Happy Halloween

Catholics Voting Correctly

The Vortex' Michael Voris uses the Minnesota's governors race to demonstrate what the application of Church teaching ought to lead Catholics to do in the voting booth. For those who won't bother watching the video, here's a summary of the episode.

God the Father does not say in the Old Testament that he has before you economic plan A and economic plan B, rather it is life and death that He has set before you. With life and death before you, your eternal future depends on your vote.

Mark Dayton and Tom Horner support the killing of children and the destruction of families. A vote for either of them is a vote for immorality and evil, and this trumps everything else.

Vote for Tom Emmer.

This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
Now this question: "Is telling someone that 2+2=4 and not 5, divisive, hate-filled, and bigoted?" I'd bet dollars to doughnuts, as the saying goes, that there aren't very many who'd stick through to the bottom of this post and answer in the affirmative.

Friday Video - Neil Diamond - Cracklin' Rosie

40 years ago today, Neil Diamond received a gold record for "Cracklin' Rosie"

Link to video

Additional DFL Ads Show They are What We Thought They Were -- Anti-Catholic

It seems my earlier post on the DFL's mailer against Dan Hall was half-right twice. As the American Papist illustrates, this is more than an "unfortunate decision" as the archdiocese originally hoped. Look at each of the three mailers below, and it is a clear attack not only against Dan Hall, but an attempt to smear the Church and the well-known to be orthodox Catholic candidate for Minnesota governor, Tom Emmer, by stealing on Catholic imagery.

Now here's a couple questions:

1. Democrat gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton saw fit to call the first ad "inappropriate." Did I miss any similar statements from the party's prominent Catholics (earlier candidates for governor, US House members, etc.)?
2. As K-Lo notes, the provocative nature of the mailer from the state party (not Mr. Hall's opponent) indicates this was intended to draw attention (although I doubt they expected a national story), presumably to help GOTV statewide. Should we then conclude the DFL base is anti-Catholic (actively opposes the one true Church, not the cafeterianist sect)?

CCHD Reform Proposal Deserves "Wait, See, and Sit on Your Wallet" Response from Laity

A year ago the Reform CCHD Now Coalition was launched to challenge the grants being issued by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development under the auspices of the USCCB. As a result of well documented criticisms led by coalition members from even before the coalition's formation (see here and here), which helped prompt questions from some bishops, the CCHD has proposed “stronger policies and clearer mechanisms” to guide how grants are awarded to poverty-fighting groups, the focus of the campaign,  and strengthen oversight of how funds are spent by grantees.

Deal Hudson notes from the media conference call to review the proposal:

The list of 2010 grantees will not be made available until the grantees have been thoroughly reviewed under the new guidelines. The grantees will also be required to sign a contract with the USCCB not to advocate policies like abortion and same-sex marriage.

A new staff level position is being created to guide the review process along with a panel of theologians.

Whether the proposal contains adequate enforcement provisions remains to be seen, but the tone of the call suggested a substantial effort is underway to respond to the CCHD critics.

Bishop [Roger] Morin [chair of the USCCB subcommittee on CCHD] was emphatic in apologizing for the mistakes made by CCHD -- "It's an imperfect world," he said several times. He also underscored that only a few grantees had been revoked and did not acknowledge the much larger number about which serious doubts have been raised by the Reform CCHD Coalition.

The annual CCHD collection will be held on Nov. 20-21 in spite of the fact that the grantee list has not been published.

As for this year's campaign, it is too little, too late. The actions being proposed are a good start, but gaps remain in addressing the array of general fund grants that have been going to groups dedicated to policy positions diametrically opposed to Church teaching, the ongoing conflict of interest/fellow traveler status of CCHD staff with such groups, the enforcement criteria and process to which Mr. Hudson alludes, and the lack of transparency of the grantees prior to the campaign's solicitation of the people in the pews. Ask again after the bishops approve the proposal and there's a year's worth of record to evaluate again whether the CCHD is worth supporting. In the mean time, there is nothing stopping anyone from supporting directly worthy organizations that are fighting poverty on the front lines.

Update

It appears at the least the implementation of the CCHD reforms are an epic failure.

