By
Kathleen Gilbert and John-Henry
Westen
October
31, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com)
- The priests of CallforherSOS.org
have delivered what may be the
most blunt directive yet to
Catholic voters in the upcoming
presidential election.
In
three short videos, Fr. Tom
Celso and Fr. Don Eder embellish
little upon a simple, strict
manifesto of Catholic moral
teaching.
"It
is the mission of the Catholic
Church to pass moral judgements
in matters related to politics,
whenever the fundamental rights
of man require it," say
the priests.
"The
Democratic party and Barack
Obama have brought shame and
horror to this nation.
Mr. Obama has promised to legalize
partial-birth abortion, the
savage murder of babies during
birth. We are outraged.
"Catholics
must uphold human rights, avoid
sin, and cannot vote for abortion
candidates. They cannot vote
for Obama."
The
videos were created by by the
Catholic coalition CALL FOR
HER - SOS, i.e. "Catholics
Activated Leading Laity For
Openly Recognizing Human Elementary
Rights - Salvation Of Souls."
The
website explains the coalition's
mission to "activate Catholics
and other Christians, especially
laity, to lead other persons
to recognize ... the most basic
human rights and the importance
of saving souls in the context
of the current election."
The
only other known Catholic leader
to openly condemn voting for
Obama by name is retired Texas
Bishop Rene Gracida. In a letter
to Catholic World News, the
Bishop explained why most Bishops
will not endorse candidates
by name. "In the United
States the danger of losing
the tax-exempt status of the
Church may perhaps be seen as
justification for caution on
the part of Ordinaries (Bishops
in charge of particular dioceses)),"
said Gracida.
The
bishop added however, "It
would be wrong for an Ordinary
to jeopardize the tax exempt
status of his Diocese for any
reason short of the most important,
the defense of innocent human
life. Therefore, I do believe
that abortion is a great enough
threat to our society to justify
an Ordinary taking a strong
stand against the candidacy
of such a pro-abortion candidate
as Barack Hussein Obama. An
Ordinary need not name the candidate
by name, as I have done, but
surely the Ordinary possesses
the literary skills to condemn
the candidacy on moral grounds
in such a way as to leave absolutely
no doubt in the reader's mind
as to the identity of the candidate
whose candidacy is being condemned."
To
see the videos, go to: http://www.callforhersos.org/
See
the letter to Catholic World
News:
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/blog.cfm?id=300
;