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This letter was written by Henry Karlson at Vox Nova. I think it’s a good letter, suitably courteous and diplomatic, for making “first contact” with the president-elect. Please consider signing it yourself and posting it on your own blog if you have one. You can request that they add your name by leaving a comment at their post. Thanks! Most importantly, though: don’t forget to keep Obama in your prayers!
Thanks also to Natalie of Laughter and Humility, who first told me about this letter. The text is below, along with my own signature.
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President-elect Barack Obama,
As American Catholics, we, the undersigned, would like to reiterate the congratulations given to you by Pope Benedict XVI. We will be praying for you as you undertake the office of President of the United States.
Wishing you much good will, we hope we will be able to work with you, your administration, and our fellow citizens to move beyond the gridlock which has often harmed our great nation in recent years. Too often, partisan politics has hampered our response to disaster and misfortune. As a result of this, many Americans have become resentful, blaming others for what happens instead of realizing our own responsibilities. We face serious problems as a people, and if we hope to overcome the crises we face in today’s world, we should make a serious effort to set aside the bitterness in our hearts, to listen to one another, and to work with one another.
One of the praiseworthy elements of your campaign has been the call to end such partisanship. You have stated a desire to engage others in dialogue. With you, we believe that real achievement comes not through the defamation of one’s opponents, nor by amassing power and using it merely as a tool for one’s own individual will. We also believe dialogue is essential. We too wish to appeal to the better nature of the nation. We want to encourage people to work together for the common good. Such action can and will engender trust. It may change the hearts of many, and it might alter the path of our nation, shifting to a road leading to a better America. We hope this theme of your campaign is realized in the years ahead.
One of the critical issues which currently divides our nation is abortion. As you have said, no one is for abortion, and you would agree to limit late-term abortions as long as any bill which comes your way allows for exceptions to those limits, such as when the health of the mother is in jeopardy. You have also said you would like to work on those social issues which cause women to feel as if they have a need for an abortion, so as to reduce the actual number of abortions being performed in the United States.
Indeed, you said in your third presidential debate, “But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, ‘We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby.’”
As men and women who oppose abortion and embrace a pro-life ethic, we want to commend your willingness to engage us in dialogue, and we ask that you live up to your promise, and engage us on this issue.
There is much we can do together. There is much that we can do to help women who find themselves in difficult situations so they will not see abortion as their only option. There is much which we can do to help eliminate those unwanted pregnancies which lead to abortion.
One of your campaign promises is of grave concern to many pro-life citizens. On January 22, 2008, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when speaking of the current right of women in America to have abortions, you said, “And I will continue to defend this right by passing the Freedom of Choice Act as president.”
The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) might well undermine your engagement of pro-life Americans on the question of abortion. It might hamper any effort on your part to work with us to limit late-term abortions. We believe FOCA does more than allow for choice. It may force the choice of a woman upon others, and make them morally complicit in such choice. One concern is that it would force doctors and hospitals which would otherwise choose not to perform abortions to do so, even if it went against their sacred beliefs. Such a law would undermine choice, and might begin the process by which abortion is enforced as a preferred option, instead of being one possible choice for a doctor to practice.
It is because of such concern we write. We urge you to engage us, and to dialogue with us, and to do so before you consider signing this legislation. Let us reason together and search out the implications of FOCA. Let us carefully review it and search for contradictions of those positions which we hold in common.
If FOCA can be postponed for the present, and serious dialogue begun with us, as well as with those who disagree with us, you will demonstrate that your administration will indeed be one that rises above partisanship, and will be one of change. This might well be the first step toward resolving an issue which tears at the fabric of our churches, our political process, our families, our very society, and that causes so much hardship and heartache in pregnant women.
Likewise, you have also recently stated you might over-ride some of President G.W. Bush’s executive orders. This is also a concern to us. We believe doing so without having a dialogue with the American people would undermine the political environment you would like to establish. Among those issues which concern us are those which would use taxpayer money to support actions we find to be morally questionable, such as embryonic stem cell research, or to fund international organizations that would counsel women to have an abortion (this would make abortion to be more than a mere choice, but an encouraged activity).
Consider, sir, your general promise to the American people and set aside particular promises to a part of your constituency. This would indicate that you plan to reject politics as usual. This would indeed be a change we need.
Sincerely,
Heather Barrett
[Updated because I accidentally published this before I was finished with it. I probably shouldn't blog so late at night!]
Cardinal Stafford pulled no punches in talking about President-Elect Obama, his extremism on abortion, and what it all means for America and for Catholics. I found this article via Fr. Z. This is an excerpt, with my emphases:
Cardinal at CUA: Obama is ‘Aggressive, Disruptive and Apocalyptic’
Posted By Elizabeth Grden On November 14, 2008 @ 7:58 am
His Eminence James Francis Cardinal Stafford criticized President-elect Barack Obama as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,“ and said he campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform,” Thursday night in Keane Auditorium during his lecture “Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul.“
“Because man is a sacred element of secular life,” Stafford remarked, “man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person’s life cannot ultimately be controlled by government.”
“For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Stafford said, comparing America’s future with Obama as president to Jesus’ agony in the garden. “On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.”
Cardinal Stafford said Catholics must deal with the “hot, angry tears of betrayal” by beginning a new sentiment where one is “with Jesus, sick because of love.”
The lecture, hosted by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, pertained to Humanae Vitae, a papal encyclical written by Pope Paul VI in 1968 and celebrating its 40 anniversary this year.
