Catholic priest addresses Republicans; ignorant or evil?
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Sat Jul 28, 2012 at 09:53:02 PM EST
So I am still on Republican email lists and I get their stuff.  About a week ago I received an email from an old friend (still) who is very very Republican if not Tea Party. The email said;

Please listen to what this Priest states immediately after his opening prayer. Then you will know why I have shared it and I hope you will too!
Stick with this thru the first few comments......you will be surprised.  It is going to be an interesting election....
An outspoken Colorado priest was asked to lead thousands of delegates in prayer at the state Republican convention.
What he said next caused quite a stir in the convention hall. See for yourself...
Click here: Invocation | SAINT THOMAS MORE CATHOLIC CHURCH

So I clicked and I got to this YouTube;

http://youtu.be/xG0x3NsCw3Y

Remember the audience is the Republican Convention in Colorado. After his "invocation" apocalyptic Bible quotes from Revelations around 1min29sec he went political.

"...We know that the social issues of today are under attack [sic] but at their core is this biblical understanding of marriage...this is not an issue between liberals and conservatives,  between Democrats and Republicans, this is an issue between democracy and socialism."

So I was intrigued.  Here is a priest talking serious politics.  He seemed to go towards the issue of gay rights or marriage equality.

I kept on listening.

The Republican crowd cheered when he said that.

"...as a Catholic I earned a free pass to talk about socialism because others who have stood with us have died at the hands of socialists for the past two centuries."

I guess he must refer to those who died in the USSR or Eastern Europe or even Cuba (extreme socialists if you ask me.  IMHO communism represents socialism the way Ayn Rand laissez-faire represents capitalism). The Soviets mostly killed Eastern Orthodox believers rather than Catholics but Christian nevertheless. I don't remember Nazis persecuting Catholics except for Edith Stein who they considered Jewish.

"...whenever we have religious freedom stopped it is a hallmark of socialism and will never be compatible with Christianity for at least two reasons "personal choice" and "private property. Personal choice has to do with personal conscience because you are responsible and accountable for all the things that God has given to us and that allows us personal property [sic] so we can be generous and return it to our Lord and Saviour..."

So personal choice begat personal property, hmmmm???!!

"...socialists want to turn that responsibility away from us and that goes against our religion"

I guess that if a government charges taxes and uses it for education, health care or anything for that matter it goes against his interpretation of Catholicism (or is it neo-Republicanism, the new religion?)

"...we believe conciense and private property are not human ideas they come from God."

They cheered that one.

He then says a few more incoherencies involving the Constitution and then he finishes by saying;

"...socialism is a foreign threat to our democracy.  I am tired of this experiment and I am hoping you are tired too."

In not so silent whistle mode with "this experiment" he was obviously referring to the Obama Presidency.

One thing is to have a priest do an invocation.  Another thing is to have a priest become a partisan political leader and I believe that Father Andrew of the Saint Thomas More Parish has gone too far.

But there is one more thing.

Thomas More

Saint Thomas More Parish?  Thomas More?  Wooooow!  Wait a freaking second Father Andrew.  I may not be the most educated ex-Catholic out there but one thing I know is this; Thomas More (Sir or Saint) would NOT approve of your speech.

You see Father Andrew, Saint Thomas More  (canonized rather recently in 1935) is very famous, Henry VIII had him beheaded for not recognizing the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (you see, the Spanish run the Catholic Church thanks to the Inca gold, but that is another story), he did a lot for women (by those days standards, he loved his daughtes), he was considered one of the greatest thinkers of his time.  But what Saint Thomas More is perhaps most remembered for is "Utopia".

More's Utopia is the 1st, he coined the term.  More's utopia is influenced by Greco-Roman literature and thought.  It is one of the most famous and controversial books ever written

The ideal civilization in Utopia has some unusual characteristics that obviously Father Andrew never underst