(Death, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell)
Links to Churches and Religions
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
|
|
A Letter to President Bush
Fr. C. John McCloskey, III
(Additional articles by Father McCloskey)
4/25/01
A Letter to the President from St. Thomas More
Dear President Bush: Congratulations on your election. I think the fact that your election was finally certified by the Supreme Court on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is significant. Many of us here in heaven were following your election battle closely, having laid siege to heaven, pleading for your cause.
That your cause triumphed — barely — is a tribute to the
power of prayer and the special intercession of Our Lady, the Patroness of the
Unborn.
Of course, as I hope you know, His Holiness Pope John Paul II named me (in an
apostolic letter on October 31, 2000), the Patron Saint of Statesmen and
Politicians. (To be quite honest, I much prefer being the patron of statesmen
rather than politicians, but I do realize from my own experience that often
times you have to act the latter to get to be the former!) As a result I have
been hearing from many more people who need my help down there on earth.
I did want to write to give you some advice, based on my life and experience, so
that you can be a great Christian statesman not only for the U.S., but also for
the world. Don't worry about my sinning through pride. It is all Love up here.
By the way, be sure to make a visit to Rome soon to meet with the Holy Father
and see what advice he gives you. Also take a good look at the claims of the
Church to be the one, truly holy, catholic, and apostolic. Speak to your brother
Jeb and ask him why he came into full communion with the Church. Delivering
Florida will not be the most important favor he can grant you.
A good place to start is to see what the Holy Father, Our Lord's vicar on earth,
says about me and see what you can learn from that. Take a look at the Pope's
formal proclamation about me. What is most important in your new life as
President will be the amount of time you dedicate to prayer, both for your own
holiness and for the example you set for your countrymen.
I know that you pray and read the Holy Scriptures. Continue to do so now more
than ever. Prayer is all-powerful, and the courageous decisions you will make in
favor of "the culture of life" (thanks for using the phrase in your debates and
speeches) will come from the fortitude found in prayer and the example of Christ
you find in the New Testament. You will undoubtedly have your own "Agony in the
Garden," as I did in the Tower of London when the world was telling me to give
in to political expediency rather than adhere to my conscience and moral
integrity. If I had not persevered in prayer, I would most likely be writing
this letter from a different place!
Next, take care of your family first and foremost. Your wife, Laura, and your
two daughters should be your first priority along with your extended family. The
Pope said of me, "Throughout his life he was an affectionate and faithful
husband and father, deeply involved in his children's religious, moral and
intellectual education. His house offered a welcome to his children's spouses
and his grandchildren, and was always open to his many young friends in search
of the truth or of their own calling in life."
America will only prosper if it is a country that genuinely treats the family as
the guarantor of the respect for "the dignity of the human person" and "the
sacredness of human life from conception until a natural death." If these
priorities were established, it will be said of you as well as of me that "his
life teaches that government is above all an exercise of virtue. Unwavering in
this rigorous moral stance, this . . . statesman placed his own public activity
at the service of the person, especially if that person was weak or poor; he
dealt with social controversies with a superb sense of fairness; he was
vigorously committed to favoring and defending the family; he supported the
all-round education of the young. His profound detachment from honors and
wealth, his serene and joyful humility, his balanced knowledge of human nature
and of the vanity of success, his certainty of judgment rooted in faith: these
all gave him that confident inner strength that sustained him in adversity and
in the face of death. What enlightened his conscience was the sense that man
cannot be sundered from God, nor politics from morality."
Now all of this may seem unattainable, but I, who knew myself to be a weak man
full of sins, defects, and faults that were not so evident to the public (but
were to my wives)! was able through God's great graces to win the crown of
martyrdom and give an example that still shines after almost 500 years. The
graces will be there for you too as long as you are the country's "good servant
and God's first." All the rest will follow.
You don't have to write back. You can talk to me any time you want. As a
reminder, I will make sure that one of my friends down there gives you a
beautiful reproduction of my portrait (better than the one by my friend Holbein
)! from a stained glass window that is only a couple of blocks away from your
new home on Pennsylvania Avenue. I understand well the great challenges before
you and will do my best to help by interceding for you before the Authority.
Your Patron and new friend in Christ,
(St.) Thomas More
Patron of Statesmen and Politicians
(Fr. McCloskey would like to hear from you. You may write to him at
Frcjm@aol.com or visit his online store at www.cicdc.org.)
