Archbishop Gomez equates pro - abortion Catholics today, with the slave - owning Catholics of yore.
Good, point, your excellency!
Adapted from this source: His article, We shall reap, if we do not lose heart. This "address was originally given by Archbishop José H. Gomez at the Orange County Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Grove, California, on Nov. 21."
"The election [of President Obama in 2008] made me think of the story of another historic black man in our country.
"His name was Augustine Tolton.
"He was the first African American priest in America.
"Like our president - elect, and President Lincoln, he had a connection to Springfield, Ill.
"But he got there in a much different way.
"Augustine Tolton was born a slave, in 1854.
"His mother and father were owned by Catholic families who lived on adjacent farms in Ralls County, Mo.
"Those were strange times, just before the Civil War, and it is easy to be judgemental, to feel superior.
"It is harder to try to understand an dto see the connections with our own day.
"These white Catholics bought and sold men, women and children on auction blocks.
"Yet they cared somehow for their slaves' eternal souls.
"They allowed them to be baptized and to partake of the sacraments.
"Augustine's parents were married in a Catholic church, with their owners worshiping alongside them.
"As a little boy, Augustine was worked year - round, day till night, in his master's fields.
"They were rye fields, and the crop was sold for the making of whiskey.
"And the working conditions were awful.
"By the age of 7, Augustine's back already bore permanent scars from the overseer's lash.
"His father escaped to fight in the Union Army.
"And some time later, Augustine's mother, with their three children, including a 20 - month - old baby, escaped too.
"She made a dangerous passage across the Mississippi River.
"In the middle of the night, across the wide, black river, she rowed an old boat to the shores of the free state of Illinois."
Augustine grows up and studies for the priesthood
"A German priest, Father Richardt, was teaching him philosophy.
"They were studying St. Thomas Aquinas' theory of justice and natural rights.
"The priest was telling him how Thomas taught that all people have God - given rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
"Augustine responded to his teacher this way.
"If St. Thomas was right, he said, then blacks in America weren't being treated with justice.
"Either that , he said, or Negroes aren't counted as people.
"What he wanted to know most, however, was how Catholics could participate in this injustice.
"Father Richardt had a very wise answer.
"He said it with sadness: The church always stands for right and justice. Members of the church, however, since they are human beings,often fall short of the ideals of the Christ and his church.
"Catholics were among those who owned slaves."
The Dred Scott Decision & Catholic Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney.
"The notorious Supreme Court decision, Dred Scott v. Sanford -- which ruled that slaves were property, not people -- was written by a Catholic, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
"Yet, as Pope Benedict noted, and as we all know:
"Today there are many Catholics who are actively engaged at every level [Including Brackettville, too, maybe? Including the K.C.'s?] in defending the peculiar institution of abortion in this country.
"For me, the issue is very basic, my friends.
"To have a Catholic vote, we need to have Catholics voting.
"We need Catholics who know the teachings of [their] church.
"We need Catholics who have the courage to live and defend the truths that Christ came into this world to die for..."
Good points, Excellency! Too bad your predecessor insisted on ordaining both priests and deacons that -- based on what we've seen in this archdiocese -- are men who -- in many cases, at least! -- may or may not even believe themselves in Jesus Christ! :)
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