Letter From a Catholic
by Warren Sweeney
Issue 115 - September 24, 2008

My name is Warren Sweeney. You do not know me. I am neither famous nor a celebrity – just an average, every day Catholic American like you.

Let me tell you a little about myself.

I am from the Bronx, NY. My Dad was a Teamster and a Marine, with four sons, prepared to participate in the invasion of Japan when WWII ended. My oldest brother was a Marine who served in Korea right after the end of the war there. Another brother served in the Army and retired as a NYC Fire Department Captain, and the third served in the Army Airborne and retired as a Captain of the NYC Police Department.

Mom raised us four boys while holding down her job at the A&P warehouse. I always thought I got my people-organizing and leadership skills from my Dad, who was a founding member and officer of a NYC Teamster union local and, afterwards, a union business agent. But then I remembered that Mom was always leading the girls at work, running their bowling league, and, when the A&P closed their Bronx warehouse, organizing them to charter a bus to get them to upstate New York to keep their jobs.

I attended Catholic grammar and high schools and was taught by Dominican Nuns, Sacred Heart and Xaverian Brothers and Diocesan Priests. I then went on to St. Bonaventure University to learn the Franciscan way of how you can love and serve God and your fellow man. I joined the Knights of Columbus in college, and also took ROTC, earning a Commission in the U.S. Army Field Artillery.

I served with the 25th Infantry Division in Viet Nam as a Forward Observer, receiving two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for Service, and joined the DAV as a "Life" member when I got out of the service.

My appreciation and respect for life came from having almost lost mine twice in Viet Nam; so, in 1973, I joined Bronx Right to Life and was appointed Director to the State RTL Board. In 1978, I served as Chairman of NY State Right to Life Committee.

In 1980, I became the Executive Director of National Right to Life Committee, serving until 1983. My wife Mary came to Washington from New Jersey on the staff of newly elected Congressman Chris Smith, former NJ RTL Executive Director. Mary and I met through our RTL connections and eventually married.

While in the Washington, D.C. area, I joined the AOH (Ancient Order of Hibernians), the oldest and largest Irish Catholic fraternal organization in America.

I was elected President of the AOH D.C. State Board and served from 1989 to 1991.

As AOH President, I initiated the ceremony of placing a wreath at the Viet Nam Memorial Wall on St. Patrick’s Day in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country.

Mary and I have two children, both born with medical issues, whom we adopted from Russia and Moldova. Because of that, we were awarded the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s “Angels in Adoption Award” in 2005.

In 2006, as a member of the Healing the Children Philadelphia Area Chapter, we volunteered to be “host parents” for a Ukrainian boy born with a severe medical condition and, with the help of Congressman Smith, brought him here for medical help.

That’s who I am – now let me tell you my views about Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin.

I am convinced that Senator John McCain reflects what is best and good about America. He has been consistent on issues that are important to me as an American, a combat-wounded Veteran, a Catholic and a worker for the sanctity of all human life, Born and Unborn.

1. Being pro-life, Senator McCain selected another great pro-life politician, Governor Palin, a working Mom, who not only feels as Senator McCain and I do about pro-life commitment but gave the greatest example of it in giving birth this past April to her son, Trig, whom she knew would have Downs Syndrome.

2. Senator McCain and Governor Palin will fight any attempt by Senator Barack Obama and others to force Catholic and other medical facilities to perform, or recommend, abortions.

3. They endorse a Right of Conscience for medical personnel to refuse to participate in abortions.

4. Senator McCain has been – and is – a champion for Veteran healthcare and has visited and talked with our Wounded Warriors at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospitals on a constant basis.

5. Both Senator McCain and Governor Palin have sons in the military serving our country and in, or heading to, Iraq!

6. Having been to war, as have I, Senator McCain knows its terrors. Every combat veteran is an “Anti-War” veteran – the only difference is that combat Vets, like Senator McCain and me, would go to war again to protect our families and fellow Americans families from the horrors of war being visited upon them here at home! Senator McCain will not commit the lives of our servicemen and women – our family members and neighbors – to any war without good and sufficient reasons, and he will listen to the Generals, not to ideologies. He understands the concept of “Just War.”

7. He has visited the frontline troops . . . on the frontline . . . more than seven times. You know – the real troops – the “dog-faced soldiers” and “Mud Marines” who have done it all – and more – for our Country and for us . . . more than we could have possibly asked!

8. Senator McCain has been constantly, without fanfare, working to insure a just peace in the North of Ireland, as well as full civil rights for Catholics in that troubled part of Ireland.

9. Senator McCain understands the moral obligation that we in this country, especially Catholics, have to the Christian Community in Iraq – which is mostly Catholic!

After deciding to share with other American Catholics my reasons for supporting John McCain for President, I went to his campaign’s website to learn more about him and that’s when I learned about the wonderful work his wife Cindy does for children around the world.

I found out that she met Mother Theresa and, at her request, brought two baby girls with medical issues back to America. She then adopted one and had friends adopt the other baby but paid for that baby’s medical treatments and those of her own new daughter. I knew immediately that this was a woman of compassion – not just a spouse following in the shadow of her husband’s success in politics!

Indeed, this is one President’s wife who won’t have to look for charitable endeavors and good works to pursue as First Lady – she will merely continue the good work she’s already been doing for many years.

Cindy McCain is a woman who has not lived in the shadow of her husband but has been actively working to help and save young children for years!

And what more could we hope for than to have Sarah Palin, a woman with a compassionate mother’s heart, in the White House doing her job as Vice President like a conscientious Mom getting all her work done, while keeping an eye out and her heart listening to the needs of her children and ours!

Sarah Palin is the persona of the strong feminists we have all known for years… the mothers we all had, watching our every move while we were growing up! Moms who made us all happy, watching over us, while getting everything else done!

And Senator John McCain has shown us, by his prior service to our country in the military and now by his campaigning and speeches, that he truly understands and lives the meaning and the values behind the words “Sacrifice, Life and Duty.”

Sincerely,
Warren G. Sweeney