Pastor’s Corner — November 6th, 2022
Tuesday Nov 8: Our Moral Duty and Privilege to Vote
The Church teaches that we have a duty to vote. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
“It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one’s country follow from the duty of gratitude and belong to the order of charity. Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good require citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community. Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country…(CCC 2239)
We are co-responsible for the common good. It’s precisely when Christians inspired by gospel values vote that we can play a small role in bringing the light, truth and justice of God into the world.
Among other things, this moral responsibility to vote means for us on Tuesday that all of us have a responsibility of resisting the threat of Proposal 3 which would invent a “right” to “reproductive freedom” that would enshrine a radical (and false) definition of freedom in our state constitution, a conception of freedom rooted in the sexual libertinism of the sexual revolution. Remember the individualist conception of freedom that celebrates and promotes separating sex from babies, parents from their children, children from their bodies, men from women, or the ability to kill children, is not really freedom at all. It’s actually a cruel form of tyranny disguised as freedom. Since rights imply responsibilities any attempt to enshrine radical autonomy under the force of law will always result in a form of tyranny, which is what we see already toward the children and the unborn. It’s unfortunate that many people don’t seem to see this.
As Christians we believe that freedom exists for love. While it’s true that we can’t “legislate” love, I believe it’s our responsibility to protect the condition of love in political society: a robust conception of freedom based on our human nature. Proposal 3 isn’t just bad because it denies babies the right to life, or because it denies doctors freedom of conscience, or rights of parents to care for their vulnerable children.Proposal 3 is wrong because it represents a radical attempt to enshrine a devastating ideology into our state’s constitution that harms real people and exploits the innocent to give into a false view of freedom that can destroy their lives.
Predictably there has been some public confusion on Proposal 3. Yet, so far I haven’t seen anything or heard of anything that even comes close to refuting the legal and moral concerns about Proposal 3. This week the priests and others received an official notice from our Diocesan lawyer that counterfeit IRS “cease and desist” letters were sent to the Churches around Michigan, claiming that we were violating the IRS guidelines on non-profits by promoting a position on ballot initiatives. The problem is that IRS didn’t send the letters. The IRS knows, as we know, that non-profits, including churches, are perfectly within the law and good morality to do what we’re doing on this evil proposal.
Bad things happen when good people do nothing. Even if you vote for nothing else but vote NO for this evil Proposal 3, it would be worth the line waiting in the polls if you haven’t already voted. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration that in the state of Michigan we have not had a more consequential election for dignity of human life than the one with the radical Proposal 3 in it.
All Day Adoration on Election Day (Tuesday Nov 8) in the Chapel
As Christians we are strongest when we are on our knees praying. Why? Because God is strong in us when we’re connected to him in prayer. We will be hosting all day Eucharistic Adoration on Tuesday after 8:30am Mass until 8pm. Please stop by to say a little prayer before or after voting, or even just to thank God ahead of time for his faithfulness to us no matter what happens. Come Holy Spirit!
My House Men’s Groups
As mentioned in Dcn. Dave’s homily this weekend, here’s more information about My House Men’s groups:
We are a group of men supporting each other as we heal from the ravages of all forms of sexual addiction. Pornography, visiting places of adult entertainment, sexual encounters outside our marriages, compulsive masturbation and many other deviant sexual behaviors.
We meet together in groups, and we use the 11 Observations which is an adapted version of the Ignatian 14 rules of spiritual discernment for use by those in addiction recovery. Complimentary to the Eleven Observations is the Twelve-Step Recovery program which gives us the shoe leather to walk the path to happy destiny.
We in My House Men’s Groups have found that a deeper and more complete dependence on God is the key to facing our addiction and that these Observations and Steps provide us with a compass to navigate the path to freedom.
We in My House Men’s Group have found God doing for us in overcoming our addiction what we never thought possible, and in gratitude we tread a spiritual path we had not known before.
Professional brain researchers have discovered that continued exposure to pornography and other forms of compulsive sexual stimulation causes structural changes in our brain’s neural transmitters. Brain scans of sex-addicts look very similar to those of crack cocaine addicts. As long as the addict continues to use sexual stimulation (their drug of choice) their brains continue to crave more and more sexual stimulation. But the good news is that our brains being to return to health when we stop feeding the craving. We in My House Men’s Group are experiencing our brains healing and as it heals the craving of our sex drug begins to evaporate and we find freedom once again.
For information on My House Men’s Group, call 810-599-3819 and leave a message. Email myhouselivingston@gmail.com or visit our website www.myhouselivingston.net
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias