Today, my father expressed the opinion that Jared Loughner, the Tucson shooter, ought to be sentenced and put to death. My dad is a 4th degree Knight of Columbus, an anti-abortion zealot, and as dogged a traditional Catholic as you could find, but the death penalty is the one area where he will staunchly stand apart from official teaching.Mary, Mother of the Church parish blog, La Crosse, WI
I attended a Mass last Sunday at which we sang Dan Schutte’s “You Are Near.” Technically the song is not kosher since the pope in 2007 commanded to all bishops that Catholics should not utter the name Yahweh in worship. Having looked into the matter my own conclusion is that someone at the Vatican has too much free time.
Sometimes, I have to admit, it is hard to keep track of what’s really essential about being Catholic.
1) Let's pray for the victims of the shooting and their families.
2) The Church teaches that the death penalty can be applied morally in limited circumstances.
3) Ah, my childhood parish of Guitar Mass and We'z Got Yahweh in D minor
4) Badger Catholics have also noticed some find "it hard to keep track of what's really essential about being Catholic."
God save me if I ever speak so poorly of my own father.
Note: It appears that this a parishioner and not the priest posting this, but it's unclear whether the priest approved the commentary. This is coming from the parish blog, not his personal blog.
7 comments:
This is on the blog:
Mary, Mother of the Church is an active, prayerful, celebrating, Catholic community located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA. The purpose of this blog is to chronicle and stimulate conversation about our life together as a parish family. Contributions and comments are welcome!
Note: This blog is not an official publication of Mary, Mother of the Church Parish. The views expressed are those of the person posting and do not reflect the official position of the parish leadership, diocesan leadership, or official Catholic Church teaching.
I know for a fact that Fr. Doug Robertson, the pastor, is not posting this.
Anon 1 & 2 thanks for the tips.
Anon 1 - It still seems a bit strange to me that someone would name their blog "Mary, Mother of the Church - A Roman Catholic parish family in La Crosse, Wisconsin" and then say that it is not the official parish blog. This type of commentary seems inappropriate for covering events in the parish as opposed to a personal blog covering personal opinions.
If anyone else is having trouble keeping track about what catholicism is about, there's many other churches for you out there. It's not rocket science.
Interesting - you can link to this 'unofficial' blog directly from the 'official' parish site. (Select 'Blog' from under 'News' at the parish page.) Totally misleading if you ask me. If the pastor knows about this, why no distance - as it doesn't really belong under parish 'news.'
You obviously don't understand the Church's stand on the death penalty. The Catechism states, "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person." This means if the situation is judged that the murderer is/would be a repeat offender, the justice system would be correct in administering the death penalty.
If you are confused about what the Church's positions are, just read the Catechism instead of writing junk.
Anon #3's comment is just confused. I wish I could rate comments for the reaction "Time for a drink."
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