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Culture

Notre Dame, Obama and the Catholic Brand PDF
by Helen Alvaré, J.D., Senior Fellow in Law   
alvare_h.jpgCulture of Life Senior Fellow in Law, Helen M. Alvaré, in Zenit on "How Honoring the President Could Weaken the Catholic Voice"
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04/09/2009
 
OF PRESIDENTS AND CULTURE WARS: FOCA AND AMERICA’S “NEW DAY” PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
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“THERE ARE MANY OF GOOD WILL WHO DO NOT SHARE MY VIEW ON THE ISSUE OF CHOICE.  ON THIS FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE, I WILL NOT YIELD AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD WILL NOT YIELD…  WHEN THE REAL WAR IS BEING FOUGHT ABROAD, THEY WOULD HAVE US FIGHT ‘CULTURE WARS’ HERE AT HOME.  BUT I AM ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED THAT CULTURE WARS ARE JUST SO 90S.  THEIR DAYS ARE GROWING DARK.  IT IS TIME TO TURN THE PAGE. WE WANT A NEW DAY HERE IN AMERICA.  WE’RE TIRED ABOUT ARGUING ABOUT THE SAME OLD STUFF… THE FIRST THING I’D DO AS PRESIDENT IS SIGN THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT.” 
 
(BARACK OBAMA, ADDRESS TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD, JULY 2007)

When the term “culture” is brought up people’s eyes glaze over.  The term is abstract and often provides a screen for pontificating on a subject of one’s private interest.  But there are few realities more universally relevant to human beings and more central to shaping people’s well-being than culture.
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01/29/2009
 
The Catholic Church, Pro-Abortion Politicians and the Problem of Scandal PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian_new.jpgWhoever shall scandalize (cause to sin) one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
(Matthew 18:6)

Several weeks ago I wrote a piece arguing that it’s time to reopen the question of whether obdurately pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be permitted to continue freely to receive Holy Communion.  I argued that a chief consideration in the question regards the issue of scandal.  I’d like to pursue this further.
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01/07/2009
 
Denying Pro-Abortion Politicians Holy Communion: Some Considerations PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, P.h.D, Senior Fellow in Ethics   

christian.jpg A North Carolina priest has brought to the forefront again the question of whether pro-choice Catholic politicians should be excluded from Holy Communion.  Rev. Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville told his parishioners that voting for a pro-abortion candidate “when a plausible pro-life alternative exists” constitutes wrongful cooperation in the evil of abortion.  Persons who do so, he said, ipso facto place themselves outside full communion with the Catholic Church and therefore “should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation”.  His final clause was familiar because it was adapted from 1 Cor 11: 27-29 where St. Paul writes: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (RSV).
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12/03/2008
 
THE 2008 ELECTIONS AND THE CULTURE OF LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES: Statement of William E. May PDF
by William E. May, Ph.D, Senior Fellow   
william_e_may.jpgThere have been and will for some time continue to be, here in Washington and all over the country, vastly different responses to the election of Barack Obama to the office of the President of the United States.  For America, the celebration over the election of our first African-American executive marks a long awaited hour in our nation’s history.  Apart from this, I wish I could join in because a person’s skin color is irrelevant to his or her ability to serve as our president. But with others I am experiencing something more akin to mourning than celebration. Obama made his way to the presidency in part by hewing closely to the agenda of our nation’s most extreme abortion advocates. Working closely with them, he refused to ban the killing of infants “born-alive” after “botched” abortions. He raised funds on promises to preserve the legality of partial-birth homicide, and he promised if elected to sign a law wiping out virtually every small constraint on abortion that the pro-life community has managed to pass democratically for the last 35 years. Already, he is promising to undo via quick executive orders all that prior presidents have done to protect human lives during their embryonic stage.
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11/12/2008
 
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