The Supreme Court Decided Your Silence Can Be Used Against You

Alexander Abad-Santos 18,797 Views Jun 17, 2013

A nation continues to wait for final word on the Supreme Court's Big Four cases this term — voting rights, affirmative action, DOMA, and Proposition 8 — but the justices' closest decision arrived first on Monday, in a 5-4 ruling on Salinas v. Texas in which the conservative members of the Court and Anthony Kennedy determined that if you remain silent before police read your Miranda rights, that silence can and will be held against you. Here's what that means.

Basically, if you're ever in any trouble with police (no, we don't condone breaking laws) and want to keep your mouth shut, you will need to announce that you're invoking your Fifth Amendment right instead of, you know, just keeping your mouth shut. "Petitioner's Fifth Amendment claim fails because he did not expressly invoke the privilege against self-incrimination in response to the officer's question," reads the opinion from Justice Samuel Alito, which Justice Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts backed. Justices Thomas and Scalia had a concurring opinion while the remaining four Supremes dissented.

The Salinas case revolves around Genovevo Salinas, a man who was convicted of a 1992 murder of two brothers. Salinas was brought in for police questioning in January 1993. According to the dissenting opinion of Justice Breyer, he was called in to "to take photographs and to clear him as [a]suspect" and Salinas was questioned without being read his Miranda rights:

Because he was "free to leave at that time," [App.14], they did not give him Miranda warnings. The police then asked Salinas questions. And Salinas answered until the police asked him whether the shotgun from his home "would match the shells recovered at the scene of the murder [Id., at 17.] At that point Salinas fell silent.

That silence was then used against Salinas in court, and he was eventually convicted. But the bigger question in revisiting this 20-year-old murder case was whether or not prosecutors were allowed to point to that silence, and win a case using Salinas' own silence against him.

You know what's a much more recent wrinkle to the potential precedent effect of today's ruling? A case like that of the younger Boston Marathon suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who reportedly sat through 16 hours of questioning before he was read his Miranda rights. Had Tsarnaev, who was recovering from serious injuries at the time, remained silent during questioning without explicitly invoking his Fifth Amendment, prosecutors could, under the Salinas ruling, now use that silence to their advantage.

It all seems ridiculously terrifying, this idea that in order to claim your Fifth Amendment, you now need to know how to call the on-the-fly legal equivalent of "safesies." Your right to remain silent just got more complicated, and it will require potential criminals to be more informed about their protections and the linguistic details on how to invoke them. "But does it really mean that the suspect must use the exact words 'Fifth Amendment'? How can an individual who is not a lawyer know that these particular words are legally magic?" Breyer wrote. 

Pope Admits 'Gay Lobby' Exists in Vatican

 

                                                                               Tuesday, 11 Jun 2013 11:44 AM

By Edward Pentin

More w

· 

·Tweet

· 

·inShare1

Pope Francis has acknowledged the existence of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican and says he is consulting advisers on what to do about it.

Speaking informally to a confederation of religious groups from Latin America and the Caribbean, he said: “In the Curia, there are also holy people, really, there are holy people.”

But, he added: “There also is a stream of corruption, there is that as well, it is true... The 'gay lobby' is mentioned, and it is true, it is there... We need to see what we can do.”
 
The Pope’s words, reported on the Rorate Caeli website, follow the completion of a secret report on the leaking of Vatican documents. The commission report, led by three retired cardinals, was presented earlier this year to Benedict XVI and Francis.

The contents of the dossier are unknown, but it’s thought to implicate a small number of Vatican officials in “gay lobby” activity as well as some financial malpractice.

Rumors over the existence of such a group in the Vatican have circulated for years and the extent of the problem is thought to have partly influenced Benedict to resign. But until now, successive popes never have publicly acknowledged it.

Some Catholics believe such a lobby pervades much of the Church in the West, weakening its proclamation of the Gospel and compromising the Church’s integrity and authority.

They also blame bishops for not speaking out more forcefully against such groups.

Pope Francis did not say how he would tackle such a lobby in the Curia, the church's central government. But during the June 6 meeting with the Latin American and Caribbean group he raised the subject of reforming the Vatican — something, he said, that “almost all Cardinals asked for” in the meetings leading up to the conclave that selected him as Pope in March.

“I also asked for it,” he said. “I cannot promote the reform myself — [on] these matters of administration I am very disorganized, I have never been good at this — but the cardinals of the Commission will move it forward.”

He asked those present to pray for him “that I make mistakes the least possible.”

One of Francis' first acts as Pope was to create a commission of eight cardinals who will help him on Church governance including curial reform. The commission is to meet for the first time in October, although Francis already is consulting them and others.

