Editorial: Newtown is Our Town. Mourning the Massacre, Considering America's Culture of Death Comments
A visibly shaken Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told us all, as we hung on his every word, that "evil visited this community today and it's too early to speak of recovery." He was absolutely correct. This has become America's tragedy. We all know deep within that those little children are our children as well. Evil visited the entire Nation on December 14, 2012. It is causing us to pause and examine ourselves. Continue Reading
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Okay, I have to weigh in here.
So much stuff going back and forth over the Newtown tragedy.
The facts are clear even at this point.
Those who argue against assault weapons ignore the fact that the shooter had two perfectly legal handguns with him capable of inflicting death and destruction.
Those who want to scream at the attacks on the second amendment either have no sense of timing or no sense of shame and regret. This is simply not the time
While personally I don’t believe that anyone outside of the military has any business with a war weapon in their possession I also recognize that the government never knows when to stop. There is no legitimate citizen use for an assault rifle. It will not prevent the government from becoming tyrannical. We enable that more and more every four years like clockwork. Citizens armed with assault weapons cannot stop a government armed with sophisticated bombs, missiles, drones and the like. The end result is mass bloodshed. We are seeing that in Syria and other places now. You cannot hunt with one unless you like your meat shredded before cooking it.
I also abhor the freedoms we have already given up in the name of security. I am not willing to yield any more rights to this immoral and corrupt government.
This kind of thing did not happen in the past. We came through the 60s and 70s with a whole host of pharmaceutical and herbal intoxicants on board and did not take guns and attack people. (except Manson and he was psychotic) There were lines drawn and you did not cross them. We had civil unrest in the streets but there was no armed confrontation except on the part of the government.
The answer is not in legislation. Legislation would not have stopped this monster from shooting his equally crazy mother and then going off and cowardly murdering babies. It may have altered his weapon but not his goal and not the deadly outcome. A Glock in each hand is as lethal as a .223 up close.
For the answer we may have to look at ourselves. It may have started when we took God and prayer out of the schools and turned our backs on Him. For those of you who are overly sensitive to the use of or reference to God well, that’s too bad. However let us be sensitive to your feelings on the subject. When that occurred we simultaneously took moral education out of the schools. Our moral compass was based on Judeo-Christian principles and ethics. It became offensive and judgmental to brand anything as unethical or immoral or “wrong”. In just two generations we have completely removed any moral measuring stick from consideration and have bred a generation who have little or no guidance in what is socially acceptable and socially relevant behavior. We have relegated that role to the home of which large majorities are broken. We have centered the education in homes where nobody has seen the inside of a church except at some funerals and some never at all. We have abandoned our societal duties and despite one liberal’s cry of “It takes a village” we have hid behind political correctness to end up where we are now.
If you plant a field of corn you will have a few weeds show up’
If you plant a field of weeds you will not be growing corn.
I hate to be bleak but if these values are not instilled in you from your first breath then they are unattainable later in life. There is simply no basis in your basic moral core on which to build them.
@DLL
You are correct, but please you and anybody else please don't misunderstand me.
MY HEART IS IN TATTERS FOR THESE CHILDREN AND THEIR MOTHERS!
BUT WE SHOULD FEEL THE SAME WAY FOR THE UNBORN!
My anger arose from those who claim to be in sorrow, but totally ignore the great sin of abortion. THEY ARE HYPOCRITES!
I was trying to make light of their hypocrisy so that their eyes may be opened.
Also, our prayers should be not only for the victims, but also for the perpetrators, for not doing so, also makes us hypocrites.
As we do also for the conversion of so-called abortion doctors and mass murderers like obama, and his accomplices, the 50% of so-called Catholics that voted for him.
It is up to God how to judge the heart. For He is the only one that can read it without error.
God bless.
