Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Kathryn Lopez

Home
Catholic
Bristol Palin’s PSA for Confession

Bristol Palin’s PSA for Confession

Last updated on: April 4, 2012 at 4:06 pm by Kathryn Jean Lopez

Bristol Palin’s PSA for Confession 2012-04-04T16:06:27-05:00 Kathryn Jean Lopez

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I am a few days late to reading this, but it deserves a link, I think. Bristol Palin has a blog and wrote there about the president of the United States calling Georgetown Law activist Sandra Fluke. Addressed to President Obama, she blogged:

here’s why I’m a little surprised my phone hasn’t rung. Your $1,000,000 donor Bill Maher has said reprehensible things about my family. He’s made fun of my brother because of his Down’s Syndrome. He’s said I was “f—-d so hard a baby fell out.” (In a classy move, he did this while his producers put up the cover of my book, which tells about the forgiveness and redemption I’ve found in God after my past – very public — mistakes.)

If Maher talked about Malia and Sasha that way, you’d return his dirty money and the Secret Service would probably have to restrain you. After all, I’ve always felt you understood my plight more than most because your mom was a teenager. That’s why you stood up for me when you were campaigning against Sen. McCain and my mom — you said vicious attacks on me should be off limits.

Yet I wonder if the Presidency has changed you. Now that you’re in office, it seems you’re only willing to defend certain women. You’re only willing to take a moral stand when you know your liberal supporters will stand behind you.

But…

What if you did something radical and wildly unpopular with your base and took a stand against the denigration of all women… even if they’re just single moms? Even if they’re Republicans?

I mention this for a few reasons. One of them being: It does underscore, again, the crass politics this “Where are the women?”/”War on Women” nonsense is about.

Another is: These are real people with real struggles in politics and media/public life. When we are all watching them like it is a running television series, that can be easy to forget.

Also because I only found the phone-call post because someone brought this one, about this holiest of weeks, to my attention. The young Palin writes: “it’s not about what you’ve done, it’s about what’s been done for you.”

It obviously was not written as an explicit call to Catholics to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but why not read it that way?

As a priest friend always reminds me: “live the present with God, leaving the past to His mercy and the future to His providence.”

Whatever it is we’ve done, God wants to give us His mercy. What are we waiting for?

Last year, New York’s Cardinal Dolan wrote in a pastoral letter:

God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to Himself, and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you of yours sins, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

How easily those words come to the lips of every priest; how ingrained they are in his mind; how deeply do they reside in his heart! The consoling, simple words of absolution are powerful beyond imagining!

To pronounce the sacramental absolution by which our sins are forgiven is one of primary reasons the Church and the priesthood exist. The Church is an instrument of mercy and reconciliation, for Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church, came to reconcile us to the Father. We call this sacrament “penance,” “confession,” or “reconciliation”. Call it what you will, the sacrament is essential for the life of the Catholic disciple. Every Catholic should be eager to hear those words; every priest should be eager to say them.

In so many churches in the next 48 hours, the confessional light is on.

Sin is with us; if we deny that, we are cheating ourselves; it means the truth does not dwell in us. No, it is when we confess our sins that [God] forgives our sins, ever true to his word, ever dealing right with us, and all our wrong-doing is purged away. If we deny that we have sinned, it means that we are treating him as a liar; it means that his word does not dwell in our hearts. (1 John 1:8-9).

Some links:

Catholics Come Home

Why Go to Confession?

Mercy and Abortion

Catechism on Reconciliation & Healing

Practical Tips on Confession

Timothy Cardinal Dolan

Previous Post

April 4, 2012

Telling the Truth

Next Post

April 4, 2012 St. Thomas More & Us

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category B16 Christian Persecution Christianity Today Culture Good Links/Must Read HHS Mandate Holy Land Must Reads Prayer Religious Liberty Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

A hand wrote on the palace wall during a feast, and I interpreted the message: numbered, weighed, divided. What were these three Aramaic words?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Holy, Holy, Holy Babylon, Media, Persia Ichabod, Ebenezer, Beulah Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin