ST. THOMAS MORE SOCIETY OF ORANGE COUNTY ad OCTOBER 2012 veritatemVOLUME 17 ISSUE 10

Finding Jesus at Isaiah House DAVID WERNER Rules of Engagement JOHN J. FLYNN III

An Election-Year Message KEVIN FARRELL BISHOP AD VERITATEM OCTOBER 2012

FINDING JESUS AT The St. Thomas More Society of ISAIAH HOUSE Orange County is ad an independent DAVID WERNER veritatem organization sponsored by and judges who are practicing Years ago, my good friend Greg Weiler asked me to help members of the Roman out at Isaiah House. It appears that I now attend pretty . regularly, every fourth Sunday of the month. He recently asked me to write an article for Ad Veritatem answering the ST. THOMAS MORE SOCIETY question “Why?” Why do I go? Why should any of us go? BOARD OF DIRECTORS

As I have grown older, as I have come to know more and PAST PRESIDENT experience more, I have come to the conclusion that what PRESIDENT Deborah Knefel Donald A. Hunsberger LAW OFFICES OF Gregory Weiler THE LAW OFFICES OF DEBORAH PERNICE KNEFEL I think is best kept to myself. I figure that no matter what PALMIERI TYLER WEINER DONALD A. HUNSBERGER WILHELM & WALDRON I think, no matter what I figure out about the world or my WEBMASTER David Luke SECRETARY BICKMORE RISK SERVICES life, it really doesn’t matter. Until I can conclusively say Steven Cotugno Fabio Cabezas CONSULTING SOFTWARE ENGINEER William Malecki that I have something to say to my Lord Jesus Christ that STATE COMPENSATION TREASURER Michael J. Alti INSURANCE FUND would cause him to respond “Oh, I did not know that,” it THE ALTI LAW FIRM Michael Murphy, CPA Ron Moore just doesn’t matter. THE ACCOUNTANCY FIRM OF THE LAW OFFICES OF MURPHY, MURPHY & MURPHY, INC. James P. Doan VIRGINIA L. LANDRY, INC. For myself, I can only tell you what I figured out for DOAN LAW GROUP CHAPLAIN Alma Sanchez me. It doesn’t make it right, or even correct. It is just what Rev. Hugh C. Barbour, Lydia Duynstee HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA makes me get out of bed every fourth Sunday and flip 150 O. Praem, Ph.D. ST. MICHAEL’S ABBEY John J. Flynn III Jake Vollebregt NOSSAMAN LLP CAPTAIN, U.S. MARINE CORPS burgers. PAST PRESIDENT When I first went, it was because I had total fantasy Hon. David Belz John L. Flynn III David Werner O.C. SUPERIOR COURT LAW OFFICE OF DAVID WERNER, LLP about the poor. If you read the New Testament, you see O.C. SUPERIOR COURT Marv Howard a lot of words that seem to indicate that that the poor are SILVERBERG & COOK, INC. morally superior. The folks I meet at Isaiah House are poor. But morally superior? The reality for me is that it is not ADVISORY BOARD Hon. Michael Brenner, Retired • Hon. David T. McEachen • Bishop Cirilo Flores the status of “poorness” that makes Jesus happy. It is the Dean John Eastman • Hon. Andrew J. Guilford • Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. status of not caring about material things and focusing on