DFL Hates on the Church (Again)

Bumped - scroll down for update

The DFL's State Central Committee has sent out a mailer, presumably to help GOTV, that depicts a priest in Roman collar wearing a button that says "Ignore the Poor."

There are some who think this is a peculiar case of self-mortification given all the social justice-types (who do, in fact, do good works) who are part of the "Catholic Progressive" corner of the party's base. I don't think so.

This is not directed at many of those fellow travelers manning the lines at Catholic Charities, Loaves and Fishes, etc.who believe the "seamless garment" argument is a license to substitute their own hierarchies of life, for example. No, this is a direct shot at the priesthood and the hierarchy over the gay marriage DVDs. You can almost see some of the thought bubbles of the activist DFL "Catholics" who will love this:

"Don't confuse the archbishop's church with my Church."

"If you don't love gays and lesbians enough to let them marry, how can you have love in your heart for the poor?"

"You should have helped the poor with the money you wasted  promoting hate against gays and lesbians."

And so on.

Of course, they are right in that the issue of gay marriage and the fate of the poor are linked; just in ways they can't seem to imagine.

HHT: Stella Borealis

Update:

It seems the postcard is targeting state senate candidate Dan Hall, a protestant minister (who doesn't wear the Roman collar). So this is not the focused anti-Catholic jab originally believed, but more a general anti-religion sideswipe that steals off the image of a Catholic icon over the religious opposition to the anti-life provisions in "universal" health care legislation. My mistake in overestimating the cleverness of the so-called progressives' play book.

George Clooney Corrects Bill Maher on Conservative Empathy

Of course, there may be the question for some as to whether Sam Brownback and Dick Lugar are properly considered conservatives, but this does confirm (again) the shallowness of Bill Maher.

Link to video

Not Buying Dayton's Lead

A seven-point margin among likely voters seemed a stretch when I saw the Strib's Sunday front page, but then again I long ago dismissed the Minneapolis paper as actually having earned, with all due respect to our aquatic friends, the moniker of "fish wrap." Mitch Berg breaks into the internals of a couple recent polls:

Look at the likely voter percentages in the last few “major” polls”

Strib/”Minnesota” Poll – D+4 (meaning they figure that Democrats will make up four percent more of the electorate than Republicans on election day. 

Rasmussen Poll: D+5 

Now, this is a function of how these polls determine “likely voters”. This formula varies among polling services, but – since it’s a form of science, however imprecise – is hypothetically based on some kind of math, derived from experience.

And what has “experience” been in Minnesota, especially recently?

In the 2008 election, Minnesotans’ spread was D+4.

In other words, Democrats made up 4% more of the electorate than Republicans did.

The pollsters are honestly suggesting that Democrats are going to turn out in the same number as in the Democrat landslide of 2008?

Or that Independents are going to break the same way they did two and four years ago?

Not likely this time around. Of course, as usual, the confidence intervals for Dayton and Emmer are large enough to overlap and provide some CYA when the election turns out tighter than that next week. Curious how that happens every year.

Resetting the Influence of American TV

Rachel Marsden takes a look at the Nielsen ratings and draws some interesting conclusions, including:

• People like watching actors do anything other than act
• The cable news race is like a fight for a participation ribbon
• Americans would rather watch fake investigations than real ones
• Hispanic-Americans don't integrate, if their TV viewing habits are an indication
• Cable TV is for sports

I recall during the run-up to the last presidential election there was some panel on which Peggy Noonan sat, and she made the point (whining, really) that we lost something when the recognized basis for news was no longer three network news shows and a couple national newspapers. She alleged effectively that the lack of a common set of facts damaged our political discourse. (Never mind, of course, the polarizing lens through which those "common facts" were filtered.)

It appears that that fragmentation applies to the popular culture as well. What may be the most interesting trend to watch is the one regarding Latino integration. If they are not culturally curious enough to watch American TV, what other institutions will aid their integration? This is not a trivial point in light of the growing realization in Europe that multiculturalism is a failing philosophy. Will there be a resurgence of those institutions that existed before the invention of TV, or will something new take its place? 

