The Clear and Present Danger of “Cafeteria Catholicism”

By Doug Lawrence

The term “Cafeteria Catholic” typically refers to those Catholics who prefer to pick and choose which truths of the faith they wish to accept.

That kind of thinking is a huge mistake, which can lead people into all kinds of misunderstandings and miseries.

People haven’t changed much over the last 5000 years. They still tend to make the same stupid mistakes and still get caught up in the same, hard to control, emotional situations. Often both.

When it comes to critical matters of faith and morals, the Catholic Church has been around for a very long time and has “seen it all”.

Through its’ Magisterial teachings, Sacred and Apostolic Tradition and the Holy Bible, the Church, which is charged by God with the care of souls, wisely and charitably cautions the faithful about the clear and present, spiritual and temporal dangers of things.

When people fail, the Church is there to freely absolve them of their sins, but the temporal, physical injuries and damages – the unfortunate results of those sins – typically remain – to the detriment of all.

The modern world provides a very accurate picture of all these accumulated evils and corruptions.

Individual free will and conscience is rightly a part of all this, but conscience can only be relied upon once it has been fully informed and illuminated by all the applicable teachings and practical graces of the Church.

Unfortunately, that rarely occurs, these days.

HINT: It’s always much smarter and easier to faithfully rely on the authentic teachings and accumulated wisdom of the Catholic Church, with the help of God’s grace, in order to successfully avoid some/many/most of the trials and tribulations caused by our own bad choices!

“Cafeteria Catholics” who pick and choose which authentic truths and teachings of the Catholic Church they wish to believe, needlessly and pridefully reject thousands of years of practical church experience and wisdom in favor of personally reliving the original “Adam and Eve experience”.

It was a “fool’s bargain” then and it’s a “fool’s bargain” today!

Proverbs 16:16-24

Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver. 

The path of the just departs from evils: he that keeps his soul keeps his way.

Pride goes before destruction: and the spirit is lifted up before a fall.

It is better to be humbled with the meek, than to divide spoils with the proud.

The learned in word shall find good things: and he that trusts in the Lord is blessed.

The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and he that is sweet in words, shall attain to greater things.

Knowledge is a fountain of life to him that possesses it: the instruction of fools is foolishness.

The heart of the wise shall instruct his mouth: and shall add grace to his lips.

Well ordered words are as a honeycomb: sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Greatest Sin of our Time?

By the late, Bob Stanley

Before explaining what the Greatest Sin of our time is, let me prove that it also comes from the serpent, Lucifer.

In 1930 two people wrote plans to destroy America from within and turn it into a communist nation. Lest you have no problem with Communism, it killed 1,500,000.000 of its own people in 60 years and every nation that adopted it failed financially, where everyone became poor.

These two people were Antonio Gramsci and Saul Alinsky.

A dedicated Communist, Gramsci is one of U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg ‘s favorite “philosophers”.

Saul Alinsky, was a friend and teacher of Obama, who wrote RULES FOR RADICALS, TOWARDS A SOVIET AMERICA. In his book, he outlined how to take over schools, the news media, the government, and even the history books.

He planned to little by little, infiltrate the Churches and degrade the constitution of the USA. His teachers were George Bernard Shaw, Bernard Russel and John Dewy.

Most important: he dedicated his book to Lucifer, who he claimed, was the first radical.

Morality was Alinsky’s greatest enemy and to overcome this he had to get moral teaching out of the schools, churches and even, the government.

His idea was to replace moral laws with Lucifer’s laws of tolerance, non-judgmentalism, and acceptance of all point of views.

He even wanted laws against speaking out against any kind of sin.

These people infiltrated the schools and churches and led the progressive movement in politics.

Progressives believe that the constitution is old fashioned and needs to be re-interpreted to fit the modern world.

This plan was so successful that it produced the greatest sin of our age, the assertion that our conscience is the God of good or evil.

Read more

The only proper way for faithful Catholics to disagree with authentic church teachings.

Jesus is an expert healer of the blind – spiritual and otherwise

by Doug Lawrence

The only proper way for a faithful Catholic to disagree with authentic church teachings is to go to confession, apologize to God, receive absolution, and humbly leave the confessional spiritually renewed, with a firm purpose of amendment.

Next, in order to successfully mend our ways and reform our errant conscience, we undertake a thorough study of the relevant portions of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, coupled with a careful review of all related church documents.