God that makes Him smile. The poor at Isaiah House are IDEALS OF ST. THOMAS MORE elected and appointed officials and as focused or more focused on material things that I am–by The legal profession is a high calling members of the legal profession. with corresponding responsibilities a long shot. They are hungry. They want food. They want to society. The principal objective of MEMBERSHIP IN STMS clothes. They want to be safe and off the street. They don’t every is to promote and seek Each member of the Society is justice. Catholic Lawyers pursue committed to: figure on prayer very much–not when they cannot find a the truth in both their spiritual and • strive to live an exemplary Christian professional lives. The duty of a life and apply the principles and ideals bathroom. I don’t go there to find morally superior beings. Catholic lawyer is to remain faithful exemplified by St. Thomas More in That is gone. to Jesus Christ, His Church and their daily lives and encourage same its teachings at all times despite the in the legal profession. personal consequences. Someone told me that I should go to places like Isaiah • attend monthly meeting of the Society and provide personal support House because it affects me; it makes me a better man. By THE OBJECTIVES OF STMS to the St. Thomas More Society. serving Christ, I am morally superior, and I guess that is • encouraging its members to live a Christian life and apply the principles • attend and support the Red Mass. the message. I lived through that concept, but felt it to be and ideals exemplified by St. Thomas LAWYER’S PRAYER an empty desert. I was no different going there than before. More in their lives and encourage same in the legal profession. Give me the grace, Good Lord, to set the world at naught; morally superior to whom. • promoting and foster high ethical to set my mind fast upon thee principals in the legal profession Then here was the “I feel good about myself” syndrome. and not to hang upon the blast of men’s generally and, in particular, in the mouths; community of Catholic lawyers. A high-powered trial attorney serving the poor–aren’t I to be content to be solitary; great? Of course I am. Only a great and good man would • assisting in the spiritual growth of not to long for worldly company its members. but utterly to cast off the world do that, right? • encouraging interfaith and rid my mind of the business Sorry. I would rather feel good about myself by watching understanding and brotherhood. thereof. • sponsoring the annual Red Mass for - ST. THOMAS MORE an Angels game. pretending that I was Kirk Gibson winning (CONTINUED ON PAGE 6) [email protected]

2 AD VERITATEM VOLUME 17, ISSUE 10

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT JOHN J. FLYNN III

One occasionally encounters apologetical writing that seems unnecessarily derisive and scornful. What is the point, after all, of apologetics? To defend, which is its proper purpose, or to ridicule and humiliate? Unfortunately, we often use the same rhetorical “techniques” in the apologetics of everyday life, with little or no regard for the demands of the Gospel, which asks that we deny ourselves the low pleasures of momentary conquest for the sake of charity; charity, after all, is the guarantor of our credibility as 4 Christians (1 John 4:20). Putting aside the moral obligation, character of dialogue. The Church struggles to find the right therefore, to offend against charity is actually to undermine modes of expression, guided by certain fundamental realities one’s apologetical effectiveness. that make way for dialogue: the harmonious demands of There is profound meaning in the Catholic concept of truth and dialogue, the capacity of intellect and language to dialogue, correctly understood, providing guideposts for express the same truth in different forms, and the variable conscience. More fundamentally, perhaps, the Church’s call relationship of the tenets of Catholicism to the foundation 5 to dialogue is a call to suffer, an idea discussed below, with of Christian faith. A new “” of thinking and perceiving particular emphasis on the writings of John Paul II. emerged from Vatican II: Conversion and Dialogue “[T]he Second Vatican Council differed from earlier councils because of its particular style. It was not a defensive First, it must be acknowledged that dialogue does not style. Not once in the Council documents did the words permit us to seek “unity” at the cost of what is true and 1 anathema sit appear. It was an ecumenical style characterized essential. There is nothing to be gained by denying truth by great openness to dialogue, a dialogue described by Pope for the sake of mere silence. Silence is not the same as peace; 6 Paul VI as a ‘dialogue of salvation.’” authentic peace is grounded in truth. The longer we suppress truth for the sake of maintaining a counterfeit peace, the This “style” refers to the Church’s inner life, just as words 2 more unstable the condition of the Church. reveal the inner life of the one who speaks them: “A good At the same time, we cannot offend love in defending person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces the truth, because love and truth comprise a unity, a reality good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces implicitly affirmed by John Paul II at the canonization of St. evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein): “Dialogue,” therefore, refers not only to the externalities of dialogue, but to a fundamental change in the orientation “Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross says to us all: 7 of one’s faith, involving “the human subject in his or her Don’t accept anything as truth if it is without love. 8 entirety” : “There must be charity towards one’s partner in And don’t accept anything as love if it is without 3 dialogue and humility with regard to the truth which comes truth! One without the other is a harmful lie.” to light and which might require a review of assertions and The unity of love and truth, grounded ultimately in the oneness of God, imposes specific demands upon the (CONTINUED ON PAGE 4)

