The audacity of Barack Obama

I am a registered Independent voter (non-partisan). More importantly, I am a truly Catholic voter. My Catholicism defines who I am and how I conduct my life. It permeates every aspect of my life. I can't imagine what my life would be like without my Catholic faith.

This being said, it should be clear at this point that I could not vote for Barack Obama primarily for his radical anti-life, pro-abortion views. Some would say that I'm looking at only one issue and ignoring the rest. My response is that I am interested in all of the issues -- health care, the economy, environmental issues, immigration, family values, gun control, capital punishment, euthanasia, activist judges, abortion, stem-cell research, and more. However, some issues trump all others. For example, what good does health care, a good economy, strong family values, and a green environment mean to the child that has been killed even before he or she has seen the light of day? All those issues are mute if your dead!

Here's a wonderful quote from a man far smarter than I:

"The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination."

(Pope John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, 1988)

So it would not be fair to say that I am a single-issue voter. I am multi-issue voter with a clear understanding that the right to life serves as the foundation for many other issues. If you get the life issue wrong (by being pro-abortion), you can't claim to have a good understanding of the other issues. You can't put the roof on a house until the foundation has been set and the walls raised.

This being said, it is clear where Barack Obama lies with his pro-abortion views. I've mentioned them elsewhere on my blog. For those "other issues" voters out there that think the life issues are not as paramount as I do, allow for me to put forward this video which speaks to Obama's patriotism (or lack thereof) and his questionable beliefs as applied to his proposed policies as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. Considering the "spread the wealth" comments recently spoken by Obama which point directly to tenets of a Socialist economic policy, I feel the following video just continues to point to the many hints of Obamas anti-American sentiment.

The words spoken from his mouth speak volumes...

A Call for a Rosary Novena

A message from Father John Corapi:

A Call for a Rosary Novena
Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

Today we have a similar spiritual battle in progress—a battle between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies, life and death. If we do not soon stop the genocide of abortion in the United States, we shall run the course of all those that prove by their actions that they are enemies of God—total collapse, economic, social, and national. The moral demise of a nation results in the ultimate demise of a nation. God is not a disinterested spectator to the affairs of man. Life begins at conception. This is an unalterable formal teaching of the Catholic Church. If you do not accept this you are a heretic in plain English. A single abortion is homicide. The more than 48,000,000 abortions since Roe v. Wade in the United States constitute genocide by definition. The group singled out for death—unwanted, unborn children.

No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.

I strongly urge every one of you to make a Novena and pray the Rosary to Our Lady of Victory between October 27th and Election Day, November 4th. Pray that God’s will be done and the most innocent and utterly vulnerable of our brothers and sisters will be protected from this barbaric and grossly sinful blight on society that is abortion. No woman, and no man, has the right to choose to murder an innocent human being.

May God grant us the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and counsel to form our conscience in accordance with authentic Catholic teaching, and then vote that well-formed Catholic conscience.

God Bless You

Fr. John Corapi

Now through Friday, October 24th, all orders will receive a free "Vote Your Conscience" Double Feature DVD. This DVD Contains both Father's "Death Wish" talk and his "Wake Up America" Talk (see below for previews). We urge any of you who receive this DVD to show it to any friends and family who may be in doubt of what "proportionate reason" means when it comes to voting for a pro-abortion candidate. Visit Father's website or call 1-888-800-7084 to place an order. (Phone hours M-F 8AM-6PM EST)

Death Wish - Part 1


Death Wish - Part 2


Wake Up America

See also Fr. John Corapi's Television Schedule.

The Intentions of Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for October 2008:

General Prayer Intention:

"That the Synod of Bishops may help all those engaged in the service of the Word of God to transmit the truth of faith courageously in communion with the entire Church."

Missionary Prayer Intention:

"That, faithful to the sacrament of matrimony, every Christian family may cultivate the values of love and communion in order to be a small evangelizing community, sensitive and open to the material and spiritual needs of its brothers."

