I am stunned that I was stunned by the election.
I am a fool. I convinced myself that the polls were not real. I convinced myself that the world I see around me every day is not real. I hoped for a redemptive moment without seeing any penitence. You can’t have one without the other.
I, along with countless others, have been trying to figure out how President Obama managed to win a second term.
Trying to discover the key statistic that would explain the defeat has become a cottage industry over the past week. Every pundit on every side has a theory, women, minorities, Hispanics, voter turnout machines, etc. All wrong. But I figured it out.
I have been trying to figure out what the problem is all week, and then I finally did. The problem is you.
You, you Catholics. You are the problem.
Even though this President has done nothing to help anyone and has declared open war on your Church and your religious liberty. You, you Catholics voted for him again.
Studies have shown that Catholics who go to mass weekly are much more likely to deny the progressive outlook their vote. This is true. What is also true is that most Catholics do not go to mass weekly and the numbers are getting worse.
So that might make you think that if we could just get people to go to mass, we could avoid outcomes like this. Once again, you are wrong.
Polls have shown that even many of those who go to mass defy Church teaching on contraception. So when the government attacks this belief, Catholics think “Who cares? What is the big deal? We don’t like that teaching anyway!” As if the government will stop there. Fools.
So who is to blame? That’s right, you….
November 12, 2012 at 9:14 am
Most Catholics have been denied basic cathechesis, the grace of the Eucharist after confession, reverent liturgy in accordance with the rubrics and as befitting the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Their children are baptised peremptorily, heedlessly. Most of them live like pagans, and they don't hear anything in Church to make them think they ought to live any other way. Sin is denied on an industrial scale, particularly sins which involve the abuse of one's sexuality. Most Bishops and priests refuse to do their duty to teach, govern and sanctify, in fact they put out a radically false, socialist, atheistic type of ideology to suit the political milieu of the world around them. In most places, the Church is not a sign of contradiction but a docile follower and collaborator of the enemies of God and His Holy Church. Most priests and Bishops ought never have been ordained. Faithful priests who do their duty are suppressed and persecuted. We must continually pray and act to bring holiness and orthodoxy and orthopraxy back to our Church.
November 12, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Wish I could hit a "like" button for Lynda's comment.
November 12, 2012 at 3:55 pm
I agree with Amy (and the Year of Faith will do nothing to fix the problem). To the catacombs!
November 12, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Is this not what I have been telling you, excepting, of course, that I include all those lovely little Catholics who voted for the Mormon too?
So what do you do when you realize the problem- and you know this is the problem- voting won't work for you?
Yeah, you can get all angry at the idiots who voted for Obama. It is a really sad thing that people are that stupid. But from my perspective it's you holding everything back. I think the Poles who began the solidarity movement noticed voting wasn't working.
I can imagine quite well what it must have been like casting about for something to do, being fed up enough in order to put up with the increased risk, but then having to wait and wait until other people got fed up, so that they'd have enough people to actually do something.
November 12, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Lynda is correct to a certain degree.
However, and forgive me if this comes across as un-charitable… but… While there is a lack of catechesis and holy priests, there is not a lack of information on the Catechism, Tradition and Christ. The sole benefit of this internet thing is that one only has to have an open heart to get to know Christ and his Church better. The teachings of the Church fathers as well as Luther's pride and false doctrine are only a mouse click away. What is takes from the faithful are two things. The open heart I just mentioned and the belief that by thinking they KNOW everything, they don't need to learn and educate themselves in addition to following Chirst and his Church. There is a remarkable lack of belief in sin and sins effect on individuals and societies.
November 12, 2012 at 9:08 pm
I wish there was a "like" option for Lynda's post– I'd get in the line
of people waiting to use it.
November 12, 2012 at 10:20 pm
You were looking for a redemptive moment without any penitence? Well that's your own damn fault. I was merely hoping that the wicked would be spared the suffering they deserve, a cosmic occurrence of unfortunate frequency. It is with a certain gratification, then, that I saw that, no, we are not going to be spared the rod we cut for our own backs.