“Bishops can’t tell politicians what to do,
but Catholic voters can!”
Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Philadelphia
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Priests for Life Campaign to Convince Catholics to VOTE LIKE CATHOLICS! This is THE BEST WAY for you to Stop Abortion and uproot the Culture of Death in the U.S. |
April 22, 2014
You have proven yourself one of the pro-life movement’s most loyal and active partners.
That’s why I’ve sent you this urgent email.
You and I have a huge and urgent mission to accomplish. It is this.
In the 2012 Presidential election, over 29,000,000 Catholics went to the polls and voted. That’s the good news.
The bad news is this:
Almost half of them voted for the man Archbishop Charles Chaput rightly called “the most committed ‘abortion-rights’ presidential candidate of either major party since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973.”
That’s why Priests for Life has published a critically important document. It’s called:
“Voting with a Clear Conscience”
… and you can click here to read it. It won’t take you very long.
What I’m counting on you to do with this brochure today is:
1. CLICK HERE and order as many copies as you can of “Voting with a Clear Conscience” so you can pass them out to everyone you know: At your parish. In your neighborhood. At work. To family members.
2. After you place your order, CLICK HERE and make a contribution to Priests for Life so we can print and distribute TEN MILLION “Voting with a Clear Conscience” brochures to Catholics in your state and states all across the country in time to make a difference in this November’s national and state elections.
I’m urging you to do this because this November may be America’s last chance to turn from the evil of abortion and restore every American’s inalienable RIGHT TO LIFE! Remember:
Abortion corrupts our whole society and retards progress on all the other issues … including the economy and health care!
And we Catholics will play a key role in the outcomes of this year’s elections.
That being true, it is critically important for faithful, pro-life Catholics like you to show up at the polls on November 4 and VOTE!
Pope Francis made that abundantly clear when he said:
“[Catholics] have an obligation to get involved in politics.
We can’t play the role of Pontius Pilate and wash our hands of it.
It’s easy to blame others. But people need to ask themselves:
‘Me? What am I doing about it?’”
In saying this, Pope Francis was echoing the Catechism:
“Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory … to exercise the right to vote” (2240).
This obligation is so serious that in their 1998 document Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, our bishops instructed U.S. Catholics on the vital role they play in the political process. In Paragraph 34 the bishops wrote:
“We encourage all citizens, particularly Catholics, to embrace their citizenship not merely as a duty and privilege, but as an opportunity meaningfully to participate in building the culture of life. Every voice matters in the public forum. Every vote counts. … We get the
public officials we deserve. Their virtue — or lack thereof – is a judgment not only on them, but on us.”
The simple fact of the matter is that VOTING is the best way for you to take part in the Church’s work of promoting and building a Culture of Life here in the United States.
But there’s a catch.
When Catholics go into the voting booth, they do not cease to be Catholic! The same hands joined in prayer to the Lord in Church are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth!!!
And that means being informed about both the issues and the candidates. It means applying Church teaching to our voting decisions. And most important of all, it means …
… knowing which issues are non-negotiable and which are matters of prudential judgment!
The Church is very clear in teaching Catholics which issues are of the greatest importance.
Primary among these are direct attacks on innocent human life through ABORTION and EUTHANASIA!
No matter what a candidate’s position is on any other issue – the economy, health care, the “War on Terror”, the death sentence, immigration – if he or she promotes either abortion or euthanasia, then that candidate automatically DISQUALIFIES him or herself from public office. Period!
But how many Catholics know this?
From the results of the 2012 Presidential election, it’s obvious that there are millions of our fellow Catholics who don’t.
And you can be sure that the pro-abortion apologists who control most of our nation’s news rooms will never let American Catholics know that all of us are required to take our Catholic faith with us when we enter the voting booth.
In fact, the last thing the enemies of Christ want is for Catholics to start voting as Catholics should vote! The reason why is plain enough. And it’s this:
We Catholics are the most important demographic of voters in the entire country.
Consider these facts from the polling organization Gallup:
• Catholics make up 26% of the electorate.
• Sadly, Catholics are more likely to vote for pro-abortion candidates than pro-life ones:
In 1992, they did so by a margin of 47% to 35% .
In 1996, a whopping 55% did.
In 2000, it was 52% for the pro-abortion candidate, 46% pro-life.
In 2004, the split was 52% – 48% in favor of the pro-abortion candidate.
