In the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the distinction is also upheld.
“The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator.”
The legitimate defense of persons and societies should not be considered as an exception to the prohibition of murdering the innocent.
Non-lethal force is always preferable, but if it is necessary, it must be seen in the context of the intended outcome, which is the preservation of innocent life.
“Injury or death to the aggressor is not the intended outcome, it is the unfortunate consequence of using necessary force to repel an imminent threat.”
Legitimate defense is not just the right, but also the grave duty of those responsible for the defense of the common good.
“Those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.”
All citizens and governments are obliged to pray and work toward the avoidance of war, but once all peace efforts have failed, the use of legitimate defense by a military force is licit.
“Such a decision is grave and therefore subject to rigorous considerations of moral legitimacy. The demands of a just war include:
The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain.
All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.
There must be serious prospects of success.
The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.”
In 2008, we tried to talk to our liberal pastor about Obama’s pro-abortion history. She responded by giving us a 3-page article xeroxed from a liberal magazine about why the Democratic Party’s alleged support for civil rights and help for the poor made them the better choice than selfish, greedy Republicans.
We both read it carefully and found it to be an illogical, garbled list of Democrat talking points. There was not a shred of Catholic teaching or Biblical truth in it.
I bought her a copy of Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism: Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters by Arthur C. Brooks.
She sent me a snippy email “thanking” me for the gift, saying she had no plans to read it “now or ever.”
So much for open-minded dialogue between people of faith.
The summer of 2009, when the Leftist media was reporting very negatively on ObamaCare protests … for example, neglecting to point out that the incidents of violence were perpetrated by the pro-ObamaCare protesters against the antis, not the other way around … our deacon published an illogical, garbled justification for why the antis were all greedy and selfish.
So much for non-judgmental dialogue between people of faith.
His only actual justification for supporting ObamaCare was this: “When my mother was dying, I was grateful for her Medicare.” He also said it was very bad when people bit each other at protests. (I always wondered if he knew that the biter was on his side, while the man who lost part of his finger to the oh-so-tolerant Democrat supporter was on my side.)
When the Catholic bishops finally got a clue and came out against ObamaCare, the liberal pastor at the next parish over gave the official statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops equal billing on the parish web-site with the pro-ObamaCare statement by a group of 40 nuns.
Am I being overly-judgmental in characterizing Pro-Choice Catholic arguments as “illogical” and “garbled”? I’ll let you be the judge. In the video, the off-camera voice notes that the Catholic bishops are opposed to the HHS mandate. The voice then asks if Pelosi will stand with her fellow Catholics in resisting this law OR stand with the administration to impose it?
Pelosi says “I will stick with my fellow Catholics in supporting the administration on this.”
That’s not a typo. Listen for yourself.
“Illogical?” “Garbled?” Hell, yes.
Today, angelaisms sent me a link to this article:
America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President By David Barton – February 29, 2012
David Barton is the historian who did the American Heritage DVDs I raved about a couple days ago.
The whole article is worth reading, but too long to share here in full. I do want to copy-paste the section that deals with Obama’s pro-abortion, anti-life actions since becoming President of the United States:
January 2009 – Obama lifts restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, forcing taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations.
January 2009 – President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of state asserts that American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions and that limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional.
March 2009 – The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit.
March 2009 – Obama orders taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.
March 2009 – Obama gave $50 million for the UNFPA, the UN population agency that promotes abortion and works closely with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations.
May 2009 – Obama officials assemble a terrorism dictionary calling pro-life advocates violent and charging that they use racism in their “criminal” activities.
July 2010 – The Obama administration uses federal funds in violation of federal law to get Kenya to change its constitution to include abortion.
September 2010 – The Obama administration tells researchers to ignore a judge’s decision striking down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
October 2011 – The Obama administration eliminates federal grants to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their extensive programs that aid victims of human trafficking because the Catholic Church is anti-abortion.
This is not a comprehensive list. For example, there was the appointment of Catholic Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of HHS, the agency that formulated the famous HHS mandate to deprive Pro-Lifers of their First Amendment rights.