1 Karol Cardinal Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Sources of Renewal: The Implementation of the Second Vatican Council (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1980), 31, quoting Vatican II, Decree on Ecumenism, § 11. 2 John Paul II, Encyclical, Ut Unum Sint (“UUS”) (1995), § 36. 3 Vatican Information Service [web site], October 11, 1998. 4 Wojtyla, Sources of Renewal, 31-32. 5 UUS, §§ 36, 19, 37; Wojtyla, Sources of Renewal, 31-32. 6 John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), 162, emphasis in original. 7 Wojtyla, Sources of Renewal, 29-32; UUS, §§ 28-29. 8 UUS, § 28. 3 AD VERITATEM OCTOBER 2012

RULES OF “Dialogue cannot take place recall the truth expressed in the merely on a horizontal level, encyclical Redemptor Hominis ENGAGEMENT being restricted to meetings, (Redeemer of Man): In Christ exchanges of points of view or ‘every man becomes the way for (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3) even the sharing of gifts proper the Church’. It can be said that to each Community. It has man in a special fashion becomes also a primarily vertical thrust, the way for the Church when 9 attitudes”. In other words, there 14 directed towards the One who, suffering enters his life.” is a specific relationship between as the Redeemer of the world and Suffering, in other words, produces a conversion, on the one hand, and the the Lord of history, is himself kind of “hollowing out” that makes way style and attitudes we bring to dialogue, our Reconciliation. This vertical for the inflow of grace; it is the price of on the other. Indeed, the relationship 15 aspect of dialogue lies in our sin, but in the divine plan it also exists of conversion to ecumenical dialogue is acknowledgment, jointly and to to promote conversion and re-build so close that Vatican II equated them: each other, that we are men and charity: “This change of heart and holiness women who have sinned. It is “This is an extremely important of life, along with public and precisely this acknowledgment aspect of suffering. It is private prayer for the unity of which creates in brothers and sisters profoundly rooted in the entire Christians, should be regarded as living in Communities not in full Revelation of the Old and above the soul of the whole ecumenical communion with one another that all the New Covenant. Suffering movement, and can rightly be interior space where Christ, the must serve for conversion that is, called ‘spiritual ecumenism.’ source of the Church’s unity, can for the rebuilding of goodness in We proceed along the road effectively act, with all the power of the subject, who can recognize 12 leading to the conversion of his Spirit, the Paraclete.” the divine mercy in this call to hearts guided by love which is Dialogue and Suffering repentance. The purpose of directed to God and, at the same The relationship of dialogue to penance is to overcome evil, time, to all our brothers and suffering might not be immediately which under different forms lies sisters, including those not in full apparent, but John Paul II seems to dormant in man. Its purpose 10 communion with us.” have concluded that dialogue produces is also to strengthen goodness In every encounter, we must be interior effects not unlike those of both in man himself and in his mindful of our debt to the Cross. suffering. As if to echo his own words relationships with others and 16 We are, as John Paul II said, “all on the fruits of dialogue, i.e., creation especially with God.” equally indebted to our Redeemer,”11 of the “interior space where Christ, Suffering also reveals and “unleashes” an equality that overshadows all the source of the Church’s unity can love: other differences, providing new effectively act with all the power of his “Following the parable of the ways of perceiving our partners in Spirit,” John Paul also observed, on the Gospel, we could say that dialogue. Conversely, the lack of effects of suffering: suffering, which is present under charity in dialogue in a certain sense “It is suffering, more than so many different forms in our implies a repudiation of one’s debt, anything else, which clears human world, is also present a presumption, not always fully the way for the grace which in order to unleash love in the appreciated, that one has risen above 13 human person, that unselfish gift transforms human souls.” the need for the Cross. It is precisely of one’s ‘I’ on behalf of other In the same vein, in Salvifici Doloris, this radical awareness of indebtedness, people, especially those who suffer. his apostolic letter on the meaning of an awareness always in need of renewal, The world of human suffering suffering, John Paul II wrote: which promotes the cultivation of the unceasingly calls for, so to speak, styles, attitudes and mentalities essential “And at the same time, during the (CONTINUED ON PAGE 5) to dialogue: holy year of the redemption we

9 Ibid., § 36, emphasis added. 11 John Paul II, Letter, Dominicae Cenae (1980), (1984), (“SD”), § 27. 10 Ibid., § 21, quoting Vatican II, Decree on § 13. 14 SD, § 3, emphasis added. 12 Ecumenism, § 8, first emphasis in original, UUS, § 35. 15 SD, § 15. second emphasis added. 13 John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Doloris 16 Ibid., § 12, emphasis in original.

