The following comes from a Feb. 2 segment of a series on freshmen state legislators.
God or Country? Miguel Santiago has contemplated devoting his life to both.
Tracing an arc Gov. Jerry Brown followed decades ago, the Democratic Assembly member from Los Angeles entered politics despite initially intending to spend his life serving in the Catholic Church.
“My mindset was for some time, even during my college years – I didn’t share it with my friends at the time – that I really had a deep passion and wanted to go the seminary,” Santiago said. “I ended up in politics but quite frankly I was on my way to the seminary – at least mentally prepared.”
In the end, politics prevailed. Santiago recounts an awakening familiar to many young Latino politicians in California: the son of Mexican immigrants, he was pushed into politics when voters acted first to deny immigrants public services by passing Proposition 187 in 1994 and then to end race-conscious admissions policies with Proposition
209 in 1996.
“When Proposition 209 came about, for me that was a moment that I decided that public service was going to be where I needed to be and what I wanted to do,” Santiago said.
Santiago’s career prior to the Legislature has involved community organizing around access to higher education and healthcare and, most recently, a stint as district director for former Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez [ see Cal Catholic story on Perez]. His faith has endured throughout.
“I’m not going to agree with everything the Catholic Church has, from some of the belief systems to policy beliefs,” Santiago said, but “as a practicing Catholic I still attend mass on holy days of obligation and periodically jump into a parish just to say a prayer or two.”
Another Catholic in name only that should be denied the Sacraments. At least he is not a priest who would be preaching about the glories of abortion. Lord have mercy!
“Go to the seminary” . . . “practicing Catholic” . . . this guy is as phony as the proverbial wooden nickel.
Sorry, Assemblyman Santiago, you chose a political path — the Democratic Party — to ease your access to election. Your position, and the positions taken by your political party are non-Catholic. No, you cannot just go along, to get along; you are a dissembler, a wolf in sheeps clothing.
Of course, Abp. Gomez, and Bp. McElroy, and many, many other Catholics, will welcome you with joy. Here is a success! Here is a man of promise! Here is someone that climbed above poverty, disenfranchisement, blah, blah, blah, they will all say. In fact, you are someone that has made his deal with the Devil. Yes, Assemblyman, the very Satan that you swore you would “reject” at your baptism (and many times thereafter, if you are as “practicing” a Catholic as you say).
You want to be a star. A Latino Harry Reid. Well. Enjoy your fame, which is really infamy in the eyes of the Church (that is, among True Believers). One can only wonder what you really believe (beside the right to abortion on demand, the right for homosexuals to marry, the right to free sexual expression — all part of the dopey Democratic Platform.
You should immediately repent, Assemblyman. That is the only way to avoid the destruction of the path you have chosen.
And, St. C, your tirade just brought one more person back to the Church? How could you have been more pastoral in your approach? Let me count the ways! Jesus would not have said those things they way you stated them. My God is a loving God.
Bob One –
Evangelization NEVER trumps TRUTH –
CCC: ” 2467 Man tends by nature toward the truth.
He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: “It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth,
especially religious truth.
They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth.”
&
CCC: ” 1759 An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention. The end does not justify the means.”
OBLIGATION (DUTY) of all Catholics –
CCC: ” 907 In accord with the knowledge, competence, and preeminence which they possess, [lay people] have the right and even at times a duty
to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church,
and they have a right to make their opinion known to the other Christian faithful,
with due regard to the integrity of faith and morals and reverence toward their pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons.”
God, that is the One and Only God, is honest, Bob One. The “pastoral” approach these days is tantamount to hiding the Truth and, too often, as seen in the case of Patricia Jannuzzi, throwing truth under the bus so as to pander to those who may appear to want to join the “Church”, but minus the Faith.
So how pastoral is that? To get folks to “join”, but have no conversion of heart, no Faith? That is a lie, Bob One. That is pretending.
This is why “pastoral” needs to be clearly defined to be that which is truly best for a soul, and souls. Not liberal to a fault. (Like salt with no savor. But that’s what society is nowadays, “sugar” with no calories, “sex” with no babies, etc.) That is allowing anything and everything and then slapping a misnomer on it so that what is bad will appear good.
God, that is the One True God, is an HONEST God. Not a deceiver. That is why Our Lord called many who believed themselves to be holy, sons of the Devil, whited sepulchers, and blind guides. You may want to look to the “pastoral” language of Jesus instead of just intimating that you “know” what He would or wouldn’t say based on – what? – not scripture.
“Bob One” — your comments are, well, ridiculous. It is likely that more Catholics go to Hell due to “pastoral” approaches by their priests (and lay people pals), than are saved by them. The Assemblyman needs to be told the truth, frankly and without varnish.
Also, the blog contained no “tirade”. Your comments are in the same school as the Catholic Whiners that say, “you are so mean” and “that was hurtful” and “Jesus would not do that”. The answer to this is the same as that given by US Army General Anthony McAuliffe to a German demand for his surrender (during the Battle of the Bulge), “Nuts”.
Jesus was patient, and did not immediately condemn sinners. Yet, he warned them plenty, and gave no ambiguity about avoiding sin, and the absolute reality of Hell. How is that different in kind from the wording aimed at Assemblyman Santiago? He is directly aiding the Devil, and, as an “Evil Bonus” he is providing major scandal to Hispanics that may admire him and what he stands for. In reality, Santiago needs to be screamed at, and required to look at pictures of aborted Hispanic babies, and to consider what the Catholic Church has said for centuries about the gutter morality of homosexuality.
