As a practicing Roman Catholic, I was at mass today. My priest decided to address the sanctity of life during his sermon, utilizing the only method that I have really ever heard as a congregant, abortion. This led me to think and recognize that my church leadership has dropped the ball while summoning us on this topic.
The late Holy Father John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (EV) talks about the sanctity of life emphasizing the need for all life to be protected from beginning to natural end. My confusion is simple, why will the Catholic church, and other Christian churches for that matter, preach about abortion but will not, with the same emphasis to their congregants, condemn the death penalty, taking care of the poor, unjust war, amongst other life issues.
Why are politicians during election cycles told not to participate in the body and blood of our lord savior over abortion, but if a governor kills someone on death row they are not met with the same fervor. As a veteran of the US military I do support its purpose and enjoy the benefits that they give us. However, the last I had checked, Iraq and Afghanistan did not meet the just war theory criteria. Where is the righteous indignation?
Why do the church leaders tell us to support politicians who continue to purposely hurt the poor through tax increases, cuts in social services, and reducing the level of education the common person can and does receive; through cutting education budgets to public education. While those same politicians advocate for corperate welfare, tax cuts for the top 10% of wealth holders, and the false argument of new school choice.
I long for the Catholic Church of the 1950’s and 1960’s, when the leadership and the local pastors would walk hand in hand with Civil Rights leaders and their followers. When a Catholic school education and Catholic education was still affordable to the poor and poor kids received a good Jesuit education.
My guess in all this is that the leadership needs to re-read Acts. It needs to get out of politics and get back into its congregants. They need to make hard stances that we may disagree with and lead from the front. Use the scripture to back their stances, not politics to enforce their dogmatic interpretations. Just a thought that came to me during mass today.