Letter to Tim Kaine, Vice-Presidential Candidate

As a proud convert to Catholicism, I am aghast and appalled by your proclaiming to be a devout Catholic. According to the dictionary, devout means: deeply religious; devoted to a particular religion; loyal to something; devoted to a particular belief, organization, person, etc. Being devout also means we have a responsibility to God and the Church to follow our faith and be an example to others. We cannot pick and choose what parts of our faith to follow. It’s not buffet style. God spoke, and we must follow.

There is nothing in our Church teachings that provides special dispensation for politicians and their party platform. We are called to practice and follow our faith in everything we say and do. That also means we cannot say we do not believe in gay marriage or abortion then support other’s that participate in one or both. There is no fine line, no grey area.

Granted, we are all sinners and fall from time to time, but through the Sacrament of Reconciliation we can repent and be forgiven. Once forgiven, we must also sincerely with an honest heart do our best to avoid repeating the same mistakes. In John 8:11, as Jesus spoke to the adultress, he said, “Neither do I condemn you, go away, and from this moment sin no more.” It is from that moment on we strive to do as Jesus commands, “Sin No More.”

Mr. Kaine, you are making a mockery of our faith in your public support of gay marriage and abortion. Following the homily at Mass, we rise and profess our faith, which starts with, “I believe.” Soon after we humbly approach the altar to dine at the table of Christ. How can you profess your faith without following it? How can you, in good conscience, approach the table of Christ knowing you consistently mock the same faith you profess to believe?

I would ask you read the words of the Catechism of the Catholic faith at the end of this letter and decide what path you want to follow … God’s or the one of destruction.

I pray the Church leadership takes a stand on your words and actions, along with other politicians complicit in your mockery. I pray you open your mind and heart to the Word of God and that all of you come to Him with a humble and contrite heart, repent and sin no more.

ON MARRIAGE

1604 God who created man out of love also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself, love.Since God created him, man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: "and God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'

1605 Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone."The woman, "flesh of his flesh,", i.e., his counterpart, his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom comes our help.⁹³ "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."⁹⁴ The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh."

ON ABORTION

2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.

From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end, or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.

"A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.