Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 8:22pm

Dear President Trump

Dear President Trump, 

I have now begun my eighth decade on God’s good earth. I am a lifelong Catholic. 

Please do not give any more of my money to catholic bishops who defy the law. Please do not give any more of my money to catholic bishops who break the law.    Please do not give any more of my money, or any other citizen’s money, to these bishops’ dioceses, organizations, so-called “ministries,” so-called “charities,” or conferences which defy and/or break the law. 

I diligently avoid giving my money anymore, at any level, to such bishops, including at the parish level where they usually receive a diocesan “tax” amount from such donations. I will not support their illegal actions. 

Please be aware that these defiant, outlaw bishops and their supporters are  ignoring Church teaching (e.g., see below). These law-breaking bishops, their priests, and their employees in concert with them are also acting contrary to Jesus’s commands, contrary to the inspired words of God, and in opposition to Church tradition.  

My money, and the money of other taxpayers – which as President you have a sacred role to use in accord with law –  is not being used by them for “religious purposes.” It is being used to violate the law. Not only is this illegal, it is a scandal to the faithful.

Please, please, be a good steward of our money and stop, immediately, giving any more of it to these un-american, un-catholic, law-defying, law-breaking bishops. 

Very truly yours,

Guy McClung, Texas

 

 

 

Church teaching:

 

Immigration 

“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.” (#2241;  Catechism of the Catholic Church). 

“Man’s relations with foreigners are twofold: peaceful, and hostile: and in directing both kinds of relation the Law contained suitable precepts. . . . . With regard to these [who wished to enter another country and be admitted into its society] a certain order was observed. For they were not at once admitted to citizenship: just as it was law with some nations that no one was deemed a citizen except after two or three generations, as the Philosopher says (Polit. iii, 1). The reason for this was that if foreigners were allowed to meddle with the affairs of a nation as soon as they settled down in its midst, many dangers might occur, since the foreigners not yet having the common good firmly at heart might attempt something hurtful to the people. Hence it was that the Law prescribed in respect of certain nations  . . . that they should be admitted to the fellowship of the people after the third generation; whereas others (with whom their relations had been hostile, . . .) were never to be admitted to citizenship; while [others], who were yet more hostile to them, and had no fellowship of kindred with them, were to be held as foes in perpetuity . . .”  (St. Thomas Aquinas). 

 

Justice 

“The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with “communism” or “socialism.” She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of “capitalism,” individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for “there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market.” Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended. “ (# 2425; Catechism of the Catholic Church.) 

“Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. [Cf. Gen 1:28; GS 34; CA 31] Hence work is a duty: “If any one will not work, let him not eat.” (# 2427; Catechism of the Catholic Church). 

“The responsibility of the state. Economic activity, especially the activity of a market economy, cannot be conducted in an institutional, juridical, or political vacuum. On the contrary, it presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. Hence the principal task of the state is to guarantee this security, so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labors and thus feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly…. Another task of the state is that of overseeing and directing the exercise of human rights in the economic sector. However, primary responsibility in this area belongs not to the state but to individuals and to the various groups and associations which make up society.” (# 2431;  Catechism of the Catholic Church).

 

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Aqua
Aqua
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 12:43am

I hope to see the day when the Church is focused with one mind on glorifying God. And as part of that, also saving souls for Christ our King. And thereby leavening the politics of the world we live in. In that order.

Disconnect the State from the Church. Dry up its iniquitous Federal money supply. Cut off all funding for both their sakes.

