Archbishop Chaput: ‘We are Catholics before we are Americans’
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Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia urged the faithful to put their faith ahead of politics, according to an interview with Catholic News Service within two weeks of the presidential election.
The Catholic leader clarified the duty of Catholics as he discussed the politics of abortion. He emphasized a need to honor God above country, of “Catholic identity taking precedence over everything.”
“We’re Catholics before we’re Democrats. We’re Catholics before we’re Republicans. We’re even Catholics before we’re Americans because we know that God has a demand on us prior to any government demand on us,” he said in a new interview with the wire service. “And this has been the story of the martyrs through the centuries,” Chaput said.
“[Abortion] is a very serious issue that requires absolute adherence on the part of Catholics,” said the Philadelphia archbishop, “and if we don’t stand united on this issue we’re bound to failure—not only in the area of protecting unborn human life but in maintaining our religious freedom.” [more]
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42 Comments
I would just like to point out that if Bishop Chaput is voting for a political candidate who would create a law on religious grounds then that would immediately violate the First Amendment of the Constitution for everybody who is not of Chaput’s religion (or whatever religion is enforced in the law).
If you believe in the Catholic image of god, then you believe that god loves us so much that he gives us free well – isn’t it a good thing to allow people the freedom to choose their religion (in terms of not enforcing your religion through the government), but working to evangelize people to your faith outside of the legal/political system? That, to me, is following more closely to the teachings of Christ.
God bless Bishop Chaput! He is spot on and all of us need to heed his advice. We are fortunate to be Americans — very fortunate. Each and every one of us owes it to God (who willed us to be Americans) to vote in accordance to the teachings of His Holy Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ Himself. It is a sin for someone who calls themself Catholic to vote for candidates who promote intrinsic evils like abortion, embryonic stem cell research and sins of the flesh. That includes CINOs like Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and John Kerry. Our country has been testing Gods patience for too long and especially since the evil Roe v Wade supremacist court ruling. Please people vote only for pro-life candidates. Do it for the unborn and do it for God’s Church.
Hey if you want to vote for a prolife c
Andi date don’t vote for Romney he said he is for abortion in cases of ra
Pe or incest.
Bravo Andrew, Bless you for speaking out on the issues that so many are willing to set aside in favor of secularism and a political party. It takes courage these days to live out our Catholic Faith and I pray that more and more people will respond to God’s grace and call to do so. Wrongs are wrongs no matter what anyone says. I just wonder how people can reconcile their own lives and having the opportunity to live and think that it is somehow okay for others to murder the children in their wombs…..would they themselves have wanted the opportunity for their own mothers to have that choice? Are they just “lucky” that their mothers decided against that?
Funny, Chaput speaks out and once again the naysayers revolt. What about the ones who have been condemning the bishops all along for not speaking out? Can’t win, right folks?
“Conscience confronts {the individual} with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which is in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even of the official Church.”
Joseph Ratzinger, 1968.
“Testing God’s patience?” You mean God is a dysfunctional tyrant and is gonna hurt the creatures he created and loves?
Frank, I wouldn’t even think of calling God a “dysfunctional tyrant”. All I will say in response to you is to look at history: The Jews of Exodus were freed from slavery in Egypt and time and time rebelled against God (you know, golden calfs and the like). God sent chastisements. Our Lady came to La Salette and warned that unless people returned to the Church a great famine would come. God sent the great potato famine just as she predicted. Our Lady came again to Fatima and warned that unless the people returned to the Church, Russia would spread her errors and a war would break out worse than WWI. WW2 broke out and communism spread throughout the world. So yes, God does send chastisements and those of us who don’t respect His will should examine their actions.
Andrew the God of Jesus is a kind loving God. Slow to anger, rich in mercy, loving and forgiving. The chastisement a that people attribute to God are no more than natural phenomenal that People with a poor image of God attribute to Him.
The business of our Lady appearing here and there is nothing more than a over active imagination of the seers.
Sacred Scripture tells us God is love. It does not say he is a tyrant. There are natural consequences to our inappropriate actions, don’t blame God.
