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DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Thu Jul 2, 2015, 10:01 AM Jul 2015

Iowa Catholics Will Put GOPers In 'Awkward Position' On Climate Change

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Roman Catholic leaders in the early voting state of Iowa will call Thursday on candidates for president to follow the teachings of Pope Francis and focus as much on the environment and income inequality in 2016 as they have in past elections on opposing gay marriage and abortion.

The vocal pivot from such traditional social issues will mark the first time a U.S. Catholic bishop has publicly asked those seeking the White House to heed the admonitions of Francis' June encyclical, said Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines.

In that major teaching document, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics called for a "bold sweeping revolution" to correct what he sees as a "structurally perverse" economic system that allows the rich to exploit the poor and has turned the Earth into an "immense pile of filth."

"The goal of the pope is to raise the questions with all the candidates," Pates said. "It's a moral issue, our relationship with creation, our relationship with each other."

The push from Pates and other bishops in Iowa threatens to disrupt the historically reliable alliance of evangelical Christians and conservative Roman Catholic voters, putting pressure on Republicans who have leaned on their religious faith to guide them on social issues.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pope-francis-2016-iowa-catholics-climate-change

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Iowa Catholics Will Put GOPers In 'Awkward Position' On Climate Change (Original Post) DonViejo Jul 2015 OP

I'm torn between "I like what the Catholics are saying" and Church and State should be separate. patricia92243 Jul 2015 #1

Here is why they should be separate. Do you like what these Bishops are saying: Bluenorthwest Jul 2015 #2

patricia92243

(12,595 posts)

1. I'm torn between "I like what the Catholics are saying" and Church and State should be separate.

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 10:11 AM

Jul 2015

I think the church and state should be separate wins - for me at least.

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)

2. Here is why they should be separate. Do you like what these Bishops are saying:

Reply to patricia92243 (Reply #1)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 10:37 AM

Jul 2015

June 26, 2015
United States Catholic Bishops’ Statement on Gay Marriage Decision.

Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable. Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over forty years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges does not settle the question of marriage today. Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.

The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the “integral ecology” that Pope Francis has called us to promote. Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.

Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. As Catholic bishops, we follow our Lord and will continue to teach and to act according to this truth.

I encourage Catholics to move forward with faith, hope, and love: faith in the unchanging truth about marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions.

Lastly, I call upon all people of good will to join us in proclaiming the goodness, truth, and beauty of marriage as rightly understood for millennia, and I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2015/06/united-states-catholic-bishops-statement-on-gay-marriage-decision/

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