First, I hope everyone likes the new website, it’s new layout and new features. You’ll notice at the bottom of each page we have a list of authors here on EPIC, as well as our most popular posts, and up to the minute headlines from the Catholic News Agency. If you need help finding anything or if you just wish to comment, send me a tweet (@RealHandlez) or an email (mhandley@epicdmr.org). Thanks!
Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he went after the Democrat party for being unwelcoming to Catholics. He primarily criticized the party for its extreme stance on abortion (what they often refer to as reproductive health care) and pointed to the party’s refusal to endorse Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) for re-election because he was Catholic and pro-life.
Lipinski barely won that race in Illinois. Last summer, Democrat National Committee chairman Tom Perez said, “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” and that this was “not negotiable.” This makes it impossible for the Democrat party to endorse anyone who is truly pro-life.
I have a great respect for Cardinal Dolan calling out the Democrat party and I hope that other Catholic leaders do so as well. I also want to remind everyone, again, what Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) said last year to a Catholic judicial nominee. She said, “When one reads your writings, they can get the impression that the dogma lives loudly from within you, and that is a problem.”
I’m not here to rant about one party or the other here at EPIC, however I want to make it clear that it is our duty to go out and vote our faith. We cannot tolerate any of this “I personally oppose but publicly support” stuff that we’ve had to deal with from Democrats for a while. If you are elected into Congress we expect you to promote your beliefs, not some faux version of yourself.
2018 is a midterm year, and a number of Senate seats and all of the House is up for re-election. I encourage, greatly so, all the eligible readers of this blog to go out and vote. But before you do so, pray about the decision. I have never voted straight down the ticket and I encourage you to think and pray before you do so.
While I lean conservative, as a Catholic, I can never be fully Republican. In the same sense, I’m finding it more and more difficult to identify with the Democrats. However, we must be looking at what each candidate supports. There are always exceptions (Such as Rep. Dan Lipinski).
I’ll close by agreeing again with Cardinal Dolan. He has criticized leaders and politicians on both sides, as have I. Our current President is an example. However, as Cardinal Dolan said, “It saddens me, and weakens the democracy millions of Americans cherish, when the party that once embraced Catholics now slams the door on us.”
St. Thomas More, patron of statesmen, PRAY FOR US.
Have a great Holy Week and,
May the dogma of the Catholic Church always live loudly from within you,
Matthew
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