A Classic by Chaput: Attn. CINOP - # 1 of 4

A Classic by Chaput: Attn. CINOP - # 1 of 4
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Thursday, March 18, 2010

The following are excerpts of a talk given by Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Denver Diocese to the Cleveland Right to Life Dinner on Tuesday, March 9, 2010. Chaput was introduced by Hugh Hewitt. Hugh is on Talk Radio 870 AM daily from Monday to Friday, 3-6 P.M. "Human Dignity - The Road Ahead - The Future of the Pro-Life Movement"

Archbishop Charles Chaput is to pro-life America what Bishop Fulton Sheen was over all to America. Chaput’s thoughts on life are the past, the present and future for any Catholic American political leader in America.

I have invited the California Democratic Catholic-label Congressional politicians to listen: Joe Baca, Xavier Becerra, Dennis Cardoza, Jim Costa, George Miller, Grace Napolitano, Nancy Pelosi, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Mike Thompson and Diane Watson. The aforementioned politicians are going to make life and death decisions when they vote for Obama Care this week or any other week. A vote YES is a death decision.

“All law in some sense teaches and informs us, while also regulating our behavior. The same applies to our public policies, including the ones that govern our scientific research. There is no such thing as morally neutral legislation or morally neutral public policy. Every law is the public expression of what somebody thinks we “ought” to do. The question that matters is this: Which moral convictions of which somebodies are going to shape our county’s political and cultural future – including the way we do our science?”

“If you and I as citizens don’t do the shaping, then somebody else will. That’s the nature of democracy. A healthy democracy depends on people of conviction working hard to advance their ideas in the public square – respectfully and peacefully, but vigorously and without apologies. Politics always involves the exercise of power in the pursuit of somebody’s idea of the common good. And politics always and naturally involves the imposition of somebody’s values on the public at large. So if a citizen fails to bring his moral beliefs into our country’s political conversation – if he fails to work for them publicly and energetically – then the only thing he ensures is the defeat of his own beliefs.”

“We also need to remember that most people – not everyone, of course, but most of us – root our moral convictions in our religious beliefs. What we believe about God shapes what we think about the nature of men and women, good human relationships, and our idea of a just society. This has very practical consequences, including the political kind. As a result, the idea of the “separation of Church and state” should force us to wall off our religious beliefs from guiding our political behavior makes no sense at all, even superficially. If we don’t remain true in our public actions to what we claim to believe in our personal lives, then we only deceive ourselves because God isn’t fooled. He sees who and what we really are...”to be cont’d
George H. Kubeck –