4 AD VERITATEM VOLUME 17, ISSUE 10

another world: the world of but think nothing whatever of Church. It is precisely at moments of human love; and in a certain sense employing thoroughly secular styles clear opposition that we are faced with man owes to suffering that unselfish of argumentation, with consequences a challenge to faith, with a crossroads, love which stirs in his heart and equally destructive. It is not just any where we must choose ourselves, or 17 actions.” other institution we represent in those choose Christ. Are we unwilling to “Especially those who suffer…” moments of encounter; the Church is deny ourselves the perverse satisfactions But whose suffering is it that we seek the crucified Christ, living in the world, of the lacerating word or phrase for to relieve by denying ourselves the seeking souls for the Father. If that is the sake of the Gospel? It is a fateful dubious joys of the moment? It is the the institution for which we labor, we moment in the life of faith, the Church that suffers from rhetorical are bound in every context by the rules importance of which we overlook at 18 tactics that offend charity, since of the Gospel. our peril. We can, at those moments, they have the unavoidable effect of Suffering is therefore deeply choose the way of self-vindication, disfiguring the face of Christ, thereby embedded in the reality of dialogue; masquerading as zeal for the Church, impeding the Church’s evangelical dialogue presents, in a sense, a decisive or we can choose the way of the Cross. mission. We complain, and rightly crucible for all Christians, a passage of Our response to the challenge of so, about the spiritually corrosive suffering intended by the Holy Spirit, dialogue, no matter the context, reveals effects of secularism on the Church, it seems, for the building up of the the depth of our conversion.

17 SD, § 29, first emphasis in original, second emphasis added. 18 Mt 5:21-22, 12:34-37. CALENDAR OF EVENTS MONTH DATE DESCRIPTION LOCATION

October Wed., Oct. 17, 12:00 p.m. Lunch meeting. Fr. Chris Heath will speak on Jilio Ryan “The Well-Formed Conscience.” 14661 Franklin, #150 Tustin, jilioryan.com Sun., Oct. 28, Come to help cook and serve breakfast to the Isaiah House 8:30-11:30 a.m. homeless of the community at Isaiah House. 316 S. Cypress Avenue www.occatholicworker.org Santa Ana, CA 92701 (714) 835-6304 November Wed., Nov. 21, 12:00 p.m. Lunch meeting. Nationally-syndicated radio Jilio Ryan show host Hugh Hewitt will speak. A lawyer, (same as above) law professor and broadcast journalist, Hewitt served in the Reagan Administration and lives in Orange County.

OCTOBER LUNCH MEETING and school, increased the membership of the parish and the FR. CHRIS HEATH size of the parish’s geographic boundaries, and led the people through some tough spiritual and community problems. Now Fr. Chris Heath was born in 1961 and attended public he is a Parochial Vicar at St. Edward the Confessor Church school until his junior year of high school when he entered in Dana Point. He is a law enforcement chaplain, and sits on the minor seminary in San Fernando. He was ordained a priest the boards of two charities: Military Children’s Charity, and in 1988 for the Diocese of Orange. After several assignments Ave Maria Catholic Donations. He has been known to write as Parochial Vicar in the diocese, Fr. Heath was named the the occasional article in the Catholic Business Journal Online, first diocesan priest pastor of La Purisima Church in Orange has appeared on EWTN radio with Barbara McGuigan, and (El Modena) (2002-2006) where he oversaw the building of sometimes one or another of his homilies gets passed around a new 1200-seat church, improved the finances of the parish the county/internet.

