Just before last year's election,
America's most powerful political party
declared its unqualified opposition to any and all Catholics who are faithful to the
teachings of their Church:
"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right." |
Countless American bishops
forcefully
condemned
the party's stance.
But not one
major Catholic Democrat
risked the displeasure of his party
by staying faithful to the Church.
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Catholic author David Carlin remembers a happier time before World War II when the pro-family, pro-life Democratic Party so strongly identified itself with Catholic social teachings that the Catholic Faith and the Democratic Party seemed almost synonymous.
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For four decades, Carlin faithfully served this Catholic Faith into which he was born and the Democratic party he loved --- including twelve years as a state senator and once as the Democratic candidate for Congress.
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Then, beginning in the late Sixties, he watched helplessly as chaos overtook his Party, and its leaders abandoned their blue-collar, pro-life, and religious constituencies and took up with NOW, Hollywood, and the abortion lobby.
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Four years ago, the anguish caused by his party's new anti-Catholic policies led Carlin carefully to study the teachings of the Catholic Church . . .
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. . . in order to determine which policies you and I as Catholics are bound in conscience to support, and which we cannot abide if we are to remain Catholic.
Armed with that clear knowledge of Church teachings, and proceeding with the patience and clear-sightedness of a lifelong Catholic knowing he may soon be called to account by God, Carlin then evaluated the many policies of his Party that trouble him (policies that some would now have the Republican Party embrace, too). |
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The result is Can a Catholic Be a Democrat?, the most lucid, informative, even-handed Catholic evaluation of the Democratic Party available today.
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With great sorrow, Carlin concludes in this book that
on issues concerned with human life, sex, faith, morality, suffering --- and the public policies that
stem from them --- his once beloved Democratic Party has become the enemy of the Catholic Faith.
You know, neither you nor I nor David Carlin can control the anti-Catholic winds blowing through the major political parties today.
But with Carlin's help, we can learn what, as Catholics, we can do --- nay, must do --- if we are to stay engaged in politics and faithful to God and His Church. |
Can a Catholic Be a Democrat? will:
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Clarify your understanding of the issues in national elections, and help you see just what is (and is not) at stake;
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Show you which political positions you as a Catholic can live with, and which require you finally to take a stand;
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Help you explain even non-negotiable Catholic positions to your friends, relatives, and fellow party members;
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Equip you to make your own party less hostile to your Catholic Faith;
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And, as you vote, ensure that the choices you make there will leave you able finally to say, "I was my Party's good servant, but God's first."
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