"the Catholic politician must oppose it in the ways that are possible for him and make his opposition known; it is his duty to witness to the truth"

How Do These Responses Measure Up, with Regard to Being a "Witness to the Truth"?

• "Today’s ruling is a substantial victory for equality across our nation...." (U.S. Senator Robert Casey, 6/26/15)

• "____" (U.S. Representative Mike Fitzpatrick)

• "Over the years, I have supported efforts to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. Yet I have also long supported the traditional definition of marriage. Today, the Supreme Court has ruled that all states must recognize same-sex marriage. Understandably, many people will celebrate this decision. While I disagree with it, I acknowledge the Supreme Court's ruling as the law of the land" (U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, 6/26/15 (as reported by PennLive)).

The First Amendment Defense Act

• Thanking Representative Raúl Labrador (H.R. 2802) and Senator Mike Lee (S. 1598) for introducing the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) and urging co-sponsorship from colleagues, Archbishops Cordileone and Lori wrote:

  "As the respective chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage and the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, we write in strong support of... the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA)....It is becoming apparent that some who promote marriage redefinition do not support the coexistence and tolerance of different ideas in a pluralistic society but instead have a 'comply or else' agenda....The leadership of our Church will continue to promote and protect the natural truth of marriage as foundational to the common good."

  Kudos to Pa Representatives Mike Kelly, Keith Rothfus, and Joe Pitts for co-sponsoring HR 2802.  Shame on Mike Fitzpatrick and other Pennsylvanians in the U.S. House for failing to co-sponsor for H.R. 2802!  Shame on Casey and Toomey for failing to co-sponsor S. 1598!  Tell

  Bob Casey (202-224-6324),
  Mike Fitzpatrick (mikefitzpatrickpa08@live.com),  and
  Pat Toomey (202-224-4254) that this is unacceptable!

PASSAGE OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT DEFENSE ACT SHOULD BE AN ABSOLUTE PRIORITY FOR PEOPLE WITH PRO-LIFE/PRO-FAMILY VALUES!

*In addition to is "ALERTS CENTRAL" the USCCB notes that "Action alerts for pro-life issues can also be found through our partner organization, the National Committee for the Human Life Amendment" and "Action alerts for issues related to immigration reform can be found through the USCCB-led Catholic coalition,Justice for Immigrants."  The Pa Catholic Conference also posts alerts.

By the Way....

Devaluation of marriage/family and its accompanying threat to religious liberty did not start with Governor Tom Corbett's throwing in the towel or the June 26th SCOTUS decision.  To an enormous and tragic extent, Catholics in Pennsylvania - and throughout the United States - long ago succumbed to

• treating marriage as though it were NOT indissoluble,
• separating the unitive and procreative dimensions of the marital act (The USCCB has designated July 19th till 25th as NFP Awareness Week, marking the Feast of Sts. Joahim and Anne and the 47th of Humanae Vitae.  Even more so than in years past, parishes need to scream the truth about marriage/family/sexuality from the rooftops!), and
• looking away from couples living in sin.

Rather than believing second hand reports, we need to pay much better and closer attention to what this Holy Father is saying:

• "Today’s catechesis is dedicated to a central aspect of the subject of the family: that of the great gift that God made to humanity with the creation of man and woman and with the Sacrament of Marriage. This catechesis and the next are concerned with the difference and complementarity between man and woman, who are at the summit of the divine creation....I wonder...if the so-called gender theory is not also an expression of a frustration and of a resignation, which aims to cancel the sexual difference....The removal of the difference, in fact, is the problem, not the solution...The matrimonial and family bond is something serious, and it is for everyone, not only for believers" (Pope Francis, 4/15/15 General Audience)
• "The social devaluation of the stable and generative alliance of man and woman is certainly a loss for all.... the Bible says a beautiful thing: man finds woman, they find one another, and man must leave something to find her fully. And for this, man will leave his father and his mother to go with her. It is beautiful! This means to begin a journey. Man is all for woman and woman is all for man.  The care of this alliance of man and woman -- also if they are sinners and are wounded, confused or humiliated, mistrustful and uncertain -- is therefore for us believers a demanding and exciting vocation, in the present condition" (Pope Francis, 4/22/15 General Audience)
• "The most persuasive testimony of the blessing of Christian marriage is the good life of Christian spouses and of the family. There is no better way to describe the beauty of the Sacrament! Marriage consecrated by God  to safeguard that bond between man and woman that God has blessed since the creation of the world; and it is source of peace and of goodness for the whole of conjugal and family life" (Pope Francis, 4/29/15 General Audience)
• "Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul affirms that the love between spouses is an image of the love between Christ and the Church – an unthinkable dignity!....we must ask ourselves seriously: do we ourselves, as believers and as pastors, fully accept this indissoluble bond of the history of Christ and of the Church with the history of marriage and of the human family?" (Pope Francis, 5/6/15 General Audience)
• "today, in many countries, Mother's Day is celebrated....An applause for the mommies in the square. And this applause embraces all the mothers, all our dear mothers, those that live with us physically, but also those that live with us spiritually ... May the Lord bless them all, and may the Mother of God, to whom this month is dedicated, watch over them all" (Pope Francis, Regina Coeli, 5/10/15)
• "Today’s catechesis is like an entrance door to a series of reflections on the life of the family, its real life, with its times and its circumstances. Written above this entrance door are three words, which I have already used several times....these words open the way to live well in the family. They are simple words, but not so simple to put into practice....And now I invite all to repeat these three words together: 'permission, thank you, pardon'....Now repeat all together the advice I have given: never end the day without making peace" (Pope Francis, 5/13/15 General Audience)
• "'Critical' intellectuals of all kinds have silenced parents in a thousand ways, to defend the young generations from harm -- real or imagined -- of family education.....It is time that fathers and mothers return from their exile – because they have exiled themselves from the education of their children --, and reassume fully their educational role" (Pope Francis, 5/20/15 General Audience).
• "The time of engagement can truly become a time of initiation, to what? To surprise! -- to the surprise of spiritual gifts with which the Lord, through the Church, enriches the horizon of the new family that prepares to live in His blessing" (Pope Francis, 5/27/15 General Audience) 
• "Marriage and the family are going through a serious cultural crisis....Marriage 'seen as a mere form of affective gratification,' ceases to be an 'indispensable contribution' to society (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 66)....'ample catechesis on the Christian ideal of conjugal communion and of family life is urgent, which includes a spirituality of paternity and of maternity. It is necessary to give greater pastoral attention to the role of men as husbands and fathers, as well as to the responsibility they share with their wives in relation to marriage, the family and the education of the children' (Ecclesia in America, 42)" (Pope Francis to the Bishops of the Dominican, 5/28/15)
• "The lack or loss of work, or its strong precariousness, has serious implications on family life, severely testing relationships. The living conditions in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with housing and transportation problems, as well as the reduction of social, health and educational services, causes further difficulty" (Pope Francis, 6/3/15 General Audience) 
• "The complementarity of man and woman, summit of divine creation, is being questioned by the so-called gender ideology, in the name of a more free and just society. The differences between man and woman are not for opposition or subordination, but for communion and generation, always in the 'image and likeness' of God....The Sacrament of Marriage is a sign of the love of God for humanity and of Christ’s giving Himself for His Bride, the Church. Look after this treasure, one of the 'most important of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples' (Aparecida, 433)" (Pope Francis to the Bishops of Puerto Rico, 6/8/15)
• "The Christian community knows well that, in the trial of sickness, the family is not left alone. And we must say thank you to the Lord for those beautiful experiences of ecclesial fraternity that help families to go through the difficult moments of pain and suffering. This Christian closeness, of family to family, is a real treasure for the parish -- a treasure of wisdom that helps families in difficult moments and makes the Kingdom of God understood better than many discourses! They are caresses of God"(Pope Francis, 6/10/15 General Audience)
• "Globalization itself...also bears in itself aspects of possible confusion and disorientation, as when it becomes a vehicle to introduce uses, concessions, even norms that are foreign to a social fabric with the consequent deterioration of the cultural roots of reality that instead are respected; and this by the effect of tendencies belonging to other cultures, economically developed but ethically weakened (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 62). I have spoken so many times of ideological colonizations when I refer to this problem....it is important that public authorities, and among these also the jurisdictional, use the space given to them to give stability and render more solid the bases of human coexistence through the recovery of fundamental values.  Christianity has offered these values the true and most adequate foundation: love of God, which is inseparable from love of neighbor (cf. Matthew 22:34-40)" (Pope Francis, 6/13/15 Address to the Italian Superior Council of the Judiciary)
