In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Well, elections are almost upon us, and I’ve been getting a nonstop flood of requests to say something on the upcoming election. And, so, I shall.
Now, I need to preface this very cautiously and I need you to hear what I say to preface this. But, I know, in any case, I hear more things that I said that I never said. So, I don’t suppose this is going to be any different. (Monsignor laughing) But, in any case, I am going to do my best.
First of all, you will hear different things from different priests. Okay? And what makes the difference most of the time — well, I mean, Novus Ordo priests, God only knows what most of them are going to say, considering Cardinal Dolan and his recent photo op with Obama and stuff like that. So, you are likely to hear anything from certain priests. But even amongst traditional priests I find there will be some difference of opinion on this, and what I find is the reason behind this is that they are not taking into account that we are in an imperfect situation in a church which is in turmoil. We have a dysfunctional hierarchy and that makes all the difference in the world right now. You see, in an ideal world and an ideal church, the hierarchy would be directing the faithful in how to vote on things. They would say, This is a good traditional Catholic candidate, or whatever. You vote for them. If you don’t you are excommunicated. Real simple, okay? But we don’t have that. We almost don’t have a hierarchy. Although it’s there in principle, they are completely dysfunctional. A hierarchy is composed of the Pope at the top who commands the bishops, and bishops who are obedient to the Pope and command the priests and the faithful in what to do concerning faith and morals. The Pope isn’t commanding anybody. The bishops not only won’t listen to the Pope, but they would refuse if he did try to discipline them or to impose any direction on them.
So, you have to take this into consideration. What is supposed to be the backbone, and back up objectively the teaching and the orders of the church is gone. And, so, we are doing our best. Now, another thing I want to say is I’m going to give you reasons for things, some of you may object and, of course, you are free to — don’t email me. I get so darned much email. If it’s a one-liner, if you want a yes or a no back, email me. Okay? But, if you want a paragraph of explanation, I haven’t got that kind of time. I simply do not. So don’t write me anything, Oh, this, that or the other — okay?
Now, some of you may object to what I say. If you object, I’ll hear you out, but all I want to hear from you is what the flaw in my reasoning is. Okay? If you find a flaw in my reasoning, then, please tell me. But, if you come up to me with this, I feel, and you should and you shouldn’t, or whatever, then you’re just this big hot air balloon. I’ll just tell you to go away and leave me alone. So, if there is a flaw in my reasoning, you tell me about that. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear how you feel. Okay.
So, we have this problem where we have no functional hierarchy virtually at all, and we have this process now which would not exist if everything were working as it were. So, I am going to say first of all, voting is a civic duty. Okay? You will render unto God what is God’s, right? But we also have to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. And sometimes it’s also a moral duty, and there are very important things at stake as there certainly are in this election.
Like I said, different people will give you different opinions. Probably the very best voter guide I’ve seen is published by Catholic Answers in San Diego, which is a very conservative but still Novus Ordo organization, but they are okay on a lot of the issues, I have to say. Pius X has published their own version of it, but, like so many things that have to do with Pius X, their theology is very lacking in it, and so they give some wrong direction, in my opinion, on that.
Okay, so that pretty much being said, things are not perfect and we will have to make some kind of decision. Oh, yeah, the one last thing I wanted to say as a prelude to the other is that the moral import of our vote in California is somewhat lessened by the fact that — I mean, the only thing worse would be living in Hawaii — because sometimes the election has been decided before our polls even close here. So, it doesn’t matter if we vote for Mickey Mouse, in a sense. And, so, what I am going to talk about, like I say, I’m going to give you the ideal, what we are posed with here, the dilemma and what it is that Catholics should be doing. And if they are not doing it, it’s not my fault for not telling you, it’s the fault of the — because, I can only tell you. I’m not the Pope. I can’t get the bishops to tell everybody the way it should be.
