{"id":19588,"date":"2014-01-21T12:17:12","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T19:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=19588"},"modified":"2014-01-21T17:08:05","modified_gmt":"2014-01-22T00:08:05","slug":"obama-to-meet-pope-will-the-holy-water-boil-dry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-to-meet-pope-will-the-holy-water-boil-dry\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama to Meet Pope. Will the Holy Water Boil Dry?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2013\/09\/obama1.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16218\" title=\"obama.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2013\/09\/obama1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"293\" height=\"400\"><\/a>I used to joke that the reason I never took holy water to my office at the Oklahoma House of Representatives is because I was afraid it would boil dry in the elevator on the way up.<\/p>\n<p>I have much the same whimsical opinion about the news that our president is going to be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/theoval\/2014\/01\/21\/obama-pope-francis-netherlands-belgium-italy-vatican-city\/4706763\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">visiting<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2014\/01\/21\/politics\/obama-pope\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pope Francis<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ksdk.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2014\/01\/21\/president-obama-pope-francis-meeting\/4707765\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">March<\/a>. When our Catholic-Church-attacking President steps foot on Vatican soil, will the Holy Water in the founts boil dry?<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know of an American president who has been as aggressively anti-Catholic as President Obama. From his HHS Mandate, to the government\u2019s many moves \u00a0to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/issues-and-action\/religious-liberty\/fortnight-for-freedom\/upload\/Catholic-Adoption-Services.pdf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">close down Catholic adoption agencies<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicculture.org\/news\/headlines\/index.cfm?storyid=13802\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">ministries to trafficked women<\/a> and on to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2013\/nov\/26\/obamas-call-close-holy-see-embassy-slap-face-catho\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">closing the American Embassy at the Vatican<\/a>, this president has been an all-in anti-Catholic politician.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that he\u2019s got a Catholic Vice President and a Catholic Secretary of State, cheering him on, only makes the plot sicken.<\/p>\n<p>Catholics who appear to take their moral guidance from the Democratic Underground, Daily Kos and the Christian-baiting atheist blogosphere seem to occupy all the Catholic-faith-based podiums in this country. From the Governor of New York and his prejudicial anti-life rants, to mush-minded Vice President Joe Biden and his revolving moral understandings, the big public voice of big public Catholics is a veritable Greek Chorus for the Church-is-wrong-long-live-relativism viewpoint.<\/p>\n<p>The question is, do they speak for more than themselves and their upper crust cronies? Do they speak for the priests in Catholic parishes, the presidents of Catholic universities, and, maybe even more to the point, do they speak for pew-sitting Catholic people?<\/p>\n<p>Based, completely unscientifically, on the comments I see here on Public Catholic, I\u2019m guessing that the answer to that question is mixed. For some, absolutely not. For others, sometimes yes; sometimes no. We have the occasional blip of a commenter who is all in for the secular culture, but they are, at least in the Public Catholic universe, pretty much standing alone.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I think President Obama\u2019s visit to meet our Pope is a good time for us to pray for the man. Who knows? Maybe God will get through to him.<\/p>\n<p>It is also a good time for us to take a look at ourselves, as Catholics.<\/p>\n<p>The real question, and the only question that any of us can answer with authority, is: Who do you follow?<\/p>\n<p>Do you follow the fallen Catholics in high places who appear to have a total and absolute contempt for the requirements of our faith? Or, do you follow the Church, which has, in spite of the many failings of its clergy and people, held true to the teachings of the Gospels for 2,000 years?<\/p>\n<p>When you die, who will say to you, <em>You belong to me? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Will it be Jesus?<\/p>\n<p>Or,<\/p>\n<p>Will it be someone else?<\/p>\n<p>If you want it to be Jesus, you need to follow the Church.<\/p>\n<p>It is really as simple as that.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I used to joke that the reason I never took holy water to my office at the Oklahoma House of Representatives is because I was afraid it would boil dry in the elevator on the way up. I have much the same whimsical opinion about the news that our president is going to be visiting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,10,4995,5392,40,516,5820,726,4994,8,1631,41,5302,1],"tags":[2288,5957,296,2782],"class_list":["post-19588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-catholic","category-christian-bashers-2","category-christian-leadership","category-christianity-2","category-culture","category-eternal-life-2","category-following-christ","category-hate-blogs","category-hhs-mandate","category-holy-father-2","category-politics","category-post-christian-west","category-uncategorized","tag-cuomo","tag-holy-water","tag-obama","tag-pope-francis"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Obama to Meet Pope. Will the Holy Water Boil Dry?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I used to joke that the reason I never took holy water to my office at the Oklahoma House of Representatives is because I was afraid it would boil dry in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2014\/01\/obama-to-meet-pope-will-the-holy-water-boil-dry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama to Meet Pope. 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She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obama to Meet Pope. 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