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NEW YORK (AP) -- FBI Director James Comey, already criticized over his handling of Hillary Clinton's email investigation in the final days of the presidential campaign, was accepting a lifetime achievement award Monday night at a dinner organized by a law enforcement support group whose board includes three people with longtime ties to Donald Trump....
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Washington D.C., Nov 7, 2016 / 10:10 am (CNA).- As Americans across the country prepare to step into the voting booth tomorrow, what are the most important principles for Catholics seeking to form their consciences according to Church teaching?The answer can’t be reduced to a single issue, but is a matter of weighing candidates’ positions on the different topics at stake, examining the moral hierarchy of issues and rejecting intrinsically evil acts.The U.S. bishops’ conference attempts to offer guidance through its document, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.“It is our hope that by reading the document, they will inform their own consciences as to Church teachings, which require us to make sound moral judgements based on the truths and tenets of our faith,” said Norma Montenegro Flynn, assistant director of media relations at the U.S. bishops’ conference Office of Public Affairs.She said that while the document is “not a ‘vo...
Washington D.C., Nov 7, 2016 / 10:10 am (CNA).- As Americans across the country prepare to step into the voting booth tomorrow, what are the most important principles for Catholics seeking to form their consciences according to Church teaching?
The answer can’t be reduced to a single issue, but is a matter of weighing candidates’ positions on the different topics at stake, examining the moral hierarchy of issues and rejecting intrinsically evil acts.
The U.S. bishops’ conference attempts to offer guidance through its document, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.
“It is our hope that by reading the document, they will inform their own consciences as to Church teachings, which require us to make sound moral judgements based on the truths and tenets of our faith,” said Norma Montenegro Flynn, assistant director of media relations at the U.S. bishops’ conference Office of Public Affairs.
She said that while the document is “not a ‘voter’s guide’,” it does seek to form Catholics’ consciences and explain the responsibilities Catholics have in our democracy.
“As Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship reminds us, while the Church is involved in the political process and shaping policy, it is not partisan and therefore, cannot support or recommend any candidate or party,” Montenegro Flynn told CNA in a statement. “Nor can we compromise basic principles or moral teachings.”
“Our cause is the defense of human life and dignity as well as the protection of the weak and the vulnerable. Therefore, we continue our call to Catholics across the U.S. to faithful reflection and discernment as we approach the elections.”
Forming Consciences lays out principles of Catholic thought, reminding Americans that in “the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation.”
But the Church’s vision of political engagement differs from the partisanship and maneuvering of power that tends to define secular politics, the bishops’ document says, emphasizing the importance of well-formed consciences shaped by fundamental moral truths more than party affiliation.
Forming Consciences discusses the idea of “intrinsically evil” actions, those that are “so deeply flawed that they are always opposed to the authentic good of persons.”
“There are some things we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor,” it says. “They must always be rejected and opposed and must never be supported or condoned.”
A prime example of an intrinsically evil action is the intentional taking of innocent human life, such as through abortion or euthanasia, the document says.
Other acts listed in Forming Consciences as always unjustifiable include human cloning, destructive research on human embryos, genocide, torture, the targeting of noncombatants in acts of war, acts of racism, treating workers as a mere means to an end, intentionally subjecting workers to subhuman living conditions, treating the poor as disposable, and redefining marriage to deny its essential meaning.
It is important to note that not all issues are morally equivalent, the document emphasizes. “The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many.”
At the same time, the “necessary moral distinctions” between issues must not be used to dismiss or ignore other serious threats to human life and dignity.
“As Catholics we are not single-issue voters,” the bishops’ document states. “A candidate's position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter's support. Yet if a candidate's position on a single issue promotes an intrinsically evil act, such as legal abortion, redefining marriage in a way that denies its essential meaning, or racist behavior, a voter may legitimately disqualify a candidate from receiving support.”
It is always wrong for Catholics to vote for candidates who support policies promoting intrinsic evils “if the voter's intent is to support that position,” Forming Consciences explains.
However, it adds, “(t)here may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate's unacceptable position even on policies promoting an intrinsically evil act may reasonably decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons. Voting in this way would be permissible only for truly grave moral reasons, not to advance narrow interests or partisan preferences or to ignore a fundamental moral evil.”
The document also notes the possibility of a situation in which all candidates hold positions that promote an intrinsically evil act. In such a case, the bishops say, voters “may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods.”
Reflecting on the document’s underlying themes, Joseph E. Capizzi, associate professor of Moral Theology at The Catholic University of America, said that the guidance the bishops offer in how to form the conscience is the most important – and most challenging – point the bishops make.
