Catholic Fire

By Father Pavone Three years ago, I wrote a column called "The Party Matters," in which I stated, "Voters need to ask how much the election of a particular candidate will shift the balance of power between the parties, and what will happen when a particular party takes control. Voters should know the platform of the party and the official positions of party leadership on the same moral issues on which the individual candidate is evaluated...In short, the party matters." Some criticized these statements, complaining that they are partisan. Yet it is time to restate and reaffirm that Yes, the party matters. This is one of the many elements of the moral evaluation of one's vote. Morality deals with human actions, and voting is a human action. The first moral consideration, of course, is whether one votes at all. Voting is a moral duty, as the Church has affirmed multiple times. Whether one's actual voting choice is morally justified depends on a lot of other fa...

The Catholic Knight : There is only one recipe for success of the viable third party in American politics - especially a Pro-Life third party. It would have to be a Centrist party -- either Center Right or Center Left. The reason for this is to insure that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats gain an advantage from the creation of a third party. A new third party would have to draw people from both sides of the Left-Right debate. It would have to siphon off just as many Democrats as Republicans. Read the entire story here. Interesting concept, but would it work?

Kansans for Life Political Action Committee (KFL PAC) announces its support of Mike Huckabee for President. "As Governor, Mike Huckabee had the kind of pro-life record that Kansans envy," said Christine Ostroski, KFL PAC Director. "While we've been labeled the late-term abortion capitol of America, our neighbors in Arkansas had Governor Huckabee fighting for everything from a ban on human cloning to pro-life license plates. His record is outstanding!" KFL PAC is urging all Kansans taking part in Saturday's Republican caucus to give their support to Mike Huckabee. Huckabee, former two-term governor of Arkansas, has been a leader in the fight to recognize the value of even the smallest human life. "What I accomplished as Governor," said Huckabee, "proves that there is a lot more that a pro-life President can do than wait for a Supreme Court vacancy, and I will do everything I can to promote a pro-life agenda and pass pro-life legislation. If I...

U.S. House Votes 372-9 to Pass Resolution Supporting Christmas and Christianity The U.S. House passed a resolution yesterday acknowledging the importance of Christmas by a vote of 372 to 9. Nine members voted against the resolution, ten voted "present," and 40 other members did not vote. The nine who voted against it were all Democrats: Ackerman (NY), Clarke (NY), DeGette (CO), Hastings (FL), Lee (CA), McDermott (WA), Scott (VA), Stark (CA) and Woolsey (CA). The 10 who answered "present" without entering a vote were also Democrats except one: Conyers (MI), Frank (MA), Holt (NJ), Payne (NJ), Pence (Republican from IN), Schakowsky (PA), Schwartz (PA), Wasserman-Schultz (FL), Welch (VT) and Yarmuth (KY). It's certainly nice to know they approve of Christmas, but the real question here is: Does Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior approve of them? Are they preparing their hearts for his coming, not only at Christmas, but for His Second Coming?

A British author and political observer has written a new book that compares the current Republican presidential candidates to the one they want to be compared to -- Ronald Reagan. Nicholas Wapshott, founding editor of London's Times, recently published a book called Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. Wapshott has spent a great deal of time comparing the current top-tier GOP candidates to the Reagan model and says former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani falls far short, while Fred Thompson, John McCain, and even Mitt Romney have some Reagan characteristics. But Wapshott says former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is the closest match -- especially in one important category. "Like Reagan, he is a true Christian. He has very sure principles. I mean, he's a Baptist minister," says Wapshott. "In the same way ... Reagan learned many of his core values in his family and from his mother's church. [Reagan's] mother was from the Disciples of Ch...

