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Cardinal James Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, delivered a lecture on Thursday saying that the future under President-elect Obama will echo Jesus' agony in Gethsemane. Criticizing Obama as "aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic," he went on to speak about a decline in respect for human life and the need for Catholics to return to the values of marriage and human dignity.
Delivered at the Catholic University of America, the cardinal's lecture was titled "Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul," the student university paper The Tower reports. Hosted by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, his words focused upon Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, whose fortieth anniversary is marked this year.
Commenting on the results of the recent presidential election, Cardinal Stafford said on Election Day "America suffered a cultural earthquake." The cardinal argued that President-elect Obama had campaigned on an "extremist anti-life platform" and predicted that the near future would be a time of trial.
"If 1968 was the year of America's 'suicide attempt,' 2008 is the year of America's exhaustion," he said, contrasting the year of Humane Vitae's promulgation with this election year.
"For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden," Cardinal Stafford told his audience. Catholics who weep the "hot, angry tears of betrayal" should try to identify with Jesus, who during his agony in the garden was "sick because of love."
The cardinal attributed America's decline to the Supreme Court's decisions such as the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which imposed permissive abortion laws nationwide.
"Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic," Cardinal Stafford commented, according to The Tower.
His theological remarks centered upon man's relationship with God and man's place in society.
"Man is a sacred element of secular life," he said, arguing that therefore "man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person's life cannot ultimately be controlled by government."
Cardinal Stafford also touched on the state of the family, saying that the truest reflection of the relationship between the believer and God is the relationship between husband and wife, and that contraceptive use does not fit within that relationship.
Source: CNA
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Cardinal Stafford's comments doesn't sound too much different from comments made by Osama Bin Laden's assistant calling Obama a House Negro. Stafford's views reflects why I left the Catholic Church years ago and is the latest of a series of attacks by Catholic leaders against the first Black president. A white priest in South Carolina said it was a mortal sin to vote for Obama and another white priest in California verbally attacked a church member from the pulpit for parking her car plastered with Obama stickers in front of the Church. Stafford is a close aide to the Pope and his comments surely must reflect the perspective of the Vatican. At a time of growing animosity between religious, racial and cultural groups in the United States, shouldn't Stafford and other Catholic leaders congratulate Obama and the country for electing the nation's first Black president and set an example by sending warm wishes to the new president and urging Americans of different races, religions and backgrounds to give Obama a chance to resolve the serious problems facing the nation?
harryo
I reread the Cardinal's remarks and didn't find anything referring to Obama as being black and therefore shouldn't have been elected president. Forget the color of his skin. He is pro-abortion and in fact voted for infanticide when a Senator in Illinois. We have already killed 48,000,000 children in this country since Roe V Wade. It seems reasonable that the Catholic Church or someone should stand up for all our children that we have brutally murdered. What kind of society do you really want to live in. If you don't believe there is a God, then it isn't a big deal. If you do believe in God, then according to history (the old Testament) we are in trouble.
Where was the outrage during the sex abuse of young children? Where was the outrage while pedophile priests were (and probably still are) being protected to continue to destroy the lives of tens of thousands of innocent children? Where is the outrage that Cardinal Law was rewarded with a top position in Rome after years of allowing and covering up the rape of innocent children?
Cardinal Stafford, you and your associates should be wearing sackcloth and ashes for eternity. You should have fought for the living child with the same zeal that you fight for the unborn. Shame on all of you! SHAME! Your selfrighteous blather offends me.
Ah, I see...Disgusted Catholic, you are striving for moral equivalency. What you are saying is, since the Catholic Church has had bad priests we should kill lots of babies!!
Nice logic, hypocrite.
On the contrary, Anonymous, you and your ilk are the hypocrites and the masters of spin. No where did I say that I am pro-abortion. I am NOT pro-abortion. You wish that I was to in order to justiy your insult.
I am offended by those who use abortion as a smoke screen to cover their own egregious sins against humanity. They cannot have it both ways. In Jesus words, "Whoever hurts these lttle ones should hang a millstone around their neck and be cast into the sea."
You can't choose your favorite sin and claim the other sin doesn't matter, that would make you the HYPOCRITE.
I am from the Boston Archdiocese. We were devastated by the sex abuse, child rape scandal and we still suffer the pain.
Amen, What about those little boys who had to sufferer in the hands of men they trusted, men their parents trusted in the name of Mary, or Jesus, what a shame and disgrace to the body of Christ, all I know is the devil is a LIAR!
Father God in the Name of Jesus I pray for peace and Love for this nation.
2Chron 7-14
May God Bless our Country and our New President Elect.