“Too often we think of our consciences as immune to – and free from – external sources of guidance,” told CNA. “Our particularly American understanding of ‘self-reliance,’ and even ‘self-creation’ balks at the idea that a ‘well-formed conscience’ is a conscience tutored by the world; by experiences shared by others, by reason and the natural law, and by the teachings of the Church that express that law.”
But these principles are important, he maintained, because without them, “we have no way of distinguishing conscience as the voice of God guiding us toward freedom and fulfillment from conscience as the voice of self, unintentionally and unknowingly leading us in circles.”
This is not to say, however, that Catholics will be able to find perfect candidates, Capizzi said. “I think it’s unavoidable that Catholics choose among candidates holding problematic views,” he explained, but he added that the document’s guidance on forming one’s conscience can help Catholics work “to limit the harms in such situations.”
And the principles outlined in the bishops’ document apply not only to national races but to all kinds of political actions that call Catholics to consider and discern issues at hand. The point of the Forming Consciences document, Capizzi said, “is to help in conscience formation. A well-formed conscience, one that seeks to advance the common good and contribute to the ‘human ecology’ necessary for human flourishing.”
Capizzi suggested that Catholics read the document and to “pray deeply after thinking about the principles explained in the document and the issues it mentions.”
“The faithful should focus in particular on their own biases and weaknesses, exploring those areas where they find themselves most challenged by the guidance the bishops provide,” he offered. He also said that Catholics should not limit their political involvement to voting, but to continue in their commitment and involvement with others.
“We are always growing and learning in our engagement with others,” he encouraged. “So, vote next Tuesday and regardless of the outcome, keep up the good work of Christ!”
IMAGE: CNS photo/Francois Gloutnay, PresenceBy Simon CaldwellOXFORD, England (CNS) -- Thespread of gender theory is misleading so many Catholics that a high-leveldocument may be required to correct the errors of the ideology, a Dutchcardinal said.Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht,Netherlands, said a papal encyclical or other magisterial document "mightappear to be necessary" to counter the spread of the new theory thatgender can be determined by personal choice rather than by biology.He said even Catholic parentswere beginning to accept that their own children can choose their genderspartly because "they don't hear anything else."The church, he said, now had anurgent duty to remind them of the truth of its teaching about the human body.He told Catholic News Service ina Nov. 7 interview in Oxford that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis haveaddressed the subject within the past five years as each noted that the theorywas taking root in Western societies."Perhaps a document only onthis p...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Francois Gloutnay, Presence
By Simon Caldwell
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- The spread of gender theory is misleading so many Catholics that a high-level document may be required to correct the errors of the ideology, a Dutch cardinal said.
Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht, Netherlands, said a papal encyclical or other magisterial document "might appear to be necessary" to counter the spread of the new theory that gender can be determined by personal choice rather than by biology.
He said even Catholic parents were beginning to accept that their own children can choose their genders partly because "they don't hear anything else."
The church, he said, now had an urgent duty to remind them of the truth of its teaching about the human body.
He told Catholic News Service in a Nov. 7 interview in Oxford that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have addressed the subject within the past five years as each noted that the theory was taking root in Western societies.
"Perhaps a document only on this problem might be an urgent question," Cardinal Eijk said.
"It (gender theory) is spreading and spreading everywhere in the Western world, and we have to warn people," he said.
"From the point of moral theology, it's clear -- you are not allowed to change your sex in this way," he added.
"It is like euthanasia and assisted suicide," Cardinal Eijk continued. "When people first began to discuss them they were unsure," but many people have now become so acquainted with such practices they are now deemed ordinary.
He said many Catholics were now accepting gender theory "in a very easy way, even parents, because they don't hear anything else."
The cardinal's remarks came ahead of the Anscombe Memorial Lecture, which he was scheduled to give in Blackfriars, a Dominican monastery in Oxford, on the theme, "Is Medicine Losing its Way?"
A moral theologian and a former medical doctor who worked at the Amsterdam university hospital before he became a priest, Cardinal Eijk, 63, said he would be addressing the rise of nontherapeutic medical practices, including gender re-assignment and euthanasia and assisted suicide.
He explained that medical advances were driving a culture in which, he said, individualism thrived and gender theory was finding fertile ground.
But he warned CNS that one of the consequences of the changing mores was the emergence of intolerance toward people who did not accept the new ideas.
