USCCB Voting Guide for Catholics
Five Non-Negotiable Issues
- Abortion
- Embryonic Stem Cell Research
- Human Cloning
- Euthanasia
- Same-sex "Marriage"
Related Issues
- Designer babies
- Freedom of Religion
I am an assenting Catholic
Vatican II taught that we should give religious assent to the teachings of the Ordinary Magisterium.
It taught that abortion and infanticide are "abominable crimes."
Murder is intrinsically evil
I cannot see pitting the born against the unborn.
Buying material comfort at the expense of murdering babies.
It is murder.
It is intrinsically evil.
Catholics are not Gnostics
Vatican II did not embrace gnosticism; many interpreters of Vatican II are gnostics. They hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see.
The idea of conscience espoused by the modern world is gnostic: "If you think it is good, it is good; if you think it is true, it is true."
Rights impose obligations
Establishing it as a right mandates participation by all citizens: taxpayers, doctors, nurses, social workers.
"Any procedure that involves a doctor is part of health care."
Murder is not "health care"
The deadening of conscience that allows us to tolerate government-mandated murder opens the door to other perversions of 'health' care, especially genetic engineering and euthanasia.
Science Says
Science teaches us that the process of life begins with the fertilized egg (the zygote) and continues without interruption until we die. This is the true "seamless garment" of life. The development of the human being continues for 25 years. That is when the last major systems of the brain emerge.
- zygote: fertilized egg
- blastocyst: inner group of cells, which will become the embryo, surrounded by an outer shell, which will become the placenta
- embryo: highly differentiated
- fetus: 11th week to birth. Recognizably human.
From the first moment of conception, there is life.
- Rhetorical demonstration
- If the zygote wasn't alive, it couldn't turn into a blastocyst.
- If the blastocyst wasn't alive, it couldn't turn into an embryo.
- If the embryo wasn't alive, it couldn't turn into a fetus.
- If the fetus wasn't alive, it couldn't turn into an infant.
- At every stage, if it weren't alive, it wouldn't have to be killed.
- Biological demonstration--"signs of life"
- Ingestion of nutrients from the environment.
- Metabolism of the nutrients.
- Excretion of waste.
- Maintenance of homeostasis--self-regulation of its own internal processes.
- Growth through cellular division.
- Consummation of development: attaining the power to reproduce.
- It is human life.
- We know that the DNA in the zygote is human--the cell cannot turn into a dog, a cat, or a giraffe. It can only become a human being.
- It is a unique human life
- Every nucleated cell in the mother's body contains her genetic identity. We can tell what is and is not part of her body through genetic testing.
- Every nucleated cell in the child's body contains his or her genetic identity. It is from both parents.
- Every part of the mother's body is nourished by her blood.
- Every part of the child's body is nourished by its own blood.
- The child's spiritual powers are given to it by God
- Aristotle--intellect and will come from above and are immortal. They can only be caused in us by the action of a spiritual being.
- The Psalms.
Yes, this is bio-centric reasoning. It is the biology that tells us the species of the act being contemplated. If we were talking about lab rats instead of human beings, the ethics of killing would be entirely different.
Choosing sides on this issue
I can't see the policies of the Democrat Party as consistent with my faith.
They call murder of children in the womb "health care."
The HHS mandate mandates that Catholic institutions pay for abortifacients in two forms: so-called "chemical contraceptives" and the morning-after pill. Both cause abortions.
The President has ceased to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, and treats same-sex marriage as a "right."
The President allowed Federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
- For Democrats it’s as simple as pulling a quote from Matthew 25:40--“We call it Catholic social doctrine: ‘Whatever you do to the least of these, you do for me.’†Vice President Joe Biden explained in a recent ad directed at Catholics. Biden reminded voters that he was “a practicing Catholic like many of you†and explained that the lesson was drilled into his head by priests and nuns.
- Lynn from Facebook: "Lynn Daley I wouldn't say the democratic party is anti-catholic. Other than being pro-choice (which is not pro-abortion), democrats tend to hold views that are more Catholic Christian than other parties - support for the poor and disenfranchised, inclusion of historically segregated populations."
Whatsoever You Do ...
"What you do to the least of my family, that you do unto me."
Natural Law
In a speech delivered at the 2006 “Call to Renewal†conference, Senator Obama offered these thoughts on the relationship between politics and religion: "Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal rather than religion-specific values. ... It requires that their proposals be subject to argument and amenable to reason. Now, I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, to take one example, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all."
Rom 1 and 2.
All sins are contrary to our human nature.