Even So, Palin is Still A Better Catholic Than Biden

What am I talking about, the non-issue issue that those Catholics who support Biden are trying to use to drive a wedge between Pro-Life Catholics & Sarah Palin.

Short version of the story. Apparently Sarah Palin was baptised Catholic as an infant. Some years later, while she was still a child, her parents left the Church & took her with them. She was later baptised as a 12 year old in the church they belonged to at the time.

For most of us who really know the Catholic faith it is a no-starter. She wasn't raised Catholic, she didn't have full knowledge of the seriousness of her actions, therefore, she doesn't bear any culpability.

What makes me say that this is a ploy by pro-Dem Catholics in Name Only is where it was 1st made an issue, America Magazine. Let's face it, they have been leftist anti-orthodox Catholic for years, despite their being Jesuit. & even with the change after Papa Benedetto became Pope their leftist leaning hasn't exactly disappeared. So for them to have a post like the 1 attacking Palin for not being a "good" Catholic, while not surprizing, reeks of hypocracy & mendacity.

On 4 September 2008 Michael Sean Winters wrote a post entitled Is Palin an Apostate?. After pointing out that she is an ex-Catholic, technically correct he goes on to say the following: "The Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law is very nuanced. Canon 751 deals with heresy, apostasy and schism. It recognizes that in a situation like Palin’s, the severity of the crime could be mitigated by diminished personal freedom: Even a precocious teenager who commits an act of apostasy might be so strongly influenced by familial considerations that the perpetrator’s guilt is diminished." Gee, how nice of you to offer her that semi-excuse.

Later he says: "No penalty attaches latae sententiae to apostasy as it does with some other severe acts. There will not be a canonical trial for Palin. And, unless she subsequently seeks to get married or buried in a Catholic Church, the issue will not be raised by any ecclesiastical authorities. Palin could show her respect for the Catholic Church and its canons by requesting a formal separation from the Church from her local bishop. This might not be good politics but it would be good for her soul." Like you really give a damn about her soul. If she should ever decide to return to the Catholic Church it won't be as big an issue as you make it sound. & you give away your real reason for writing this in the last line about "good politics". You hope that she will do something like this & that it will alienate us Pro-lifers, Catholic & evangelical. I also love the way they use the term latae sententiae, or should I say misuse. The term has nothing to do with a canonical trial in any way, shape or form. The term means that the penalty is automatic, following the act.

Then, after totally twisting Catholic teaching he concludes with the following: "For the rest of us, it is beyond hypocritical for certain conservative Catholics to denounce Joe Biden because he is Catholic and does not support making abortion illegal while applauding a self-described "hockey Mom" who is skating close to apostasy. The Church's sacramental traditions and beliefs are as worthy of respect and defense as our moral traditions and beliefs." Give me a break, Please!!!!!! Since when has America given a damn about defending orthodox Catholic teachings & traditions. They have spent more time over the last few decades tearing them down.

I will respond with a quote from Edward N. Peters, JD, JCD post about it on his blog (In the Light of the Law). "Sarah Palin's probable Roman Catholic baptism and her life spent outside the Church is of little import in assessing her character. Unlike the case of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who seems to have left the Church as an adult, Palin's parents apparently took her out of the practice of the Faith while she was yet a child, so Palin cannot be said to have decided against her Catholic identity, nor can anything be concluded about her remaining outside of full communion. Her "re-baptism" at age 12 or so, if that's what it was, would not however be recognized by the Church (1983 CIC 845.1)" (Sarah Palin's RC baptism, and some notes on Bristol's situation)

Sorry, but she isn't exactly an apostate. But, you want to make Pro-Life orthodox Catholics think she is 1. How come I never read anything in America criticizing those women aho actually did seperate themselves by their fake ordinations? Those women are schismatic as well as apostate, not Sarah Palin. Oh yeah, that sort of attack on Catholic teaching & tradition you applaud.

Meanwhile, this post was only a continuation of the efforts to downplay abortion & the other life issues while upholding someone who truly has done something that violates Canon 915. I am refering to Joe Biden. Mr. Winters recent post, Joe Bidens Catholicism, is only 1 example of how America doesn't practice what it preaches to Sarah Palin. I do have to point out 1 thing about how Biden views his faith that is mentioned in the post. "Biden wrote, "My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion. It's not so much the Bible, the beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, or the prayers I learned. It's the culture."" Winters goes on to appaud the fact: "This shows a nicely nuanced understanding of how religion mediates its political views through the culture, and gives faith a more foundational role in his worldview, one not reduced to mere personal ethics." Sorry, what this really shows a nicely nuanced justification for not living out your faith as you should. The last I looked, the Catholic Church still taught that the Church should shape the culture, not the culture shape the Church as you would have it.

Like I said, that America is leading the charge doesn't surprize me. St. Ignatius Loyola would never tolerate this sort of disent from Catholic teaching. & when Judgment Day comes, if these so-called Jesuits haven't honestly & seriously renounced these stands, it will be hard to know which voice is crying out louder for justice, the voice of the blood of all the children that was shed by abortion, or that of Ignatius' rule.

The biggest joke for me in all this is the fact that the people who are trying to do this know that Palin is much closer to Catholic teaching on the life issues than Biden is. Biden has turned his back on the teachings of the Church time after time in voting against life. (I am still trying to figure out how he got only a 36% rating from NARAL while getting a 0% from the National Right to Life Committee. The only thing he voted Pro-Life on was when he voted yes on a ban of partial birth abortions in 1999.

In fact, by knowing that life begins at conception, she has shown herself better qualified for the presidency than Obama. He claims that knowing when life begins was above his pay grade. (This is a line Biden has used many a time, "above his pay grade". Maybe Obama has picked up Biden's plageristic ways!) Yet it isn't above Palin's. Does that mean she is at a higher pay grade & therefore more qualified than Obama? Sounds like it to me.

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& of course the attacks on what Palin really believes have begun as well. The last I looked, the Constitution doesn't have a religious litmus test. This is something the left is only too eager to bring out when it suits their purpose. But when they can use a person's faith as a litmus test to undermine a candidate, then they will do all they can to do so. The latest example is found in the AP article Pentecostalism obscured in Palin biography. Besides reminding us she is an "ex-Catholic" it presents her connection with the "Assemblies of God". As an orthodox Catholic who is involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal I found this article all the more offensive. It gets things wrong in so many of the usual ways. It falsely presents divisions that are not there. & it presents as mainstream such leftest anti-Christian views that all orthodox believers of any faith are "sectarian and uncompromising". I will say guilty to uncompromising, when it comes to defending the faith & defending life. But, in the left's view uncomprimising is good only when it upholds their values.

I don't agree with all of the "Assemblies" theology, but on most of the basics we are in agreement. & esp in the life issues they are much closer to the Catholic Church teachings than Biden , Pelosi or any of their other CINO buddies out there.

Again, none of this shocks or surprizes me. The Main Stream Media, the Democratic Party & the much of the left have sold themselves out to the culture of death. They are not going to treat us with the same respect which we treat them.