by David M. Carollo –
Next week we will exercise our civic duty and select our representatives at all levels of government from the president on down. As I have always done, I downloaded the list of candidates endorsed by the pro-life groups to use as one of my guides for voting. From the top of the ticket down to the lesser offices, the candidates are rated based on their responses, or lack thereof, to questions regarding how they will vote on the issues of life. For incumbents, their voting record speaks for them.
A most disturbing trend that I noticed is how some have followed the culture and altered, or outright changed, their position on the biggest issue of our day. In fact, it is the biggest issue of any day. The number of people running for or holding public office who do not respect the commandment “Thou shall not murder,” is frightening. Taking innocent human life in the womb or at old age can never be acceptable and it can never be compared to the taking of life in self-defense or as punishment for a capital crime. Once any society allows this to become part of the fabric of the culture the countdown to destruction has begun. Forty-seven years after the Supreme Court took the right to regulate such laws from the people, we have accelerated our journey down that road. Both legislators and citizens in this country have taken a “there is nothing I can do’” attitude about abortion. There is much that we can and must do to stop this auto-genocide. Who determines the value of any life? Only God can do that.
I had a conversation with a regular visitor to our shrine recently. He was being rolled out in a wheelchair, unable to walk long distances any longer. He made a comment that he felt less than useful now. I quickly reminded him that his prayerful ways and devotion to Mass and the Rosary every day is of more merit than the hard work of people like myself who still enjoy good physical health. Life has phases and he is now called to more prayer and contemplation. Life is of value from start to finish, from the moment that God calls us into existence at conception until he calls us home. Any political candidate who supports ending life at any point, for the sake of convenience stands in contrast to the Creator. It is sad that for many of us the concerns about this culture of death only become an issue during election times. Life is the foundational issue upon which we build all others.
The violence and chaos that we are witnessing in our country has been brewing for a long time. It is grounded in the lack of respect for life prevalent in our society today. How can we expect people who support the extermination of the unborn or the elderly to seek peaceful means of dissent? One hundred and three years ago Our Lady warned us that Russia would spread her errors. Prior to the Bolshevik revolution many things that we are witnessing here today, such as attacks on the police, national institutions and our churches, were happening in Russia. In 1920, the new Communist government, devoid of God, legalized abortion. The saying goes that “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” We must not let that be the case here.
We are on the edge of monumental change for the worse if we choose wrongly next week. Make no mistake about it, our faith is the true target of all this violence, and ambiguity on the part of our Catholic leaders is adding to the confusion. We have had a taste of seeing our churches closed and our access to the sacraments cutoff, or limited, as a response to a pandemic. Government edict designating that churches were not essential while allowing questionable businesses to operate, leads one to believe that ulterior motives are possibly behind the actions. In Russia, after the revolution that was painted as a movement of the people for fairness, quickly turned against those of faith, many of whom helped to usher in their government out of a belief that some of their tenets were noble. What stands behind those who attempt to appear moderate quickly acquiesce to the more radical elements of a movement. History has proven this to be the case.
The high level of anxiety surrounding this election is leading to great animosity. We need to understand, however, that we take our positions on politics because it reflects the will of God. He desires that all follow His teachings, so we need to act with charity in our disagreements, but not compromise the truth. In the Old Testament we were taught to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength” and, Christ continued by instructing us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” We do not want to see anyone lost for eternity. We know that those who support abortion and other policies against the teachings of Almighty God are putting themselves in eternal jeopardy. We are all sinners who have fallen short. We want the salvation of all souls. As Catholics we are charged with this mission. As promoters of the Fatima message and of this apostolate, we have been given an even stronger mandate. Christian charity must override our zeal to win politically. We fight for our causes to bring about a society that is dedicated to conformity to the will of God. We must truly become one nation under God if we hope to survive and continue to be a beacon for the world. Our goal is to change the world, not just to win an election. Only prayer will provide grace to change hearts in sufficient numbers to make the difference. This will require a long-term commitment.
I encourage you all to participate in one of the many novenas for our nation, fasting, Masses, adoration, Rosaries and other initiatives. Here at the National Blue Army Shrine, we will be doing 24-hour adoration from Nov. 2 at 1pm – Nov. 3 at 3pm (ET), praying the Rosary every hour on the hour. We hope you can join us online or from your own parishes and adoration chapels.
God bless you.
David M. Carollo is the Executive Director of the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA.
17 Responses
Thank you for pointing out the Russian connection. I was always thinking in terms of Nazi Germany.
Pace e bene.
Thank you for all of the work that you and all those at the shrine of Fatima and the Blue Army do to spread the message of Fatima. I truely enjoy Soul magazine. Know that I will be joining my prayers with you and all those praying for all nation.
Jesus, Mary, Joseph HELP the lost shepherd, Bishop Seitz. Help Francis. God BLESS YOUR CHILDREN WHO YEARN FOR A SHEPHERD WHO IS,A TRADITIONAL ROMAN CATHOLIC. NO COMPROMISE.
We have a traditional Catholic leader, Pope Francis- he is asking us to expand our pro-life perspective to include humane treatment of migrants, care for the environment, and caring enough about each other to prevent the spread of COVID-
No compromise.
Well written! Thank you very much for your insight. God bless you.
Good article David and the truth. God be with you.
Thank you John. I look forward to our next meeting. God bless.
Thank you for an important message. I now have a much clearer understanding of the Catholic Church’s assessment of today’s political climate.
I believe that deep down inside everyone knows that abortion is evil: it is just too hard to choose life. It is too hard to do the right thing.
Question: Will EWTN re-broadcast the Fatima documentary that you were in? It is a wonderful film.
David a comment you wrote on a gentleman you met who felt useless because he is unable to get around anymore. I was feeling the same way but your comment to him about how we can pray more made me feel better. Thank you for that.
God bless you and all that you do.
Cecile
Virginia, we believe EWTN will re-broadcast the Fatima documentary. They usually do when Fatima season begins around May 13. Thank you.
The truth is that the evil has penetrated all of society. Shame on you if you think Trump is OK because he doesn’t support abortion. He is more an agent of evil than anyone and threatens our beautiful God Blessed America with his evil divisive agenda. Now that abortion has been declared legal by society we need to wage the war against it at the moral level, not by criminalizing women and prosecuting them. We Catholics have to stand tall and tell the women of the world that abortion is against God’s will and that Catholic doctors are forbidden to provide them.
John: We are not endorsing any candidate. The evil of abortion is a judgement on the entire nation. Sr. Lucia said as much. We are addressing it on a moral level by prayer. You are right when you say that we Catholics have to stand tall and tell the women of the world that abortion is against God’s will and that Catholic doctors are forbidden to provide them.
This is a quote from the biography of Sister Lucia about the promise by Our Lady that “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.” Sister Lucia said of this: “If Portugal does not approve abortion, then it is safe, but if approved, it will have much to suffer. For the sin of the person, that person is responsible and pays for it, but the sin of the nation, all the people pay for it because rulers who enact unjust laws do so on behalf of the people who elected them.”
Yes, thank you for your comment to the elderly gentleman. It helped me a lot.
God bless you,
Andree
Look up the economy of Francesco
We in El Paso Texas are truly blessed to have the guidance of the National World Apostolate of Fatima USA during these difficult times. The bishop here is greatly concerned about racism and immigration issues because as a good shepherd of a largely Hispanic diocese, he rightly should be concerned about all human rights. May God bless our bishop abundantly for his compassion on the “least among us”. However, this bishop has confused many of the faithful by saying “Single-issue voting has corrupted Christian political witness” as quoted in “America The Jesuit Review” [https://bit.ly/2HxYiWD] so now, many of the faithful here are voting for candidates who support the culture of death in order to protect all our other rights. Many of us here fail to remind people that if a person is denied life by abortion, he or she will never come of age wherein one can enjoy the right to vote, bear arms to protect the community, enjoy religious freedom, or any right at all. We are afraid to speak on issues of life when doing so would be interpreted as racial intolerance and met with violence so we stay silent but the injustice remains; aborted dead people have no rights at all! All human rights are a gift of God, not of government, and all fundamental human rights, including the right to petition peaceful countries for refugee protection and citizenship, the right to vote, equal opportunity, and all other rights are moot points if one is denied the very right to life! Sadly, during early voting many of the faithful here have already supported candidates at various levels of government who openly promote abortion, candidates who otherwise sincerely believe in protecting most other basic rights EXCEPT the right to life. David, please continue to guide us in this vital issue and God bless.
¡Ruega por nosotros, Santa Madre de Dios para que seamos dignos de alcanzar las promesas de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo!
When I think of the millions of babies ripped and torn apart in the womb, I wonder how long God would allow this to continue. We have great recent Saints Such as Saint John Paul II and Saint mother Teresa of Calcutta, Who shared the message of the sanctity of life from the moment of conception do natural death. So thank you David for speaking out sharing A message of life. Brothers and sisters in Christ please vote for life, It Is the least we can do.
Thank you, David, for your compassion and insight. Like you, I long for a time when we Americans were able to unite to deal with crisis, and when people were able to disagree with each other without tearing each other apart.
I sincerely hope that we will be able to find a way to work together on the many problems facing our nation and the world.
Voting for life to me means more than voting against abortion- it also means voting for health insurance for all, a living wage, joining together to protect each other from COVID rather than recklessly exposing ourselves and others, and racial equality. Not easy to do with our polarized choices today.