Bp. Paprocki Defends Faith; Corrects Gov. Quinn

Thomas F. Roeser 3 December 2010

The column I did yesterday about usage of the “Fundamental Option” dodge…the heresy that one can go ahead and do whatever he/she wants on moral questions and escape guilt if the sinner does not abjure God…is illustrated vividly today by Catholic Gov. Pat Quinn. He said on passage of civil unions “my religious faith animates me to support this bill.” Indeed? He also supports abortion in its many forms to equate with the current decadent tastes of liberal, rudderless politicians who do everything possible to be elected.

Therefore it was heartening to see Quinn’s Springfield bishop, Thomas Paprocki, counter with this statement: “If the governor wishes to pursue a secular agenda for political purposes, that is his prerogative for which he is accountable to the voters. But if he wishes to speak as a Catholic, then he is accountable to Catholic authority and the Catholic Church does not support civil unions or other measures that are contrary to the natural moral law.”
Regarding Quinn’s declaration that “religious faith animates me to support this bill,” Bishop Paprocki said wryly, “he did not say what religious faith that would be—but it is certainly not the Catholic faith.”

The battle over civil unions which passed House and Senate and awaits Quinn’s signature which he has said he would supply—earning him standing applause from the Democratic-controlled legislature—has been one of the finest hours not just for Francis Cardinal George but for an unsung hero of the fight—the Illinois Catholic Conference’s Robert Gilligan. I was a lobbyist himself—27 years in Washington for The Quaker Oats company—and I have never, ever, seen a staffer with better acumen on strategy combined with an eloquence of statement to the media. Consistently Bob Gilligan has been foremost in public as well as private advocacy, pointing out in testimony and to the media that the legislation threatens to substantially alter the legal definition of what constitutes a family, predicting that future generations might have to learn harsh lessons about the unintended consequences of social engineering.

He has pointed out that while individuals may enjoy this lifestyle and maintain that it is a “right,” a culture cannot sustain itself by approximating homosexual or heterosexual shacking-up with marriage—the consequences leading to a European model of living and ultimate diminution of lifetime commitment, leading to chaotic coupling that provide a shrinking population and family breakdown.

Gilligan’s fine work has been duplicated by other pro-family lobbyists such as Paul Caprio, Ralph Rivera and the Rev. Robert Vandenbosch—but for the purpose of this website which concentrates on Catholic advocacy, Bob Gilligan’s attainments are noble and eloquent.

It is instructive to see how sectors of the relativistic Left in the
Church have responded to Paprocki-George-Gilligan in posts to websites. I’ll show a few (there are less intelligible ones linked) to demonstrate how Catholic training in theological verities have declined:

“If the majority of Catholics support this belief [passage of civil unions], which they do, then it is a Catholic belief. The beliefs of a few old men carry no more weight than any similar number of other Catholics and certainly these pseudo celibate old men cannot claim to speak for God.” Meaning that moral law is what a majority say it should be.

“Sounds like the Bishop is a right-wing Republican. Maybe such unions are natural. If they are, the law would seem to accord with the Natural Law.”

In essence both comments proclaim that whatever you do that seems natural is the Natural Law.

That whirring you hear is Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine and the entirety of philosophers of the Judeo-Christian Westspinning in their graves.

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Tom Roeser is the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Chicago Daily Observer

http://www.cdobs.com/archive/featured/bp-paprocki-defends-faith-corrects-gov-quinn/