not really care; preferring to advise Catholics not to breed like rabbits (music to the ears of the world population control freaks and to the spirit of their founder Margaret Sanger).
Praise God and His Mother that soo many of you see through Gomez’s attempts to enroll you in his new revised Bernadine Seamless Rag ruse!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Interesting. Dr. Tilley, who was raised Catholic u in Phoenix, and graduated from good Jesuit Brophy Prep, channels PF and tells us we shouldnt “war on the culture” of death, which has declared war on us first. Now, I guess he is saying he is R Catholic again these days, because he left the Catholic Church in a leftist huff in the 70’s and became Episcopalian. But I guess he is our faithful theological adviser again now these days.
It just a seems to me we should boss every other denomination around, and theologically interpret their faith since they spend so much of their time telling us how and what we should believe…
Once I learned that the event in Los Angeles called “One Life” or something to that effect was not about stopping abortion, that was when I decided to keep my $25 and to spend it on the Walk For Life, West Coast in San Francisco this past weekend. The idea that abortion is “just another social issue” is one from The Pit, and I do mean THAT pit. Having read “The Way of Divine Love” several years ago, and understanding why Josepha was dragged down to Hell to listen to the prelates, bishops, priests who were condemned to Hell, it has made me not want to have any more of them fall, but I know some will. When priests, Bishops and Cardinals, and Yes, the Pope, understand that they have not just their actions to answer for, but the actions of those in their care when they are judged, perhaps they will take THAT to heart, and the faithful will be able to follow them more readily. Until then, they need our prayers, and the hope that they will faithfully carry out the task of truly leading the faithful to Christ.
Life Lady,
You wrote very good comments. Many of you would be shocked to know how many so called Shepherds take the approach that if it is not formally sponsored by THEIR Diocese or Archdiocese, even though far too many of the souls they have been given by God to watch over, are being infected with the Arch. of Lost Angels (Los Angeles) Religious Education Congress, it is not their responsibility to speak up against it!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.