Presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry is urgently pressing uncatechised or 'dumbed down' Catholic voters to believe he is a faithful Catholic that best represents the Church's defined teachings. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

He woos the ignorant Catholics, laity, and clergy alike, by reminding them he was an altar boy. Adolf Hitler, a/k/a Adolf Schicklegruber, was also a Catholic altar boy, so this snippet of past religiosity tells us nothing of the man today — except that Kerry certainly has come a long way from being an altar boy.

Furthermore, this 'Catholic' demagogue promises in the next sound bite that if elected he will assure that abortion remains legal in the U.S. for another generation. [1]

In George Orwell's book, "1984," it was stated, "Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past." John Kerry wants to control everybody's mind with his zigzagging on what he really believes.

Meanwhile, uncatechised Catholics sit in the pews listening to their bishops and pastors tell them Kerry best represents the Church's social teachings. Let us see if this is, in fact, true.

For instance, Kerry supports a woman's right to abortion; advocates embryonic stem cell research; and while he opposes same-sex marriage, he also opposes a constitutional amendment that would forbid such marriages.

In fact, John Kerry's beliefs are antithetical to the most important of all the Catholic Church's infallible teachings on faith and morals and he therefore has automatically separated him from the Catholic community. There is nothing Kerry will not say to get the Catholic vote.

So egregious to authentic Catholicism are Kerry's beliefs that twelve magisterial [2] Bishops have proclaimed that John Kerry cannot receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion anywhere within their diocesan boundaries. Several other Bishops have strongly warned their flock that if a Catholic were to vote for a candidate who promotes procured abortion, they will be committing a grave, mortal sin. [3]

While trying to decide an ending for this column, the temptation is too great for me not to use the following quote:

"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator" [Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 46]. Does this sound familiar?

NOTES:

1. Spoken at the January 21, 2003, NARAL Dinner, John Kerry promised: "I will not overturn Roe v Wade; I will not appoint judges hostile to 'choice;' I will allow poor women to have free abortions; I will never outlaw abortion; I will increase American taxpayer's dollars on population control efforts around the world."

2. Magisterial means those Bishops who teach as the Pope infallibly teaches. This is called the ‘ordinary magisterium.’ If a Bishop or priest teaches contrary to the Magisterium, that Bishop is asked to reconsider his beliefs which are outside of the Catholic community; next the cleric is disciplined and, if necessary, then sanctioned.

3. The distinguished list of Bishops to date (10/7/04) is: Archbishop Raymond L Burke of St. Louis, MO; Archbishop John F. Donoghue Archbishop of Atlanta, GA; Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln NE; Bishop Henry Rene Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, TX; Bishop Robert F. Vasa, Baker, OR; Bishop Joseph Galante of Camden, NJ; Bishop John M. Smith of Trenton, NJ; Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, CO; Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville, IN; Bishop Robert J. Baker Bishop of Charleston, SC; Bishop Peter J. Jugis Bishop of Charlotte, NC; Bishop John Y. Yanta, Bishop of Amarillo, TX.