First, there is no such thing as a pro-choice Catholic.
Catholics are not free to choose what they are going to believe and what they are going to reject when the teachings are defined by the Church.
The much-vaunted Second Vatican Council (cue celestial music) called abortion an “abominable crime” (Gaudium et spes 51).
St. John Paul II condemned abortion in Evangelium vitae, while pointing out the link between abortion and contraception.
But we hear, “I support ‘women’s right to choose’ (read: I promote abortion), and I am a devout Catholic.”
No. You are not.
Get with the program or get out. There are all sorts of “churches” out there that will affirm you in your oh-so-sophisticated, self-serving needs.
At HuffPo there is a splatter piece by a pro-abortion Democrat (read: “party of death”) candidate, Kelly Kultala (pronounced Kúl-tala) for a congressional seat from Kansas.
It is just plain dumb.
Kelly Kultala
Candidate to represent Kansas’ third congressional district in Congress; wife, mother and grandmother
I refuse to sit by silently and allow the faith I grew up with to be hijacked by a crowd that believes they have the dominion to judge whether others are faithful enough or Catholic enough. [Yes, Kelly, the Church does that.] Pope Francis has said, “I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity.” Faith is about caring for those in greater need than ourselves; [Except if they just need to be born.] it’s not a mechanism for casting stones. I ask that if you support my vision of faith, please consider supporting my campaign for Congress. [He vision of faith? Certain not the Catholic Church’s.]
Kelly Kultala is a candidate to represent Kansas’ third congressional district in the U.S. Congress. Learn more at kellykultala.com.
Kelly KultalaFaith is NOT. UP. TO. HER.
Just like the rest of us, Kultala is, as a Catholic, required to accept what the Church teaches.
In the piece at HuffPo (there is a video interview – note her revision of JFK’s famous phrase, her class-warfare cant) she claims props for her Catholic identity because – wait for it – she prayed for a family member!
News flash: praying for someone is no proof of Catholic identity. All sorts of people pray. Big deal.
And how about her self-serving appeal to Pope Francis?
What else has Pope Francis said?
In April he addressed a pro-life group, saying (my emphases):
One of the gravest risks our epoch faces, amid the opportunities offered by a market equipped with every technological innovation, is the divorce between economics and morality, the basic ethical norms of human nature are increasingly neglected. It is therefore necessary to express the strongest possible opposition to every direct attack on life, especially against the innocent and defenseless, and the unborn in a mother’s womb is the example of innocence par excellence. Let us remember the words of the Second Vatican Council: “Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes” (Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, n. 51). ….
Anyone who is Christian has a duty to bear witness to the Gospel: to protect life courageously and lovingly in all its phases.
Apparently candidate Kelly doesn’t think any of this applies to her. It’s HER vision of faith that counts, after all.
You do not get a “Magisterium of the Democrat Party”. Not on my watch, you don’t.
“But Father! But Father!”, you libs are saying, “No one can tell me what my faith is!”
To coin a phrase, “YES WE CAN!”
What else did Pope Francis say?
“Every civil law is based on the recognition of the first and fundamental right, that to life, which is not subject to any conditions, neither economic nor qualitative nor ideological.”
Kelly Kultala supports what her own Church – and the very Pope she sought to instrumentalize for political gain – calls “abominable crimes”.
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Thanks, Fr. Z. Refreshing to find someone out there who knows the Faith and who isn’t afraid to confess it.
Does she believe in post-birth abortion like our Dear Leader?
Hi Kelly,
Thank you so much for affirming that no one should decide if one is Catholic enough. Because there is no such thing as “Catholic enough”. You are either a Catholic or not. Apparently, you are not.
Thank you for mentioning that the Catholic faith is only the faith that you were brought up in. Having left the faith, you are clearly not up to speed on things, are you?
Cheers!
I saw her article yesterday, and she seems firmly committed to the Church of ME. Kumbaya and clowns, all around. Some of the comments were even more bizarre.