The article is… meh. Much more informative is the actual audio from that section of Cardinal Stafford’s speech, although I don’t think it gives the full picture, either. Here are some excerpts from that audio, transcribed by me:
Under all of that grace and charm [of Obama], there is a tautness of will, a clenched jaw, a constant–a state of constant alertness to detect and resist any external influence which might threaten his independence. A state of alertness? Yes, that is putting it mildly. [A section I can't make out clearly, but something about Obama carrying out "operations against the enemy city."]
Here, the cardinal turns to Obama’s July 2007 address to Planned Parenthood: transforming America, signing FOCA, Roe v. Wade, not wanting his daughters to be “punished with pregnancy,” and his refusal to yield on the issue of abortion. Then he continues:
[Obama's] rhetoric is post-modernist and marks an agenda and ambition that are aggressive, disruptive, and apocalyptic. Catholics weep over these words. We weep over the violence concealed behind the rhetoric of our young president-to-be. What should we do with our hot, angry tears of betrayal? First: our tears are agonistic. We must acknowledge that. For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden.
First: Contrary to what the article-writer would have us believe, the cardinal is not making a personal attack on Obama himself, but rather responding to Obama’s appearance, his rhetoric, his statements, and the sort of agenda suggested by them. He is not judging the man’s soul, but only externals. As I said yesterday, there is a difference. We absolutely can and must think critically about things like appearance, rhetoric, statements, and agenda; that doesn’t mean we hate or want to hurt the person underneath it all.
Second: I think that Obama’s agenda, as it has been presented to date, does look to be aggressive, disruptive, and, yes, even apocalyptic. Aggressive and disruptive because it threatens to destroy existing laws restricting abortion, as well as the states’ sovereignty, the states’ rights to enact such restrictions. It also threatens the rights of citizens to not have any part in aborting children. I think especially of Catholic and other religious medical practitioners who refuse to perform abortions. I think of all citizens who don’t want to fund abortion. Obama’s agenda seems like it may submit freedom of religion to freedom of abortion. I don’t think it’s going too far to say that sounds pretty apocalyptic. Religious freedom has been held precious in this country since its foundation, and suddenly, we’re going to have a president who possibly wants to trash it in favor of a practice most citizens find intrinsically evil, a practice we cannot in good conscience tolerate? Right, nothing horrible could come out of that situation! A little persecution here and there, what could it harm?
Third: Cardinal Stafford senses something warlike about Obama, where abortion is concerned. Obama seems to be in a guarded state of “wartime consciousness,” to borrow a phrase from Peter Kreeft. And if Obama is in wartime consciousness over abortion, then we Catholics had very well better be too! This is how Kreeft describes the wartime consciousness we must have:
… a very practical alertness and attention and also a very practical sense of perspective and sense of values. Little things no longer loom so large, and large things (life and death) no longer seem so little and far away. No one complains about lumpy beds on a battlefield or bleats about their “sexual needs” or worries about their stock options. (How to Win the Culture War, InterVarsity Press, 2002, p. 22)
In other words, we need to be alert, get our priorities straight, and generally get serious!
Now, I ask you, what better place for us to do all that than the Garden of Gethsemane? I think that most practicing Catholics already “know that garden” pretty well. I don’t think it will be particularly new territory for us. But I do think it is going to become much more central and constant in our lives in the near future.
Fourth: I think it very odd that the cardinal suggests that Catholics are being betrayed by Obama. We are not being betrayed by Obama. We’ve known since long before 4 November that Obama holds an extreme stance on abortion. Maybe I’m too cynical, but I really believe that all Catholics have known that all along, and that some of them have simply chosen to disregard it. And that’s the betrayal.
Our betrayal comes from our fellow Catholics, or so-called Catholics. And it’s not just from people like Biden, Pelosi, the Kennedys, Kerry, Giuliani, et al. There’s been plenty of betrayal among the ranks of the clergy, as well as among the normal people in the pews. The election is just one latest indicator of that, because it’s not just a recent betrayal. It’s been building up for a long time–40 years now, if we look to the Humanae Vitae cataclysm as the starting point.
That’s the betrayal. It’s massive and pervasive. And Catholics are starting to realize that we’ve suffered too much betrayal, for too long, and amidst too much silence from the hierarchy. That is the cause of our agony!
It’s not that Catholics are going to start arriving at the the Garden… it’s that we’re going to wake up and cast off our sleep. And the question then is going to be: What do we do now? What will we make of this experience? Are we just going to roll over and go back to sleep? Are we going to cower and whimper like lost puppies? Or are we going to use it to collect ourselves and prepare ourselves to possibly confront a very serious, determined, and powerful opponent over the single most important issue there is in our age? And, perhaps more importantly, are we going to confront the traitors in our midst? What are they going to do–are they going to be with us or not? I think it may be a little of both: some will draw closer to us, while others will flee.
Here’s the cold, hard fact: unless Obama changes his stance on abortion, faithful Catholics are going to be in quite a difficult situation… strained relationships with our nation’s leader… even more strained relationships with some of our brethren. And we’ll be very lucky if “strained relationships” doesn’t turn out to be a gross understatement.
As always, there is so much uncertainty. I would love to be proven wrong about Obama–I’m sure Cardinal Stafford would, too, and so would all of us who feel uneasy about him and his plans for our country. I pray every day that we will be proven wrong. I pray every day for him. I want to like him and be loyal to him and have him on my side.
But if I’m not proven wrong, then I would much rather be in Gethsemane, and even hanging on Calvary, with Christ and my fellow Catholics. That’s one thing I am certain of.
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