Attention faithful Catholics: Are you prepared to be misled this election cycle?

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We see our Church being spit upon everyday in the secular media. You’ve most likely heard your fair share of anti-Catholic comments over the water cooler. No doubt you’ve have the opportunity to defend Holy Mother Church in a Facebook message thread.

How many times have you been called to share Catholic teaching and fell short in your attempts to diffuse certain red herring arguments? Have you noticed that too many of our fellow Catholics seem to be in the dark about what our Church teaches on the key issues of the day and how it should affect their vote?

Catholic Advocate will be in Des Moines this Saturday, April 14, to present a two-hour training session on how to positively promote authentic Catholic teaching in these situations.

Event Details:

Saturday, April 14 | 1:30 to 3:30 PM | The Franklin Community Center, 5110 Franklin Ave, Des Moines

Planning to attend? Register here

Don’t live anywhere near Des Moines? Head over to Catholic Advocate’s site and spend some time educating and preparing yourself better. Here’s a sampling of what you’ll find.

Ten Ways Catholic Voters Will Be Misled in 2012

(© 2012 Catholic Advocate)

1. In spite of the new “Introduction” to “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” the bishops’ document will be cherry-picked and repackaged into sound bites to justify voting for a candidate who supports abortion and same-sex marriage.
2. Pro-life Catholics will be labeled as “single issue voters” who don’t care about the larger social teaching of the Church, especially concern for the poor and vulnerable.
3. The budget passed by the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Paul Ryan (R, WI-01), a Catholic, will be relentlessly attacked as not caring about the poor because it proposed cuts and spending freezes to reduce the growing U.S. deficit that is hurting the economy.
4. “Progressive” Catholic groups will produce polling that supposedly shows Catholics disagree with Church teaching on the sanctity of life and marriage, implying those who agree are in the minority and “behind the times.”
5. Catholic politicians and leaders who support abortion and same-sex marriage will not be termed “dissenters” or “liberals” but “progressives” in order to make them seem more attractive to Catholic voters.
6. Catholic voters will be told the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama-care) did not contain federal funding for abortion.
7. Catholic voters will be told the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama-care) does not pose a threat to religious liberty, for example, the conscience of a Catholic health care worker.
8. Anyone supporting state collective bargaining reforms with public-sector unions, such as Wisconsin, is ignoring the importance of worker’s rights in Catholic social teaching.
9. Those Catholics who opposed President Bush and Senator McCain over Operation Iraqi Freedom will not make the same argument against Obama who increased the U.S. military in Afghanistan and the use of drone aircraft to perform executions.
10. The issue of immigration will be elevated to a level of importance equal to abortion and marriage with the only acceptable ‘Catholic’ position being support for specific pieces of legislation such as the ‘DREAM Act’ (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors).

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