Hudson & Fournier: Catholic Countdown to Election 2102, Day 18. The Battle in the Parish Parking Lots

By Deal W Hudson and Keith A Fournier
10/19/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

We think a less paternalistic approach, one that in no way is demanded by the Church's non-profit status, is called for

It's a sad situation when the parking lots of Catholic parishes are putting up virtual barbed wire against those pro-life activists who are doing nothing more than informing fellow Catholics of two things: The settled, non-negotiable teaching of the Church on abortion and marriage and the position of political candidates on those issues.

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic online) - With more than two weeks before election day, the battle in parish parking lots has already begun. A Catholic priest in Cleveland has threatened to sue Ohio Right to Life for passing out its voter guides in a parish parking lot.

This is only the first skirmish among many that will occur as various groups attempt to reach Catholic voters by putting their literature on the windshields of cars. However, we've never heard of a priest calling out a pro-life group and threatening legal action.

The closest thing to that we've heard of was a stand off in the 2004 election when an Orlando priest used his car to keep a group of Bush supporters from leaving his parish parking lot. When asked to move his car by the group's leader, who also happened to be an attorney, the priest refused, saying he was waiting for the police to arrive. Once they arrived and spoke to both the attorney and the priest, the police told the priest he needed to move his car immediately.

Ohio Right to Life contacted LifeNews with the story but did not reveal the name of the priest who threatened them. The pro-life group issued a statement admitting, from their point of view, their volunteers were trespassing on private property but said;

"If our clergy and religious leaders were standing up for the helpless unborn and boldly proclaiming the Truth in the face of the Culture of Death, volunteers would not feel the need to risk trespassing charges in order to disseminate pro-life information to churchgoers."

Earlier today, we were passed a series of emails between the head of a Knights of Columbus council in a Northern Virginia parish and a member of the parish. The two have come to verbal blows over the former's message sent to fellow Knights that the pastor has asked them to "patrol" the parking lot the two weekends prior to the election, "to help prevent political campaign materials from being distributed on the parked cars."

A Knight from the parish did not like the idea of his council being used in this way and wrote back stating his objections and included a memo on the topic from the Chief Counsel of National Right to Life, James Bopp, Jr. Bopp pointed out in his memo, written to Rev. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, that the distribution of such literature in parish parking lots in no way jeopardizes the Church's tax exempt status, that "such activity" is protected by the First Amendment, and, more importantly;

"Churches not only may permit campaign statements to be distributed in their public parking lots, they cannot prohibit such distributions because the parking lots are open to the public."

The head of the Knight's parish council was not convinced by Bopp's argument. He stated he had no authority, and added his own concern about voter guides that contain the position of candidates on abortion but leave out their position on progressive tax codes. This issue, he pointed out, was discussed in the U.S. bishops' pastoral letter, "Economic Justice for All" in 1986.

There's no need to follow the thread any further -- because neither side changed their position as a result of the exchange. However, those Knights who questioned whether or not parish parking lots should be patrolled did end the correspondence with this intriguing comment:

The question you must ultimately ask is this: "Which is more important to you, the sanctity of life or the sanctity of the parking lot?"

The last time we consulted the Catechism, parking lots, indeed concrete or asphalt surfaces of any kind, were not considered in possession of personhood and, therefore, Catholics are not obligated to protect their "lives," so to speak.

Our tongues are firmly in our cheeks as we point this out, but it's a sad situation when the parking lots of Catholic parishes are putting up virtual barbed wire against those pro-life activists who are doing nothing more than informing fellow Catholics of two things: The settled, non-negotiable teaching of the Church on abortion and marriage and the position of political candidates on those issues.

If the Church really believes its own teaching, and if the Church really wants its members to make informed decisions regarding their political participation, what is the harm of allowing this form of political participation to take place? Are Catholics attending Mass on the Sundays before the election the equivalent of elementary school children who must form a single line to safely board the school bus?

Or, are they adult citizens who are capable of "dealing with" whatever pieces of paper might be fluttering from their windshields after Mass? We think a less paternalistic approach, one that in no way is demanded by the Church's non-profit status, is called for.

Let those who are giving their time and energy to the political process do what they feel called to do, and let lay Catholics take the information from their windshields and make their own decision without the interference of well-intentioned Knights of Columbus or parish clergy.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Deal W Hudson, Keith A Fournier, Catholic Countdown, First Amendment, Free Speech, leaflets, political participation, Right to life, Priests for Life

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1 - 10 of 16 Comments

Rob
6 months ago
Bill, who knows? But so long as the focus is solely on sins of commission versus and never on sins of ommision, I suspect nothing will change. Honestly, whether a politician promotes policies contrary to life or they do nothing about it, it has the same net effect, abortion and the culture of death remain. Prediction if Romney wins: Mexico City policy will be reversed and that is probably it. I suspect that policy was put into place so both parties could do something with no legislative effort to give them cover for their bases. Back and forth it goes with no real effect. I hope I'm wrong, but 40 years establishes a pretty good track record.

