DO YOU KNOW WHY & HOW THE CATHOLIC VOTE THIS YEAR CAN SAVE 35 MILLION UNBORN BABIES & MAY BE THEIR ONLY HOPE?

In Article #2, we referred to the reasons two new justices will likely be appointed to the Supreme Court during the next presidential term. Democrat president means pro-choice justices. Republican president means pro-life justices. The court is now neutral with four pro-choice (liberal) justices, four pro-life (conservative) justices and Justice Kennedy, the swing voter.

As mentioned, Kennedy changed his vote at the last moment to uphold Roe v Wade in 1992. The expected retirements, Ginsberg and Stevens, are pro-choice, so election of a pro-choice democrat president fails to change the status quo of the legality of abortion for 30 plus years because justices have a lifetime term limit. Result: 35 million or more unborn babies would likely die as a result of this election. Election of a pro-life republican president assures a change to a pro-life Supreme Court and then, an end to legal abortion in federal law. Result: 35 million plus unborn babies could be saved
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The number would depend on the state regulations that follow.

Even though the life issues get very little debate from the media and the candidates, they are the number one issue in this election, especially abortion, as we will prove to you in a later article. The democrat party itself has already told us it is so.

A. WHY CAN THE CATHOLIC VOTE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?

1) DO YOU KNOW, according to Priests for Life, there are over 301 million people living in the U.S. and 76% profess to be Christians or almost 229 million. Of those, 52.6 million are Catholics. If the usual 2/3rd is of voting age, then about 35 million are eligible to vote. In 2004, eligible voters totaled 201.4 million and 122,267,553 or 60.7% of eligible voters voted. Therefore, approximately 21.3 million Catholics voted in 2004 or 17.4% of all voters.

2) However, Karl Keating, president of Catholic Answers, the largest Catholic evangelization organization in the U.S., refines the electorate even further as follows:

a) Catholics make up 26% of the electorate, instead of 17.4% because a higher percentage of Catholics turn out to vote than do Protestants. That makes the Catholic voting block almost 31.8 million in 2004.

b) But, Catholics are more likely to vote for liberal (pro-choice) candidates: In 1992, 44% voted for Clinton, while only 34% of Protestants did so. In 1996, 53% of Catholics voted for Clinton, while only 35% of Protestants did so.

3) DO YOU KNOW only 48% of Catholics voted pro-life in the 2000 presidential election and only 52% nationally in the 2004 presidential election? Using Karl Keating’s research that’s 16.5 million Catholic pro-life voters in 2004.

4) Doesn’t that mean that there are 48%, or 15.3 million Catholic voters who actually voted pro-choice in 2004 who could and should have voted pro-life? Then you must add to that unknown millions of potential Catholic voters in the 39.3% of Americans, both registered and non-registered, who didn’t vote in 2004, but might vote pro-life if they knew the stakes. See B.3) below.

We have almost one-half of our fellow Catholic voters who vote for politicians, some are Catholic, who are destroying the moral fabric of America by consistently supporting the intrinsically immoral evils of abortion including contraception, euthanasia, destructive embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and same-sex “marriage.” Such voting in support of intrinsic evil is in direct violation of God’s commandments and, therefore, Catholic moral teaching since time began.

If Catholics were morally united first as they should be, even 30% of 15 to 25 million is an enormous voting block that could control any election outcome, but the truth is that the majority of Catholic voters identify themselves first politically as democrats, republicans, or independents, and secondarily as members of special interests, such as a union, ethnic group, veterans, taxpayers, etc. And, unfortunately at election time, some of our clergy, including bishops, segregate politically instead of uniting morally. WHY? Well, according to the pollster, John Zogby, “Catholics have lost their identity as voters because they make their choices for reasons that have little to do with their religious beliefs.” But that is a statement of the obvious. To begin with, it’s been a long time since Catholics had an identity as voters. That was the election of JFK as president in 1960 when he captured 78% of the Catholic vote, only 2% less than Alfred Smith in 1928 who got 80%.

Why are so many Catholics making their voting choices for reasons other than the teaching of their Church?

