Our brave new world

Our Brave New World

Consider…

Women in the United States of America are forced by law to a life of servitude in support of unwanted biomass known as “toddlers.” Yes, small pre-person clumps of tissue who contribute nothing to society but who pollute the environment and tax the healthcare system. Enslaved women suffering loss of time, space, financial resources, sleep and emotional distress are forced to turn to illegal methods of post-birth abortions to free themselves of these burdens.

The Supreme Court must act to stop this war on women! It is truly uncivilized to recognize the right to terminate these things at any point prior to their emergence from the birth canal, then arbitrarily criminalize the same termination methods upon exit. Compassion, not prosecution; healthcare, not judgment!

Yes, these are difficult decisions women must make, but no one has the right to infringe on their lives. It is their choice. Once legalized, healthcare professionals will be able to safely provide the same full spectrum of pregnancy services both before and AFTER the pregnancy period ends. Pharmacies will stock “Plan C” (those who refuse to will be swiftly punished). This is basic healthcare and as such, will also be mandated for all government sanctioned health plans.

OK, that is not literally a manifesto of most pro-choice supporters — yet. Pro-life readers are horrified at such an outrageous idea while more than a few on the “pro-choice” side see some sense in it. This lady for instance:

It has been 4 years since the Journal of Medical Ethics published an academic paper on the topic. The abstract explains:

Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call “after-birth abortion” (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.

If this idea only popped-up once, we could dismiss it. It is persistent and a logical, progressive step. 50 years ago no one thought abortion would be legal, sodomites would be celebrated (and legally marry), or discrimination against Christians would be essentially legalized and encouraged. If the pro-life movement fails, expect this next.

Planned Parenthood, the abortion industry’s most enthusiastic promoter and largest beneficiary, sees the obvious business opportunity. Here, their lobbyist testified that PP believes (post birth abortion) should be left up to the woman and her abortion doctor. Of course.

We need to get back to a point where movements such as this, all abortion and all euthanasia are inconceivable.

March for Life 2016

…this Friday

Support Archbishop Cordileone

Support Archbishop Cordileone

Faithful bishops around the country are concerned by the examples some teachers in their diocesan Catholic schools present to children in their care. Certainly it would be best if the teachers were all faithful Catholics. However, dissident Catholics and non-Catholics are also offered positions provided they do not lead students astray by words or actions contrary to Christ.

Therefore, teachers are increasingly asked to sign very basic morality clauses in their contracts promising that their public conduct will not openly oppose the teaching of the Church. This is not a free speech issue any more than a business asking their salesmen not to promote products of competitors or politicians refusing to hire campaign workers who promote opposing ideology. Moreover, even the supreme court has ruled in favor of religious schools (see the unanimous Hosanna-Tabor decision) in support of such obvious and reasonable requirements.

San Francisco Archbishop Cordileone is an honorable, holy and faithful shepherd assigned to a formidably difficult archdiocese. He is the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage and is in no way any kind of “extremist.” Opposition to a very basic morality clause is fierce and mobilized in a political style backed by large sums of money, a high-power PR firm, an aggressively hostile city council and strongly biased media. Everything is against him except the truth.

In this lion’s den Archbishop Cordileone needs our prayers and our support. Please consider joining me and 34,000+ other fair-minded individuals in signing the petition sponsored by American Life League and Life Site News. Sign the petition HERE. Ask your friends to do likewise. More information is available at that link or feel free to contact me.

It reads:

To: The San Francisco City Council, San Francisco Catholic school board, teachers, and administrators

We, the undersigned, wish to express our strong support for Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s courageous, commonsense, and fatherly efforts to strengthen the Catholic identity of the Catholic schools in the San Francisco archdiocese.

We categorically condemn the distortions and attacks against these efforts, and the archbishop personally, spearheaded by those who seem neither to understand the basics of Catholic teaching, nor the importance of religious liberty in the health of our society.