Not only are you wrong in everything, but dangerous, calling Church authorities to "give ground" to your ignorant presumptions. What gives you the idea I voted for Obama anyway? What gives you the idea that I live in USA for that matter? Judgmental much? An argument can be made that people who voted for Obama are excommunicated (Latae sententiae)? Upon which grounds? No, wait don't even bother answering that,
I don't care really. And as for "God punishing the wicked" if you had any notions on exegetical techniques, or the "sitz im leben" of the peculiar places you cling on to, you would be singing a different song. God is not evil, vengeful or judgmental, He does not wish for any soul to be lost or to suffer. When you get that through your "holier the thou" attitude then you may see how wrong, twisted and backward your way of thinking is.
And if we are to follow your line of reasoning, that this is God's punishment for Obama's reelection let's see where it takes us.
Murder in itself is an act of evil. A moral act that is evil and of free will, the definition of mortal sin. The kind of sin, that tares the connection between God and his creation. If God decided to punish humans by murdering or, by allowing the murder of children, He is guilty of the sin of Murder. Which cannot be because God is Love, pure Goodness, therefore He cannot be in any way connected to this act. And anyone who paints God as an architect of these events is not only wrong, but a heretic.
There is no collective guilt, children are not to be blamed for the sins of their parents, if they are, you have effectively denied humanity free will and undone everything the Church has done during the last 2000 years in Her fight for the dignity of man, as an Image of God.
So far, we have a god that is capable of evil, willing to commit murder to prove a point, and no freedom of choice, good work! You are not a Catholic, nor a Christian, you are lost my brother, but there is hope for You and me.It's never too late.
Thank you Fr. Matthew Habiger. I am a sinner too . Keep in mind that Adam was 16 years old when Obama was elected and is now 20. Four year of hope and change (worries) have had very bad results.
I watch President Obama's speech last night and I'am proud I voted for him.I can not imagine Ken Doll Mitt Romney handling a situation as well! If the President uses this sad advent to ban assault guns well he learned from the master President Bush ,Bush that used the 9-11 attack to jinni up support for the Iraq war a country that had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks a war that cost tens of thousands of lives American and Iraqi.
I have only a question for the President, for catholic's, christian's, Jew's,and atheist that support abortion, what age Mr. President is it ok to love a child? We know from your actions and statements that children are a punishment up to and after birth, your support for killing babies after a failed abortion attempt. We know you show remorse at age 6, so when can we start to love them in your world, 1-2-3-4-5, pro-abortion President, catholic's, christian's, Jew' s and atheist? Now come to grips with that question. I Love them when God creates them.
I'll leave the arguing about guns to the political class and the souls of the innocent victims to a loving God. But I will, along with the rest of you, have the responsibility for electing public officials who are more interested in looking good than doing good for the people they represent. I live near Virginia Tech, and our public officials found that untreated mental illness was the primary cause of that shooting. They enacted needed improvements to public mental health treatment programs and ... two years later cut the budget for these programs to spend our tax dollars elsewhere. As long as we continue to elect politicians who only care about power and spend our hard earned taxes on getting reelected, we will have shootings because we get the kind of government we deserve.
This is the most compassionate article I have read so far regarding the CT School Massacre. Deacon Fournier is right to address the fact that we are all in this together. What happened in Newtown, CT could happen in any global community anywhere in the world. I appreciate it that he takes it a step further to say that the unborn are also our children, and they do not deserve the tragedy of abortion. Ever!
In as much as I believe in silver linings, I am confident that this tragedy has softened the hearts of people around the world for children, and most hopefully, subsequently, the unborn. May compassion infuse our culture eternally, as we heal and grow through this heinous tragedy, allowing us to embrace and cultivate the Culture of Life, and find new ways to identify and eradicate the Culture of Death.
I am wondering, does he have a psychiatrist, what medication was prescribed? Could it be side effect of the drug he is taking?
R.I.P., innocent souls!
It's not quite clear why the President Obama came to Newtown, while there were already at work bunches of psychologists (crisis intervention teams), police and other agents, and the Governor with the news reporters. He is so diligent in visiting in person all the sites of recent mass killings!
The highest official generally visits the places of running or potential mass disorder. At the same time, there wasn't any high-ranking religious authority having visited the scene!
It's not about only the U.S.; it's global epidemic. Indeed, the Governor Maloy is right; the evil visited your nation and the whole world; he just knew where he will be most visible.