Super Tuesday and Being Human
March 5, 2012
Below you will find my latest column, Super Tuesday and Being Human,
but first let me give you some other important updates.
Tune in this Wednesday night March 7 to EWTN when Janet Morana, our
Executive Director, will join Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Teresa Tomeo and Astrid
Bennett on EWTN Live at 8pm ET.
Join us for a Lenten Prayer for Life through April 5 and make a
special commitment to help others to see and defend the dignity of every
human life, starting with the unborn. You can find the prayer at
www.prayercampaign.org. This year we are asking people to make more of
an effort than ever to pray for an end to abortion.
Priests for Life has great resources to help you make your Lenten journey.
At
www.priestsforlife.org/lent you will find articles, homilies, liturgical
resources and Lenten products available from our online store.
Please also take part in a Stand with the Clergy for Life Prayer
Campaign. Give us your name to be placed on the altar as pro-life priests
around the country offer daily Mass for our clergy and our Church and offer
up your daily prayers for the success of all the pro-life efforts on behalf
of the unborn children. To sign up go to
www.priestsforlife.org/stand-with-the-clergy/index.aspx.
Our prayer novena in remembrance of Terri Schiavo begins on March 23. Go to
www.priestsforlife.org/novenas/terris-day.htm to find the prayer and
order prayer cards.
Finally, you are invited to stand up for religious freedom on March 23 by
joining one of the nationwide rallies which Priests for Life is helping to
organize. Thousands will take a stand to rally on that day to defeat the
Obama HHS mandate. For information on a rally near you see
www.standupforreligiousfreedom.com . For resources and talking points
about the mandate see
www.priestsforlife.org/hhsmandate/index.aspx.
Blessings,
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
Praise for our Work
Thank you so much – your web-site was extremely helpful in providing
educational materials that I could share with so many. M.E.
Super Tuesday and Being Human
I write on the day before Super Tuesday, but my reflections here pertain to
the entire election season of 2012, and in fact, of every election cycle.
If you look at the writings of the Catholic Church regarding political
responsibility, you often see reference to what is important to "Catholic
social teaching" and a "Catholic conscience." And, of course, that is
important to understand, especially for Catholics.
But it is important for us as Americans to also understand the American
basis of our social conscience and political responsibility, and, moreover,
for us as human beings to understand the purely human
basis of the same things.
We are Americans, and as such, we have the right, duty, and privilege to
take part in a political process that gives us a voice, not only in who will
be elected, but also in who will be on the ballot. Hence, primaries and
caucuses are as important to participate in as the general election. To
fail to participate in elections is to cheapen the precious freedom,
not only given to us through the commitment of our Founding Fathers, but
preserved for us through the commitment of the brave men and women who have
fought and died for our country. So many of them went to war; many did not
return. Many are still in harm's way today. The least we can do to honor
their sacrifice is get out of our house and vote. The least we can say in
the pulpits is that "it's Election Day and we should vote."
As Americans, moreover, we acknowledge the Creator as the source of our
right to life, a right that the government exists to secure (see the
Declaration of Independence). So I have less and less patience for anyone
who is going to dispute in any way that the protection of human life is and
will always remain the fundamental issue for the political community -- and
this applies to every election, every year, on every level of government.
Again, this flows from what we know as Americans, not just as
Catholics.
Then there is the purely human dimension. With all due respect to the Church
to which I belong and to which I am loyal, it is from my human nature and
the commonsense embedded in it that I come to the conclusion that we have an
abortion holocaust on our hands, and that nothing else is taking more life
than this act of violence. The alarm going off in the minds of millions
(mine included) over abortion was not set off by the Church, nor can it be
turned off by the Church. And that alarm, for so many of us, is primarily
what impels us to go to the voting booth, both in the primaries and in the
general election.
Ultimately, the motivation to be politically active is not so much about
philosophy, theology, or morality as it is about arithmetic. What's
counted in the end is not opinions or reasons, but votes.
Find this column online at
www.priestsforlife.org/articles/4115-super-tuesday-and-being-human
Comments on this column? Go to
www.askfrfrank.com
Fr. Frank's columns are podcast. See
www.priestsforlife.org/podcast
Remember to support our work at
www.priestsforlife.org/donate/index.aspx
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