We demand that these shameful attacks against the archbishop’s efforts to protect the Catholic identity of Catholic schools immediately cease.

We pray as well that Catholic teachers and administrators in the schools will use this controversy as an opportunity to deepen their personal commitment, as exemplified by how they live their personal lives, to Catholic teaching and to providing an authentically Catholic education to their students.

Finally, we offer our heartfelt prayers for Archbishop Cordileone and wish to express our deep gratitude for his personal courage and charity in the face of these unjust public attacks.

Sincerely,
[Your name]

SIGN NOW

What could have been…

What Could Have Been

Abortion has robbed the world of so much. We are much, much poorer for it. Taken away from us are statesmen who could have guided us to a more peaceful world. Doctors who would have found cures that elude us. Artists who would have elevated us through beauty we will never experience. Maybe the first woman president. Even those who would become successors to the Apostles. God knows the specifics now. We will not know until the general judgment. It will be huge.

Those of us who fight the culture of death are horrified at the scale of this genocide. We have plenty of facts, including science and statistics, to support our “side”. For example, The Looking Spoon published this graphic last week to illustrate that scale:

Abortion Claimed 56 Million Lives

Some would say this is a good thing, an accomplishment. The world’s resources are limited and we are overpopulated. Out-of-control population growth is contributing to global warming and the destruction of the environment. Total BS. The Population Research Institute, among others, has debunked these lies (see my 7QTF items here, here, here and here; or OverpopulationIsaMyth.com or their YouTube channel).

Others may have a different population control agenda. Margaret Sanger, esteemed founder of Planned Parenthood certainly did. Her racist plans, underlying Planned Parenthood, put the efforts of the KKK to shame (to which she appeared as a featured aspect speaker). Surprised? See LifeNews.com or BlackGenocide.org. Suffice to say, Sanger’s Negro Project has been a complete success. Liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke of Roe v. Wade acknowledging “Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

Somehow, the obvious truth is unconvincing to those who champion this (non-existent) “right” to take innocent human life. It is confusing to us (me at least) why they can’t see it. It is almost like they are surrounded by some sort of bubble which filters-out the truth (or if you prefer, scales cover their eyes).

Trent Horn at Catholic Answers has an interesting take on this. He argues that the numbers are simply overwhelming. In essence, people can not internalize the impact. This makes sense to me as it also explains why people can not understand the scope of the budget deficit. Trent urges that we make it more personal by showing individual impact.

Two examples quickly come to my mind. First, Abby Johnson (an ex-director of a Planned Parenthood facility) tells the story of Hillary Clinton’s White House lunch with Blessed Mother Theresa. Hillary asked Mother why she thought that we had not had a woman president. I’ll let Abby tell the story:

I’ll conclude with the difficult story Judy Cozzens. Judy was pregnant with their second child but went into premature labor in the 5th month. The labor was stopped, but the doctor had devastating news: “You’re carrying a deformed fetus and you need to not continue with the pregnancy.” Judy didn’t understand, so the doctor was more blunt: “You’re carrying a freak, and you shouldn’t continue with this pregnancy.”

A FREAK. How crushing that news must have been.

The next step would be to schedule the “procedure” to take care of “it”. Judy and her husband Jack are faithful Catholics and understand abortion, any abortion, is intrinsic evil. That is, it is NEVER justified to take an innocent life – even if some consider that life should be discarded. They would have their “freak” if that is what God gave them. The doctor walked away. (The story of Judy and Jack’s trial is here.)

Today that “freak” is His Excellency Andrew Cozzens, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Voting Catholic

Voting Catholic

We count in our numbers as Catholic literally millions of people who will put Jesus in second place on election day – behind their political party and its candidate. I hope for the sake of their eternal salvation, that their actions are mitigated by true ignorance or deep confusion sewn by highly heterodox groups (e.g. “Catholics” for Choice).