5 AD VERITATEM OCTOBER 2012

FINDING JESUS He knows all that. And He also I remember as a young child going knows that in church, it doesn’t happen. to Disneyland with my folks. I got AT ISAIAH HOUSE In church, I don’t conceal Him from separated from them. At six years old, myself. I know He is there. I know that that is not good. I looked around to (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2) He is Lord. find them and they were not there. I If secrets be told, I love going to ran everywhere looking for them but church. It is a mental crutch–a crutch nothing. I did the only thing left I could the series with a home run event though that repairs my disability of not seeing do: I sat down in the middle of “Main I was crippled by a hamstring. Jesus when he is clearly there. Street” and cried uncontrollably–a very All of those thoughts are debris– But I need to see Jesus more than just loud cry of pain, pain that was caused by moral debris clogging my brain. None of in church. I need to see him in my home, being lost, detached from the world that it works. in my office, everywhere He is, and nurtured and cared for me. My Papa in heaven knows me. He everywhere I go. I need to overcome my That is the real condition of the folks knows every hair on my head, every innate disability of not seeing him–of at Isaiah. Not morally superior–just thought I have or will have. He knows concealing him from myself. lost, abandoned by everyone, even how I think and because of that, and I fail too much. themselves. Society has turned away because of his great love for me, he But God bless the wonders of the from them. They have no place to go but decided to help me out by giving me human mind, because I don’t fail at church. I used to think that church was Isaiah House. At Isaiah House, I see CAN YOU a building built to honor God.... until, in Him. I don’t hide Him from myself. my mind, I heard His laughter. “It isn’t I think that it may be because of a CONCEIVE OF for me, young man. Church is for you. simple fact, a real fact about the folks at YOUR LIFE AND It is a place I have given you that you Isaiah House. Can you conceive of your YOUR SENSE can go, anytime day and night and feel life and your sense of well-being if you and listen to My Presence.” did not have an address that the Post OF WELL-BEING I know that God is everywhere. I Office delivers mail to? How about a life IF YOU DID know He is not confined to a little where you work all day, but then when box. But we humans engage in curious you start to go to place of shelter with a NOT HAVE AN practice: We expend considerable roof on it and friendly faces–a place you ADDRESS THAT energy during the day to conceal God call home–you realize that you don’t THE POST OFFICE from ourselves. When I am at my desk, have such a place? No walls, no ceiling, when I am watching a game, when I am no refrigerator, no place of shelter. And DELIVERS playing with my grandkids, my mind can you imagine that when a police MAIL TO? conceals God from me. He is there, He officer stops you for jaywalking, you is in the room. Yet, my mind convinces have no ID, no way to prove who you worse, they have no place to be. Dwight me that I am alone and He is not there. are? When you go to call mom or dad and Leia try to be like the Disneyland Only when I focus, only when I object or wife or brother, you realize that they officer that came to my aid–they try to to the “concealment” do I find my way don’t exist. They walked away from you comfort and they try to give identity and back to him and to His presence. long ago and won’t take your call. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 7)

The Law Offi ces of Advertise in Deborah Pernice Knefel MAMMOTH • Labor and Employment Law REAL ESTATE adveritatem • Municipal and Admin. Law C OLDWELL BANKER • Tort/Business Litigation ˜ Affordable Fly fishing, golf, skiing, advertising at $150 333 City Blvd. West, per year back packing, property sales ˜ 17th Floor Orange, Calif. 92868 (714) 937-2035 MIKE S. MARTIN [email protected] 949.292.3447 [email protected]@stthomasmore.net