While Sebelius was governor of Kansas, she was buddies with George Tiller the Baby Killer. In this video interview, she calls him a “health care provider.”
How close were George and Kathleen?
During her time in office, Governor Sebelius used her veto power three times to protect late-term abortionists, which in Kansas meant George Tiller.
In April 2007, Sebelius held a party at the governor’s mansion to honor Tiller. Only Tiller, his wife, and his clinic staff were invited.
For his part, Tiller spent millions funding Sebelius and the Democratic Party — $1.2 million in the 2006 election cycle alone.
Like other Catholic Pro-Choicers (e.g., Kennedy, Pelosi, Kerry, Biden), Sebelius claims she can be a faithful Catholic and still take money from and hand out political favors to the abortion industry.
John Paul II, continuing the constant teaching of the Church, has reiterated many times that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them.
There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual life’, with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture.
No Catholic can responsibly take a “pro-choice” stand when the “choice” in question involves the taking of innocent human life.
We urge those Catholic officials who choose to depart from Church teaching on the inviolability of human life in their public life to consider the consequences for their own spiritual well being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin.
[N]o appeal to policy, procedure, majority will or pluralism ever excuses a public official from defending life to the greatest extent possible.
Those who justify their inaction on the grounds that abortion is the law of the land need to recognize that there is a higher law, the law of God
Sebelius’ ordinary, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, has warned Sebelius several times of her infidelity to Church teaching. When she was nominated as head of HHS, Bishop Naumann called Obama’s choice “offensive” and wrote:
“Because of her long history both as a legislator and governor of consistently supporting legalized abortion and after many months of dialogue, I requested Governor Sebelius not to present herself for communion.”
Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signature in Rome, backed him up, stating publicly that Sebelius should not present herself for Holy Communion no matter where she was.
Comments Off on They can’t justify supporting Democrats anymore
I read what Fancy Nancy had to say about Fluke’s “courage” in coming forward. There was this one bit about how horrible it was for one student who was told right at the pharmacy counter that her insurance didn’t cover birth control and she was OMG embarrassed and OMG had to walk away.
Well, crap. I guess we just should take a big black Magic Marker to that damn First Amendment thing about religious freedom and force that damn Catholic college to pay for her damn birth control. Right? I mean, What Would Jesus Do? LET her be EMBARRASSED?! It’s unspeakable. It’s outrageous. It can’t be allowed!
Graphic: Fluke leading the Leftists > Values – Left v Right
Chrissy’s Site Bites: http://news.webshots.com/photo/2518786520056011884ifQNhw
H/t to angelaisms for idea about using Delacroix’s famous “Liberty Leading the People.”
Democrats created the HHS mandate requiring ALL health insurance plans to provide birth control, sterilization and the morning-after abortion pill, thus forcing Americans who oppose these activities to choose between paying for them, which would violate their consciences, or else stop offering health insurance to their employees.
Democrats and their lapdogs in the media lied about what the HHS mandate and the Blunt Amendment were about. Rather than admit the HHS mandate was a gross abrogation of our First Amendment rights, they claimed Catholics and Republicans were trying to deprive women of access to birth control, sterilization and the morning-after abortion pill.
I received the following comment on my blog “Establishment of religion” via email:
If they succeed against us, I guarentee the next step will be to make circumcision illegal. It is something that is very hip in the liberal society. People who consider religion and God to be “mythological.” The “health concerns” with circumcision are being spread around. What isn’t being talked about is all of the health concerns that support circumcision. Like the lower risk of transmitting an STD or the fact that there is not a single case of penis cancer in a circumcised male.
My email reply got so long, I decided to blog it (lucky you! ::grin::) …
This is just another example of the apparent double standard of the Left that exposes their single hidden agenda. None of this stuff is about promoting the health and happiness of human beings.
It is all about Satan’s hatred for God and his war on God’s people.
I have long been intrigued by Paul’s First Letter to Timothy, Chapter 4, verses 1-3. In it, Paul says that in the End Times,
Some will be seduced by spirits and the doctrines of devils. They will speak lies in hypocrisy. Their consciences will be seared with a hot iron. They will forbid people to marry and command them to abstain from meats.