This … along with full, faithful and regular participation in all the other work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Catholic Church, will serve to properly identify and clarify all of the pertinent issues involved.

From that point forward, faith and reason, along with a bit of help from other good, faithful, and well-educated Catholics (educated in authentic, traditional Catholicism … not the new, phony versions) will serve to order the struggle so as to (eventually) properly form the conscience, in the light of all God’s revealed truth.

The process may well take years, but what do we have to do that is more important?

The writings of the Saints confirm that spiritual struggle (always in good faith and always for the right reasons) is probably the very best way of eventually achieving Heaven.

Those who have managed to overcome serious personal shortcomings with the help of God’s grace, know that this is absolutely true … while those who prefer to disagree need only remember that denial is not just a river in Egypt!

Visit the blogroll (links) section of this website for all the necessary Catholic educational resources. Seek out Jesus Christ, the source and summit of our Christian existence, and encounter him regularly and personally, in and through the sacraments of the Catholic Church. Then … expect Jesus to begin to more fully reveal himself … his inestimable love … and his truth … to you … in many wonderful ways.

The answer to conscientious objections on settled matters of Catholic doctrine can typically be found in the confessional and the catechism.

by Doug Lawrence

God’s laws require no man’s permission or acceptance. Divine law is dependent only on the will of God and his perfect system of divine justice, which is universally applicable and totally inescapable … even for non-Christians.

Under the Old Covenant, breaking any of the Ten Commandments, or even the most insignificant of the hundreds of statutes and ordinances that were tacked on, first by Moses, and later, by other designated religious authorities,  would result in condemnation … which always … sooner or later … resulted in death.

Agree with it or not … there was absolutely no way around it.

You sin – you die!

That was the extent of things … at least, until the coming of Jesus Christ, the promised messiah, and his all new system of things.

Unlike the ritual animal sacrifices of old, Jesus’ New Covenant sacrifice was perfect, with his holy blood poured out for many, so that sins might actually be forgiven. (Not just ritually covered up.)  Jesus was also gracious enough to offer retroactive salvation to all the faithful who had come before.

Jesus defines “the faithful” as those who love God … and who make every effort to keep his commandments … even if they don’t always succeed. Jesus never failed to show mercy to sinners who had a truly contrite heart and a genuinely repentant soul, and he promises to do the same for Catholics today … typically, through the great sacrament of reconciliation.

In light of this, how does our freedom of conscience actually work?
Do we get a “free pass” on all matters to which we conscientiously object?  Not exactly!

There are a number of “settled” matters (dogmas and doctrines) essential to the practice of  the authentic Catholic faith, which have been universally understood and absolutely accepted since the earliest days of the church, even though some may not have been officially defined or set down in writing until later times.

Regarding settled matters of Catholic doctrine, no privilege of conscientious objection actually exists. You either accept such things as a matter of faith … or … you confess your sin of disbelief in the confessional, tell God you’re sorry, ask his  forgiveness, do your penance, and pray for the divine grace necessary to “cure” your unbelief. 

For example, what is a person to do about his/her conscientious objection to the Catholic teaching on artificial contraceptives? Here’s a few possibilities:

1) Rely solely on your own understanding and reason, without taking the time to investigate authentic Catholic Church teaching on the matter. Let Jesus Christ personally deal with it (and you) on Judgment Day. 

2) Take the time to investigate authentic Catholic Church teaching on the matter, but set all of that aside, since your personal “situation” is obviously “unique” and only you can decide what’s best for you and your family. Of course, you may also have some ‘splainin’ to do, come Judgment Day.

3) Investigate authentic Church teaching on the matter, pray about it, discuss it with other faithful Catholics who are in situations similar to your own, and make a firm decision to always follow Catholic teaching, to the best of your ability. If you occasionally fail in some way, make a good confession and carry on, with a clear conscience and nothing to worry about, come Judgment Day.

A similar approach can be applied to many other “hot button” issues of the day.

Living a thoroughly Catholic life has always been a matter of a properly informed conscience, grace and faith (not necessarily in that order) and it has never been particularly easy. But that’s OK, since God respects and typically rewards our good faith efforts and struggles.

Get to work “curing” any existing unbelief here:

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

God made me this way

Popular headlines in the  media earlier this year trumpeted Jorge Bergolgio’s telling a young man who is choosing freely to live a homosexual life that he should be happy because God made him that way.