All right. So, that being said, I know this is imperfect, but realistically speaking, there are two candidates who have a possibility of winning. There are only two. Now, you could say, Well, if more Catholics would be aware and vote for Ron Paul or somebody like that, it would be good. But, without a functioning hierarchy, that’s not going to happen. It can’t happen without a hierarchy. You see, there has to be somebody directing that kind of movement. Catholics are not independently going to vote for the best person, unless they have some moral direction from on high. And, so, here it is: there are two candidates who have a possibility of winning, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Now, much as I would like to say, Well, just vote your conscience and vote for a third party, unfortunately, this is a clear cut case where you must choose the lesser of two evils. And somebody said, I remember, to me, Oh, well, the lesser of two evils is still an evil. Well, that just shows me they don’t have any theology either, because that’s the nature of the lesser of two evils. The lesser of two evils is a moral dilemma where you have two choices, both of which are flawed, and you must choose the one that is less flawed. That’s what Catholic moral theology tells us. Okay?
So, the issues at stake that affect not only the way our country is run and this kind of thing, but what fate we are all going to suffer as a country. Number one is life. If BO is given a second term, he will be able to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will ensure the slaughter of millions of millions upon millions of innocent babies for the indefinite future. That’s simply the way it is.
Now, remember, why are we focusing on life? Well, the Democrat party is for all kinds of crazy things and bad things and evil things. No Catholic can vote Democrat. They are the party of death. And I don’t want to hear, Well, I’m Irish or something, and my grandparents always voted Democrat, this kind of thing. Right? That may be true. The Democrat Party, way back then, was something else. Just like the labor unions. Labor unions are mafia. Okay? Before, they had a purpose to keep people from being mistreated by employers. Now, they are simply organized crime. That sort of thing.
The Democrat Party may have, at one time,, been for the working man and this kind of thing. They are now the party of immorality, evil and death, period. I don’t think the Republicans are a whole lot better, on the other hand. You know, they are very, very imperfect. And people will say, Well, Mitt Romney, he said he’s far abortion in cases of rape and incest. Maybe. I think he’s lying, because his own cult that he belongs to does not believe in that. The Mormons do not believe in any exceptions at all. And, I think it’s only one of those things, it’s only speculation, but he is saying it just to get elected and try to please some of the people.
So, remember, realistically speaking, there are two people. You have to pick one. And, so, you pick the lesser of the evils. It’s straight forward and simple. I believe, whatever else you may say about Mr. Romney, that if he is elected, he will do his best to appoint justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade, and this kind of thing. So, there’s really not a whole lot more to be said about that.
Somebody said, Well, I just won’t vote. Well, like I said, all these things in California are somewhat mitigated because of our position, I mean the fact that our vote may not count as much. But, it may. And, in any case, you should do the morally correct thing with your vote. And that’s simply the fact of it. A vote for a third-party candidate, however good he might be, is a vote for Obama, it’s a vote for evil, a vote for the Democrat Party. You show me the flaw with that.
I don’t want to hear, like I said before, Well, if everybody voted for Joe Blow, the good candidate, then he’d be elected. But without the direction of a hierarchy, that isn’t going to happen, it can’t happen. So, that’s really the flaw with the thinking of Pius X and some of these other people who have put out voter guide directives, is that they are not considering the actual real problem.
So, my dear faithful, as I see it, that is the only direction I can give to you. Like I said, if I am wrong, show me the flaw in my reasoning. But one thing we have to do in any case, is pray. So I would expect people to show up sometime in that vigil the night before and the morning of the elections to beg Our Lord to liberate our country from this evil and to give us some right direction. That being said, in conclusion, I want to say, that there is a very real possibility that I personally believe is that we are being punished. Obviously because we’ve already killed millions upon millions of babies — we haven’t, Catholics — but, as a country by the vote and by making abortion legal in this country, millions upon millions of innocent babies have been killed. And as I said, we are not voting just something for our own conscience. We are voting for something with import for our country. Murder of the innocent is one of the sins that cries to heaven for vengeance. Our Lord has promised He will avenge the death of the innocent who are killed.
Now, if one or two are killed innocently, He’ll still avenge that. But when millions are killed because the laws of the country have made it right to do so, then, His wrath will descend upon that entire country. And, so, I’m not looking forward to that. But I’m at least not going to contribute to it, and I pray that you don’t either, and that at least those of you who can will show up here and beg Our Lord to avert His wrath from us for the sake of those who are faithful to Him.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.