My Bishop

                                                 +AJPM+

THE CATHOLIC HTOWNER:

Before we begin, I am aware I have not posted anything concerning Election 2016. Any point I could make about it has already been stated in the link here about Catholic voting.

Having said that, I bring it up now because within the last few days of this post's original publication, a voting event was held in my home city led by its head bishop---the first cardinal of the US Deep South---, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.

I know a lot of Catholics say their bishop is special and unique...but I have solid proof of how special my bishop is:

-He oversees an archdiocese where on any given Sunday, Mass is performed in 14 different languages and he manages to keep it all together.
-He was the highest ranking bishop to speak out against Notre Dame giving an honorary degree to President Obama, given the president's stand on abortion
-He serves as grand prior of the Southwest Lieutenancy Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
-Under his leadership, the Personal Ordinate of the Chair of St Peter was formed, with a parish in Houston serving as its main hub.
-Starting in October of 2016, there will be a parish run by the Fraternal Society of St Peter thanks to him.
-He is no intellectual lightweight, having advanced degrees from the Catholic University of America and advanced knowledge of early Catholic Church Fathers.
-He currently serves as vice president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
-He served as co-author of the official voting guide published by the USCCB.

With all this, it comes as no surprise when news came out of him leading an event about voting, the room was so packed some people had to stand for the event.


I should know...I was there.


I wish this event was recorded--and too bad it wasn't--because his speech brought up points even I never considered. Here are some highlights:

-He made it clear he was not going to tell people who to vote for because he didn't want people to be robots.

-He did admit he didn't see the final debate, but he did say based on some parts he was disgusted by Trump's view of immigrants..but also disgusted by Clinton's take on abortion.

-He talked about parts of Catholic moral teaching to consider for all political issues, and those parts being sanctity of life, subsidiary (which he referred to as "better to do it smaller than bigger"....in other words, local than federal), the common good, and preference for the weak among us. He would further state most people put common good before subsidiarity when it should be the other way around.

-He also said most people don't seem to know what a right is anymore.

-Speaking of rights, he does not agree with the Supreme Court ruling on gay so-called "marriage." He did admit to arguing with several people on this but he also admitted he has not met any gay marriage advocate who could answer one simple question...

...what is the end goal of gay marriage?
I, too, would love to hear a good answer to this.

-He also admitted as vice president of the USCCB, he knows Catholic charities are starting to be denied permission by the US federal government to help refugees because Catholic charities refuse to provide what the government calls "reproductive services", which any thinking person knows is code for providing abortion services.

-Finally, he had good advise for anyone who still can't bring themselves to vote for either Trump or Clinton:

Still go vote but if you can get away with it, vote only for local offices or local issues related to your area and leave the presidential choice blank.


If anyone here thinks I'm lying about this happening or what Cardinal DiNardo said, feel free to email the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and they will confirm everything.