That last part has been used by some Protestants as evidence that the Catholic Church is supposedly the Great Satan that will bring on the End Times.
The argument goes that forbidding people to marry refers to priestly celibacy and that commanding people to abstain from meat refers to our Lenten fasts.
To his credit, the street evangelist who first challenged me on this actually listened politely to my brilliant exegesis. Either that or else seeing a Catholic pull a pocket New Testament out of her purse left him so gobsmacked, he couldn’t think straight. 😉
Anyway … I just read an on-line commentary on these two points and it turns out I correctly recall the arguments that guy made back on a street corner in the late 1970s. But, like my street evangelist, the on-line commentary gave no evidence (never mind, convincing evidence) to support the contention that Paul’s generalized statements should be interpreted in such a limited manner.
Nor does it acknowledge the absurdity of pointing to two of the most ancient traditions of the oldest church on the planet as meaningful signs of the impending End Time.
The first official church edict prohibiting deacons, priests and bishops to marry was made at the Council of Elvira in Spain in about 306.
Pope St. Gregory issued the rule to “abstain from flesh, meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese and eggs” during Lent in the sixth century.
I Tim 4:3 isn’t fulfilled in Catholic tradition; it’s inherent in the policies, preachings and teachings of the Left.
Among themselves, Leftists reject the very idea of marriage. In public, they assault our laws limiting it to one man and one woman. They claim this is about fairness, but it’s really just a step toward their End Game … which is to abolish marriage.
First they’ll get gay marriage legalized, then they’ll move on to legalizing polygamy, group marriage and inter-species marriage. Eventually, the definition of marriage will be so meaningless that they’ll just outlaw it altogether.
It’s all part and parcel of their glorification of sex anywhere, any time and in any form, without the “punishment” of a baby.
Years ago, tennis pro Billy Jean King bragged on how she’d aborted so she wouldn’t miss a tennis tournament.
Now we have a United States President mandating that religious organizations and private companies provide birth control, sterilization and abortifacients, free of charge and on demand.
And the same President has stated publicly that sex education should begin in kindergarten.”It’s the right thing to do.”
All of this … separating sex from marriage and procreation, destroying marriage … is about destroying the institution that is the first and foremost transmitter of FAITH and MORALS — the FAMILY.
The situation with eating meat is similar.
Among themselves, Leftists reject the very idea of eating meat. In public, they claim to be all multi-culti tolerant of others, but I’ve seen what they do when they have the power. And it’s not even remotely tolerant.
Years ago, I joined a health food co-op. Its organizers and original member base were nuts-and-berries Leftists. Some of us needed and/or wanted access to organic meats, which at the time were not available in regular grocery stores. Only after a big battle with the intolerant majority rulers were we permitted to have a small supply of organic meats added to the store’s product line.
But it wasn’t allowed out in plain sight of shoppers, lest some delicate hot-house flower of a vegetarian catch a glimpse of dead animals wrapped in plastic.
You know how video shops sequester the dirty movies in a back room behind a curtain or door? We icky meat eaters had to do the same Walk of Shame into this creepy, darkened area in the back of the store to get at the one isolated freezer where the dead animal products were segregated from all the food that good and decent people ate.
Now that I think about it … I’m kind of surprised they didn’t make us brown bag it back there so fellow shoppers wouldn’t have to accidentally see it as we traversed the aisles.
It’s almost funny how fragile these people seem to be. Never mind sticks, stone or mean words. Just a GLANCE at a dead chicken or a Nativity scene is enough to make them swoon! It’s no wonder there was so much fainting at those Obama rallies.
Is it absurd that they’d legislate dietary laws? Not at all. We’re heading there now.
The Socialist Sanctuary of San Francisco (where Presidential Candidate Obama felt comfortable sneering at “those” people who bitterly cling to their Bibles and their guns) banned toys in Happy Meals, because kids like toys and Happy Meals are Bad.
The President’s wife has been running around the country for three years, telling people what they should and should not eat.