What you said, and how you said it, is representative of the true dereliction of responsibility by clergy in the Church, today. The October Synod will be very interesting, with — hopefully — much garbage in the Church being flushed away, once their perfidy becomes fully known.
God is also a just God!
Any “Catholic” politician who does not adhere to the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” in entirety is a Catholic heretic.
ILLEGAL immigration is not a Church teaching. Support for OPEN BORDERS is not a Church teaching. In fact both of these are in OPPOSITION to official Church teaching.
CCC 2241 – Immigrants are to obey the law; and to assist in carrying out civic burdens (not create them).
Well said, Jose. Many people today assume that a heretic is someone who goes around making inflammatory statements against the Church and its doctrine. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most heresy is silent. The person identifies as Catholic, but reserves the right to pick and choose which of the Church’s teachings he will assent to. This is obviously the case with assemblyman Santiago.
Thank God that Miguel Santiago did not become a Priest. He is a heretic.
And he must not receive Holy Communion or he commits Sacrilege as well.
“I’m NOT going to agree with everything the Catholic Church has, from some of the belief systems to policy beliefs,” – Santiago said.
CCC: ” 2089 … HERESY is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; ”
CCC: ” 1355 … Because this bread and wine have been made Eucharist …..
no one may take part in it unless
HE BELIEVES THAT WHAT WE TEACH IS TRUE,
has received baptism for the forgiveness of sins and new birth,
and lives in keeping with what Christ taught.”
Following in the footsteps of his governor, Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown, who was a Jesuit seminarian.
This is what happens when Diocese Bishops DO NOT teach, correct, and discipline if necessary, Catholic politicians and other Catholic public figures.
The politicians only get worse.
Not to mention the Mortal Sin of Scandal.
This evil behavior is proof AGAINST the heresies of GRADUALISM and RELATIVISM.
Canon 915: ” Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty
and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin
are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Could not have said it better myself.
” This evil behavior is proof AGAINST the heresies of GRADUALISM and RELATIVISM”.
The comments by St Christopher are correct.
The guy is definitely a Henry Waxman selection.
I think he’d make a good bishop, maybe even a Cardinal. The bishops have in common with him that they don’t “agree with everything the Catholic Church has, from some of the belief systems to policy beliefs”.
Once he realized he could butcher millions more babies as a Democratic politician than as a priest, it was an easy call for him: he chose Satan and his party of abortionists and sodomites. This guy is “Catholic” like the sodomites on this forum are “Catholic”.
I was well pleased with proposition 187 but a liberal judge nullified my vote. Same with proposition 8.
So when our vote goes against the extreme left they just cancel them.
“The word made flesh and dwelt among men.” The Word of God made the flesh of Jesus the God-Man. The flesh of Jesus the Man lived every word He spoke. His flesh and His words were ONE! So must anyone who calls oneself a Christian, Regardless if one is Catholic or not. A Christian must lives The Word by whose flesh as Jesus did. Otherwise, don’t make the claim. Hypocrites are not Christians.
This young politician sounds like a total FRAUD, as a Catholic!! A good priest needs to contact him, and insist on teaching him the True Faith!!
Not a faithful Catholic. you don’t just go on Holy Days of Obilgation. What about Sundays. What about daily mass. What is his prayer life like. You don’t just pop in to do a quick prayer. You don’t agree on every thing the church teaches. Where is he on Church Doctrine? Just looking for votes……So sad to use the “Catholic Church for his personnel gain. He would never have my vote.
Pace Obama in re Travon Martin: If marxist former LA Bishop Gabino Zavala had a son, he would look like Miguel Santiago. Oh wait . . .
Catholics are not robots, all programmed precisely the same.
If you got ten solid Catholics to debate in one room, you’d have at least 20 opinions.
This has been true since the earliest Church councils…including those we read about in the New Testament.
Anonymous ERROR and differences of opinion is precisely why
1) Sacred Scripture, and the
2) “Catechism of the Catholic Church” (second edition, 1997, dark green cover in the USA, aka CCC)
are a REQUIRED part of our Catholic beliefs.
These provide the parameters of Church teaching – which are, and are NOT debatable.
CCC: ” 81 Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.
And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit.
It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching. ”
“ The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I approved … and the publication of which I today order by virtue of my Apostolic Authority, is a statement of the Church’s faith and of catholic doctrine,
attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church’s Magisterium.
I declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion. “ – Pope John Paul II
(CCC pg 5)
Anonymous, by “ten solid Catholics” I assume you mean “faithful Catholics”, not “Catholic heretics”.
Church definition of heretic: ” CCC 2089 “…HERESY is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith,
or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same;”.
Faithful Catholics adhere to a Catholic Bible and the CCC.
“….. let us ask ourselves if we have actually taken a few steps to get to know Christ and the truths of faith more,
by reading and meditating on the Scriptures, studying the Catechism,
steadily approaching the Sacraments.” – Pope Francis , May 15, 2013.
There are things that are the prudential judgment of the Laity, however these are in relation to how things should or should not be implemented.
Mortal sin of any kind is never an option, and never open to debate.
Catholics must never tolerate mortal sin.