DemoCath Hack Attacks "Test of Fire" Video; Displays Ignorance of Catholic Social Teaching in Doing So

One DemocCath / ObamaCath hack doesn't think too highly of the "Test of Fire" election ad put out by Catholics Called to Witness, and displays an all-too-common ignorance regarding the Church's teachings on "non-negotiable" issues:

... But some issues, we are told, "are non-negotiable." This list include "life" which is followed by a quote by Pope Benedict defining life as from conception to natural death; then "marriage" - calling for the institution to be "reinforced, not redefined"; and "freedom" which apparently needs no explanation.

[...]

Again we turn our attention to Creative Lab LLC and the parental rights theme that runs through much of their work, and which CCTW defines as "non-negotiable":

"The protection of the right of parents to educate their children" -- is a curious cause for a group of Catholic orthodox types to champion. There is nothing in Church teachings that make this a priority on par with any other social justice teaching. On the CCTW page entitled "Other Issues" there is no content. Furthermore, traditional Catholic approaches to economic issues such as distributive justice are nowhere to be found on the site. It is odd for a Catholic group to place parental rights under the banner of religious freedom. However, it may be a useful way to perpetuate the myth that the current president is hostile to Catholicism.

HotAir blogger, Dustin Siggins, does a fairly good job at debunking this DemoCath hackery, but leaves out a key piece of evidence to back up the case for the "non-negotiable" issues that the "Test of Fire" ad makes. That key piece of evidence is that the Holy Father, himself, has stated that the VERY ISSUES at which the Daily Kos blogger scoffs are INDEED matters of particular importance to the Catholic Church that are "not negotiable" from a public policy perspective.

In remarks to the European People's Party on 30 March 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said the following:

As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. Among these the following emerge clearly today:

• protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;
• recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family - as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage - and its defence from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role;
• the protection of the right of parents to educate their children.

(emphasis added)

Ya think maybe Catholics Called to Witness has a little better understanding of what the Church considers policy priorities, considering that they basically quote verbatim from Pope Benedict's formula pertaining to "principles which are not negotiable", than does the DemoCath hack at Daily Kos?

It is truly a travesty whenever a self-proclaimed Catholic becomes so preoccupied with defending the policies and priorities of his political party that he pays such scant attention to those matters that his own Church proclaims to be "non-negotiable" policy priorities. Such scant attention, in fact, that he actually scoffs at the notion that his Church might even have a position on those issues.

Such is the danger when one allows one's politics to shape one's theology, rather than the other way around.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
"A Deep Resonance With Catholic Social Teaching"?

Yet Another "Non-Negotiable" Item ...

Has the "Non-Negotiable" Voting Framework Come to an End?

Deal Hudson: "Barack Obama and the Non-Negotiables"

Archbishop Chaput Not Satisfied With Proposed New USCCB Document on Voting

"Catholics in the Public Square" by Bishop Olmsted

Vote Your Values