I agree with your letter. Bring it all into the light. This is what President Trump is so good at.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 1:00am

Aqua wrote, “Disconnect the State from the Church”

In France, this was done by the Law of Separation (Loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des Eglises et de l’Etat)

This declares that “The Republic neither recognises, salaries nor subsidises any cult.” The payment by the State of Clerical salaries was abolished (42,324,933 fr or $8,464,986; current real value is $470,653,221)

State subsidies went back to Charlemagne. It begins with his ordinance, as King of the Franks, in a general assembly of his Estates, spiritual and temporal, in 778-779 – “Concerning tithes, it is ordained that every man give his tithe, and that they be dispensed according to the bishop’s commandment.” A Capitular for Saxony in 789 appointed tithes to be paid out of all public property, and that all men, “whether noble, or gentle, or of lower degree, should give according to God’s commandment, to the churches and priests, of their substance and labour : as God has given to each Christian, so ought he to repay a part to God.” A Capitular of 800 made the payment of tithes universal within the fiscal domain of the whole Frankish kingdom. We are told that the reading of this Capitular in Rome was interrupted by loud and repeated cries from Pope Leo III and the assembled clergy of “Life and victory to our ever-august Emperor!”
From this time onwards, therefore, we may say the civil law superseded any merely spiritual admonitions as to the payment of tithes. Their payment was no longer a religious duty alone it was a legal obligation, enforceable by the laws of the civil head of Christendom.
In France the Concordat of 1801 substituted clerical salaries for the dîme or teind, which had been abolished by the French Revolution in 1789.

Dc.Don Beckett
Dc.Don Beckett
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 1:43am

Maybe if the state payments by way of tax sharing were to be terminated in Germany, the heterodox/heretical cardinals – notably Kasper and Marx(karl’s socialist spawn? ) these apologies for Christs’s vicars would cease to hold so much sway in taking Germany into a second protestant revolt.

`Mary De Voe
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 6:01am

Sadly, the principle of separation of church and state is now being used to subjugate the church to the state and Christians to be disenfranchised of their First Amendment civil rights, innate human rights endowed by “their Creator”, unalienable human rights, that become our civil rights.
The Campaign for Human Development money was used to elect Obama. According to Raymond Arroyo of EWTN, 30% of that money goes to abortion providers.
Let us see to educating our constitutional Posterity in the Faith with our tithes.
Thank you Michael Paterson-Seymour
Thank you Guy McClung

James
James
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 11:58am

As a life long Roman Catholic I can attest to the fact that Roman Catholicism has been infested with a form of atheistic secular materialism that mirrors that which has transpired in our public education system, institutions of higher education and the Democrat party.
Mournfully Roman Catholicism as long as it subsists on Marxist third-world corruption requires no ear.
Follow the faith as taught in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Be wary of the episcopate. Avoid Bergoglio and his cartel like the plague.
Above all, withhold all funds. Left-wing fascist Germany can fill the coffers.

Andrew
Andrew
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 12:21pm

Here, here. Great letter. The human/institutional element of the mainstream Catholic Church since the 2VC has lost sight of its purpose. To the faithful in the pews it generally offers man-centered worship and weak, insipid homilies. To the poor – and this per its regulations and policies – Catholic Charities offers only material support, not the spiritual works of mercy. In many places Catholic Charities refuses to “proselytize”, nor do they provide accountability to their wards. They are oftentimes enablers to the destructive habits their recipients engage in, all the while determining to hide their lamp under a bushel because their “experts” in psychology seem to know better than Our Lord Himself that its better to *not* do what they do in the name of God and His Church. They have become like the salt that has lost its savor, worthy of being thrown out and trampled under foot.

John
John
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 2:51pm

Gary – I emailed President Trump the very same message several months ago, citing the overt politicization of the USCCB (“the Demoncrat Party at Prayer”) in opposition to the President’s program of restoring our national sovereignty. But did you notice the recent story that he is considering terminating all Catholic relief contracts?

Rod Halvorsen
Rod Halvorsen
Monday, May 28, AD 2018 9:06pm

Dear President Trump:

Please take Mr McClung’s letter dead seriously.

Sincerely,

Rod Halvorsen

PS: Don’t let the nonsense promoted by many Catholic Bishops steer you from our Savior Jesus Christ and His teachings which are found in the Catholic faith.

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