And a Presidential adviser is out in the public schools as we speak, telling little kids that their mommies are too stupid to make good lunches, so they should eat what the government mandates.
That last one is particularly insidious, undermining the family unit AND indoctrinating little children with the idea that the government has the right to tell them how to eat.
In the bigger picture, I think the Left’s obsession with vegetarianism fits hand-in-glove with their war on our 2d Amendment rights. After all, their End Game is to subdue and enslave us under a dictatorial One World Government, something they cannot do so long as we are armed.
(Read the Book of Revelation, then listen to people like George Soros. It’s all happening.)
How long have they been chipping away at private gun ownership? I remember passing out pro-gun control pamphlets in the mid- to late-seventies, back when I was young, stupid and liberal. I wept over their trademark sob stories about gun accidents and really bought their mantra that gun control laws were For The Children!
(I wised up when I watched Larry Elder’s documentary “Michael and Me.” I’ve had a lot of my opinions changed and attitudes adjusted over the years, but that is the one time I can definitively point to when I did a total 180 on an issue in the space of 90 minutes. It’s a very compelling movie.)
As with destroying the family, the Left isn’t going after their big goal of disarming the American public all at once. For now, they say they aren’t after hunters who eat what they kill, but like the mouse and the cookie, every time they win a little ground, they begin demanding more.
When I was young, good liberals were vegetarians; now they’re vegans.
When I was young, PETA was about stopping horrors like puppy breeding mills; now they pursue lawsuits designed to get their extreme definition of animal rights legislated from Leftist court benches.
It will be a series of steps … they’ll go from “guns are okay for hunters” to “animals have the same rights as people” to “killing animals is murder” to “civilians can’t own guns.”
Will the Left ban meat (and guns) some day? You betcha!
I never thought about it before my e-bud wrote to me today, but I think she’s right. They’ll also go after male circumcision, the same as they’ve gone after birth control.
And they’ll do it for the same reason — because it’s important to a significant and easily identifiable group of God’s people.
They’ve started toward that goal by condemning and banning female circumcision where they can. Like kids who accidentally shoot themselves, female circumcision is great for sob story legislation. It has a very high ick factor and is not widely practiced. But the real point of getting it banned is that it moves the Left a step closer to their End Game, which is stomping their big old jackboot down on the necks of God’s faithful servants.
How should we deal with this? St. Peter laid it out here:
1 Peter 5: To the Elders and the Flock
1 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
In remarks at the start of the service, Benedict recalled that the red color of the three-pointed hat, or biretta, and the scarlet cassock that cardinals wear, symbolizes the blood that cardinals must be willing to shed to remain faithful to the church.
The Obama administration is touting the statistic — “98% of Catholics use birth control” — but it is TOTAL CRAP.
The SAMPLE used for the “study” that produced that number was bogused up by the Guttmacher Institute (aka, Planned Parenthood) to get a sound bite for the Left-Wing Catholic-Bashers of America Club.
It had nothing whatsoever to do with learning anything substantive about the behavior of faithful Catholics.
The big punch line, the thing they do not tell you is that the study ONLY included women* who were USING birth control.
You heard that right.
100% of the women in the study were using birth control.
The fact they reported 98% were using birth control is just another symptom of what a Big Fat Lie the whole thing was … and is.
NOTE: Natural Family Planning, which is approved by the Church for use within Catholic marriages, is not a method of contraception. It involves tracking a woman’s fertility cycle (basal body temperature, cervical position, mucous consistency) and abstaining from intercourse when pregnancy is possible. The Guttmacher study eliminated from their study any sexually active woman of child-bearing age who was NOT using a “specific method of contraception.” In other words, any Catholic woman who was being faithful to the Church’s teaching was banned from the study of how many Catholic women ignore the Church’s teaching.
The Obama Administration and his Catholic-In-Name-Only shills like Nancy Pelosi are pimping out that 98% number like it means something.
It means nothing about the behavior of American Catholics and it means less than nothing in the context they’re citing it, which is the Obama administration’s determination to violate our Constitutional right to freedom of religion.