For the rest of us, our choice will be based upon true Catholic moral teaching and understanding the difference between intrinsic evil and prudential judgement.

Intrinsic evils are moral choices which are always wrong and unacceptable. Abortion is the most important example of this because it involves life itself. The destruction of innocent lives is such a heinous act that it must be given priority above all else. Note that direct involvement in abortion automatically incurs latae sententiae excommunication whereas the murder of an older person, while also an extremely grave mortal sin, does not. Such is the weight given by Holy Mother Church in the name of our Lord.

Some other examples of intrinsic evils include so-called “gay marriage,” suicide (including physician assisted), embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning.

Prudential judgment reflects our personal choices on competing (moral) positions. For example: the most effective means of helping the poor, how to make healthcare more accessible to more people, immigration reform, when a specific war is just, when the death penalty is justified, the proper balance between solidarity and subsidiarity, specific government programs, tax plans, and so on. Often the choice is not between “right” and “wrong,” but between competing solutions to recognized problems. It is therefore debatable, among Catholics of good faith, which candidate’s or political party’s position will ultimately be most helpful to the poor, providing healthcare, creating jobs, defending the country and so on.

However, intrinsic evil must always be given precedence over prudential judgements. Therefore, no matter how much better we judge a candidate’s position on aid to the poor, healthcare, immigration, war, death penalty, etc. – if they embrace intrinsic evils, then that fact must be given the greatest moral weight. In this presidential election, it is NOT debatable which candidate fully embraces abortion or unnatural marriage (both grave, intrinsic evils).

When your bishop or priest speaks of the importance of voting a properly formed conscience, he is referring to one rooted in true Catholic moral teaching. He is NOT referring to some fuzzy feeling you may have or some emotional attachment to one party or candidate. For a number of reasons, he unfortunately can not simply tell you “therefore, in this election it would be highly immoral to vote for candidate so-and-so.” Do not interpret that to mean there are not disqualifying, immoral positions.

In this presidential election, neither candidate is perfect but one candidate alone embraces several positions which are intrinsically evil and alarmingly to the maximum extent possible. No faithful Catholic with a well formed conscience will vote for Barack Obama. We may vote for his challenger, Mitt Romney, for a third party candidate or if necessary for no candidate – but we can not vote for Barack Obama. We may even admire his vision, his social programs and his character – but we can not vote for Barack Obama. To do so makes us personally complicit with his gravely sinful positions.

The same moral requirement of well formed consciences must guide our votes not only in the presidential election, but for every race.

This video presents Catholic moral teaching, as applied to voting, very well:

Cardinal Raymond Burke (Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis), has presented an excellent pastoral letter on voting that also addresses these points. Here (with my highlighting) is the Catholic News Agency’s (CNA) coverage from two years ago (he was Cardinal-designate at the time):

Cardinal-designate Raymond Burke stressed to Catholic voters in a recent interview that they have a “very serious” obligation to uphold the truth of “moral law” in the upcoming mid-term elections. He specifically cited protecting unborn children from abortion and defending traditional marriage.

The American Vatican official, who was recently named by the Holy Father as a future cardinal, spoke on Oct. 20 to Thomas McKenna, president of Catholic Action for Faith and Family, just hours after the Pope’s announcement.

Cardinal-designate Burke opened his remarks by saying that “as a bishop it’s my obligation, in fact, to urge the faithful to carry out their civic duty in accord with their Catholic Faith.” Clarifying that he does not endorse particular candidates, the prelate also spoke of his duty to relay “principles” to the faithful to help inform their vote.

Speaking on the contentious topic of abortion in the upcoming mid-terms, Cardinal-designate Burke said one “can never vote for someone who favors absolutely the right to choice of a woman to destroy a human life in her womb or the right to a procured abortion.”

“You may in some circumstances where you don’t have any candidate who is proposing to eliminate all abortion, choose the candidate who will most limit this grave evil in our country,” he explained, “but you could never justify voting for a candidate who not only does not want to limit abortion but believes that it should be available to everyone.”

