St. Pius Catholic Church

Hello Everyone,

Its been two weeks since I last posted and now its time for new material.  Since my last post we welcomed Seminarian Scott Pothoff to our parish, had a successful Altar and Rosary Society Flea Market, and I completed my canonical retreat for the year.  The retreat I went on went well at Nazareth House (formerly called “King’s House”).  Our retreat master was Fr. Bob Gielow, a Vincentian priest from Chicago, who shared many insights and stories with us.  As nice as it was to go on retreat, it was better to come back to Saint Pius X, the beds at Nazareth House are not the easiest to sleep on.

This week we are gearing up for Vacation Bible School which is next week.  Please pray for those attending and working at Vacation Bible School.  Also this week I am pleased to announce the class I will be teaching this fall and spring called, “Catholicism: Re-booted and Re-energized”.  It is going to be refresher course for anyone interested in relearning the basics of the Catholic faith, in having their questions answered about God and our faith.  It is going to be a weekly class, meeting on Tuesday nights in Farrell Hall, more details will be coming in the future months.  Classes will start in September.   

I would like to continue to invite everyone to continue praying about joining the pilgrimage that I will be spiritual director for coming up in October.  Your not going to want to miss this trip, we again are going to: Portugal, Spain, and France, with stops in: Fatima, Lisbon, Santarem, Salamanca, Avila, Burgos, Loyola & Lourdes from October 9-19, 2010.  Then there is also a post-trip excursion, for four more days in France, available for an extra fee to: Nevers (This is where St. Bernadette's incorrupt body is), Lisieux (To see the Carmelite Monastery where Saint Therese of Lisieux was a nun), Rouen, and Paris.  All the details and information, as well as, registration are available at: www.pilgrimages.com/frzorjan

For those who listen to the Christian Music Station K-Love here in the Quad Cities.  There are a couple of great Christian concerts coming up at the Adler Theater.  First on Friday night July 16th,  at 7:30pm Casting Crowns is coming to town with an opening act yet to be named.  My brother and I plan on attending the concert that night.  Also coming to town, in October on Sunday October 24th, to Adler is Steven Curtis Chapman.  I have seen both acts before live in concert and both put on a great show.  Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.

This will be my last blog entry for 2 weeks, next week I will be away from Saint Pius X at Nazareth House (formerly called “King’s House”) again and then on the Cursillo weekend immediately after that.  I will be back at Nazareth House for 4 days (beginning on Sunday evening), for continuing education classes mandated by the diocese of Peoria for anyone who has been ordained 10 years or less to the priesthood.  Everyone knows now in advance where I am going and what I am doing, please do not start any rumors while I am gone.   

Otherwise than that there is not a whole lot else to report at this time.  As I said a month ago, this summer in the blog we would try and cover controversial issues.  One of the most widely debated topics of our more recent times, is whether or not Catholics can morally and legitimately vote for pro-choice/pro-abortion politicians regardless of party affiliations.  Being that it is an election year this year again, this topic will be brought up again as we approach November.  This week in the little lesson section I am going to post an article in which Bishop Robert Vasa (Bishop of Baker, Oregon), explains why a pro-abortion stance automatically disqualifies a candidate for consideration by Catholic voters.  It is an interested and short article to read.

Till next time.

In Christ,

Father Peter Zorjan
Assistant Pastor at Saint Pius X
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***In short, Bishop Vasa makes it clear that as Catholics, if we want to be faithful to Church teaching, that we cannot vote for pro-abortion politicians.

(Everything from this point on, is not of my writing, and is an article written by John Henry Westen, the full source citation is given at the end of the article.)

Bishop Vasa: Pro-Abortion Candidates are "Disqualified" - Clarifies "Faithful Citizenship"
By: John-Henry Westen
 
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews.com) - During the opening day of the Catholic Leadership Conference yesterday, Baker Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa clarified the teaching of the US Bishops Conference regarding voting in favor of pro-abortion politicians.  The question of whether Catholics may remain in good standing with the Church while voting for pro-abortion politicians was raised.

Bishop Vasa responded referencing the document of the United States Catholic Conference titled "Faithful Citizenship", noting a pro-abortion stance disqualifies candidates from consideration by faithful Catholics.

LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Bishop Vasa after the session. Describing the deliberation among US bishops over the "Faithful Citizenship" document, he said: "When we were working on the document 'Faithful Citizenship', and the issue of whether or not a person's adamant pro-abortion position was a disqualifying condition, the general sense was 'yes that is a disqualifying condition'."
 
However, during the discussions mention was made of the document by Pope Benedict just prior his elevation to the pontificate which noted that Catholics may in good conscience vote for a politician who supports abortion in the presence of "proportionate reasons."
 
Bishop Vasa explained the notion of proportionate reasons, saying, "The conditions under which an individual may be able to vote for a pro-abortion candidate would apply only if all the candidates are equally pro-abortion."
 
He added: "And then you begin to screen for the other issues and make a conscientious decision to vote for this pro-abortion candidate because his positions on these other issues are more in keeping with good Catholic values." In that case, he said, "It doesn't mean that you in any way support or endorse a pro-abortion position but you take a look in that context at the lesser of two evils."
 
Speaking of politicians with a pro-abortion stand he said, "When we have someone who has that stand on a disqualifying issue, then the other issues, in many ways, do not matter because they are already wrong on that absolutely fundamental issue."
 
Only when taken to a level of insanity could a 'pro-war' candidate be considered on par with a pro-abortion candidate in the Bishop's view.  "If we had a candidate in favor of a war in Iraq in which we decimate the entire population and we kill as many civilians to impose as much terror on everybody as possible to make sure . . . If that was in opposition to a pro-abortion person then I'd have a real conflict of conscience because you'd have a direct and intentional killing of innocent persons on one hand and the direct and intentional killing of persons on the other hand, said the Baker Bishop.
 
"But we don't have that issue with capital punishment, we don't have that issue with the war in Iraq we don't have that issue with the present Administration," he added.
 
Bishop Vasa explained that as a man from the Midwest, the analogy of a combine worked well to describe how a sifting of candidates could be undertaken.  He described a combine as having a series of sieves, the first of which eliminates the largest and most obvious refuse.  In the analogy the first screen would eliminate pro-abortion candidates, "to weed out the greatest evil," he said.
 
He concluded saying, "Abortion needs to be in our country a defining issue and we ought not be afraid to make it a defining issue because when we do that we will have an end of abortion in this country."

Source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/080912.html#1