Some observations from a former Kansas Citian:
1. The 3rd Congressional District is a classic swing district – most white, suburban, affluent, likes their taxes low but also finds social issues rather icky. A Democrat *could* win it; but Kultala is unlikely to be the Democrat to do so. While no polls have been done yet, Yoder is a popular incumbent who has won his last two races by big margins. Kultala, meanwhile, is facing a state ethics complaint. So folks shouldn’t worry too much about her actually getting elected.
2. I don’t think that it is the business of the Kansas GOP to be calling for her excommunication. I do think that it’s something Archbishop Naumann ought to look into. Fortunately, he has shown a willingness to enforce Canon 915 before (for example, against Kathleen Sebelius). There is a good chance he will do so here. But since she’s just been nominated, he may still need time to visit with her to give her a chance to repent (unlikely) before dropping the hammer.
3. Ms. Kultala: You’re free to adopt whatever position you like on abortion. What you are not free to do is to claim that it’s the Catholic teaching. Abortion is a grave sin. But the point can be made to a broader constituency that it is the taking of an innocent human life. And you should make that point.
Kelly Kultala is an ally of Kathleen Sebelius, someone else who poses difficulties for our good archbishop. I served on a jury with Mrs. Kultala. She is not dumb. This is not a case of mindlessly repeating talking points. She understands exactly what she’s saying.
Sure, political candidate, whatever.
At some point the Church needs to take up with these murder supporting disobedient Catholics. Either you accept the faith, or you don’t.
The bishops of the Catholic Church in the US have abandoned their responsibilities in preserving the lives of the unborn. Roe v Wade was 41 years ago. 55,000,000 children have been murdered. Number of “Catholic” politician-advocates publicly excommunicated? I don’t recall any. A few may have heard “you’d better not show up for communion at my church” but they’re welcome across the street.
Self-emasculation has left many dioceses unable to fight. If the Archbishop of Kansas City were to take action here, the press would have a field day playing it as an attempt to distract attention from last week’s $1.1 million ruling against the diocese in the sex scandals.
The Church, through its bishops, needs to either put up or shut up. Apply the rules or stop pretending that they are the rules. Or, more properly, stop pretending they are the bishops.
It seems odd to me to have a candidate say, vote for me if you “support my vision of faith.”
Is she running for parish priest? Bishop? Pope? Tough luck!
But if for a civil office, it’s not clear to me that we look to public officials to provide a vision of faith. They are asked to uphold justice, liberty and the common good, rightly understood. Defending human life and religious freedom are part of this. It’s not a matter of sharing a vision of faith.
I am actually quite familiar with the ‘f’aith this woman grew up with since it is the same one I grew up with. All about playing nice and not offending anybody and don’t speak the Truth no matter what the circumstances even if it kills you, which it surely will. So in truth I can see why she would think, if anyone presented the actual real live Catholic Faith to her, that her ‘f’aith was being hijacked. I have great pity for this woman and those who led her down this primrose path. Thank you bishops!
Holy Mother Church is too fiscally tied to the State. Many of Her “social welfare” dollars come from grants from Federal, State, or Local governments.
It may be best if the bishops sever the fiscal umbilical cord and then can speak out without fear of losing precious $$.
Her personal vision of faith is lovely, I guess, but I don’t think most voters are interested in the faith of the candidates. I just don’t know how her personal faith vision squares with the advocacy of her party that we slaughter tens of millions more lives on top of those lost through torture and murder in the womb. It’s one thing to stand by when it happens and do nothing; it’s quite another to say that you will support even more torturous and barbaric practices to expand it even more past the genocide that some places are seeing currently. I comprehend that more abortion equals winning political strategy currently particularly insofar as that position reaps big money from all sorts of people who hate human beings so much that they wish to see even more tens of millions gone, so I really don’t see anything noble or honorable in her giving lip service to something that is just guaranteed to pay off for her as far as cash. If she had said “I’m a Catholic, I am prochoice, but I don’t support genocide or…make it rare…” then I would say ok this person has some sort of intelligence at work and perhaps could be a leader for people when times are tough. But there is nothing here to denote vision or humanitarian interests.