Instead of condemning faithful catholics who speak the truth, why do the priests, bishops, cardinals and Jorge Bergolio not tell those they now condemn:

Be happy being a rigid RadTrad, God made you that way.

Be happy being a bully fundamentalist, God made you that way.

Be happy being a racist, capitalist critic of Jorge Bergolio, God made you that way.

What possible explanation could there be – if consistency is a standard for logical argument –  for not applying the “God-made-you” justification to any sin- even the sin of being a faithful catholic?

Link: https://the-american-catholic.com/2020/10/09/radtrads-rigid-bullies-go-to-heaven/

Deeply Concerned Catholic Priest Writes: I now believe we are at the point where half of America is possessed, or highly diabolically oppressed.

I now believe we are at the point where half of America is possessed, or highly oppressed.

For one, our 100 years of sexual sins and abortion have caught up to us. People screaming “racist!” at non-racists like Trump and Tucker without any evidence and without any interest in honest discussion first seemed to me to be the cause of insanity in our country. But now I see such insanity is the symptom (not the cause) of such insanity.

Such insanity has grown in the minds of Americans already ratifying their consciences under 50 years of killing of unborn children. Or, for example:  The leftists ignoring the fact that coronavirus can be nearly cured by not only hydroxychloroquine but also by inhaled steroids at first seemed to me to be the cause of insanity in our country.

But as I look closer at this, yet again, I see that such insanity is simply the symptom (not the cause) of 50 years of killing our own unborn children.

Read more

Seen today at Father Z’s Blog, in the comment box

…We are sinners who need hard and fast rules. I can attest to this personally.

I became pregnant at a very difficult time in our married life. I would certainly have had an abortion had I not converted to Catholicism a couple of years previously.

Our daughter, the light of our lives, owes her life to the Catholic Church, whose precepts REPLACED the conscience I had formed whilst immersed in the culture of death.

Deo gratias.

Link

 

A nation always gets the kind of politicians it deserves.

Submitted by Bob Stanley

The Dangers of “Cafeteria Catholicism”

By Doug Lawrence

The term “Cafeteria Catholic” typically refers to those Catholics who prefer to pick and choose which truths of the faith they wish to accept. That kind of thinking is a huge mistake, which can lead people into all kinds of misunderstandings and miseries.

People haven’t changed much over the last 5000 years. They still tend to make the same stupid mistakes and get caught up in the same, hard to control, emotional situations. Often both. When it comes to critical matters of faith and morals, the Catholic Church has been around for a very long time and has “seen it all”.

Through its’ Magisterial teachings, Sacred and Apostolic Tradition and the Holy Bible, the Church, which is charged by God with the care of souls, wisely and charitably cautions the faithful about the real spiritual and temporal dangers of things.

When people fail, the Church is there to freely absolve them of their sins, but the temporal, physical injuries and damages – the unfortunate results of those sins – typically remain – to the detriment of all. The modern world provides a very accurate picture of all these accumulated evils and corruptions.

Individual free will and conscience is rightly a part of all this, but conscience can only be relied upon once it has been fully informed and illuminated by all the applicable teachings and practical graces of the Church. Unfortunately, that rarely occurs, these days.

HINT: It’s always much smarter and easier to faithfully rely on the authentic teachings and accumulated wisdom of the Catholic Church, with the help of God’s grace, in order to successfully avoid some/many/most of the trials and tribulations caused by our own bad choices!

“Cafeteria Catholics” who pick and choose which authentic truths and teachings of the Catholic Church they wish to believe, needlessly and pridefully reject thousands of years of practical church experience and wisdom in favor of personally reliving the original “Adam and Eve experience”. It was a “fool’s bargain” then and it’s still a “fool’s bargain” today!

Proverbs 16:16-24

Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver. 

The path of the just departs from evils: he that keeps his soul keeps his way.

Pride goes before destruction: and the spirit is lifted up before a fall.

It is better to be humbled with the meek, than to divide spoils with the proud.

The learned in word shall find good things: and he that trusts in the Lord is blessed.

The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and he that is sweet in words, shall attain to greater things.

Knowledge is a fountain of life to him that possesses it: the instruction of fools is foolishness.

The heart of the wise shall instruct his mouth: and shall add grace to his lips.

Well ordered words are as a honeycomb: sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Serious misinterpretation of the Vatican II teaching on conscience

…the most destructive mistaken interpretation of the Second Vatican Council (one that we’ve lived with for 50 years) is the misinterpretation of the teaching on conscience. Certain forces in the Church took the occasion of the newly stated teaching on conscience, in the Declaration on Religious Liberty, to mislead people.