REFLECTIONS ON POPE BENEDICT XVI'S
MONTHLY INTENTIONS

October 2008

The Apostleship of Prayer receives monthly prayer intentions from Pope Benedict XVI and urges Christians throughout the world to unite in prayer for those intentions. The reflections below seek to illuminate the Holy Father's concerns.


General Intention:

Pope Benedict XVI asks us to pray for this month's Synod of Bishops as they discuss how we can use the Bible to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. The goal is that Catholics will spend time reading the Bible and, by doing so, grow in knowledge and love of God in unity with the whole Church. Strong in the Word of God, we may become courageous witnesses to the world.

Jesus promised the Apostles that the Holy Spirit would lead the Church into all truth (John 15:26). The Church sees the Word of God and the Tradition of the Church as the two great sources of this truth, and it is the Church's ultimate responsibility to codify the truths of our faith. Otherwise the meaning found in the Bible becomes subjective, with readers or groups of readers interpreting the Word of God in any way they wish.

Most Protestant denominations were born of such independent readings of the scriptures. As a result most Protestants have no authority to establish the true meaning of the Bible, and their churches split and splintered thousands of times, each group claiming to have the true interpretation but with no authority to do so. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has upheld one faith.

The doctrines of the Church actually illuminate scripture. Take the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Although a triune God is clearly implied by the scriptures as a whole, especially in light of the New Testament, the doctrine of the Trinity was not proclaimed by the Church until the fourth century. That proclamation was based on scripture, at least two centuries of tradition in the Church Fathers, and the need to counter the Arian heresy denying the divinity of Jesus.

Thus, safeguarded from error, we Catholics benefit a great deal from reading the scriptures, whether we do it publicly at Mass or privately. If we hear or read the Word in a prayerful manner, we receive faith, hope, and love, grow in unity with the Church, and find new courage to proclaim the Gospel.

Reflection:
How has the bible enriched your faith? Can you think ways to increase your time reading and praying the scriptures?

Reading:
Psalm 119:97-105 - How I love your teaching, Lord! I study it all day long. Your command makes me wiser than my foes, for it is always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I ponder your decrees. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.


Mission Intention

October is the month of the Rosary and the Missions. Pope Benedict asks us to pray this month that every Christian community may participate in missions through prayer, sacrifice, and concrete help. The Pope wants us to take missions seriously because he is aware of several grave threats to evangelization.

Some Christians have decided that evangelization must be modernized. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith calls it a "growing confusion" which misinterprets the "missionary command of the Lord" as a suggestion merely to present Christian ideas rather than preach repentance and Baptism into Christ. Some say that it is enough to try to help people act according to their own consciences without attempting to convert them to Christ, that it is enough to help people become more faithful to their own religions without attempting to convert them to the Catholic faith ("Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization," Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, December 2007).

But the Pope strongly contradicts these errors. In the same document cited above, we are reminded of the words of Jesus, who said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (Jn 20:21). By his Church, Christ wants to be present in every time and place on earth in order to reach every person so there may be "one flock and one shepherd" (Jn 10:16). "The Apostles, therefore, prompted by the Spirit, invited all to change their lives, to be converted and to be baptized. It is the same Lord Jesus Christ who, present in his Church, goes before the work of evangelizers, accompanies it, follows it, and makes their labors bear fruit: what took place at the origins of Christian history continues throughout its entire course."

The Pope calls the Church to recommit ourselves to evangelization. How shall we proceed? Let us do what the Apostles of Prayer have always done. Like St. Therese of Lisieux, who never set foot in a mission field, we direct our prayers to God on behalf of missionaries and those they seek to reach. We sacrifice our time and our money to support them. We speak to others about the importance of evangelization. We look for concrete ways to build up a missionary culture. We deeply respect the Pope's wisdom in making these requests of us.

Reflection:
The Pope stresses the word "concrete" in this intention. How have you acted in concrete ways to support the missions? What might you do this month?

Reading:
Luke 5:10 - Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men."