Personally, I think the problems of this world are not the fault of a few scandolous Catholics or even the failings of our church leadership. What we have today is a gross failing of the catholic laity. As a church our evangelization is but a wimper. We decry what is going on in politics and bang our fists suprised that catholics aren't united, but day after day we fail to personally evangelize our brothers and sisters. Bottom line, we expect people to follow Christ and the teachings of his church, but someone expect them to do this when they really have no idea who Jesus is, let alone fall in love with Him so that all of this makes sense. Without love we are nothing but a drum making noise. And in today's discourse, it's pretty apparent where some people are at....and not at.
Rob
6 months ago
Amen Matt! We all would be well advised to drop the labels of this world already.
Bill Sr.
6 months ago
Rob,
Do you think we would have had the abundance of Pelosi's, Sebelius's, Biden's, Kerry's, and other "practicing Catholics" in the democratic party today who fashion and pass the legislation and establish policies which have led us into the culture of death with a man such as Barack Obama in charge of it if our shepherds had been willing years ago to do what is so obviously needed today?? If we as faithful, yet acknowledged poor sinners who hold true to the Faith, are reluctant to at least take the firsts step to end the insanity by removing as many of these icons of social sacrileges as possible NOW and continue to pray for Divine Providence to guide us toward a revival of reason then there is little hope the tide of tyranny will be turned and our nation has seen its last days as a leader of peace in the world.
Matt
6 months ago
Mike Robertson you obviously didn't understand my comment so I will further explain. How many parishoners put there faith as the forefront of every decisions they make? How many know what church teaching is? Most people go to church because that is how they were raised or there wife makes them go but they have no idea what the teaching is. They formulate there opinions outside of faith because they really don't have one. Catechising (if that is a word) the people that currently go to church should be step one in this year of Faith. I would say that the best way to learn about church teaching is not "Leaflets" on cars but the Gospel on our minds, on our lips, and in our heart. As Rob stated once people are knowledgeable of the Truth then we must stand together every year at all times continue to beat the resounding drum of justice and hold ALL politicians feet to the fire for actions that are ireprehensible. For the record I'm not Liberal or Conservative the only labels that I wear is that of a Christian, Catholic, a father, and a husband.
Rob
6 months ago
Bill, I think there is a simple reason that our pastors, Bishops etc. do not advertise as you suggest. It would force them to do something that as of yet we have been willing to do. It's great that we get ourselves all worked up about democratic platforms etc, and their continued support of this morally bankrupt positions needs to be considered in our vote. But equally as important is the actions taken and NOT taken after the fog of the election is over. With equal criticism, we must hold those we send to elected office feet to the proverbial fire to get this issue done already. Every day they fail to act is another day the death continues. But if all we are going to do is throw stones at the party who says leave the law in place as is and never hold the opposition party accountable, then you get what you have now, status quo. You would think after 40 years of this nonsense we would have figured it out. If this issue was as important as it is to us, then this issue would be front and center in every debate, campaign stump etc. It's not and they run from it every time as fast as they can.

We can pretend all we want, but it's pretty obvious in this campaign season that no one wants to talk about it.
Bill Sr.
6 months ago
It is far too late in these social justice debates with outright disobedience and political correctness approaches to today's perversions of human behavior and betrayal of biblical truth for our hierarchy to simply urge the Laity into action. Our actions are of little consequence within the media and for the most part futile if we do not have the weight of authoritative clerical discipline and/or pronouncements supporting our voices.
Unless we witness prominent church officials and bishops condemning, defrocking and excommunicating these self styled ruling class individuals who present themselves as equally prominent laymen and/or politicians who openly challenge church law while imposing pain and suffering on the people with ill fated self endowed elitist rhetoric and socially lethal legislation the laity will continue to be recognized and labeled just as our president assumes us to be, uneducated uninformed homophobes clinging to our guns and Bibles.
It is spiritually inhumane for hierarchy and church leadership to not display promptly and publicly their condemnation of obvious Evil policies and practices by groups and individuals calling them by name defining the consequence of their actions for the discernment of the faithful as we would expect from truly devout and dedicated shepherds.
Michael F
6 months ago
One who ran for President years ago based his campaign on right to life; Allen Keyes.
mike robertson
6 months ago
To Catholic democrats concerned about "litter" in church parking lots..............if a pro-Jim Crow candidate was opposed by a pro-civil rights candidate, would we hear your complaints about litter? I think you would be handing out flyers and placing them on windshields yourselves.

Infanticide dwarfs Jim Crow in moral evil. Both should be opposed by Catholics. Sadly, some Catholics are voting for an evil man who favors killing babies even after they survive a botched abortion attempt while they are still in their mother's womb. And this evil man thinks he is wiser than God on the subject of marriage.

I hope Catholic democrats are getting more than 30 pieces of silver from their pet social program, while we head towards a Greek-style economic collapse brought on by the evil man they support.
Diane
6 months ago
Praying is the ultimate act but I believe God expects more assertive action from all of us in this fight for life, for religious freedom.

My diocesesan bishop has LED abortion clinic marches, rosaries but yet his priests do not want pro-life literature desseminated . Is this the priests' personal wishes or the bishops' commands? I am dismayed and very disappointed in these actions to prevent info to voters on what are the impacts of voting for Life and Against-life candidates and platforms.

The Democratic party has gone on record on its platform. The Republican party has made its platform well known. What is wrong with showing comparisons?
justjg2
6 months ago
I recently attended a pro-life meeting. The people there were very concerned about the present election. They were upfront about the placing of information on cars in parking lots of churches. I personally have a stack of flyers and I decided to talk with people I know: family and friends rather than handing them out. We also have the opportunities to stand before the abortion clinic on Wednesdays. We have heard from our Bishop. I believe there are a lot of ill-informed folks out there and they like it that way.

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