1) The decline of the moral leadership of the Catholic Church in America resulting from a) the cultural revolution to moral relativism in the 1960s, b) the upheaval in the Church over Vatican II, and c) the failure of the Church’s leadership in America to recognize these events as threats that required sustained reinforcement of Church moral doctrine from the pulpit to teach and protect our parishioners over the last four decades are the root causes. Two future articles will explore the book, “Decline & Fall of the Catholic Church in America.”

2) Many baptized Catholics lost belief in their faith, saw it as just another religious denomination, and weekly attendance at mass nationally declined from 74% in 1958 to 25% in 2004, according to Gallop pollsters. Those leaving the Church could be described as Authentic Catholics in 1958 who became Generic Christians or Nominal Catholics by 2004.

3) After four decades, the numbers of 2004 Catholics who don’t act like 1958 Catholics are staggering: 88% think birth control is acceptable, 67% think premarital sex is acceptable, 48% think same-sex unions are acceptable (all results of a 2005 ABC News Washington Post poll); over 85% no longer let Church teaching guide their moral decisions, over 85% no longer agree with Church teachings on faith and morals, 88% do not support Church teaching on contraception (these results were reported by “That Man Is You” program). Catholics who believe and behave thusly over many years don’t know their voting choices are wrong and immoral because nobody has been telling them they are.

4) All of this continues because in most Catholic parishes in this nation Catholics are not taught on Sunday the moral consequences of their immoral relativist life style and haven’t been effectively for 40 years. So, if they haven’t been taught the Church’s teachings on faith and morals and guided in the making of moral decisions since they were in grade school, then they don’t have the knowledge to realize that they may not vote for pro-choice candidates without committing a mortal sin and that they must get forgiveness before receiving communion. So, a question to ask is: what percentage of pro-choice voting Catholics who receive this knowledge in time for the election do you think would change their minds and vote pro-life? Would it be at least 10%? Should you be one of them?

B. SO, HOW CAN THE CATHOLIC VOTE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?

1) The Catholic vote has the potential to make or break an election. Most political contests are won by less then 5%. The American electorate is split pretty close to 50/50 between republicans and democrats when the final tally is complete. If just 10% more Catholics voted as Catholics should, we could change the political landscape.

2) If just 10% more Catholic voters vote pro-life in the November presidential, senatorial, and congressional elections because they found out it is a grave sin to vote pro-choice, then we would make a huge difference. We’d assure the election of a pro-life president, keep the pro-choice senators below their expected increase to 60 or more, and maybe even win back the House of Representatives.

3) The 2004 presidential election set the precedent for this because an increase in the Catholic vote of 14% in Florida to 66% and 13% in Ohio to 65% of practicing Catholics for pro-life President Bush was crucial in his carrying those two states & the election. This was a result of the extra hard work done in those two states by Father Frank Pavone and his Priests For Life organization, who spent weeks enhancing the pro-life vote with new practicing Catholic registrations in those states.

4) So, what do Catholics need to know to meet their moral obligations in voting and how do they get that knowledge in an oral and/or written national massive distribution in time for the election? The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has published a booklet for this year’s election called “Forming Consciences For Faithful Citizenship.” This booklet is 36 pages long and costs $1.95 per copy. The summary is 10 pages and both are too long to be read by any churchgoer even if they could be economically distributed nationwide to all parishioners. What is needed is a concise one page bulletin stuffer and pastors preaching our Church doctrine on this subject from the pulpit in order to cover all the faithful.

5) Our next Article #4 will identify the problems in “A Catholic Layman’s Assessment of Faithful Citizenship” and the solution in a one page bulletin stuffer, “Here’s What Catholic Voters Need To Know To Meet Our Moral Obligation In Voting,” that is distribution friendly, can be read in three minutes or less, and costs only two cents per copy.

Chuck Suter
St. Monica’s Pro-Life Parish Coordinator
PLEASE SEND COMMENTS TO: chuck.suter@sbcglobal.net
OR CALL: 972-401-0471

Labels: Do You Know?