*40% of the “Catholic” women included in the study also said they rarely or never went to Church. The Church doesn’t just teach Catholics we should not use birth control. It also teaches us to get our butts to mass at least once a week.
You want a real statistic about how many faithful Catholics ignore the Church’s teaching about birth control? How about you start with a sample of faithful Catholics! And then don’t eliminate all the other groups Guttmacher eliminated — i.e., the unmarried celibate Catholics and the actively child-bearing Catholics.
A special thank you to my dear friend,Ting,who turned me on to this site shortly after its inception.Yesterday was my 250th post.Being a part of this family has given me a sense of peace and self-worth that cannot be measured.I will continue to try to entertain,inform and perhaps provoke some thought as only the truly deranged and seriousy delusional can do.
DEMOCRAT SCOLDS FAITH LEADERS WHO CAME TO HEARING TO DISCUSS RELIGIOUS FREDOMS
CBO:LONGEST PERIOD OF HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION
This really frosts me.While Bush was president and the GOP controlled both houses, we had 51 straight months of employment gains.Unemployment was 4.5% and all the media pigs could whine about was a ‘jobless recovery.’ Remember?Now they trumpet any bit of positive news,even if fraudulent, as a sign things are getting better somehow. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/16/cbo-longest-period-of-high-unemployment-since-great-depression
SORRY,FOLKS.I JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THIS MAN.I KEEP ASKING WHY HE ISN’T OUR NOMINEE?
CRISCO KID:RELIGIOUS GROUPS SHOULDN’T IMPOSE THEIR VIEWS ON EMPLOYEES
She also said all women have a constitutional right to contraceptives.She really did.
MAXIE CLAMS UP AND RUNS WHEN CONFRONTED ABOUT HER GOP ‘DEMONS’ INSULT
People of low moral character and no courage never want to be held accountable for their actions.
WISCONSIN PUBLIC EMPLOYEES PRAISE WALKER’S REFORMS
I can’t remember if I posted this before.Hell,I can’t remember getting up this morning.
KASSOPEDIA:THE ONLY URBAN DICTIONARY YOU’LL EVER NEED
John Kass is a columnist for my employer,The Chicago Tribune.These are hilarious.
Chumbolone (pronounced Chum-buh-loan): Now listed in Urban Dictionary as a moron, idiot and long-suffering Illinois taxpayer since we keep eating what they serve us. “I gave him lip service. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I don’t wanna look like a chumbolone, an idiot, stupid,” former Chicago cop and Chinatown errand boy Anthony “Twan” Doyle said from the witness stand in the “Operation Family Secrets” trial.
CHICAGO TEACHERS ASK FOR 30% RAISES OVER TWO YEARS
Now you know why my state is $14 billion in debt.
If you click on the link,the giant hippopotamus with the cornrows is the the head(and belly) of the Chicago Teachers Mob,Karen Lewis.Mayor Tiny Dancer should tell her to shut the hell up and go eat another dozen cheeseburgers.
I often fantasize,of late,about my speech accepting the nomination for president.One of my points would be naming an AG who will charge Holder with manslaughter in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
I didn’t much feel like posting today,but what the hell.
Every day seems to bring new outrages as I edge closer to the brink of sanity.
BARRY’S BUDGET ELIMINATES FUNDING FOR DC OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP (VOUCHER) PROGRAM
I have always maintained this is a huge missed opportunity for Republicans to point out that democrats insist inner city kids be condemned to a failed school system to crush any hope they have of breaking the cycle of poverty they languish in under the tyrannical thumb of liberals and their handmaidens in the Teachers Union.
Did I just write that?Damn. http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/13/presidents-budget-eliminates-funding-for-d-c-opportunity-scholarship-program/
REPUBLICANS RETREAT ON PAYROLL TAX CUT
They worry they’d be blamed for raising taxes.Why are these craven cowards even there?To get their share of the goodies,that’s why.They should come right out and say they’re comfortable being in the minority since leadership takes a little effort.Pussies. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/210441-gop-retreats-on-tax-cut
polination.blog 