So Sodom and Gommorrah was a fairy tale that went into the Bible by mistake? As for Fatima and La Salette, you can believe whatever you want but the predictions all came true exactly as Our Lady said and that’s why the Church deemed them and several others worthy of belief I’ll take the Church’s word any day over some ignorant message board troll.
Andrew, if you want to be taken seriously then you have to present yourself as such. Closing with the name calling only says you have no argument, are frustrated and are therefore closing the debate. Owning your faith is more than simply spewing out exactly what you have been told – it means wrestling with your beliefs and coming to own them as your own.
CINOs on this board of not take me seriously. Nor do they take the Church seriously as evidenced by the ignorant and very offensive postings. That’s their problem and it is a sad problem. I will continue to speak the truth. I love my Church and my country too much to roll over and surrender.
If anyone is Catholic in name only, it is someone like you. You simply repeat what you have been fed and never bother to wrestle with it. You have a superficial notion of spirituality and relationship with God. If you loved your Church at all you would want to help correct misconceptions instead of spreading them. You don’t love your church – you are part of the reason the Church is floundering. As for our country – if you loved it you would spend time finding the truth rather than simply idolizing the false gods who pretend to be the savior.
Andrew – If people were to vote for only prolife candidates, then they would vote for no one since no candidate is totally prolife. Unless you espouse a narrow minded definition of pr-life as meaning anti-abortion. If that is the case stop calling yourself pro-life and simply refer to yourself as anti-abortion. There is a big difference and those who are simply anti-abortion but claim to be pro-life are frauds.
Lets say for a minute that no candidate is truly pro-life (will have to pretend that Rick Santorum never ran for public office). That still does not excuse the Faithul from voting for pro-death candidates. One of Obamas first executive orders was to reverse the Mexico City policy. Our tax dollars now fund the slaughter of innocents overseas via the abortion holocaust. Such action is evil, pure diabolical evil. No Catholic can vote for this man and call themselves a practicing Catholic. A vote for Obama is a vote against the Church.
Rick Snatorum is anti-abortion, not pro-life. He does not offer a way for the poor to receive health care. How many defenseless people die each day because they have no care, cannot afford medications, don’t even know they are sick because they can not afford a visit to the doctor? How many children are homeless because a parent can not afford life insurance and leave the children destitute if the parent suddenly dies? How many mothers who choose to have their babies are frantic about having food, medicine and care for the baby? Poverty, fear, being disenfranchised all play a role in how decisions to have an abortion? Pro-life is a complete package – it is not summed up by being anti-abortion. All of which backs up the fact that there are no pro-life candidates – even if Santorum were still running. If you want to legislate abortion policy how about legislating the rest of it. But in fact, you can not legislate morality. So according to your declaration, anyone who votes for any of the candidates is voting against the church and therefore can not call themselves practicing Catholics. I guess the churches will just close down.
Anti abortion is synonymous with pro life. After all there are just two choices in an abortion: a living baby and a murdered baby. Before throwing stones at Santorm with these baseless charges, look at how poverty had INCREASED as a direct result of Obamas policies. Regulation combined with his war on energy independence has destroyed and continues to destroy thousands of jobs. This also has caused the spike in gas prices, food and household good prices that have made life miserable for the poor and ate turning once middle class Americans into poor Americans. As for churches closing, that’s exactly what Obama wants. His policies are designed with a short term goal of marginalizing the Church and moving social services from the churches to the government. Wake up.
Andrew you are showing just how misinformed you are. Anti-abortion is not synonymous with pro-life. Pro-life encompasses all aspects and every phase of life. It is concerned just as much with feeding the hungry, health care and treatment of the disenfranchised as it is with abortion. You seem to Blame the current administration for everything – but it’s not the case. For example no president has much control over gasoline prices – the government doesn’t set the price, the market does. As for Santorum – it is a matter of his record – you may wish it were different but it is not. So you should get the facts straight instead of just repeating what the ultraconservative blogs feed to you. If you wake up you may find the truth.
I believe that it is a sad day in the USA when issues in our Presidential election come down to abortion and same sex marriage. There are so many issues that need immediate attention such as jobs, economy, foreign affairs. I do believe however, that the bishops are right. We are American Catholics but our faith should always come first
That is for sure. “Catholic”. Well said.
