Sunday, July 12, 2009
THE PONTIFF AND THE PRESIDENT IN CONFERENCE.........
Last week following the First Family's visit to Russia and President Obama's attendance at the G-8 Summit in Italy, The President, First Lady and their daughters visited the Vatican where President Obama conferred with Pope Benedict XVI. The Pontiff (a title for the Pope meaning bridge-builder) and the President met for 30 minutes and the topics they discussed included the Interfaith Dialogue; a shared desire for Mioddle East Peace; the President's Outreach to Muslims; and a mutual desire to fight Militarism and Extremism; a shared interest in Overhauling Immigration Rules and Practices. Pope Benedict also discussed the Catholic teaching on Abortion and Stem Cell Research, two issues where the Church and the current American Administration are in serious disagreement. Whereas Pope Benedict has just published a new Encyclical on the human responsibility for Charity exercised in Truth, which he was giving to other world leaders visiting him recently, the Pope instead gave President Obama a copy of the Vatican document reiterating the Catholic Church's opposition to Abortion, human embryo Stem Cell Resarch and In-Vitro Fertilization. It occurs to me that the meeting between Pope Benedict and President Obama sets an example for all of us Catholic-Christians. The Pope did not avoid conferring with the President, despite the serious difference of opinion between them over the acceptibility of Abortion and Stem Cell research. Pope Benedict's willigness to meet with President Obama as one head of state to another and to discuss and dialogue on a myriad of critical issues, while not ignoring to include the Catholic teaching on Abortion and Stem Cell research struck a reasonable and appropriate balance. For me this hearkens back to the University of Notre Dame and President Obama's Commencement Address two months ago. It underscores as I said then that the wiser, more constructive way for Bishop D'Arcy, Ambassador Glendon, and others to have responded would have been to attend and do as the Pope did last week, reiterate the Catholic teaching where we disagree with the President. This is not a political calculation, but our moral obligation as well as common sense. Let us continue the constructive dialogue while at the same time fully representing what we believe as Catholic-Christian Disciples of Jesus the Lord.........Fr. Troy
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4 comments:
The example the Pope was trying to set, is not the same as Notre Dame. First of all, Obama was given an award from Notre Dame and secondly, there was no dialogue regarding abortion between the Catholics and Obama. Obama gave his speech and that's it. With the meeting of the Pope and the current president, there was dialogue & the Pope was able to share his concerns with Obama, whereas the audience was not able to do that at Notre Dame. Furthermore, in your other blog regarding this issue, I have to disagree with inviting a speaker who is for abortion to speak at a Catholic University. Abortion supercedes all other issues as being intrinsically evil unlike that of a war-which Catholics can disagree on. As a leader in our Catholic Church my last statement is something that I hope you reflect on more. May God bless you.
IF INDEED ABORTION SUPERSEDES ALL ISSUES AS BEING INTRINSICALLY EVIL AND WAR IS OPEN TO SELF DECISION AND NOT, WHY HAVE POPES FROM JOHN XXIII, PAUL VI, AND JOHN PAUL II, PLACED WAR IN THAT LIGHT ? POPE PAUL VI'S 1965 DECLARATION IN NEW YORK BEING CLEAR AND DIRECT,"NO MORE WAR !".
Dear Fr. Powers, thank you so kindly for responding to my comment. In response to your statement regarding the above popes mentioned, I think it's important to note the following to be true: "A pope’s private theological opinions are not infallible, only what he solemnly defines is considered to be infallible teaching." You can find this statement under "Some Clarifications" at this link:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Papal_Infallibility.asp
Father, as a Catholic, I understand that the Church also has definitions of what a just war is and that is something that I have an obligation to reflect on.
Since I think my thoughts are better explained by our dear Mother Teresa. I leave you with this link to her thoughts on abortion & peace. Thank you again for taking time to respond to me. I really appreciate it, since I know how busy priests are. May God bless you and Mother Mary protect you always.
http://www.gargaro.com/mother_teresa/quotes.html
Forgive me Father, although the Mother Teresa link I provided you is the main point of what I wanted to say to you. I gave you a mediocre link of Mother Teresa's speech in Washington D.C.
Here is the complete speech from a credible Catholic source-just to make sure everything is in context. God bless,
http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/mtspeech.html
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