"...His Eminence James Francis Cardinal Stafford criticized President-elect Barack Obama as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic,“ and said he campaigned on an “extremist anti-life platform,” Thursday night in Keane Auditorium during his lecture “Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II: Being True in Body and Soul."
“Because man is a sacred element of secular life,” Stafford remarked, “man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person’s life cannot ultimately be controlled by government.
"For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Stafford said, comparing America’s future with Obama as president to Jesus’ agony in the garden. “On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.”
The lecture, hosted by the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, pertained to Humanae Vitae, a papal encyclical written by Pope Paul VI in 1968 and celebrating its 40 anniversary this year.
Stafford also spoke about the decline of a respect for human life and the need for Catholics to return to the original values of marriage and human dignity. “If 1968 was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” said Stafford, an American Cardinal and Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary for the Tribunal of the Holy See.
“In the intervening 40 years since Humanae Vitae, the United States has been thrown upon ruins.” This destruction and America’s decline is largely in part due to the Supreme Court’s decisions in the life-issue cases of 1973, specifically Roe v. Wade. Stafford asserted these cases undermined respect for human life in the United States."
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3 comments:
i hope he's wrong
"year of America's exhaustion"
....
whoa........
we've gotta start praying till we sweat blood....
I thought I should add this...
Seeking to clarify his remarks, Stafford spoke with CNN yesterday...
[The cardinal] didn't want our phone conversation recorded, but said he believes his remarks can be misunderstood. He says his take on the word apocalyptic is different from common Western references to the end of the world.
In his understanding, he says, apocalyptic means resistance to what [he] calls the divine and natural laws on reproduction and the preservation of human life.
He says he does believe Obama's stance on abortion rights condones violence toward unborn children. Cardinal Stafford told us he does not speak for the Vatican.
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