Letters to the editor for October 1, 2008

Catholic vote could be crucial

To the editor:

With Catholic politicians recently in the media spotlight, it’s hard to ignore the potential impact of the Catholic vote. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and vice-presidential candidate Joseph Biden both describe themselves as “practicing” Catholics, but express views that are at odds with the teaching of the Catholic Church. Both were corrected publicly by letters from close to 30 bishops. If abortion had not been the central issue in this election year prior to this, it seems to be so now.

The bishops emphasized that we know from scientific as well as faith-based sources that human life begins at conception. They also noted that: a) the Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil; and b) pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians should not receive Holy Communion.

The Catholic Church does not tell us to vote for particular candidates, but to consider moral issues. “Life” issues take precedence: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, because without life, there are no other issues. The Church teaches that abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research are always wrong; there are no exceptions. Issues such as the war, capital punishment, and poverty are also important, but the Church does not teach “absolutes” about them; there is room for individual opinion in these areas.

Thus, a candidate who supports abortion is automatically disqualified from consideration by faithful Catholic voters. If both/all of the candidates support abortion, the voter must choose the candidate who will do the least harm to the unborn. Only if all of the candidates equally support abortion may the voter choose the candidate whose positions on other issues will do the most good for society. 

Catholics may not vote for a pro-abortion candidate and remain in good standing with the Church, according to many Catholic bishops. Bishop Robert F. Vasa of the Diocese of Baker concurs, noting in a recent speech that voting for a pro-abortion politician “looks like a grave evil.”

Catholics comprise about 23 percent of the American population. If all voting Catholics follow the teachings of the Church and the leadership of their bishops, the Catholic vote will be a very powerful one.

U.S. suffers from the Bush disaster

To the editor:

What “Herbert Hoover” Bush has done is destroy the credibility of the U.S., sully our reputation almost beyond repair, demonstrate the weakness of our leadership and the vulnerability of our military, and convince many people in the world that we are an evil nation of idiots led by fools.

Let’s at least hope he destroys the Republican Party, too. It deserves a “zero existence.” These are strong words by a national columnist, that I subscribe to completely because of the pounding “we the people” have taken from this vicious political organization for far too many years.  Yes, if we forget the lessons of history we are doomed to live them again.

Bush has been a dangerous disaster, who lied to us shoving us into a stupid war for his own massive ego, and to benefit the big guys he’s been shilling for, from the beginning.  4,174 American dead, countless others who would prefer to be dead, with 654,000 Iraqis killed. We have annihilated them and their cities, blowing them to the ground and now we are supposed to rebuild what we destroyed. In approving the use of torture we have shattered our credibility and reputation of being the good guys.

Never, ever, did I dream we would do something as repugnant as this, but because of GWB and his GOP associates, we have. We put them there to our everlasting shame and how long will it take to erase these scurrilous actions. This prevaricating president has taken us from a national debt of 3 trillion dollars to a mind blowing $11.5 trillion in seven short years, with the inclusion of the Wall Street bailout, allowed to happen on his unholy watch. Cost of living out of sight. All this horror perpetrated while we listen to the bleating of the religious right, for whom the words “separation of church and state” obviously mean nothing. But hey, let’s drag all the religions into this muck too, you know, mix it up.  Remember this though, many great civilizations have destroyed themselves, from the inside out. It’s in the history books.