PrintWhy Catholics Will Choose President Romney
Because they can.
Sixty million Americans are Catholic. One in every four American voters is Catholic. This election is about jobs, jobs, jobs -- and about that ubiquitous Catholic "swing" vote in 10 key states where electoral votes will be determined by the Catholic margin: Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, the new toss-up states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and the key states of Florida and Ohio.
With 134 Catholic "swing state" electoral votes on the line, Catholics are about to head to polls and choose the next president of the United States:
THE ECONOMY: 2% Economy vs. 4% Economy
Catholics know that this is the worst economic recovery in 70 years -- 23 million of our fellow Americans are unemployed, 49 million are on food stamps, and every pope since Leo XIII (1878) has denounced Socialism because it negates man's relationship to God. Both Presidents Kennedy and Reagan inherited 2% economies and achieved historic turnarounds (6.0% growth in 1962, 7.2% in 1984) with pro-growth policies. So will Mitt Romney, because 4% growth is the goal, not a talking point.
JOBS: 8% Unemployed vs. 5% Unemployed
If anyone really wants to know what happened to American jobs, just ask the CEOs of Apple, General Electric, and Boeing. ObamaCare, taxes, and regulations top their list, but they won't say that research and development were exported overseas along with jobs, which means future quality jobs. Mitt Romney's 12 million new private-sector jobs will jump-start growth and reduce unemployment to 5%.
THE NEW CIVIL WAR: $16-Trillion Debt & the Fiscal Cliff
The New Civil War is fiscal. Spending is not the cure for debt; spending is the cause of debt. President Obama added $6 trillion in debt to the accelerating $16-trillion debt teetering on Obama's own fiscal cliff. Obama's new taxes will kill 6 million jobs, spike 11% unemployment, and send America into a depression. The cure is growth, private-sector jobs, revenues, and cutting government spending.
NATIONAL SECURITY: American Exceptionalism
What makes America exceptional is her founding idea that all human beings are created equal, born with Creator-based unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The essence of American exceptionalism is the exercise of individual freedom: religious expression, political expression, creative expression, free assembly, free association, and entrepreneurship, as well as artistic expression, scientific exploration, and technological innovation. What makes America "the greatest nation on earth," however, is the advancement of the human being in history. Time and again, America has liberated millions of defenseless human beings longing to be free and, through unparalleled military strength, exported peace, prosperity, and dignity to all human beings, prompting both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who both survived Nazism and Communism, to proclaim, "God bless America!"
THE "DOLLAR BUBBLE": "Counterfeit" U.S. Dollars
The word "bubble" is best used as an adjective for chewing gum, not as a noun for the "Dollar Bubble." The Federal Reserve's reckless attempt to print America's way out of $16-trillion debt torpedoed the U.S. dollar and flooded the monetary system with devalued "counterfeit" dollars. "Counterfeit" dollars do not erase debt; they distort the price of oil, gold, housing, commodities, and exports. The turnaround begins with auditing the Federal Reserve and stabilizing the U.S. dollar.
"RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE"
Catholics form conscience according to reason and revelation, guided through Church Teaching, and defend "Right of Conscience" with their lives. Founding Father James Madison put it this way: "Conscience is the most sacred of all property." Saints Paul the Apostle, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas pre-empted Madison, but credit goes to Immanuel Kant, who defined conscience as"the moral law within us." In political terms, "conscience" is the basis of individual free will, and therefore the basis of freedom itself. Catholics who argue, "You can't tell me what to do with my body!" are pleading for compassion and relief from loss of dignity.
OBAMACARE: "Infringements on Religious Freedom"
Vice President Joseph R. Biden: report to Cardinal Dolan's office! With gratitude to Bishop John Carroll, who founded Georgetown University in 1789 on religious freedom, the American Catholic Church is known as "The Free Church." America's "Free Catholic Church" differs from the European Catholic Church in that Americans are "free" to exercise their faith without state infringement. On October 12, the U.S. Catholic Bishops publicly rebuked Biden's "Inaccurate Statement of Fact" in the vice presidential debate regarding the HHS mandate, which, in fact, does require Georgetown Hospital, Mercy Hospital, or any hospital to provide its employees with health coverage, which must include sterilization, contraception, and abortificants, all of which are "infringements on Religious Freedom."
"LIFE"
American Catholics respect political beliefs, right of conscience, and free will. Moral truth, however, is absolute. "Life" is sacred, and respect for the sanctity of life confirms the moral order that originates in human nature itself. Catholics who claim that their "right to choose" abortion supersedes the natural rights of the innocent child waiting to be born know that "life begins at conception." On the most basic social level, killing the weak and defenseless of any age or state of physical or intellectual perfection deprives society itself of its own innate compassion and of true social justice.
"DIGNITY": Natural Law & Social Justice
"Social Justice" originates in the writings of Italian Jesuit Luigi Taparelli (1848), who articulated the idea that free will is not the sole condition of the dignity of man. Rather, man's social existence (natural dependence) carries moral dimensions in natural law. One of Taparelli's students, who became Pope Leo XIII in 1878, embraced "Social Justice" that originates in free will and the natural moral order and rejected the Marxist (1867) theory of godless materialism that negates the relationship between God and man. Leo also inspired American exceptionalism through Saints Katharine Drexel and Mother Francesca Cabrini, who served America's poorest and most oppressed for the greater glory of God, one soul at a time.
MARRIAGE
"Marriage" predates nation-states and requires no adjective. Marriage originates in Natural Law, as the foundation all common law, moral teaching, and social mores. In Catholic tradition, marriage is a sacrament instituted by Christ to give grace, defined as the family-based permanent union of one man and one woman for the purpose of protecting and nurturing children.
FAMILY
"Family" also predates nation states. Family provides spiritual, emotional, and physical protection for all its members. Not only is "family" the most efficient socioeconomic unit in the history of man, but it is the cornerstone for the entire society of human beings. Societies that embrace marriage and family also respect life and dignity for all human beings.
Hope is a theological virtue, not a campaign slogan. Catholics know that the "Theological Virtues" of faith, hope, and charity originate in the 1st-century writings of Saint Paul the Apostle, not in Chicago, Illinois. "Change" is yet another buzzword for state Socialism, in which the secular State contravenes the relationship between man and God, renders hopelessness, and dictates economic redistribution.
TWO CATHOLIC MARYS
"Divide & Conquer" seeks to divide women over birth control, but no form of political treachery can conquer women, because women are the vessels of life. The beauty of the Catholic tradition is that Catholics venerate two Marys as saints, irrespective of sin: Blessed Mother Mary for her perpetual love of Christ, and Saint Mary Magdalene, who is forgiven for having suffered the ignominy of men who abused her dignity and sought to stone her to death. Whom would "Mary" choose?
FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD: Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
On November 6, the free people of America who championed religious freedom for all Americans will exercise their right to reclaim the American Dream for the next generation.
They are also challenged to rediscover the true meaning of American exceptionalism -- not only for our fellow Americans, or for continued American military strength to defend American interests and values across the globe, but for the entire society of human beings throughout the world who hunger for freedom, dignity, compassion, justice, and truth.
More than any other time in history, Catholics are called upon to bless this great nation with their hallmark prayer -- "Hail Mary!" -- like none you have ever seen before, and this "Ave Maria!" is going to sail across the heartland of America, for the greater glory of God, right into the hands of Mitt Romney.
Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, may God bless America.