Informed Vatican sources tell Newsmax that Francis has been holding a series of brainstorming sessions with Vatican-based cardinals and other senior Vatican officials on how to reform the Curia.

Read Latest Breaking News 

Judge Jeanine Pirro Tours a Week Full of Obama-Regime Scandals

Biblical Christianity: How Should We Respond to End Time Persecution?

 

 

Mat 5:1  And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Mat 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 5:4  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Mat 5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Mat 5:6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Mat 5:7  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Mat 5:8  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Mat 5:9  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Mat 5:10  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 5:11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Mat 5:13  Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Some act as though the 2^nd amendment was the word of God… but this IS the word of God…

Mat 5:38  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Mat 5:40  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.

Mat 5:41  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

Mat 5:42  Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Mat 5:46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

Mat 5:47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Mat 5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

And about our prepper mentality…

Mat 6:25  Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Mat 6:26  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Mat 6:27  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

Mat 6:28  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

Mat 6:29  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Mat 6:30  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Mat 6:31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Mat 6:32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Mat 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Mat 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

WWJD: Shouldn’t we take Jesus as our example of how to respond to oppression?

Isa 53:7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

But Jesus told them to take swords, right?...

Joh 18:10  Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

Joh 18:11  Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

The regarding the passivity of his disciples…

Joh 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Joh 18:37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

Will this be talking about you, or some other Christians?...

Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Let’s return to the faith once delivered unto the saints… not just the doctrine, but the real trusting faith that God has us and all others in his hands.  We can’t lose if we are obedient unto death… or life if that’s how it works out.

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Rom 13:2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

(Even the ones YOU think God doesn't ordain... the word says He does.) Read the rest of Romans 13 to see the government even has scriptural authority of the death penalty, as I understand it.  Read it for yourself.

 

Make Room for Islamistgate: The Obama Administration’s New Scandal

by Barry Rubin

June 5, 2013

 

Up to now the Obama Administration has faced three big scandals—the IRS, the bugging of AP and Fox, and Benghazi. And now here is scandal Number 4:

For the last four years the Obama Administration has conducted a major “outreach” program to Islamic groups in the United States and in the Middle East. Patrick Poole has been investigating this project and in a comprehensive article now presents the full scoop and scope of what’s been going on. His article, “Blind to Terror: The U.S. Government’s Disastrous Muslim Outreach Efforts and the Impact on U.S. Policy” in the new, Summer, issue of MERIA Journal is a gamechanger

 

You may think that you know about this subject but it goes far beyond what you have heard about. The majority of groups and individuals promoted by the Obama Administration have been radical Islamists, particularly Muslim Brotherhood cadre, and more than occasionally people involved in terrorist activity.

 

Moderate Muslims have been neglected and isolated by this project which has helped the radicals, Islamists, and pro-terrorists gain hegemony in the Muslim community in America.

Again, you may think that you know this story but it is far more extensive than has ever before been revealed. Often, the White House and FBI have granted access and worked with those who were simultaneously being investigated on serious charges of terrorism.

The whole “outreach” program has been a farce and it would be charitable to describe it as incompetent on the part of the Obama Administration.  Patrick Poole pulls all of the material together for the first time and shows serious flaws that have endangered Americans in scores of cases.

 

Radicals have been given credentials as moderates, been provided with information that should have remained secret, been allowed to advise and influence U.S. policy. The kind of government mishandling of terrorist threats that characterize the Fort Hood case and the Boston bombing has been business as usual.

 

Here is a portion of Patrick Poole’s article:

“When President Obama hosted his annual Iftar dinner in August 2010 to commemorate the Muslim celebration of Ramadan, the list of invitees published by the White House was curiously missing the names of several attendees – all of whom were top leaders of organizations known to be purveyors of jihadist ideology and implicated by federal prosecutors in financing terrorism.

 

“But it wasn’t like they had crashed the party. In fact, one of the individuals missing on the official White House list, Mohamed Majid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was pictured in a news service photograph sitting at the front table just a few feet from the president as he spoke When Majid was hailed by Time Magazine in November 2005 as a “moderate Muslim cleric” that was helping the FBI fight terrorists, he quickly published an open letter to his congregation on the mosque’s website assuring his congregants that he was doing no such thing stating that his relationship with the FBI was a one-way street only to communicate Muslim community concerns – not to report on individuals suspected of terrorist activity.[iii]

 

“It was just a few years ago the Attorney General of the United States was canceling Muslim outreach events for the sole reason that Majid would be present at the meeting, because the Department of Justice had just named ISNA as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in American history.