Some of these comments are so predictable. Over and over these many, many weeks, it’s the same old story: the bishops are just awful, the nuns have it right, no one is going to tell “me” what to do, “my” mind is not open to change for “I” have all the answers. “We” choose to believe what we choose in spite of all else out there.
Our allegiance must be to God our Creator first. It is only by chance that we were born into this country. God created us to be…just as He has created all of the unborn as well.
We continue to blame the priests and bishops for not spreading the word….often the word is not what we want to hear now, is it. We can’t have it both ways. The hierarchy is condemned for sitting back and not saying anything but then, when they do, well that’s unacceptable as well.
How about taking the word “abortion” and changing just two letters? What a difference it might be if we used a d instead of b and a p instead of r….think about it…..”adoption”. But some of you wouldn’t consider making that movement …..that would take energy that is mostly reserved for snarky remarks.
This country is headed for bigger disasters than the small-mindedness shown in these commentaries suggest. God help us!
Adoption is an option if the mother choose to keep the baby. Understand that the women who go to them clinics does not want to go through pregnancy. They are being selfish big time! The soul and heart of the mother is the one that need to be reached out. The church includes the laity we are all responsible in proclaiming the Word of God. But the kind of program each church adopt is based on the leadership of the parish priest.
Steph, Stop relegating it to priests. We are all priestly people by our baptism. We are all obligated to speak the truth and are charged with doing the right thing….we need to stop passing the responsibility to others and take a stand ourselves. That is the real charge of Vatican II. The ordained are not the ones to save our souls….they will have a hard enough time saving their own.
The battle for abortion is fought in the mind of the pregnant woman. When she goes to the abortion clinic the verdict to commit murder is on her hands not on the hands of the clinic. She is in fact the one that needs to be reached out to. Because she is the one making the decision. Now if abortion is not a legal option once she already made that decision… do you honestly think she will not seek out a way to do it herself using drugs and or go to the back alley? Let us face the facts… what we need is to fight secularization of the American Values. And the way to do that is to ask for the Holy Spirit to come down and embolden the priests and bishops to reach out to the youth and their families in order to have a value re-orientation. The government duty is to protect its citizen. Having a “safety net” for the mothers who wish to jump off the edge and self destruct … we can at least still reach out to them save their souls. Quit blaming the government for the inaction of the church to actively reach out their charge. Lead us to a Life in the Spirit. Create a strong moral compass among our youth. Preach celibacy, preach chastity among the single folks, among married couples and aong the clergy.
About ABORTION…. Obama is running for President of the United States not for the office of a Bishop or pastor. Remember separation of church and state?
Now… if a person is going to jump off the roof… the first responders would put the safety net to catch the person and sent someone to negotiate for the person to change his position. Having legalized abortion does not mean we all have to abort our kids. It is in fact protecting the life of the mentally not well mother who is in the brink of self destruction. It is our job as friends of the person to remind her of christian values and choose life. Not everybody is strong in their resolve. In the brink of starvation and other circumstances… some women seriously considers abortion. But we do not condemn the sinner. WE are Christian we condemn the sin. That is one of the teachings I got from being a christian. And that is a proof that Obama is a Christian… he does not condemn the sinner, he is giving them the safety net just in case they jump towards that sinful world of aborting their own child, they still have a chance to redeem themselves, compared to leaving them hemorrhaging, should they consider abortion in the back alley. It is called REPENTANCE AND FAITH —- I believe it is one of the talks in Christian Life Program.
If you want to vote for fewer abortions, vote democratic. Why?
Because poverty is major cause for abortions. And democratic policies produce less poverty. If
the Bishop votes Republican, he votes for a good anti-abortion theory but really for more actual abortions. If you want factual evidence, compare Bush’s
record on producing poverty and
more abortions with Clinton’s record of less poverty and fewer
abortions. Religious freedom allows voting for fewer actual abortions as opposed to the perfect theory of anti abortion.
