Dogs and Fleas: Texas edition

Question… rather.. quaeritur: If a Catholic chooses to work in politics and help with a campaign for a candidate, should the aforementioned Catholic try to ascertain beforehand the candidates positions?

Just asking.

From LifeSite:

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Texas state senator has emerged as a “national hero” and “rising Democratic star,” in the words of mainstream media outlets, after she carried out an eleven-hour filibuster this week that paved the way for the failure of a sweeping pro-life bill. Pundits are musing about Sen. Wendy Davis’ chances at taking on Gov. Rick Perry in the state’s 2014 gubernatorial contest, and some zealous media supporters are even charting her path to the presidency.

But amidst the abortion lobby’s love fest with Davis, some Catholic bloggers and pro-life activists are pointing out that a senior official at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) played an official role in getting her elected to the Texas State Senate in the first place. [One of these days, by the way, the USCCB might start paying attention to bloggers.]

Ralph McCloud, director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an arm of the USCCB dedicated to combatting domestic poverty, served as the treasurer on Davis’ campaign team in her bid for the State Senate in 2008, in which she unseated a pro-life incumbent, Republican Kim Brimer.

McCloud’s role on the campaign was first revealed two years ago by the blog Creative Minority Report amidst revelations, still ongoing, that the Catholic agency was involved in funding dozens of groups that advocate for abortion, same-sex “marriage”, contraception, prostitution, and other evils condemned by the Church.

McCloud responded at the time that he was not aware of Davis’ position on abortion and that his role on the campaign was minimal.

But critics pointed out that Davis’ stance on abortion was clear even then. Her campaign was strongly backed by Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion PAC Annie’s List raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on her behalf while McCloud was serving as treasurer.

[…]

Am I missing something?

Is this one of these, “She’s really great on immigration (or pro-contraception for children, or against all handguns or….) and, therefore, she’s pro-life!” deals?

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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10 Comments

  1. trad catholic mom says:

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

    They must be joking about her being governor.

  2. acardnal says:

    The issues with the problematic CCHD continue. **sigh**

  3. pmullane says:

    You know, the Church in the last half century has had to publicly acknowledge wrongdoing by some of its members in all sorts of shameful episodes in history, and even more so defend the actions of some of its members against slander and falsehood from agents of the evil one (think of the lies told about how Pius XII colluded with the Nazis etc).

    How can the bishops and priests of the church not see how their equivocation and accommodation of the culture of death will not be used as a stick to beat the Church with in the future is beyond me. In the future, when abortion is seen as the evil it is, and the Obamas, Clintons, Bidens and Pelosis etc are seen as the monsters of history that they undoubtedly are, how many secularists, Protestants or Muslims will lead souls away from the Church by citing the Catholic Church’s close relationship with the agents of the culture of death.

    Every bishop and priest need to get their head out of their pants and wisen up. We need fewer quislings and more Maximillian Kolbe’s.

  4. Dr. Edward Peters says:

    [One of these days, by the way, the USCCB might start paying attention to bloggers.]

    I think they do, more and more. Have to. It’s where people are these days.

  5. Ben Kenobi says:

    Many of us are going to the legislature for prayer sessions and to witness to both the legislature and the opposition the truth of abortion. Please keep us all in your prayers. We are just a few days away from eliminating a significant portion of abortions done in America through more stringent clinic restrictions. Thank you for your time.

  6. tjg says:

    This story is unfortunately not surprising to me. I can only assume that there are many people within the USCCB and other Catholic organizations that went to “Catholic colleges” and were promptly assimilated into the progressive liberal movement.

    Take Loras College in Dubuque (started by and named after Bishop Mathias Loras, former Latin tutor of St John Vianney.) In 2009 they held a competition amongst the PR classes to see who could win the opportunity to run the successful re-election for Dem. Congressman Bruce Braley. (Braley by the way has received a 100% rating from NARAL for the last several years.) Just one example of how a highly placed and influential person (Professor Apel in this case) misled impressionable young people down the wrong path.

  7. sciencemom says:

    Ah! CCHD. Why am I not surprised?

  8. jflare says:

    [One of these days, by the way, the USCCB might start paying attention to bloggers.]

    Only if the USCCB–or bloggers–suffers a lobotomy.
    Considering that EWTN has been about since 1985, but even now, the USCCB only very reluctantly admits to its existence or virtue, I don’t see this happening without a fight.

    Probably five years ago or so, I didn’t know the USCCB even existed in the form of an organized bureaucracy that operated on a daily basis. I had typically assumed they primarily existed on paper, meeting occasionally to provide bishops with specific information on some matter or other. I simply had never examined the day to day operations of the Church. Then again, I’d never heard either the USCCB bureaucracy OR the bishops say much of anything with real teeth, so I’d never had occasion to think about it.
    Traditional practice tends to receive more “play” on the blogosphere and internet than other means. I doubt if the USCCB will willingly accommodate that; they simply have too much to lose.

  9. downyduck says:

    It is frustrating how the bishops refuse to acknowledge and remedy the funding of the culture of death by the (unwitting?) faithful through the CCHD collection. And Ben Kenobi, my family and I will be in Austin tomorrow (along with thousands of others, I hope!) as a peaceful witness for LIFE in the face of the angry mob that is the pro-abortion lobby. I hope you can come, too!

  10. Vecchio di Londra says:

    What really surprised me, was that the US President sent a coercive, interventionist message of support for a partisan filibuster at an elected State legislature. I’m sure there are precedents, but are there many in modern time? I mean, do the States now have no real self-determination? I ask as an interested British observer. It seems to me that the model of a free federation of semi-independent States had and has a great deal of democratic legitimacy in such a large geographical landmass. Otherwise it could just turn into a massive one-party dictatorship.
    Isn’t the President supposed to serve all the people? He sounds like a party-political statesman constantly fighting an eternal election.

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