• "we have been reflecting on and asking ourselves how to transmit the faith to the new generations....this commitment is all the more important when we speak of the education of kids and young people, who begin to hear these strange ideas, these ideological colonizations that poison the soul and the family: one must act against this. Two weeks ago a person, a very Catholic, good, young man said to me that his kids were in first and second grade and that in the evening he and his wife so often had to 're-catechize' the children....With your conjugal relationship, exercising paternity and maternity, you give your life and are proof that it is possible to live the Gospel: it is possible to live the Gospel and it renders one happy....Conjugal love is a good, which not even the greatest difficulties of life are able to darken....Children look. They look so much and when they see that father and mother love each other, the children grow in that atmosphere of love, of happiness and also of security, because they are not afraid....It is very painful when a family lives a tension that can’t be resolved, a break that they don’t succeed in healing. It is painful. When there are the first signs of this, a father and a mother have the duty to themselves and to their children to ask for help, to be supported. Ask help first of all from God... The Lord will give you the strength to understand that evil can be surmounted, that unity is greater than conflict, that the wounds we have inflicted in one another can be healed, in the name of a greater love, of that Love that He has called you to live with the Sacrament of Marriage....when separation -- we must also speak of this -- seems inevitable, know that the Church carries you in her heart....Never, never speak badly of the other to the children! Never!....there is also the way of forgiveness. Forgive one another and take up mutually your limitations, which will also help you to understand and accept the fragilities and weaknesses of your children....grandparents...have saved the faith in so many countries where it was prohibited to practice religion and took children secretly to have them baptized, and grandparents who taught prayers....They give us wisdom, prudence, they help us so much. And when they get sick they ask us for so many sacrifices, it’s true. Sometimes there isn’t another solution than to take them to a rest home. But may it be the last, the last thing that is done. Grandparents at home are a richness" (Pope Francis’ 6/14/15 Address to Rome Conference on Parents as Witnesses of the Beauty of Life)
• "155. Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an 'ecology of man', based on the fact that 'man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will'. [120] It is enough to recognize that our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings. The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek 'to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it'.[121]"                                                                                                                                                                                      "157. Underlying the principle of the common good is respect for the human person....It has also to do with the overall welfare of society and the development of a variety of intermediate groups, applying the principle of subsidiarity. Outstanding among those groups is the family, as the basic cell of society...."                                   "213....In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life'.[149] In the family we first learn how to show love and respect for life; we are taught the proper use of things, order and cleanliness, respect for the local ecosystem and care for all creatures. In the family we receive an integral education, which enables us to grow harmoniously in personal maturity. In the family we learn to ask without demanding, to say 'thank you' as an expression of genuine gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressivity and greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm. These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings" (Pope Francis' 6/18/15 Laudato Si) 
• "to you young people in this world, in this hedonistic world, in this world where only pleasure gets publicity, having a good time, having a beautiful life, I tell you: be chaste, be chaste.  All of us in life have gone through moments in which this virtue was very difficult, but it is in fact the way of genuine love, of a love that is able to give life, which does not seek to use the other for one’s own pleasure. It is a love that considers the life of the other person sacred....at the end of the 19th century there were bad conditions for the growth of youth: there was full Masonry, even the Church couldn’t do anything, there were priest haters, there were also Satanists ... It was one of the worst moments and one of the worst places of the history of Italy. However, if you would like to do a good task at home, go to see how many men and women Saints were born at that time. Why? Because they realized that they had to go against the current in relation to the culture, to that way of living. Reality, live the reality. And if this reality is glass and not diamonds, I look for the reality against the current and I make my reality, but something that is of service to others. Think of your Saints of this land, what they did!" (Pope Francis' 6/21/15 "off the cuff" talk to youth in Turin)
• "Turin’s men and women Saints teach us that all renewal, also that of the Church, passes through our personal conversion, through that openness of heart that receives and recognizes God’s surprises, driven by the greatest love (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14), which renders us friends also of persons who are alone, suffering and marginalized" (Pope Francis' 6/21/15 prepared talk to youth in Turin)
• "We are well aware that no moments are lacking in any family history in which the intimacy of dearest affections is offended by the behavior of its members....Do we feel the weight of the mountain that crushes the soul of a child, in families in which there is bad treatment and harm is done, to the point of breaking the bond of conjugal fidelity?....If we think of the harshness with which Jesus admonishes adults not to scandalize the little ones -- we heard the passage of the Gospel -- (cf. Matthew 18:6), we can also understand better his word on the grave responsibility to protect the conjugal bond that begins the human family (cf. Matthew 19:6-9). When man and woman have become one flesh, all the wounds and all the abandonments of the father and the mother affect the living flesh of the children....Let us ask the Lord for great faith, to look at reality with God’s gaze; and a great charity, to approach persons with his merciful heart" (Pope Francis, 6/24/15 General Audience)