In 2008, in spite of Archbishop Chaput’s clear warning, 53% voted for a pro-abortion extremist!
And in 2012, 49% voted for the same man.
• 40% of Catholics agree that abortion is “morally acceptable.”
• Among Mass-attending Catholics, 24% think abortion is “morally acceptable.”
• A shocking 82% of Catholics believe that contraception is “morally acceptable.”
• 75% support euthanasia.
• While 60% are in favor of doctor-assisted suicide.
What those numbers show is that we have a lot of work to do if we’re going to restore our nation’s moral foundation, end the crime of abortion, defend religious freedom and save America.
And I’m counting on you to continue your tremendous pro-life work and CLICK HERE to support Priests for Life’s non-stop effort to end America’s abortion holocaust!
What we have got to do in the short time left before this November’s historic mid-term elections is to convince millions of faithful, practicing Catholics to …
Take their Catholic values – and especially their pro-life principles – with them when they go into the voting booth on November 4!
If we succeed in doing that then I am convinced that we can change the political landscape in Washington.
I say that because in most elections the winner beats the loser by less than 5% of the vote.
And we Catholics have the numbers to be that deciding 5% in every election.
The key to success is to give everything we’ve got over these next few months to the work of educating our fellow Catholics and helping them understand that to knowingly and willingly give power to those who will advance the violence of abortion is to have a part in that violence.
Which is why Priests for Life has launched its
Campaign to distribute TEN MILLION copies of
“Voting with a Clear Conscience.”
This easy-to-read brochure lays out the ten steps every Catholic needs to follow in order to stay in union with the Church’s clear teaching that the RIGHT TO LIFE is the fundamental human right.
This is precisely as Blessed John Paul II wrote in Christifideles Laici (§38):
“Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights — for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.”
From this it’s clear:
One cannot, in good conscience,
be a faithful, practicing Catholic
and support abortion!
I go even further and say that one cannot be a decent human being and support abortion!
Cardinal Ratzinger (later elected as Pope Benedict) issued a “doctrinal note” stressing that:
“A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”
That’s what millions of U.S. Catholics need to understand.
Which is why I’m counting on you to CLICK HERE and get behind Priests for Life’s urgent campaign to print and distribute TEN MILLION copies of “Voting with a Clear Conscience.”
As you will see when you read it:
– Voting with a Clear Conscience explains the Catholic citizen’s moral obligation to vote and take an active role in the country’s political process.
– It does not endorse any particular candidate or political party.
– It stresses the importance of: (1) Knowing every candidate’s position, (2) Rejecting those who disqualify themselves from public office, and (3) Weighing the various issues confronting the nation.
– It encourages every Catholic to STAY FOCUSED ON CHRIST, rather than on any one politician or a particular political party.
– And it urges Catholics to support the campaigns of good and well-qualified candidates.
Not only that, but every statement regarding Church teaching is referenced in order to make it clear that what’s written in “Voting with a Clear Conscience” is NOT an “opinion” of either myself or Priests for Life.
Rather, it draws from the teachings of the Magisterium on faithful citizenship!
In short, it does everything a good voter’s guide should do.
But our “Voting with a Clear Conscience” brochure is useless if it doesn’t get widespread distribution.
And that’s where you come in!
Please CLICK HERE and take ownership of this extremely important project.
Priests for Life is determined to put copies of “Voting with a Clear Conscience” in the hands of TEN MILLION Catholics between now and Election Day 2014.
But we desperately need your help in order to achieve that goal and save our nation.
For one thing, you probably know many Catholics who don’t vote as they should. It could be a neighbor … a co-worker … a fellow parishioner … a family member … anyone. It’s important that you help guide them to the truth about their moral obligation to vote like a true son or daughter of the Church.
As I told you at the beginning of my letter, there are two ways you can help today:
1. CLICK HERE and ORDER copies of “Voting with a Clear Conscience”. When you get them, pass them out at your parish, where you work and to Catholics in your neighborhood.
2. CLICK HERE and make a CONTRIBUTION for as much as you can so Priests for Life can print and distribute TEN MILLION “Voting with a Clear Conscience” brochures to Catholics in your home state and states all across the country in time to make a difference this November.
It’s critically important that you get directly involved in this project to spread copies of “Voting with a Clear Conscience” within your own local community.
But it’s equally important that you help get “Voting with a Clear Conscience” into the hands of as many of your fellow Catholics as you can all across the country.