Now why they did that and what that’s all about is between them and the Lord . . . as the quote that has become so famous says, “Who am I to judge?” (which itself has been so outrageously misinterpreted by the mass media, and so-called Catholic elected officials).

But it was done; the Church’s teaching on conscience was misinterpreted, and the people were led astray on a very, very important matter — a matter that is destroying lives, leading to tremendous unhappiness, tremendous “un-blessedness.”

The current of philosophical thought that is at the root of all this confusion about conscience in the world and in the Church is that existence depends on the mind: “I think therefore I am.” Knowing, in fact, begins with reality, which exists and which is to be known by the knower.

The knower doesn’t make up what he or she claims to know; the knower needs to know reality. The knower needs to know the Truth, which is presented to the knower as a choice, as it said in the first reading of this past Sunday (Sir 15:15-20).

God presents what is good and bad to the knower, just as it says. And the knower, with his or her conscience, is to choose the good. The knower is not to choose what he or she would like; the knower is to choose the good.

And conscience is that truth-seeking radar that scans the horizon of reality, looking for Truth so that it can lock on to it, be changed by it, and be made heroic.

Read more from Bishop Robert Morlino

Editor’s note: Perhaps we should ask, “Precisely which part of Vatican II’s teachings has not suffered similar, ‘serious misinterpretations’?”

Pope Francis on sin and the primacy of conscience

Pope Francis on sin:

“Sin, even for those who have no faith, is when one goes against their conscience,” he added. “To listen and to obey to (one’s conscience) means to decide oneself in relation to what’s perceived as good and evil. And this decision is fundamental to determining the good or evil of our actions.”

Barack Obama on sin:

Sin is “Being out of alignment with my values.”

Link

Editor’s note:  This is very disturbing, since neither seems to be concerned with God’s values.

Follow the Magisterium and authentically practice the faith, trusting that two millennia of Church history and teaching are far superior to what we may come up with on our own.

In our secular culture, it’s easy to gain approval by criticizing the Church. Perhaps today’s true Catholic rebels stand out by embracing Church teaching and following the pope’s leadership.

Read more

The answer to conscientious objections on settled matters of Catholic doctrine can typically be found in the confessional and the catechism.

by Doug Lawrence

God’s laws require no man’s permission or acceptance. Divine law is dependent only on the will of God and his perfect system of divine justice, which is universally applicable and totally inescapable … even for non-Christians.

Under the Old Covenant, breaking any of the Ten Commandments, or even the most insignificant of the hundreds of statutes and ordinances that were tacked on, first by Moses, and later, by other designated religious authorities,  would result in condemnation … which always … sooner or later … resulted in death.

Agree with it or not … there was absolutely no way around it.

You sin – you die!

That was the extent of things … at least, until the coming of Jesus Christ, the promised messiah, and his all new system of things.

Unlike the ritual animal sacrifices of old, Jesus’ New Covenant sacrifice was perfect, with his holy blood poured out for many, so that sins might actually be forgiven. (Not just ritually covered up.)  Jesus was also gracious enough to offer retroactive salvation to all the faithful who had come before.

Jesus defines “the faithful” as those who love God … and who make every effort to keep his commandments … even if they don’t always succeed. Jesus never failed to show mercy to sinners who had a truly contrite heart and a genuinely repentant soul, and he promises to do the same for Catholics today … typically, through the great sacrament of reconciliation.

In light of this, how does our freedom of conscience actually work?
Do we get a “free pass” on all matters to which we conscientiously object?  Not exactly!

There are a number of “settled” matters (dogmas and doctrines) essential to the practice of  the authentic Catholic faith, which have been universally understood and absolutely accepted since the earliest days of the church, even though some may not have been officially defined or set down in writing until later times.

Regarding settled matters of Catholic doctrine, no privilege of conscientious objection actually exists. You either accept such things as a matter of faith … or … you confess your sin of disbelief in the confessional, tell God you’re sorry, ask his  forgiveness, do your penance, and pray for the divine grace necessary to “cure” your unbelief. 

For example, what is a person to do about his/her conscientious objection to the Catholic teaching on artificial contraceptives? Here’s a few possibilities:

1) Rely solely on your own understanding and reason, without taking the time to investigate authentic Catholic Church teaching on the matter. Let Jesus Christ personally deal with it (and you) on Judgment Day. 

