Dangerous "Catholic" Thinking About The Unborn

Over at Progressive Conservative blog is a Canadian who identifies himself as “Progressive Conservative Albertan speaking up about things.” Unfortunately PC also self identifies as a Catholic and proposes to speak certain things about abortion and the rights of the unborn, things that are misleading and downright dangerous for the unborn.

So let me say right from the get go here:

I take serious issue with what PC has said, not merely because he has misrepresented the Catholic Church, but because his views threaten the unborn and sustain the current unjust discrimination in Canada towards innocent unborn children.

I am Catholic and make no apology for it. I am pro-life and make no apology for it. However, whether I am Catholic, pro-life, atheist, Protestant, Muslim, or Jew, I claim that the killing of innocent human beings is ALWAYS wrong! There is absolutely no justification for it whether I believe in God or not. It is always morally wrong and abhorrent and needs to be stopped TODAY.

As Vote Life, Canada! has said elsewhere,

Legalized abortion, like all state sponsored injustice, is founded on false premises and is opposed to truth, reason and natural law. It fosters, sustains and thrives in a climate of prejudice against the unborn child who is an unseen victim.

I first sought to appeal to PC to get better informed about his Catholic faith, of which he said, “I do hold my faith dear.” However, he insisted on maintaining that he has a right to make his own decisions in these matters, as do all other individuals. PC is correct, except for one thing: He claims to be a Catholic. I would have taken no special issue with PC’s comments had he not introduced his profession of faith as a Catholic.

Paul Martin claimed to be Catholic. Jean Chretien claimed to be Catholic. John Turner claimed to be Catholic. Joe Clark claimed to be Catholic. Pierre Elliott Trudeau claimed to be Catholic. All of them, pro-aborts. Result: 105,000 unborn lives yearly snuffed out in Canada. Coincidence? Not on your life!

To be a Catholic means something. That’s my point. It’s not optional. If you think it is, you are misinformed and it’s time you got informed.

Catholics are pro-life. They respect life. They respect the unborn and they believe that the most fundamental human right is the right to life. Ask the Pope. Examine 2000 years of Catholic teaching. Catholics (true Catholics) do not equivocate on these matters. They CANNOT equivocate on these and remain Catholic. To do so is a mortally [and objectively] dangerous matter, a matter of life or death for the soul of the Catholic who equivocates.

If Catholics choose not to take this seriously, they must accept the personal consequences of that decision, but they cannot expect the Church to endorse their obstinacy and heresy.

I hope that’s what I communicated to PC in my comment on his posting.

Others responded to PC’s posting as well. Smok Wawelski made a very good posting on the subject. His approach was different than mine, but he said many good things I would also like to have said.

Since starting this post I discovered that Suzanne at Big Blue Wave also answered PC.

As long as Canadians allow to go unchallenged the kind of prejudice and shallow thinking towards the unborn that appeared in PC’s post the unborn will still suffer and die as unseen victims in Canada’s worst holocaust.

Here’s what I had to say to PC.

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Progressive Conservative, my point is simply this:

Professing to be a Catholic means something. It means more than just your right to make your own decisions. You don’t have to be Catholic to claim that right. Anyone can claim exactly that. In fact being Catholic is not at all about YOU and what you think. It’s about being a disciple, a follower, of Jesus Christ. It’s all about your relationship with God, and the safeguarding of your soul, and pardon me for saying this, but the Church insists on the right to guide you in the process of keeping safe your soul for eternity.

You have clearly questioned this concept in the most basic manner by questioning in your post whether you even believe in an afterlife. Correct me if I’m wrong but you also said that it’s impossible to prove which faith is right [Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, etc] and therefore you implied that all faiths are equally correct and valid. In so doing you denied Church teaching. You also denied the Church’s teaching regarding abortion and same sex “marriage,” both of which the Church considers mortal (grave) sin. An individual who has committed mortal sin and dies in an unrepentant state is automatically condemned to hell. Again, this is according to the Catholic Church’s teaching and is clearly contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

If you attend Mass, you will no doubt recall the profession of faith, i.e. the Apostle’s Creed, which all Catholics make at that point. If you think about the words of the Creed and what you said in this posting you can easily see that there is a great conflict on a number of points.

Nobody is forced to be a Catholic. The Catholic Church doesn’t even insist on you being a Catholic. However, the Church does insist that if you identify yourself publicly as a Catholic, that you submit yourself humbly to Church teaching, as you would to Jesus Christ Himself. The Church further claims that if you publicly identify yourself as a Catholic but ignore, deny or misrepresent the teachings of the Church, that you stand in greater jeopardy of the judgment of God than one who lives as a non believer.

Making a profession of faith is a very serious matter. It requires great honesty and integrity in order to follow through on any profession of faith, whether it be Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, etc. I am not saying these faiths are all equally true and/or valid. I’m simply saying that a profession of faith is a very serious affair. The least that you can do for the good of your own soul is to make a concerted effort to discover what it means to be a Catholic before you publicly profess to be one.

Just because someone is baptized Catholic or is born into a Catholic family does not make them a Catholic. Again, that is not my opinion but Church teaching. It may make them a "cultural" catholic or a CINO (catholic in name only) but not a true Catholic. A true Catholic is not self-defined by the individual but rather by the Catholic Church herself.

If you cannot represent the Catholic faith responsibly and intelligently in a public setting such as a blog, you should be careful to avoid such a profession, or at the very least be open for instruction and correction. To plainly insist on your own private brand of Catholicism is irresponsible and dangerous to both your own soul and the souls of many others. Your blog posting could easily communicate to a visitor that a Catholic may choose whatever viewpoint he/she likes with respect to abortion; homosexuality; when human life begins; authority of the Sacred Scriptures; heaven and hell; etc. and still remain a true Catholic.

Such a message is completely untrue and misrepresentative of the Catholic faith and you will be held accountable in eternity for the consequences of this message. It may very well reinforce someone else’s unbelief or apostasy and keep them from living out an authentic Catholic life which is essential to enter into heaven. [Again, this is what your Catholic faith teaches.] It may also encourage them to consider further a grave sin such as abortion, the result of which could be the loss of their soul and others. Do you want to be responsible for such an outcome? If you don’t care enough for your own soul to pursue a responsible course in living out your Catholic life, then PLEASE consider the other person who might be listening to you or reading your words.

The Catholic faith is indeed a big tent, but not in the way that you are thinking, and true Roman Catholics are a far more homogeneous group than you also realize. The more you discover the Catholic faith the more you will understand this to be true.

Progressive Conservative, my offer still stands. Anytime you like you can email me at this address to discuss the topic further. I'll be glad to correspond.
ericATvotelifecanadaDOTca