And that’s exactly what you’ll be doing when you CLICK HERE and make a contribution to help support this Priests for Life project today!
I’m counting on you to do this because it costs Priests for Life $20 for every batch of 100 “Voting with a Clear Conscience” brochures we print, package and mail. Since our Campaign goal is TEN MILLION copies of “Voting with a Clear Conscience” printed and delivered, the total cost will be upwards of $2,000,000.
That’s a huge amount, I know. And quite frankly, Priests for Life doesn’t have even close to that much money.
Which is why I’ve sent you this urgent email!
As someone who takes your Catholic Faith seriously and is dedicated to the cause of LIFE, I am sure you see how critical it is that we get our fellow Catholics to vote like Catholics and that you’re willing to get behind this Campaign with a contribution for as much as you can make today.
You see, we have the names and addresses of Catholics who will receive the next wave of 500,000 brochures but we don’t have the $100,000 Priests for Life needs to print them up and mail them out.
That’s why I’m hoping you will CLICK HERE and help with a contribution today.
As you consider how large a gift to send, keep this fact in mind:
• Roughly one out of every four voters in the country is a Catholic.
As you can see, we Catholics have it within our power to turn this nation around.
That’s because of what I told you earlier: Most political races are decided by less than 5 percentage points. In many races the difference is less than 1%. And in some elections, the difference between the winner and loser is as little as one vote per precinct.
All we have to do is convince our fellow Catholics to follow Church teaching and vote accordingly.
Which is exactly what “Voting with a Clear Conscience” can do.
If we can get just 1,000,000 Catholics to base their vote
on Church teaching, that should be enough
to change the direction America is going in.
It would certainly change the political landscape in Washington.
But that won’t happen unless someone helps them see that they have a moral obligation to take their Catholic principles into the voting booth with them this year and in all future elections.
Today I’m counting on you to CLICK HERE and be that “someone”.
With your help right now and in the coming months, we can get “Voting with a Clear Conscience” into the hands of millions of Catholics and use it to set their hearts on fire to make our Catholic values a vital part of our culture.
As an active member of Priests for Life you’ve proven time and time again that you are willing to do everything you can to save our country from further moral collapse.
Well, one of the best ways for you to do that is to take ownership of this project and help Priests for Life get millions of Catholics to VOTE LIKE CATHOLICS should vote.
That’s why I urge you to make a contribution to Priests for Life right now … before you go on to your next email.
Even as you read this, voters in states throughout the country are choosing their candidates for Congress and other elected offices. Some states have already held their primary elections.
And since Election Day 2014 will be here before you know it …
We have no time to waste!
So please don’t make the mistake of sending this email to your “Delete” folder thinking you can’t make a difference or that “someone else” will help.
Our nation is in the mess it is because too many good people left the battle to “someone else.”
Today you are that “someone else.”
This is your chance to make a real difference this election year. But in order to do so …
You must act now!
For every $20 you send,
Priests for Life can ship out 100 copies of
“Voting with a Clear Conscience.”
That’s why I’m counting on you to CLICK HERE and make a contribution for as much as you can to Priests for Life.
I know I must sound desperate to you. But that’s because I am. These are desperate times for our nation. For the pro-life movement. And especially for the youngest members of our human family.
All I’m asking you to do is CLICK HERE and give what you can.
And know that in heartfelt appreciation for your choosing to get behind Priests for Life’s “Voting with a Clear Conscience” Campaign, I will remember you at every Mass I offer; as will all the priests of Priests for Life.
Thank you for doing this and may God bless you.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director
Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries
P.S. We must reach our fellow Catholics this election year. The future of America is on the line and we Catholics can make the difference … but only if faithful Catholics understand how Catholics ought to vote. “Voting with a Clear Conscience” will teach them! Think of it: Our brochure could very well be the deciding factor in countless political races. Which means you have a real chance to influence the course America takes.
Priests for Life is all set to send out the next wave of 500,000 “Voting with a Clear Conscience” brochures – just as soon as we raise the $100,000 we need to print them up and mail them out.
To help simply CLICK HERE and follow the instructions.
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The Gospel of Life must be proclaimed, and human life defended, in all places and all times. The arena for moral responsibility includes not only the halls of government, but the voting booth as well. Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics and in Paragraph 24 |
NOTE: If you prefer to send a check, please make it out to Priests for Life and send it to us at PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314. If you have any questions, call us toll-free at 888-735-3448.
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