A Quiet Day for Life

Each of the past two years I have participated in the nationwide 40 Days for Life campaign at Regions Hospital in St. Paul (this will be my third year). This fall marks the largest campaign, yet, with vigils at 238 locations.

Today is Day 28 and, as of this morning, 337 babies have been saved in the current campaign. As national director, Shawn Carney, put it:

A baby saved, new people coming out to pray for the first time, and even the presence of pro-abortion opposition are all good signs that the campaign is working!

As for me, I will be heading in to St. Paul later this week.

It is the quiet that always strikes me there; outside the hospital, near the capitol and downtown. In light of the innocents who are at risk, it is easy to make martial comparisons, imagining yourself riding to the rescue. After all, it is spiritual warfare of a sort. Like any spiritual war, we begin with prayer and fasting. And we do call it a campaign. However, it can be in the quiet, even if it is there for only an instant, when a confused and desperate young woman chooses an alternative to abortion, when a staffer rolls the mouse to click the send button on his e-mail that objects to the hospital where he works running an unpublicized abortuary, when the Planned Parenthood counselor takes the first step out the door that she will never enter again. It often is in that instant of quiet that a person crosses the tipping point to the side of life.

And in the spirit of creating quiet, today is Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity.

Students from more than 3,500 school campuses are participating in Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity to raise awareness about the injustice of abortion by taking a vow of silence for one day in solidarity for the more than 3,000 children who die from abortion each day.

Red arm bands and duct tape will identify them as taking part in the Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity.

Anyone can participate (you don’t even have to be a student) and you can use the time of silence to pray and fast for an end to abortion.

So stay quiet today. It'll do a baby some good.

Pennsylvania Catholic Hospitals Closing Because of Obamacare

The American Papist has the story.

(HHT: Man with Black Hat)

Zinging Hill

I heard this a few years ago. While apocryphal, if for no other reason than a child aborted after Roe v. Wade (when the rate jumped) would not have been eligible to be president when the Clintons were in the White House because she would have been too young, Abby Johnson's story cuts to the heart of the matter: Killing our children (and now add experimenting on to the list) limits, rather than advances, our future.



(HHT: CMR)

Emmer for Governor

The Troglodyte officially endorses for governor a fellow professional, budget-balancing, married, pro-life, Catholic, father of seven, Tom Emmer.

The Catholicity of the Tea Party

Our Sunday Visitor has a "balanced" piece about the compatibility of the tea party movement with Catholic social doctrine.

While I do not consider myself a tea partier, I am sympathetic to the cause and have noticed that one thing that seems to be universal about analysis of the tea party movement is the extent to which it betrays a desire to make it more (and less) than it is. However, part of what has given it its traction and a broad appeal is the combined narrowness and intensity of the common ground held by its various factions. There are many fellow travelers among libertarians, Wal-mart Republicans, conservative Democrats and independents, right-wing Evangelicals, orthodox Catholics, etc., so it is not surprising to see other issues carry some steam within the movement. Nevertheless, the heart of it remains a visceral rejection of unprecedented, rampant government expansion. 

In September 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama lectured the electorate about the "distractions" created by his opposition and the media, and the place of "Swift Boat" politics, punctuating it with a stern, "Enough!" 

As others seek to distract from what the tea party movement is and what it might mean, that could just as easily be the Tea Party motto today: "Enough!" 

And on that point, there is nothing inconsistent with Church teaching. As Fr. Robert Sirico put it:

I think the majority of the people who are involved in the tea party movement prefer things to be done at the most local level possible. They are not against government in principle, they are against the excessiveness of government that we see, and that's expressed in the principle of subsidiarity.

(HHT: PowerBlog)

Columbus Day

While it is common to pillory Christopher Columbus these days as the bringer of hate, greed, and misery to the western hemisphere, in the wake of the nation's centennial it was suggested publicly to Catholics that as American Catholics there is not anyone who more deserves our grateful remembrance than the great and noble man - the pious, zealous, faithful Catholic, the enterprising navigator, and the large-hearted and generous sailor: Christopher Columbus.

I wonder what it is about the man we've forgotten in the last 132 years.

Sadly, You are not a Monster

Link

Go into the Night

But live in the Light.

Link