2) Take the time to investigate authentic Catholic Church teaching on the matter, but set all of that aside, since your personal “situation” is obviously “unique” and only you can decide what’s best for you and your family. Of course, you may also have some ‘splainin’ to do, come Judgment Day.

3) Investigate authentic Church teaching on the matter, pray about it, discuss it with other faithful Catholics who are in situations similar to your own, and make a firm decision to always follow Catholic teaching, to the best of your ability. If you occasionally fail in some way, make a good confession and carry on, with a clear conscience and nothing to worry about, come Judgment Day.

A similar approach can be applied to many other “hot button” issues of the day.

Living a thoroughly Catholic life has always been a matter of a properly informed conscience, grace and faith (not necessarily in that order) and it has never been particularly easy. But that’s OK, since God respects and typically rewards our good faith efforts and struggles.

Get to work “curing” any existing unbelief here:

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Greatest Sin of our Time?

Before explaining what the Greatest Sin of our time is, let me prove that it also comes from the serpent, Lucifer. In 1930 two people wrote plans to destroy America from within and turn it into a communist nation. Lest you have no problem with communism it killed 1,500,000.000 of its own people in 60 years and every nation that adopted it failed financially, where everyone became poor. These two people were Antonio Gramsy and Saul Alinski. Salinski, a friend and teacher of Obama, wrote RULES FOR RADICALS, TOWARDS A SOVIET AMERICA.

In this book he outlined how to take over schools, the news media, the government, and even the history books. He planed to little by little to infiltrate the Churches and degrade the constitution of the USA. His teachers were George Bernard Shaw, Bernard Russal and John Dewy.

Most important is that he dedicated his book to Lucifer, the first radical.

Morality was Alinski greatest enemy and to overcome this he had to get moral teaching out of the school, Churches and even government laws. His idea was to replace moral laws with Lucifer laws of tolerance, non-judgmentalism, and acceptance of all point of views. He even wanted laws against speaking out against any kind of sin. These people infiltrated the schools and churches and led the progressive movement in politics. Progressives believe that the constitution is old fashioned and needs to be re-interpreted to fit the modern world. This plan was so successful that it produced the greatest sin of our age, That our conscience is the God of good or evil.

Read more

Video link

Submitted by Bob Stanley

Time to properly inform your conscience – The Catholic Church and Homosexuality.

A summary of Catholic teaching on this very timely matter – with citations – from the earliest days of the church – right up until today.

Read it 

Thanks to Ann Barnhardt for the tip – and an excellent, related article on her own site.

A study in differences: The state of the Catholic Church – and the world – before Vatican II – and after.

Before Vatican II:

Faith, reason, and grace-giving sacraments … in addition to almost 2,000 years of Catholic tradition, philosophy and scholarship … served to assist Catholics in making rational and morally upright life decisions … for their own sake, for the glory of God, for the good of the Catholic Church, and for the common good of all mankind.

After Vatican II:

Change has come to the Catholic Church. Virtually all that came before is now irrelevant.

Personal conscience … enlightened by modern secular thought … is king.

A disoriented/disordered Magisterium fails to provide a suitable and practical replacement for that which they permitted to be summarily discarded.

Many Catholics no longer have a sound basis for making rational and morally upright life decisions. Ditto for the rest of the world. Corruption abounds … in the Church … and at every level of society. The earth rapidly descends into chaos.

Welcome to the Brave New World!   

Editor’s note: There are some signs of a turn-around. Where there is grace … there is hope!

The only proper way for faithful Catholics to disagree with authentic church teachings.

Jesus is an expert healer of the blind – spiritual and otherwise

by Doug Lawrence

The only proper way for a faithful Catholic to disagree with authentic church teachings is to go to confession, apologize to God, receive absolution, and humbly leave the confessional spiritually renewed, with a firm purpose of amendment.

Next, in order to successfully mend our ways and reform our errant conscience, we undertake a thorough study of the relevant portions of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, coupled with a careful review of all related church documents.

This … along with full, faithful and regular participation in all the other work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Catholic Church, will serve to properly identify and clarify all of the pertinent issues involved.

From that point forward, faith and reason, along with a bit of help from other good, faithful, and well-educated Catholics (educated in authentic, traditional Catholicism … not the new, phony versions) will serve to order the struggle so as to (eventually) properly form the conscience, in the light of all God’s revealed truth.

