Very recently a Catholic priest, Father James Altman, with the Diocese of Lacrosse, Wisconsin, and serving at Saint James The Less Parish in Lacrosse gave a homily entitled: YOU CANNOT BE CATHOLIC AND A DEMOCRAT.
During his homily, he took the liberty of pointing out his opinion about Democrats and Catholics. Well…it spread like a forest fire in California. That is until a highly popular-sometimes controversial Twitter contributor (35.7k followers), Catholic Bishop Joseph E. Strickland (@bishopoftyler), retweeted his endorsement AS THE BISHOP OF TYLER by saying:
"As the Bishop of Tyler, I endorse Fr Altman’s statement in this video. My shame is that it has taken me so long.
Thank you Fr Altman for your COURAGE.
If you love Jesus & His Church & this nation...pleases HEED THIS MESSAGE”
In the ecclesiastical world, that is one hell of an endorsement. His Excellency has never ever varied from his belief in all things pro-life. I know because he is my Bishop and my good and loyal friend since 1986. Following Bishop Strickland's endorsement, Father Altman's sermon peaked -either to the loud agreement or vehement disagreement- of TWITTER followers and struck a lovely chord with Bishop Strickland’s followers. This particular retweet went through the roof. 0ver 1,000 comments, 1.7k retweets, and 3.7k LOVES…and counting. The numbers in both directions will continue to climb. No doubt Father Altman didn’t do too badly, either. Most of the comments on YouTube video went like this:
"Father James Altman calls out the hypocrisies of Church hierarchy
and their destructive leftist politicization of the Catholic Church ..."
"Wow, this is what every clergyman should be preaching from their pulpits, Catholic or not."
"This was great and I’m not Catholic but if I went to a Catholic Church and the priest was speaking this way, I’d stay.”
Before I start to pontificate -no pun intended- I applaud each of these two Catholic gentlemen. In complete disclosure I am both a serious Catholic, a member since conception of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and a very serious conservative and Donald Trump fan. Not-withstanding....
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Here is my commentary on this subject.
At the very heart of that discussion is pro-life vs. pro-choice, sanctity of life, and, as important, the human trafficking and world-wide child sex abuse issues. To me it is both urgent and notable
MY COMMENTARY AND LIFE-LONG BELIEF IS Pro-Life covers the entire spectrum: all life from conception to natural death including euthanasia.
Only God can take a life. To my way of thinking, if you don’t subscribe and believe to your dying breath that this is obvious, you may or may not also be a democrat, but neither are you a Catholic. Catholics and Christians have and share a set of non-negotiable values that follow the Words of Jesus Christ and the well quoted 3,400 year old tablet called the TEN COMMANDMENTS, which all Christians do their best to follow. Putting aside the political rhetoric and paraphrasing a verse from John 21:16 in which Jesus Christ asked Simon Peter Do you love me? Then feed my sheep.
Father Altman wasn't wrong, and His Excellency isn't wrong. We are to love the unborn as we love our born. We are to care for human victims of any age, any place, any time. We, that is, bishops, priests, and laity, MUST FEED OUR SHEEP. Democrat or Republican.
Thank you,
Michael Mahfood.
PS: if you care to, please follow me on Twitter @mmahfood and subscribe or unsubcribe to my Commentary at the bottom of this letter.
