But instead of doing that, Ricketts and pere chose to\u00a0defy the call of the Church, three popes, and the bishops of the United States (and the world) to end the vengeful barbarism of the death penalty. When the state of Nebraska lawfully and with due process repealed the death penalty, \u201cprolife\u201d Catholic Ricketts took all that dough and poured it into an effort to reinstate it.<\/p>\n
There are any number of Catholics who are fully prolife and take seriously the *whole* of the Church\u2019s teaching with regard to the value of and dignity of human life. \u00a0But\u00a0anti-abortion-but-not-prolife death penalty zealots demonstrate very clearly that, given the choice, what *really* matters to them is not saving human life, but killing human beings that Movement Conservatism wants dead, the teaching of the Church be damned. \u00a0Compared to that priority, the unborn can go hang.<\/p>\n
At this point, it is customary for anti-abortion-but-not-prolife people to throw out the canard about \u201cprudential judgment\u201d and the whole \u201cwe can agree to disagree with the Church except when there is a dogma involved.\u201d \u00a0But this is, of course, false. \u00a0The Church calls us to docility, not to Minimum Daily Adult Requirement Christianity:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra<\/strong>; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking\u201d (Lumen Gentium No. 25).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nHere\u2019s the thing: Docility means that unless you have a *damn* good reason, you go with the Church\u2019s prudential judgments. And there is not a good reason to ignore your alleged prolife \u201ccommitment\u201d in order to kowtow to bloodthirsty Movement Conservatives who want America to maintain the august company of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and various other Bronze Age and Commie despotisms in devotion to vengeance killing. It is, in fact, *highly* negotiable, while abortion is not.<\/p>\n
So if you are *really* serious about maintaining a credible and persuasive prolife witness, what gives way in your list of priorities is maintaining the death penalty, not your commitment to the unborn. You put your money toward helping stop abortion and you say, \u201cThe people of Nebraska have spoken, and as a prolife citizen and a Catholic, I laud their choice. Now let us also recognize the dignity of the unborn human person who is guilty of no crime at all and work to preserve their lives as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prolife Catholics (real ones, not merely anti-abortion ones) are in the forefront of the drive to abolish the death penalty as well as abortion. That\u2019s why JPII, B16 and Francis all call for its abolition. We should too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think it is actually true that the the \u201cFive Non-Negotiables\u201d (abortion, euthanasia, gay \u201cmarriage\u201d, ESCR, and human cloning) are, in fact, non-negotiable issues. \u00a0I don\u2019t necessarily think they are the *only* non-negotiable issues, but for a quick and dirty index of bottom line moral questions contested in our present political culture, they\u2019ll do. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[278,442],"class_list":["post-94097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abolish-the-death-penalty","tag-prolife-means-more-than-anti-abortion"],"yoast_head":"\n
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