The process may well take years, but what do we have to do that is more important?

The writings of the Saints confirm that spiritual struggle (always in good faith and always for the right reasons) is probably the very best way of eventually achieving Heaven.

Those who have managed to overcome serious personal shortcomings with the help of God’s grace, know that this is absolutely true … while those who prefer to disagree need only remember that denial is not just a river in Egypt!

Visit the blogroll (links) section of this website for all the necessary Catholic educational resources. Seek out Jesus Christ, the source and summit of our Christian existence, and encounter him regularly and personally, in and through the sacraments of the Catholic Church. Then … expect Jesus to begin to more fully reveal himself … his inestimable love … and his truth … to you … in many wonderful ways.

“You just have to catch the baby’s head. Don’t worry, it’s already dead. ”

As we’ve reported, a dozen pro-life nurses in New Jersey are fighting for their right to follow their conscience and not be forced to assist at abortions.

This quote in The Washington Post by one of the nurses stopped me in my tracks when I read it:

One of the nurses, Fe Esperanza R. Vinoya, said a manager told her: “You just have to catch the baby’s head. Don’t worry, it’s already dead.”

Can you imagine anything more horrific than being forced to “catch” a dead baby’s head? A baby who only minutes before was alive in its mother’s womb?

Read more

Editor’s note: Further proof that the depravity of the abortion promoters is bounded neither by humanity or civility, and they have regard for neither God or man.

Unfortunately, there is no app for courage or conscience.

Before a person can stand up to evil, he must first acknowledge that it exists.  But surveys of college students reveal how deeply our culture and institutions indoctrinate our children with moral relativism.  Most grow up believing that tolerance and diversity, and individual choice and privacy, are our highest ideals.

Tolerance and diversity are valuable.  But they are no substitute for authentic virtue.  And they rarely inspire people to risk their well-being to help those in need.

Read more

Philippine politician invokes “Spirit of Vatican II” to promote culture of death

Speaking as author and co-sponsor of the Senate version of the RH bill, Senator Santiago said the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), which convened from 1962 to 1965, has changed Church doctrines.

“With Vatican II, the seeds of a democratic revolution were sown. In the past, Catholics simply obeyed the bishops. But now, many Catholics are no longer willing to give blind obedience to the Church,” she said.

The senator said Humanae Vitae, the encyclical on which the Church bases its opposition to contraception, was based on the minority report. The majority report recognized that “in some cases, intercourse can be required as a manifestation of self-giving love” and not just for procreation.

She said the adoption of the minority report was opposed by some Catholic theologians. Santiago also cited a survey that found that 80 percent of Catholics in the United States do not follow Humanae Vitae.

“The teaching of the Catholic Church on contraception is one of the important reasons why the absolute authority of the Church has grown weaker over the years,” Santiago added.

Santiago, who has a master’s degree from the Maryhill School of Theology, said Humanae Vitae contradicts Vatican II, “which allowed for a wider basis for evaluating the morality of (sex).”

Santiago said contraception falls under liberation theology, which sees the Catholic Church as “an earthly community of human beings who have a mission that includes the struggle on behalf of justice, peace, and human rights.”

“I humbly submit that the struggle for an RH bill to protect the health and quality of life of the mother and child in the context of unspeakable poverty is part of liberation theology,” she said.

Santiago added that Vatican II taught the “primacy of conscience.”

“Conscience is inviolable, and the individual Catholic has a right to follow her own conscience, even when it is erroneous,” she said.

Editor’s note: There is so much wrong with this woman’s “take” on this that it’s hard to know where to begin!

The truth:

Vatican II did NOT change ANY church doctrines. Any “seed” of democratic revolution in the Catholic Church exists only in Ms. Santiago’s Marxist/Leninist mind. Humanae Vitae is absolutely consistent with 2000 years worth of church teachings, so it cannot be characterized as a “minority report”. Liberation theology has been thoroughly discredited by the Catholic Church and is totally illegitimate and heretical. Code words for abortion: “to protect the health and quality of life of the mother”.

As for conscience … Ms. Santiago should have said that the individual Catholic has a right to follow her own conscience, even when it is erroneous, all the way to Hell!

The Philippine RH bill is just another “big lie” being foisted on ordinary people by of the culture of death.

So much for the value of Ms. Santiago’s Master’s degree in theology!