The continued support that Catholic voters have given to politician who support legal abortion "borders on scandal," Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley said in an interview with the Boston Globe. Cardinal O'Malley criticized the Democratic party for its stands on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, and expressed his impatience with the voters of Massachusetts who have continued to elect Democratic political candidates. While he indicated reservations about the Republican party's approach to other issues such as immigration and capital punishment, the cardinal said that abortion is the key moral issue facing Catholic voters. The increasingly rigid pro-abortion stand of the Democratic party, he said, "is a very serious problem, particularly in a state like Massachusetts, where it is so heavily Democrat." Although Catholics have traditionally voted heavily in favor of Democratic candidates, Cardinal O'Malley said that the party had become ...

The world gets more confusing all the time, especially when freaky things like this happen . I have always respected Pat Robertson, but his choice of Guiliani for President has me totally puzzled. I didn't realize that Pat Robertson supported abortion and homosexual unions, which is part of Guiliani's platform. Even after watching the video in which Pat Robertson explains that his primary reason for supporting Guiliani is "the defense of our population from the blood lust of Islamic terrorists" it still doesn't make sense to me. Certainly that is one reason for supporting a candidate, but if that is his primary reason for backing a candidate, wouldn't Senator John Mc Cain be a more realistic choice with his military background and experience? Brownback Supports McCain - an embyronic stem cell research backer The news that Senator Brownback is supporting Senator Mc Cain, referring to him as the "pro-life candidate" is also surprising. While McCain do...

I truly don't understand Fred Thompson. On the one hand, he says that life bgins at conception - yes, that's true - but yet, he does not believe in defending or protecting human life. What does this say about him? To me it says, that he is afraid to stand up for his beliefs, that he lacks moral courage and conviction. Read the background for yourself and share what you think. I am very disappointed in this man. He is not a true pro-life candidate.

Steve Dillard, founder of Catholics Against Rudy has a petition up here. The purpose of this petition is to allow faithful Catholics to speak out against Rudy Giuliani's abysmal record on non-negotiable "Culture of Life" issues (e.g., abortion, embryonic stem cell research) and traditional marriage, and to publicly oppose his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination. Go here to sign.

People close to Senator Sam Brownback say the Kansas Republican will drop out of the 2008 presidential campaign Friday. The long shot conservative contender had trouble raising money to compete in the race. He's expected to announce his withdrawal in Topeka. Brownback raised about $800,000 in the third quarter of this year, his lowest quarterly amount since entering race. He has brought in more than $4 million overall and is eligible for $2 million in federal matching funds. Brownback -- who is in his second term -- had said in his first Senate campaign he would serve no more than two terms in Senate. He's widely expected to seek the Kansas governor's office in 2010. Source My Comments: This doesn't surprise me. Although I agree with Brownback on many of the issues, there were influential people here in Kansas, his home state, who weren't behind him in his presidential campaign . As can be expected, the left-wing Wichita Eagle consistently wrote disparaging article...

Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama attempted to moderate his views on abortion and abstinence education. However, he made it clear he has no interest in limiting or reducing abortions and his pro-abstinence stance is tempered by his backing of sexual education. MORE Obama is attempting to make it look like he is a moderate here when his views about abortion and sex education are extreme. He believes in sex education provided by Planned parenthood to children at the kindergarten level (5 - year - olds!). He also has a voting record that consistently supports abortion - even the horrific partial - birth abortion. This man is no moderate. Twice, Obama voted NO to bills prohibiting tax funding of abortions. Yes, he thinks that we should pay for people to murder their children! In April 2007, he voted YES on expanding research to more on embryonic stem cell lines, which involves the destructive of human li...

Most of the attention on the straw poll at last week's Values Voter Republican Presidential Debate was on the big winner – Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor deserves the recognition he got from the delegates at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. He entered the contest as the favorite of 35 percent of the delegates from pro-family organizations. But he finished the debate as the favorite of 63 percent. That was quite an accomplishment. There was, however, a big loser in the debate – one of the four GOP presidential candidates who decided not to show up. The big loser was Fred Thompson, who entered the evening as the favorite of 15 percent of those in attendance. When the evening was over, he had the support of just 4 percent. No other candidate lost anywhere near that kind of support as a result of his performance or, in Thompson's case, his non-performance. He also lost me. My Comments: I wasn't able to see it this last time, but my fav...

