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.
Remember the couple, the McCloskey’s, from a significantly luxurious and gated neighborhood of St. Louis? Well, they personally defended their home in June with arms that they held in their home?
The couple told a national talk show host that they were preparing to sit down for dinner on their porch when "300 to 500 people” commenced to stormed their community locked gate. The actual target was the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson, to demonstrate there. The Black Lives Matter crowd was passing the McCloskeys' home, while heading down the street to Krewson’s home and stopped to have some mob fun.
The McCloskey’s tried to explain their position -based out of fear and the right to arm and defend one’s homestead -on that radio talk show. Within days the story has taken an interesting twist. Several local newspapers revealed that they are "extra litigious and apparently not well thought of for their quick to court actions over the years. That is not the object of my commentary.
She and her husband Mark received national attention last month after the incident when they stood in their front yard of their home with a rifle and handgun as protester associated with the Black Lives Matter group broke into their gated community.
Now here is where I must use the well quoted “The inmates are running the asylum” line. Soon after the June incident, Kimberly Gardner, circuit attorney in St. Louis, announced that her office and the St. Louis Police Department would be conducting an investigation into the McCloskeys’ display of firearms, again in their own home.
Apparently, the fact that they were defending their own property was of no consequence to circuit attorney Gardner and the ST. Louis PD.
Here is My Opinion: Frankly, had I seen a group of protesters heading my way, I would have reacted the same. We do have the 2nd amendment constitutionally protected right to bear arms and protect what is ours. The crowd were very vocal and expressing animosity toward the couple. Patricia McCloskey reported to the police "[They said] that they were going to kill us and they were going to come in there. They were going to burn down the house. They were going to be living in our house after I was dead, and they were pointing to different rooms and said, 'That’s going to be my bedroom and that’s going to be the living room and I’m going to be taking a shower in that room," she recalled.
Lest any reader starts tagging me as a racist let me be very clear. The protesters could have been comprised of every shade of pink skin, they could have had Bibles and milk bottles in their hands. But they didn't. They had weapons of various impact. Had they accosted my wife and I with veiled threats -it might have been the shortest “stand your ground” incident in history. Two against 300 obviously wouldn’t lasted long BUT it would been my home, my domicle, my homestead I was protecting.
Just a thought but what if the store owners in NYC, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Seattle had taken that approach? Equal guns pointed from the inside out instead of only the other direction tends to level the playing field. It might have been the shortest “stand your ground” incident too- but I have a feeling that is would have helped make the riots into one day affairs in the future.
Michael Mahfood
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