 

“But Majid’s connection to terrorism goes back even farther than that, since the offices of the mosque he leads, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, were raided by U.S. Customs authorities in March 2002 in a wide-sweeping terror finance investigation. In an affidavit requesting a search warrant for the raids, Customs Agent David Kane testified that Majid’s mosque was being used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for the targeted terror finance network that shared offices withADAMS.An appendix to the Customs Service affidavit also names eleven ADAMS Center officials as targets of their terror finance investigation.And yet Majid and the ADAMS Center are still considered legitimate outreach partners by the FBI.

 

“This was just the most recent episode in the disastrous attempts at outreach to the Muslim community since the 9/11 attacks. And with the release in 2011 of President Obama’s strategic plan to combat “violent extremism” to expand outreach to these same terror-tied groups, the present administration seems intent on compounding the disaster wrought by previous administrations.”

 

The results of this investigation should be a serious embarrassment for the Obama Administration and should be distributed as widely as possible. It involves the expenditure of millions of dollars of taxpayer money and the promotion of the forces most dangerous to American interests and to the American people in the world today.

 

http://worldviewweekend.com/news/article/make-room-islamistgate-obama-administration%E2%80%99s-new-scandal

and from:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/12058

*The following information was provided by Walter, along with links to the articles.  “Two Secret Service special agents came to my residence on 19 March 2009, as directed by James Russel Dedrick, United States Attorney for the Eastern District, Tennessee. Dedrick and his assistant, attorney Edgar Schmutzer, triggered the Secret Service alert and reaction upon receipt of my federal criminal complaint naming Mr. Obama in commission of the crime of TREASON. Dedrick reported me a threat to the imposter Obama.

The two Secret Service agents, escorted by two local police officers, arrived at eight minutes before 3 o’clock in the afternoon. They all left ‘bout an hour later.  I’m still here.
It’s been two months.  Mr. Obama admits his TREASON.

Today, at 12:40 p.m. Justice Department officials visited this website as captured and recorded in the posting beneath. Their search took them directly to (jaghunters.blogspot.com) and its comments.  The search words used: “WHO CAN BRING CRIMINAL COMPLAINT?”

I’m able to report to you that federal government officials of all descriptions, and especially those at Mr. Holder’s Justice Department, are working furiously to make the federal criminal complaint naming Mr. Obama disappear.  I opine one tactic is to quash complaints quietly and without further notice by disqualifying people attempting to remove Mr. Obama from office by force of law.  What more do you need to see or hear?

 Our Constitution no longer works. Our government, however contemporaneously described, has turned against its people.

Our response must be to force law enforcement officials to do their jobs. It’s that simple.

 

Good Deeds, Not Belief In Christ, Required For Salvation Says New Pope

                                                 Pope Francis; image@CatholicEWUK

Pope Francis made some ears perk up today during his homily by saying that even atheists have salvation through their good deeds.

In a story he told of a Catholic having a conversation with a priest, the Pope made clear that salvation is found through good deeds, not belief in Christ.

“Just do good, and we’ll find a meeting point,” said the Pontiff.

“The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone!”

Of course, this is nothing new to Christianity. Anyone who has read the New Testament knows that Jesus gave himself for the sins of all, not just some. But it is a pretty big deal when the Pope says it, especially after the reign of Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict the XVI. Pope Benedict was known for his much more conservative approach, moving to restore the Catholic Church to where it stood before the Second Vatican Council, the meetings in the 1960s that gave us the modernized Church we know today.

Part of Pope Benedict XVI’s platform was a controversial move to reaffirm the Catholic Church as the only true path to Christ, the only actual ‘church’ to be founded by the Savior, and the only one to recognize the Pope. Since it was well known that “outside the church there is no salvation,” this, of course, left many other Christians feeling like they were “second-class believers.” But this, by no means, was Pope Benedict XVI’s idea alone. Going all the way back to Pope Innocent III in 1215, the idea that there is only salvation within the Catholic Church has been a primary strategy for retaining and growing church membership.

In saying that belief in Christ is not necessary for salvation, Pope Francis is abandoning that strategy altogether. However, by embracing everyone and refraining from demonizing atheists or chastising non-Catholics, the Pope may be on the right track toward delivering more believers to a Church that many, even some Catholics, have, thus far, seen as outdated.

Biblicall Christianity says:

Joh 10:1  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

Joh 10:2  But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

Joh 10:3  To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

Joh 10:6  This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.

