Andrew is right.

We must be fearless and speak out against the greatest sin in the world today.

Educate, educate, educate those who are misinformed or mislead.

Your important vote can save innocent lives.

Here is a list of PRO-LIFE candidates endorsed by the IL. Fed. for Right to Life: http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/pac/2012endorsements.pdf

Wonder why the Catholic Church doesn’t work to ban divorce?

That is also against church teaching yet no one seems too worked up abotu it.

dave,

Not sure whether you are simply throwing talking-point darts at your perceived adversaries, or actually making a good-faith argument of a moral equivalency between abortion and the death penalty (Bernadin’s now-disavowed moral-equivalency “seamless garment”).

Assuming your good faith, I would point out that the Catholic Church has treated both in a way that is easily accessible to anyone in their Catechism of the Catholic Church, specifically in the article concerning the fifth commandment.

Regarding capital punishment (sections 2266-2267, the Church by no means provides full-throated support, but to quote, “…the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”

Regarding abortion, you surely know, whether you declare yourself Catholic or not, no such qualification exists (2270-2275): “Since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion… abortion is gravely contrary to the moral law.”

Regarding your “safety net”, you are, of course, aware that the federal government’s 83+ programs that are “explicitly intended for people with low or limited income” (Congressional Research Service) have increased expenditures by one-third, to an annual $1,029,000,000,000 (yes, $1.029 trillion).

This doesn’t account for state expenditures.

In any case, what do you propose your local state representative can do about that, whether he or she believes the numbers too low or too high? Your interjecting this sounds like just throwing talking-point darts.

**what do you propose your local state representative can do about that, whether he or she believes the numbers too low or too high?**

Ummm… the fact that you don’t think that local state reps have anything to do with state programs is really confusing to me, and makes it impossible to have a conversation with you about safety net programs and the role of state governments. It is, frankly, laughable that you don’t think that state reps don’t have a role in addressing safety net programs.

Further… I would argue that state reps have a significantly larger role in relation to safety net programs than they do on abortion.

As for the death penalty, it appears that you are being intentionally vague in what the Catholic Church says about the death penalty. I would like to hear how the death penalty is justified, in relation to what the Catechism says, as an alternative to life without parole. You will really have to explain how life without parole is not “effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”

Further… JP2 was pretty explicit in his opposition to the death penalty, and Benedict has called for the abolition of the death penalty as well.

Current use of the death penalty, both in the US and around the world, pretty explicitly goes against what the Catechism says on the death penalty.