MEMORIAL DAY 2012

President Barack Obama on Friday prayed for all the service members who have given their lives in the nation's wars as he proclaimed Memorial Day 2012, to be observed Monday.


"Our nation endures and thrives because of the devotion of our men and women in uniform, who, from generation to generation, carry a burden heavier than any we may ever know," Obama said in his prayer for peace. "On Memorial Day, we honor those who have borne conflict's greatest cost, mourn where the wounds of war are fresh, and pray for a just, lasting peace."

The president said the American fabric was "stitched with stories of sons and daughters who gave their lives in service to the country they loved."

"They were patriots who overthrew an empire and sparked revolution," he said. "They were courageous men and women who strained to hold a young Union together. They were ordinary citizens who rolled back the creeping tide of tyranny, who stood post through a long twilight struggle, who saw terror and extremism threaten our world's security and said, 'I'll go.'"

Behind the sustenance of the country and the safety of its heritage as a free people in a free society are all those who have borne the battle, Obama added. He asked God to "bless the souls of the venerable warriors we have lost." May God "watch over the men and women who serve us now. Today, tomorrow, and in perpetuity, let us give thanks to them by remaining true to the values and virtues for which they fight."

The president proclaimed Memorial Day, May 28, 2012, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and designated the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. as a time to unite in prayer. "I also ask all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day."



http://www.christianpost.com/news/obama-prays-for-fallen-troops-in-memorial-day-proclamation-75589/

A Thoughtful Article on our Catholic Outreach

Reaching Catholics

By JIM ARKEDIS

In 2012, once again, Catholics should be the swing voters of a presidential race. They’re one of the country’s most divided and complex voting blocs, too. One third of Catholics are staunch social conservatives who view abortion as a litmus test when choosing a candidate, but Gallup polling finds the rest of Catholics slightly to the left of the country on most “values” issues.

Recent events have highlighted these divisions. After Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Catholic, said he was “entirely comfortable” with same-sex marriage in early May, President Obama reportedly accelerated his announcement endorsing it. Church leaders condemned Obama, while 68 percent of Catholics — five points higher than the country as a whole — support legal gay and lesbian relationships, and 51 percent support same-sex marriage.

In February, the Obama administration thought it had come to an understanding with the United States Council of Catholic Bishops over a federal mandate compelling Catholic institutions to pay for health care plans that cover birth control. But in the end the bishops rejected an “unjust and unlawful” deal, which Mitt Romney called an “attack on religious tolerance.” Fifty-eight percent of Catholics — including 62 percent of Catholic women — sided with the Obama administration, three points more than the rest of country.

Then there is the Hispanic vote. At 50 million, Hispanics are the fastest growing bloc in the country, solidly Catholic, and focused on the politics of immigration. In 2001, Karl Rove said that increasing the Republican share of the Hispanic vote was his mission, but the 2012 Republican Party doesn’t seem to be paying attention to that line of thinking. Mitt Romney promised to veto the Dream Act, a proposed law that would provide a pathway to legal status for children of illegal immigrants, provided they serve in the military or attend college.

Catholics are up for grabs this year. A Gallup poll from April has President Obama and Mitt Romney tied among Catholics, 46 percent each. At nearly 20 percent of the population, Catholics have roughly mirrored the popular vote in the last eight elections. They voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush, but switched to Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. In 2000, Catholics, like the country, went under 50 percent for George W. Bush; but against John Kerry, Bush took 52 percent; by 2008, they’d flipped to Barack Obama, 54-45.

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Recent events suggest that these vast groups of Catholic voters (again: women, moderates, Latinos) are now more open to a progressive faith-based message than they have been perhaps since Kennedy-Nixon.

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The Obama campaign’s message should unequivocally stand with the church and Jesus Christ’s humble message of social justice, equality and inclusion. These are distinctly Catholic themes that draw sharp contrasts for Catholics who have tired of a Republican Party with less room for those who are not straight, male, white and self-sufficient.

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Newly available data show the Obama campaign exactly where to target persuadable Catholics. On May 1, the United States Religious Census published a survey detailing where Catholics live on a county-by-county basis across the country. It was not terribly surprising. They heavily populate the Northeast, the upper Midwest, south Florida, southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, and California. In other words, there are a lot of Catholics in crucial swing states.

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As a moderate Democrat and a Catholic, I disagree with my party when I say that I believe life begins at conception or that abortions should be performed only in cases of rape, incest or when a pregnancy threatens a mother’s life. In another era, those beliefs might have made me a Republican target. But I’m a Democrat, in part, because of the party’s deep belief in social justice: We’re the ones who make equality and inclusion central to our very being; we stick up for the little guy; we don’t believe everyone should fend for themselves all the time. That’s what Jesus said, and that’s the society President Obama wants to build.

Jim Arkedis is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/reaching-catholics/

We're Not Quiting.

