Fr. Z's Blog

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.

Faith 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”.