I think fuzzy bunnies are cute, so I call myself a vegan. I also think rabbit tastes pretty good in a Dijon sauce, but you don’t get to decide the definition of a vegan. I was brought up in a vegan household and learned vegan values about animals. I happen to be a hamburger-eating, bacon-eating, chicken-eating vegan. You may be personally opposed to the consumption of meat, but that doesn’t give you the right to define ‘veganism.’
If only her bishop would give her the public repudiation she is begging for.
It’s become such idolatry, hasn’t it, in the West, to first deny the existence and feelings of a human being growing in a mother, and then the obligatory worship by politicians making rounds and collecting money ahead of an election season. Just a short distance from the actual slaughter that has occurred in the country under this legalism and fiction is the fear that grips a people who have become convinced through deception that it is a good and that not after tens of millions we still, at all costs, must have more of it, all the time. What paranoia. What irrationalism.
Pro-choice Catholic is an oxymoron, with an emphasis on the latter part of the word.
The problem stems from her first line “I refuse to sit by silently and allow the faith I grew up with to be hijacked “. That faith she grew up with, post VII, has for fifty years catechised Catholics to believe their personal, undeveloped, immature, consciences trumped Church teaching. We reap what we sow.
Hadn’t heard of this woman before. Looked her up. She has a rather telling title of a HuffN’Puff blog— “On my Excommunication.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-kultala/on-my-excommunication_b_5548995.html
This is telling for at least three reasons. First, it indicates that excommunication is on her mind— in other words, she is in spiritual pain. Second, it indicates and that she has chosen to mock the serious penalty rather than repent— in other words, she is stubbornly persisting in this nonsense. Third, it indicates that she sees matters of faith to be trivial— much like political football..
So pray for her, because she’s in deep.
What about “catholic” priests and bishops who support pro-abortion politicians? I suspect that a large percentage in North America do…not all of them Jesuit.
It goes to show how much need there is for the new evangelization: People think that they can hold different beliefs within a religion, in the same way that two members of the same political party can disagree on a particular issue.
I can picture Ms. Kultala and Pope Francis have a lengthy face-to-face discussion about abortion, with Ms. Kultala ending the conversation saying “Well, Your Holiness, we’ll just have to disagree with each other on this one.”
Panterina, I can picture Ms. Kultala and God having a lengthy face-to-face and her telling God, “I will not serve.”
It would seem that this individual, like so many others, somewhere along the line heard and believed something to the effect that Vatican II, or the post-VII church, abolished heresy.
Insofar as any of us believes that, we have abandoned credal faith. In doing so, we deny the Truth that shed His Precious Blood for us, and vainly seek “truth” through the supposed consensus of the ballot box — and that failing, as soon or late it must, at the point of a tyrant’s gun.
We are reaping the fruits of a half-century’s completion — with too often feeble, if any, resistance from layman and prelate alike — of the transformation of the Church of Christ into the Church of Comte, and we are in deep trouble. May we be sufficiently docile to grace to pray that our souls may not perish in the chastisement to come.
Well, if she is a person of goodwill and is a Catholic searching for the Lord, who are we to judge? Sorry, but Pope Francis and a timid Rome have help nurture this mindset by poor rhetoric and a preference for confrontation avoidance. “Get with the program or get out. There are all sorts of ‘churches’ out there that will affirm you in your oh-so-sophisticated, self-serving needs.” These words are startling not so much for their clarity but for the note of dissonance they sound against anything anyone right now might remotely imagine the Holy Father ever saying.
Thank You Father for the clarity and charity you demonstrated in your rebuke.
Please Fathers, do the same thing. Catholics need to understand that several issues are non negotiable (as far as the Church is concerned: only one of which is the Right to life from conception to natural death).
My Jewish friends still don’t understand why or How politicians can claim a sincere faith and connection to the Catholic Faith and yet claim this stuff.
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