Good point, Robert. In the 39 years since Roe vs. Wade bacame law in 1973, we have had Republican presidents for 23 years, almost 60% of the time. They all (except Nixon and Ford) were “pro-life” yet the number of abortions kept increasing. Republican politicians say they are pro-life, but they never do anything about it.
The devisiveness of politics is also apparant in how we define ourselves as Catholics. I happen to believe that we, as individuals, are responsible for caring for the less fortunate rather than abdicating our responsibility to the government. I think we also have to look at the big picture of religious freedom and a culture that supports life over death. That is a matter of my faith and Catholocism. Chaput is not telling us to abandon our love of country, only to put God first. Isn’t that what we all should do?
Eileen, I applaud your desire to care for the poor directly. During the Great Depression, homeless men would knock on my grandmother’s back door several times a day, and she would make them a sandwich. So, just for the record, how many homeless people have you sheltered and fed in the last month? How many sick people have you taken care of? How many expensive medical procedures have you paid for? Would you welcome a homeless man at your door? It’s fine to make the argument that you will take care of the poor directly, but it’s basically a falsehood you are hiding behind. In our society, most wealthy and well-off people do not even come into contact with the poor and outcast. The only way to provide for them is through non-profits and government. Jesus evidently felt it was important enough to say, in Matthew 25, that caring for the poor is the single most important criteria for entrance into eternal life. You can slavishly follow the bishops if you want to. As for me, I’ll follow Jesus. And don’t you dare question my Catholicism.
There is no justice with either of these candidates a right to life for the unborn and ageing and the death penalty are all important issues but life is yet bigger eucation is life, housing is life, necesary food nutrition is life. we so easily get swayed Chaput and others feel free to speak all you want. Good American voters need to read the Constitution and Bill of Rights then decide
Within the past three weeks this same Archbishop Chaput also announced that nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus say the government should give assistance to the poor and needy. One can hardly see his pectoral cross for all the “Romney/Ryan” buttons on his habit.
I am enraged at the Anti American statement of this man. Maybe if he had served in the milatery and paid taxes he would be more
Partriotic
Perhaps the good cardinal would like to deliver this message about being Catholic first to the Ayn Rand worshiping Catholic Paul Ryan. Or is Catholic Social Teaching not a central teaching of the Catholic Church anymore?
its about time the church took a stand. had they done that 4 years ago we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in right now. LIFE is the foundation of human dignity. Supporting LIFE supports human dignity. You can’t create a culture of death and expect people to care for those who are the least among us when we don’t even care about those who have no voice!
Situations arise in which a person who is Catholic and American may be faced with a conflict in conscience which prompts a choice that differs from American law, “absolute adherence” to an archbishop, or both.
When an archbishop (Chaput) enters the political arena and starts talking “absolute adherence” to his Catholic vision, he is acting as a private citizen who is an archbishop until he resigns, dies or is removed by the pope. He is entitled to his opinions, which is what they are. He is NOT entitled to inflict himself, in the name of Jesus the Christ, on the conscience of anyone, Catholic or not, and prescribe “absolute truth” which must be absolutely adhered to.
These attempts to “control conscience” go a long way toward explaining why his archdiocese and the Catholic church in general are in a state of accelerating decay.
Joseph Ratzinger: “Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one’s own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else…even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.”
Florian, The only absolute adherence we have is to GOD’S laws….nothing else.
Tony, Chaput is not trying to divide you from your love of country. The Catholics from countries they lived in and loved ask them to denounce morality, God and be conform to atheistic norms. Did they love their countries? Yes, but they showed their love of God and Christ first. What you are really showing here is your distant for conservative Bishops in general. Jesus said it so well, “You cannot serve two masters.” Noooooooooooooooooo. Tony, you have to choose.
Cardinal Spelman from NY used to say, My Country right or wrong. I agree with him.
See Matthew 7:6.
Yawn……
Tax the church, tax the bishops, tax the Catholic institutions tax those who want to impose their religious rules and regulations on the rest of the country.
I am an American and Proud of it. I have very close relatives and friends who have given up their lives for America. I love America, I pay my taxes, I vote,
I deeply resent Chaput and his comments, trying to divide me from my love of country.
I am a An American Catholic Christian and damn proud of that.