Catholic Post-Traumatic Election Syndrome

Here are some recent quotes from a number of people after the election from an email list of Catholics who supported the candidacy of John Kerry:

How can so many people in our nation be so underdeveloped, at such a low level of consciousness...

Most of the rest of the world was holding their collective noses and waiting for us to do the right thing and toss the selected imposter from the White House and rejoin the civilized world. Instead white trash...Christian fundamentalist zealots...managed to get Bush back into the White House...

America is polluted with puritans and idiots...

It appears the Catholics in Pennsylvania rallied for Kerry..thank you!

...there is only one God. But Bush's God is not my God. I'm in a crisis right now.

I'm listening to CNN describe the top issues that voters voted on. Morality and terrorism. Bush is immoral and he is a terrorist as far as I am concerned.

I'm stunned at the number of Catholics Bush has taken...he's got the majority of Catholics voting for him--when he's running against a Catholic! I am really saddened and sickened by this.

...if the Catholic vote had not been split, if Rome had not issued clearly pointed guidelines for reception at Mass for politicians, if someone hadn't suggested excommunication of Kerry... could Kerry have won?

I am very upset right now with many in the Church. I am upset with my diocese and with my parish. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do on Sunday. Why? John Kerry is a good Catholic.

How did Kerry lose Ohio?: white evangelicals voted in record numbers. That's the state of America. And white evangelicals do not like Catholics.

I believe wholeheartedly that the Catholics could have won this for Kerry (a fellow Catholic!) if we had stuck together like the evangelists did.

And now [that] Bush and the Republican party have succeeded in dividing Catholics, with the help of our Church leaders, and I can't tell you how sad and sick that makes me.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm convinced that our church leaders have just used all their clout to push this country into fascism.

WE NEED TO BEAR WITNESS to the evil [teaching the faith] our religious leaders have done.

Bush won the Catholic vote in Missouri by one point, which is interesting since St Louis was ground zero for Archbishop Burke's interventions.

Part of me believes that the Bishops have created another 1968 Humanae Vitae moment. They definitely crossed the line and it is clear that Catholics responded positively to Kerry when presented with an articulation of the Kerry Catholic view...

The nation has definitely caught a conservative wave and it is not a good thing.

...the religious right and the Catholic bishops may have handed the election to Bush...

We could have framed that issue [gay marriage] much better, defining it as a civil rights issue rather than infringing on sanctity issues and religious views.

I just heard Nancy Pelosi say it on NPR - GOP does not spell God.

All the radio programs are right wing haters, everything that comes out of their mouth is evil, yet they force their so called righteousness down everybody's throat, in their opinion they are the only ones that are American and righteous...how sickening.

I was upset by the fact that the parish I attend, and traditionally preaches a broad range of moral issues, chose to play anti-abortion hymns the Sunday before the election.

...bishop notes on abortion were read but no concern or action discussed on priests child abuse cases. I continue to vent but believe that the Catholic Church is trending into dangerous, hypocritical territory.

What in the world are anti-abortion hymns. abortion is not even in the Bible. thank goodness I have not been exposed to that, but I have not felt comfortable going to church in a few months.

I'm a Catholic, I'm against gay-marriage and abortion, I felt that George Bush represented me the best so I voted for him.

Too bad you don't care about the poor, the uninsured, the soldiers dying in an unjust war and all the others who are best represented by Kerry and his policies. You voted for Bush? You should be ashamed. Stay off our board.

Just imagine what it would have been like with the Pope and a Catholic president of the most powerful country in the world working together to promote the common good for the entire world. I, for one, am proud that I am not a "good" Catholic like the rest of you Pharisees.

Did you see this idiot's profile? http://profiles.yahoo.com/cnn_liberal_trash
(James Carville is a democrat on Crossfire on CNN, btw.) He obviously has nothing better to do than to come to our group to stir up trouble. If any more of his messages get through, it would probably be best to ignore him.

What do you think those bishops and priests would do if you went to them, petitioned them, whatever it takes, and demanded that they in turn demand that Bush push through a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, without regard to rape, incest or life of the mother, and that they do so with the same fervor that they went after voters of their parish.

i tend to hear the most virilent anti abortion anti liberal stuff at our rich parishes...

We, as part of a Catholic as well as secular Progressives must learn what the right wingers have used very well in terms of answering the call of "values"...

So far: George Bush has been "elected" twice and we've yet to see a legitimate election.

I am very depressed over this election...I thought there would be an epiphany...

I am angry at the Church but would never allow anyone else to make me change religion. I fear dark days ahead.

********** Updated with more
I thought is was so cute that my 6 year old son was so excited about the whole election ;he would ask me every couple minutes "Is John Kerry winning?" The next day my son woke up and asks me the same question. After telling him the sad news, he lowered his head and looked down with a somber look. That indeed was when I realized my hope for this country had just been shattered. The disilusionment on his face was heartbreaking. I wept.

The leaders of our Church are going to destroy this Church (while the born again Christians unite and become stronger) and I am once again struggling in my heart and praying over my feelings about itall. Right now I'm feeling like I never want to go back.

Prayer is the only solace right now. God is in charge, but she certainly has a lot of explaining to do. (My Emphasis)

John Kerry fought the good fight with truth and dignity. Our country will never know what they have lost. George W. Bush is a divider not uniter.

I really pity all the born-agains and other Christians who really had good intentions but are either a) misled b)brainwashed (bushwhacked) or c) just plain stupid. Seriously, did you see the one about how higher-IQ people tended to be
for Kerry and dumber people for bush?