Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver Colorado met yesterday with Sen. John McCain in a private meeting. There's no information coming forth from either the McCain camp or from the Archdiocese about what transpired or was said in the meeting, but as the Rocky Mountain News
points out:
The Chaput meeting could be the reliving of a nightmare for Democrats in Colorado. In 2004, Chaput made it clear in a New York Times interview in 2004 that voting for Kerry was "cooperating in evil."He told the interviewer that if a Catholic were to vote for Kerry, they'd have to go to confession before receiving communion. This left Catholics conflicted and was considered a key in delivering the state to President Bush in 2004. Kerry is Catholic and encountered resistance by some bishops who took issue with his stance on abortion.The linchpin for Chaput is abortion. McCain
touts his pro-life record and Obama is pro-choice. There is no indication in the meeting whether Chaput plans to be as active as he was in 2004, but McCain is riding a recent tide of good news on the religious conservative front.
One has to wonder how strong of support Chaput would have for McCain given his stance on Stem Cells which is as intrinsically evil as abortion since it involves the destruction of human embryos.
The Archbishop caused a stir earlier this year with his somewhat mixed remarks about Catholics who are voting for Obama.
"So can a Catholic in good conscience vote for a pro-choice candidate? The answer is: I can't, and I won't. But I do know some serious Catholics -- people whom I admire -- who may. I think their reasoning is mistaken, but at least they sincerely struggle with the abortion issue, and it causes them real pain. And most important: They don't keep quiet about it; they don't give up; they keep lobbying their party and their representatives to change their pro-abortion views and protect the unborn. Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if they vote for them despite - not because of - their pro-choice views. But they also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a 'proportionate' reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It's the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life - which we most certainly will. If we're confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed."
If the Archbishop's track record is any indication, let alone his words - he of course personally believes there is no proportionate reason, no qualitative or quantitative evil compared to Abortion that could justify casting one's ballot in favour of a pro-choice candidate.
That's his personal belief and one that is shared by a plurality of practicing Catholics, but it's not the
only belief - and despite the cries from
certain groups and certain Bishops that all things hinge on abortion the truth is that Church hasn't developed a dogmatic opinion on how one
voting in a democracy when it comes to candidates and various intrinsic evils. It should be noted though that Archbp Chaput has a
book due out in August on living out one's faith in the public square.
But will this meeting spark the kind of Communion Wars that were rampant in 2004?
Already small
skirmishes have occurred and the usual rhetoric is being espoused (albeit much more muted).
Most recently the lay group
Fidelis has called upon Sen. Obama not to choose a pro-abortion Catholic as a running mate which would (1) scandalize the faith, (2)
make it more difficult for faithful Catholics to vote for him because of the running mate's open and outright dissent from Church teachings.
Such posturing towards the lower half of the ticket instead of focusing on the candidate himself shows abeyance towards focusing on this particular issue in light of all the other intrinsic evils that the nation has perpetrated and participated in and the current plague of economic problems the nation faces.
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