As the Catholic Church receives enormous criticism for these unchanging and unchangeable positions, it would be difficult to believe that any reasonably informed Catholic adult could be ignorant of them. Hence, it boggles the mind that our former congressman identifies himself as "an active parishioner of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Bristol" and a "faithful Catholic" (Patrick Murphy, The Catholic Vote: Honor Our Nation's Highest Ideals, 10/5/12). It is certainly incumbent upon the pastor of St. Ann’s to address those public errors by any member of his flock that are a source of scandal.
Patrick Murphy has never offered a public statement to renounce his positions on promoting so-called "abortion rights" and changes in the definition of marriage. While his op ed actually acknowledges the alarms sounded by our bishops, Patrick also dismisses Catholic concern about threats to religious liberty and/or conscience protections, emanating from the Affordable Care Act. His op ed seemingly tries to equate criticisms of the budget proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan with Catholic opposition to so-called "abortion rights," changing the definition of marriage, and assaults on religious liberty.
Comments made last month by our archbishop seemed to anticipate Patrick Murphy's erroneous version of Catholicism:
- "I certainly can’t vote for somebody who’s either pro-choice or pro-abortion....As an individual and voter I have deep personal concerns about any party that supports changing the definition of marriage, supports abortion in all circumstances, wants to restrict the traditional understanding of religious freedom....
"Jesus tells us very clearly that if we don’t help the poor, we’re going to go to hell. Period. There’s just no doubt about it. That has to be a foundational concern of Catholics and of all Christians. But Jesus didn’t say the government has to take care of them, or that we have to pay taxes to take care of them. Those are prudential judgments. Anybody who would condemn someone because of their position on taxes is making a leap that I can’t make as a Catholic....to say that it’s somehow intrinsically evil like abortion doesn’t make any sense at all" (Archbishop Chaput, National Catholic Reporter, 9/14/12).
Coments from the bishop of Springfield, Illinois were even more pointed:
- “the Democratic Party Platform supports the right to abortion ‘regardless of the ability to pay’....[and] same-sex marriage....There are many positive and beneficial planks in the Democratic Party Platform, but I am pointing out those that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils....People of faith object to these platform positions that promote serious sins....
“I have read the Republican Party Platform and there is nothing in it that supports or promotes an intrinsic evil or a serious sin....One might argue for different methods in the platform to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments about the most effective means of achieving morally desirable ends, not intrinsic evils....
“a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy” (Bishop Paprocki, 9/23/12)
The words of the Apostle Paul come to mind: "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things" (1 Corinthians 13: 11). Patrick, the positions of the Catholic Church should be abundantly clear to any faithful Catholic adult, and the time has long since past for you to start wearing your big boy pants.
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