:

From our always thoughtful friend, E.J. Dionne:

Recently, a group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post cast as an “open letter to ‘liberal’ and ‘nominal’ Catholics.” Its headline commanded: “It’s Time to Quit the Catholic Church.”...I’m sorry to inform the FFRF that I am declining its invitation to quit. It may not see the Gospel as a liberating document, but I do, and I can’t ignore the good done in the name of Christ by the sisters, priests, brothers and lay people who have devoted their lives to the poor and the marginalized.

And on women’s rights, I take as my guide that early feminist Pope John XXIII. ...I’d like the FFRF to learn more about the good Pope John, but I wish our current bishops would think more about him, too. I wonder if the bishops realize how some in their ranks have strengthened the hands of the church’s adversaries (and disheartened many of the faithful) with public statements — including that odious comparison of President Obama to Hitler by a Peoria prelate last month — that threaten to shrink the church into a narrow, conservative sect.


The whole story here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/im-not-quitting-the-church/2012/05/13/gIQAw3vMNU_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions

FORWARD

Let Every Catholic Do Their Own Thing


Under fire from the nation’s Catholic Bishops for writing a budget that cuts deeply into programs that help the needy, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) defended his vision in a Thursday speech at Georgetown University. Ryan said the bishops do not have a monopoly on the truth and that every Catholic is free to understand Catholic social teachings his own way.

The speech was a response to recent criticism from the Catholic Bishops, who in an unusually large number of letters to Capitol Hill disparaged Ryan’s budget for “fail[ing] to meet … moral criteria” of protecting the poor, calling for “shared sacrifice by all” including raising revenues and considering military cuts.

Ryan made matters worse by initially arguing that the bishops’ letter did not reflect the views of “all the Catholic bishops,” to which the bishops’ official spokesperson reminded Ryan that it was indeed written by those elected to “represent all of the U.S. bishops.” No bishop has come forward in dissent from brother bishops causing many to think Ryan’s claim is made up.

While a professional politician for many years, Ryan had no record of speaking about Catholic social principles until very recently. He was known to commend and require his staff to read the writings of Ayn Rand, who mixed right –wing economics with a strident hostility to all religion. As the speaker at a 2005 dinner in honor of Ayn Rand, Ryan said, “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,"

Only last year did wealthy conservative Catholics find his obvious dissent from the Church to be a problem. They drafted a letter for Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Dolan refused to endorse any of Ryan’s economic theories but did speaking kindly and pastorally that he thought Ryan was well-intentioned. Since then, he and conservative Catholic laymen have been working to promote Ryan as a more authentic teacher of Catholic principles than the bishops themselves.

The Loss of Working Class Catholics

"The greatest scandal of the nineteenth century was the loss of the workers to the Church. The Church needs the workers, and the workers need the Church."

---- Pope Pius XI, March 1925


This is not directly on topic for this blog, but speaks to an important issue I may return to in the future to develop more fully. Recently, The Wall Street Journal published an article saying “Traditional Catholicism is Winning.” It referenced hard, objective data about an increasing number of priestly vocations, presenting some hope that there would be a stabilization of the ratio of priests to lay faithful in the United States, although it just offered speculation about the “traditionalism” of these priests. The Journal is on the right track but modesty prevents them from being more exact. The truth is the American Catholic Church is increasingly in leadership and rank-and-file made up of those who rather than being called “Traditionalist” could be better described as persons who mirror the readership of the Wall Street Journal.

Catholicism among working class/blue collar/non-college educated Americans, particularly white Americans, is in a free-fall decline. Working class Catholics have gone from being the backbone of the Church in the USA to a small, declining and ignored minority.

College educated, white collar, corporate executives form the social element that now dominates the Church in numbers and influence and which receives the lion’s share of pastoral care and attention.

A generation ago, Catholic bishops knew more about working class life than most union stewards (and a good number of stewards had been trained in that role by Catholic Labor schools). Now bishops stumble and get wrong basic facts about blue collar work and give you a blank stare if you use the term “third shift” in conversation with them. They come mostly from affluent families while in the past not a single American Catholic bishop was the son of a college graduate.

Yes, it is sad to note that the Church has backed off its historic economic justice apostolate, almost always now limiting itself to vague statements about the dirt poor and the jobless. It is rare to hear the bishops say anything nowadays about economic justice for the lower middle class, factory workers, and other hourly workers. But this is secondary to the problem. The great crisis is the huge unmet pastoral need that is not being addressed and we have a Church in its clerical and lay leadership that is out of touch with working class life. The white working class is now the most secular and unchurched American demographic group. And among the declining portion that is religious, that religion is not Catholicism. Working class Catholics who have not given up on religion have moved to Protestantism.

The Wall Street Journal reminds us that the number of priests and the number of white collar lay Catholic families (from which most priests are drawn from) has stabilized. But among non-college Catholics, they are dropping out of the Church at the highest numbers ever in history. The Journal’s Catholic readership may be holding even, but not so for the Daily News or the Sun-Times.

Pope Pius XI cried over the Catholic Church's loss of the European working class in the 19th century. Today, this tradegy has come to America.

HE HAS RISEN!