6 AD VERITATEM VOLUME 17, ISSUE 10

sense of belonging. Dwight tries to give they are His children who cry into the At Isaiah House, I don’t do it. You have them California ID cards. They use his darkness of their existence: “I am lost, my permission to try to convince me address. They know it is not real. They please help…” that my faith requires deeper thought know they don’t belong there. But any And because I know this, and because than this. But I have to tell you--it port in a storm is ok. They are lost and never likely to be found because no one is looking for them. They don’t much look like the pampered kid crying in the middle of main street, but their forlorn cry of being separated from the world is little different. I don’t theologically know the answers but I do know–like the Disneyland cop that came to my aid, who heard my cry and came and gently took my hand and took me to my mom– Jesus comes running when his children cry the loudest. The cry of the lost is a cry He hears. They may or may not know He is there. Mostly I think they don’t. But whether He comes running to them is not dependent, I think, on what they do when He gets there. I think He does everything He can to grab hold of them, to take their hand and try to steer them home. I know He is there, I see him. doesn’t matter. You cannot take away When I go there, I know in my heart From the moment I start the car, from me what I want more than the air I that He is there because of who they are, until the moment I leave Original breathe. because of what they are, and because Mike’s, He is always before me. I see I see Him at Mass. I see him in chapel. Him. I feel Him. I love Him. He never I see him at Isaiah House. At the end of disappears from me. My mind does not my day I make a list–things I did, places ... JESUS COMES click off in to the absurdity of believing I went, people I talked to–a list of all the RUNNING WHEN in the world; it stays right there in His times during the day when I concealed presence the entire time. Him from myself. I hope I have enough HIS CHILDREN CRY Last time, I talked to Him for three time left to finish the job. For now at THE LOUDEST. hours about my son, Michael–the least Isaiah House is there for me. I THE CRY OF THE Marine stationed in Camp Bastion. I cannot wait for every fourth Sunday. asked the Lord: Will he be safe? Will LOST IS A CRY HE he die? Curiously the Lord said to me: HEARS ... HE DOES “Yea, yea, he is fine. Now let’s talk about what I need you to do to get him EVERYTHING HE into heaven.” CAN TO GRAB I have lots of good friends that I HOLD OF THEM, TO know will pick me apart and expound their theology and criticize my thinking. TAKE THEIR HAND They matter but their words don’t. AND TRY TO STEER Concealing the Lord from ourselves HOME accomplishes what good? Why do we THEM . need to do it? At church, I don’t do it.

7 AD VERITATEM OCTOBER 2012

AN ELECTION-YEAR MESSAGE MOST REV. KEVIN J. FARRELL, BISHOP OF DALLAS MOST REV. KEVIN W. VANN, BISHOP OF FORT WORTH

guidelines to aid the faithful in proper abortion and euthanasia. In our nation, formation of conscience with regard to ‘abortion and euthanasia have become October 8, 2008 the many issues we face in our nation preeminent threats to human dignity today. Through this joint statement to because they directly attack life itself, the faithful of Dallas and Fort Worth, the most fundamental human good and Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: we seek to briefly summarize the key the condition for all others’ (Living the The month of October is Respect points and dispel any confusion or Gospel of Life, no. 5). It is a mistake Life Month in our churches. It is a time misunderstanding that may be present with grave moral consequences to treat in which we as Catholics are called to among you concerning the teaching the destruction of innocent human life reflect upon the gift of life that has contained in the document, especially merely as a matter of individual choice. been entrusted to us by our Creator that which may have arisen from recent A legal system that violates the basic and to focus our attention on the many public misinterpretation concerning this right to life on the grounds of choice is attacks against human life that exist in teaching. fundamentally flawed.” (22) our culture today. This year, Respect 1. Forming Consciences for Faithful 2. The destruction of the most Life Month takes on a more profound Citizenship clearly teaches that not all innocent of human life through abortion meaning as we face an election in our issues have the same moral equivalence. and embryonic stem cell research not country where the protection of human Some issues involve “intrinsic evils”; only undercuts the basic human right to life itself, particularly that of the unborn, that is, they can never under any life, but it also subverts and distorts the is very much at stake. Therefore, as circumstance or condition be morally common good. As Pope John Paul II your , we wish to take this justified. Preeminent among these clearly states: opportunity to provide clear guidance intrinsic evils are legalized abortion, on the proper formation of conscience “Disregard for the right to life, the promotion of same sex unions concerning voting as faithful Catholics precisely because it leads to the killing of and “marriages”, repression of and to articulate the Church’s clear and the person whom society exists to serve, religious liberty, as well as public unambiguous teaching on life issues as is what most directly conflicts with the policies permitting euthanasia, racial they relate to other issues of concern. possibility of achieving the common discrimination or destructive human good... The Church teaches that all Catholics embryonic stem cell research. should participate as “faithful citizens” It is impossible to further the Forming Consciences for Faithful in the public square, especially through common good without acknowledging Citizenship clearly states: our voice in the voting booth, and and defending the right to life, upon that we have the responsibility to treat “There are some things we must which all the other inalienable rights of the decision for whom we will vote never do, as individuals or as a society, individuals are founded and from which for with profound moral seriousness. because they are always incompatible they develop...” (The Gospel of Life, 72; We must approach the right and duty with love of God and neighbor. Such 101) to vote with a properly formed and actions are so deeply flawed that they 3. Therefore, we cannot make more informed conscience in accordance are always opposed to the authentic clear the seriousness of the overriding with the teachings of the Church. Last good of persons. These are called issue of abortion – while not the “only November, the Bishops of the United ‘intrinsically evil’ actions. They must issue” – it is the defining moral issue, States issued a document entitled always be rejected and opposed and not only today, but of the last 35 years. Forming Forming Consciences for must never be supported or condoned. Faithful Citizenship , in which we and A prime example is the intentional (CONTINUED ON PAGE 9) our brother Bishops issued clear moral taking of innocent human life, as in

8 AD VERITATEM VOLUME 17, ISSUE 10

Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, judgment.” But let us be clear: issues morally impermissible. more than 48 million innocent lives have of prudential judgment are not morally 6. In conclusion, as stated in Forming been lost. Each year in our nation more equivalent to issues involving intrinsic Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the than one million lives are lost through evils. No matter how right a given decisions we make on these political and legalized abortion. Countless other lives candidate is on any of these issues, moral issues affect not only the general are also lost through embryonic stem it does not outweigh a candidate’s peace and prosperity of society at large, cell research. In the coming months our unacceptable position in favor of an but also may affect each individual’s nation will once again elect our political intrinsic evil such as abortion or the salvation. As Catholics, we must treat leaders. This electoral cycle affords us protection of “abortion rights.” our political choices with appropriate an opportunity to promote the culture As Forming Consciences for Faithful moral gravity and in doing so, realize our of life in our nation. As Catholics we are Citizenship states: continuing and unavoidable obligation morally obligated to pray, to act, and to to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, vote to abolish the evil of abortion in “The direct and intentional whose destruction by legal abortion America, limiting it as much as we can destruction of innocent human life from is the preeminent intrinsic evil of our until it is finally abolished. the moment of conception until natural day. With knowledge of the Church’s death is always wrong and is not just one teaching on these grave matters, it is issue among many. It must always be incumbent upon each of us as Catholics AS CATHOLICS opposed.” (28) to educate ourselves on where the WE ARE MORALY 5. Forming Consciences for Faithful candidates running for office stand on OBLIGATED TO Citizenship, in paragraphs 34-37, these issues, particularly those involving addresses the question of whether it is intrinsic evils. May God bless you. PRAY, TO ACT, morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports an AND TO VOTE TO intrinsic evil – even when the voter does Faithfully in Christ, not agree with the candidate’s position Most Reverend Kevin J. Farrell ABOLISH THE EVIL on that evil. The only moral possibilities Bishop of Dallas OF ABORTION IN for a Catholic to be able to vote in good conscience for a candidate who supports Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann AMERICA, LIMITING this intrinsic evil are the following: Bishop of Fort Worth IT AS MUCH AS WE a. If both candidates running for office support abortion or “abortion CAN UNTIL IT IS rights,” a Catholic would be forced to then look at the other important issues FINALLY ABOLISHED. and through their vote try to limit the evil done; or,

4. As Catholics we are faced with a b. If another intrinsic evil outweighs number of issues that are of concern the evil of abortion. While this is and should be addressed, such as sound moral reasoning, there are no immigration reform, healthcare, the “truly grave moral” or “proportionate” economy and its solvency, care and reasons, singularly or combined, that concern for the poor, and the war could outweigh the millions of innocent on terror. As Catholics we must be human lives that are directly killed by concerned about these issues and legal abortion each year. work to see that just solutions are To vote for a candidate who brought about. There are many possible supports the intrinsic evil of abortion solutions to these issues and there can or “abortion rights” when there is a be reasonable debate among Catholics morally acceptable alternative would be on how to best approach and solve to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, them. These are matters of “prudential

9