Joh 10:7  Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

Joh 10:8  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Joh 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Joh 1010:  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Joh 10:11  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Joh 10:12  But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

Joh 10:13  The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

Joh 10:14  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

Joh 10:15  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

Joh 10:16  And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Joh 10:17  Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

Joh 10:18  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Tit 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Tit 3:6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

   

The Power Behind Obama's Throne:

Roman Catholics Running our Government as of 2006:

By Greg Szymanski
Arctic Beacon.com
11-9-6

To illustrate how President Reagan sold out his country by re-establishing diplomatic relations with the Vatican, read this portion of Chapter 1. Subliminal Rome, from Tupper Saussy's book, Rulers of Evil.

  When a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter announced in his 1992 Time Magazine cover story that a "conspiracy" binding President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II into a "secret, holy alliance" had brought about the demise of communism, at least one reader saw through the hype.

snippet of an article:

  Professor Carol A. Brown of the University of Massachusetts fired off a letter to Time's editors saying,

  Last week I taught my students about the separation of church and state. This week I learned that the Pope is running U.S. foreign policy. No wonder our young people are cynical about American ideals.

  What Brown had learned from Carl Bernstein I had discovered for myself over several years of private investigation: the papacy really does run United States foreign policy, and always has.

  Yes, Bernstein noted that the leading American players behind the Reagan/Vatican conspiracy, to a man, were "devout Roman Catholics" ­ namely, William Casey (Director, CIA), Richard Allen (National Security Advisor), Judge William Clark (National Security Advisor), Alexander Haig (Secretary of State), Vernon Walters (Ambassador-at-Large), and William Wilson (Ambassador to the Vatican State).

  But the reporter neglected to mention that the entire Senate Foreign Relations committee was governed by Roman Catholics, as well. Specifically, Senators Joseph Biden (Subcommittee on European Affairs), Paul Sarbanes (International Economic Policy, Trade, Oceans, and Environment), Daniel P. Moynihan (Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs), John Kerry (Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Communications) and Christopher Dodd (Western Hemi-sphere and Peace Corps Affairs).

  Bernstein would have been wandering off-point to list the Roman Catholic leaders of American domestic policy, such as Senate majority leader George Mitchell and Speaker of the House Tom Foley. In fact, when the holy alliance story hit the stands, there was virtually no arena of federal legislative activity, according to The 1992 World Almanac of US Politics, that was not directly controlled by a Roman Catholic senator or representative. The committees and subcommittees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives governing:

 

commerce, communications and telecommunications, energy, medicine, health, education and welfare, human services, consumer protection, finance and financial institutions, transportation, labor and unemployment, hazardous materials, taxation, bank regulation, currency and monetary policy, oversight of the Federal Reserve System, commodity prices, rents services, small business administration, urban affairs, European affairs, Near Eastern & South Asian affairs, terrorism/narcotics/ international communications, international economic/trade/ oceans/environmental policy, insurance, housing, community development, federal loan guarantees, economic stabilization measures (including wage and price controls), gold and precious metals transactions, agriculture, animal and forestry industries, rural issues, nutrition, price supports, Food for Peace, agricultural exports, soil conservation, irrigation, stream channelization, floodcontrol, minority enterprise, environment and pollution, appropriations, defense, foreign operations, vaccines, drug labeling and packaging, drug and alcohol abuse, inspection and certification of fish and processed food, use of vitamins and saccharin, national health insurance proposals, human services, legal services, family relations, the arts and humanities, the handicapped, and aging ­ in other words, virtually every aspect of secular life in America ­ came under the chairmanship of one of these Roman Catholic laypersons:

  Frank Annunzio, Joseph Biden, Silvio Conte, Kika De la Garza, John Dingell, Christopher Dodd, Vic Fazio, James Florio, Henry Gonzalez, Thomas Harkin, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, John LaFalce, Patrick Leahy, Charles Luken, Edward Madigan, Edward Markey, Joseph McDade, Barbara Mikulski, George Miller, Daniel Moynihan, John Murtha, Mary Rose Oaka,r David Obey, Claiborne Pell, Charles Rangel, Dan Rostenkowski, or Edward Roybal.

  Vatican Council II's Constitution on the Church (1964) instructs politicians to use their secular offices to advance the cause of Roman Catholicism. Catholic laypersons, "whoever they are, are called upon to expend all their energy for the growth of the Church and its continuous sanctification," and "to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth" (iv, 33).

  Vatican II further instructs all Catholics "by their competence in secular disciplines and by their activity [to] vigorously contribute their effort so that the goods of this world may be more equitably distributed among all men, and may in their own way be conducive to universal progress in human and Christian freedom and [to] remedy the customs and conditions of the world, if they are an inducement to sin, so that they all may be conformed to the norms of justice and may favor the practice of virtue rather than hinder it" (iv, 36).

 

To Read the rest of the original posting please go here: