PRAYERS TO OUR LADY

The strongest letter in defense of marriage ever addressed by Catholic hierarchy to United States' President

I can't get the pic of Obama to paste.

The strongest letter in defense of marriage ever addressed by Catholic hierarchy to United States' President

Second Sunday of October 2011:
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

The opposition to same-sex marriage took a significant turn lately with a letter from Archbishop Dolan, President of the USCCB to President Obama in which Dolan urges the President to end his Administration’s “campaign against DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), the institution of marriage it protects, and religious freedom.”

Last month, the Justice Department has shifted from not defending DOMA… to actively attacking DOMA’s constitutionality… Mr. President, your Administration’s actions against DOMA and the values it stands for contrast sharply with your excellent Mother’s Day and Father’s Day proclamations issued earlier this year. It is especially wrong and unfair to equate opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or willfully ignorant racial discrimination, as your Administration insists on doing.

Our profound regard for marriage as the complementary and fruitful union of a man and a woman does not negate our concern for the well-being of all people but reinforces it. While all persons merit our full respect, no other relationships provide for the common good what marriage between husband and wife provides. The law should reflect this reality.

Our federal government should not be presuming ill intent or moral blindness on the part of the overwhelming majority of its citizens, millions of whom have gone to the polls to directly support DOMAs in their states and have thereby endorsed marriage as the union of man and woman. Nor should a policy disagreement over the meaning of marriage be treated by federal officials as a federal offense—but this will happen if the Justice Department’s latest constitutional theory prevails in court. The Administration’s failure to change course on this matter will, as the attached analysis indicates, precipitate a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions.

We cannot but congratulate the head of the USCCB for speaking so sharply on a question with huge stakes, which could incriminate most United States citizens for defending the most basic natural right on earth. We can hardly blame the Archbishop for raising shallow arguments simply because that they are addressed to a very progressive Administration which fears neither God nor His Law, following a déjà vu communist agenda.

Yet, would not such a letter be the ideal occasion for the Catholic hierarchy to remind the United States authorities of the existence of the said Natural Law and of the objective morality on sexuality, instead of being on the defensive. This approach, very conciliar-like, builds the defense of the family upon the most shallow pillars of human and religious freedom, which explains why the bishops “recognize the immeasurable personal dignity and equal worth of all individuals, including those with same-sex attraction, and we reject all hatred and unjust treatment against any person.” While it is certainly proper to reject all hatred of persons as persons, we still need to clearly state the difference between sin and virtue.

The ambiguity, of Vatican II and the United States text, lie in equating the dignity of the person as such with the dignity of the virtuous actions of the person. With this yardstick, the devil, simply for being an angel created by God, would deserve much more dignity than Our Lady! One is heading for tough times ahead when one cannot call a spade a spade, and when the very defenders of the Natural Law feel paralyzed to defend its application to marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

With 430 Catholic bishops over 195 United States dioceses, 70 million registered members, the Catholic Church represents 22 percent of the United States population. About a year before the major elections, this should give some thought to the White House. Yet, it is highly improbable that the radical ideology reigning there will use proper reason for the sake of the true common good.

http://www.sspx.org/pastors_corner/pastors_corner_october_2011.htm#...

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Permalink Reply by Cathleen on October 7, 2011 at 2:54pm

Alan,

Maybe there is a reason you couldn't get that picture of Obama to paste on here....maybe because this is a truly Catholic forum....hee, hee! No Obama-nations allowed on here!

Sorry.....couldn't resist. ;-)

Bravo to the SSPX priests and bishops for always been courageous enough to call a spade a spade.