Notorious pro-abortion Senator John Kerry is scheduled to speak at Catholic University of American in Washington, DC. You can call the University Office of Public Affairs at (202)319-5600 to protest this outrage. Call (301)853-4500 to protest this scandal, or email Archbishop Donal Wuerl at chancery@adw.org to implore him to refuse to tolerate this man, who has sold his soul to the Culture of Death! MORE Via Leticia at causa nostrae laetitiae .

Pew Survey Finds Voters Uninformed on Life and Family Issues by Hillary White A recent Pew research poll indicates that pro-life advocates have a way to go in bringing the life and family issues into the minds of voters. The August 2007 Religion and Public Life Survey was taken between August 1 and 18 and surveyed 3,002 adults. The survey found that social issues such as abortion and homosexual "marriage" continue to take a back seat in voters' minds to other domestic issues and the war in Iraq. In the last general election that voted in President Bush, the religious beliefs of candidates and the so-called "values" issues, including abortion, were found at exit polls to have been more significant factors than had previously been thought. Currently, despite the efforts of pro-life groups, only 22 per cent of the public and only 31 per cent of Republicans know that Rudy Giuliani is pro-abortion . 78 per cent said the economy, health care and the environment were t...

Hillary and Obama perform for pro-aborts WASHINGTON (Reuters) Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama criticized recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions as hypocritical and inconsistent on Tuesday, saying a ruling upholding a late-term abortion ban was part of a concerted effort to roll back women's rights. Senator Obama, is it a woman's right to destroy her body and undergo the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual trauma of abortion? Doesn't a woman also possess the right to protect her body? Doesn't a woman also have the right to be informed about the horrific consequences of an abortion? Doesn't she have the right to be told the truth: that it is a baby that will be killed in this procedure and not a piece of tissue? Doesn't the child that is growing and developing in the mother's womb also have a right to life? How would you feel if your own mother had exercised her "right" to abort you? Reuters: Obama and Democratic White ...

From Power to Purpose A Remarkable Journey of Faith and Compassion by Sam Brownback Brownback's first hand account of his journey from farm boy to U.S. Senator. Hardcover List Price: $22.99 ISBN: 084990398X Publisher: Thomas Nelson Pub. Date: July 2007 More information is available here.

Source: The Hermeneutic of Continuity Regular Guy Paul and Fr. Tim Finigan are reporting that Tony Blair - who hasn't even converted to Catholicism yet - is already talking about being ordained as a Deacon of the Church. Read more here. Via Pro Ecclesia. I think he would make a great Catholic and pray that he converts soon. As for a deacon, the Holy Spirit must be moving in him - he's got the fire!

They certainly don't look like twins, but they do seem to resemble one another in their pro-death statements. "Fake Catholics" is the term that best describes them, as they are phonies. True Catholics practice their beliefs. Politicians use double-talk, a language which most people with average intelligence and a conscience can decipher. Here are some examples: Arnold Schwarzenegger: "I am a Catholic and a very dedicated Catholic , but that does not interfere with my decision-making because I know that stem-cell research, the way we are doing it in California ... is the right way to go and will save, very quickly down the line, lives and cure a lot of these illnesses." Translation: Technically, I like to call myself Catholic, but I refuse to obey the Church on life issues. I support the destruction of human life and will continue to support harmful and unsuccessful research using your tax money to do it. It really doesn't matter how many people are used as...

Mike Huckabee, a strong pro-life candidate for the 2008 Presidential election, has some excellent ideas about immigration. I agree with him - secure our borders first and enforce our current laws.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Barack Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died. The death toll was 12. My Observation: Just a minor error - actually there's not much difference between 12 and 10,000. From what I have observed in listening to his speeches (unless they have been written for him and he has memorized them) - this is typical for Obama. The liberal press is always covering up for his mistakes. (If they report them.) Lord, please don't let this man try to run our country. Find a more appropriate job for him. Amen.