"We are living in a quite intolerant society," he said. "People are talking about tolerance and they say the individual is free to think what he likes but in practice ... people have to accept this certain view of man, this dualistic view of man and this view of the body as something that is moldable.
"And when you say perhaps that is not a morally good way, you are excluded," he said. "You have to think according to these modern theories or you are excluded -- it's (permeating) the university world, parliament, the mass media.
"It is very painful and they will make it for us Christians ever more difficult, I am sure," he said, adding that Catholics must press for the right to live by their consciences if they were not to face harassment or even jail in the future.
Young people, he continued, were a source of hope because he recognized that the minority of those who became active in the church "accepted the whole faith."
"It will be the force of the future," he said. "I think we will be a tiny church, a small fraction of the population at least in the Netherlands, but the Christians who remain will have a life of prayer, a personal relationship with Christ, and they will be clear about the faith and willing to testify to it.
"It will be a tiny church, but a convinced church, and it will be willing to suffer," he added.
Because gender theory is so new, the church seldom denounced it by name until the last five years.
In 2012, Pope Benedict, in an address to the Roman Curia, referred to gender theory when he spoke about the profound falsehoods underpinning an anthropological revolution.
Pope Francis implicitly criticized gender theory in "Laudato Si'," his 2015 papal encyclical on the environment, and condemned "indoctrination of gender theory" as part of a "global war on the family" during a visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan.
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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
IMAGE: CNS photo/Elsa, Pool Photo via USA TODAY SportsBy CHICAGO(CNS) -- When civic leaders make friendly bets on which team will win a big championshipwith their counterparts in another city, one winner enjoys a feast, while theloser eats some humble pie.Butwhen bishops in the World Series' home cities placed their wager on the winner ofthe Fall Classic, it turns out that while only one team could win, poor people inboth cities also will win.Cardinal-designateBlase J. Cupich of Chicago said that, in celebration of the Chicago Cubs endinga 108-year World Series championship drought, he would make good on hisend of the bet and provide enough Chicago deep dish pizzas and baked goods tofeed more than 100 guests of the Bishop William M. Cosgrove Center inCleveland."Bothteams put up a great effort, both cities very much wanted this victory, andtoday Chicago is giving thanks for this blessing," said Archbishop Cupich in aNov. 4 statement. "Our city is celebrating with our Cubs, and we wan...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Elsa, Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports
By
CHICAGO (CNS) -- When civic leaders make friendly bets on which team will win a big championship with their counterparts in another city, one winner enjoys a feast, while the loser eats some humble pie.
But when bishops in the World Series' home cities placed their wager on the winner of the Fall Classic, it turns out that while only one team could win, poor people in both cities also will win.
Cardinal-designate Blase J. Cupich of Chicago said that, in celebration of the Chicago Cubs ending a 108-year World Series championship drought, he would make good on his end of the bet and provide enough Chicago deep dish pizzas and baked goods to feed more than 100 guests of the Bishop William M. Cosgrove Center in Cleveland.
"Both teams put up a great effort, both cities very much wanted this victory, and today Chicago is giving thanks for this blessing," said Archbishop Cupich in a Nov. 4 statement. "Our city is celebrating with our Cubs, and we want to include our friends in Cleveland."
For his part, Bishop Richard G. Lennon of Cleveland said a Cleveland-style meal of pierogi, kielbasa, sauerkraut and green beans would be on its way to feed more than 100 people at the evening supper program for the homeless sponsored by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
"Although we hoped the Indians would come out on top, we humbly accept our defeat and congratulate our friends to the west in Chicago," said Bishop Lennon in a Nov. 4 statement. "We are thankful for the pizzas and dessert, and hope Chicago enjoys a taste of Cleveland on us. We'll be back next year!"
The Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 10 innings Nov. 2 in the climactic Game 7 of the World Series, which featured a game-tying home run in the bottom of the eighth inning by Cleveland's Rajai Davis, only to see the tied contest delayed by rain after nine innings were played. The Cubs scored twice in the top of the 10th inning. Davis singled in a run with two out in the bottom of the inning, but Cleveland could draw no closer.
The Cosgrove Center in Cleveland provides guests with access to such fundamental services as hot meals, shower facilities, mail distribution, and many other forms of assistance. In addition, the center offers referrals to employment and training programs, health and mental health screenings, Veteran Administration benefit help and aid with obtaining housing subsidies.
Catholic Charities' evening supper program for the homeless feeds approximately 135 individuals at each meal. It is just one of 150 programs, at 153 locations, run by Catholic Charities Chicago, assisting more than 1 million persons each year.
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Copyright © 2016 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
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