The Vatican prelate also addressed the issue of same-sex “marriage,” asserting that maintaining the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman is not unjust discrimination.

“Where there is unjust discrimination – “for instance, where you say that a fellow human being, because of the color of his skin, is not a part of the same race as someone, say, who is a Caucasian, that is a kind of discrimination which is unjust and immoral,” he said.

However, he added, “there is a discrimination which is perfectly just and good, and that is the discrimination between what is right and what is wrong.”

“Between what is according to our human nature and what is contrary to our human nature. So the Catholic Church, in teaching that sexual acts between persons of the same sex are intrinsically evil, are against nature itself, is simply announcing the truth, helping people to discriminate right from wrong in terms of their own activities.”

In his interview, Cardinal-designate Burke also urged Catholic politicians who have caused “scandal” by endorsing positions contrary to moral law to repent through a “genuine reform of heart.”

“That’s done through the Sacrament of Penance,” he said, adding that political figures must publicly “renounce” their errors, recognizing and recanting the “evil” they have promoted.

Fans of Father John Zuhlsdorf (I am one!) may also wish to read his recent comments on the above. Cardinal Burke’s full interview, upon which the above text from CNA has been transcribed, is here:

As a voter, you may exercise free will in every election. In this election, you are presented with one clearly immoral choice. Bishop David Ricken (Green Bay) warns: “To vote for someone in favor of these positions means that you could be morally ‘complicit’ with these choices which are intrinsically evil. This could put your own soul in jeopardy.” Bishop Thomas Paprocki (Springfield) similarly warns : “a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.

The last word goes to Father Daniel Doctor: “to attack life at any stage of development is to attack God Himself as the Creator – and then to call this a right or a freedom – is the most absurd of lies.”

Obama’s war on religion (update #10)

Obama's War on Religion

The administration’s unprecedented attack on religious freedom infringes on fundamental rights of Americans of every faith. Recently, the Cardinal Newman Society reported that non-Catholic colleges now outnumber Catholic ones in bring suit against the HHS mandate. That mandate FORCES us to fund highly immoral abortion inducing drugs and sterilizations for all. Over 100 plaintiffs (colleges and other institutions) have now brought suit.

Spreading Misinformation

In the recent vice presidential debates, Joe Biden falsely claimed:

With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution – Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital – none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact.

NOT TRUE – Biden’s statement is completely false. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) immediately issued a statement exposing how blatantly wrong he is. This is not a matter of interpretation but black and white wrong.

I do not know why Biden made such an error-filled, outlandish claim. Paul Kengor makes some interesting points:

Joe Biden was wrong, and blatantly so. And it’s hard to imagine that Biden, a “pro-choice Catholic,” could not have known he was wrong. In fact, Biden has privately expressed misgivings with the policy.

According to the New York Times and Politico, both Joe Biden and Obama Chief of Staff Bill Daley urged the White House to carefully consider the backlash from the Catholic Church and Catholic voters over the HHS mandate. Unfortunately, they lost to Obama advisers Valerie Jarrett and Kathleen Sebelius. According to the Times, Biden even arranged for Cardinal Dolan “to meet with the president and express the church’s view.”

This means that Joe Biden privately did good work, whatever his motivation. Unfortunately, it means he didn’t do good work during the vice-presidential debate. Quite the contrary, during the debate, he misrepresented the mandate, and was factually wrong before a huge audience, surely convincing countless Catholic Democrats that the HHS mandate has been overblown. At the debate, Biden towed the party line and fell on his sword for Barack Obama. He did so before millions of fellow Catholics, and at the expense of his Church and religious liberty.

Some more articles on this blatant whopper:

How Obama’s Mandate Affects Businesses

Many business people – Catholics and other people of faith – have shared their stories. These are the job creators who will suffer costly penalties due to this mandate. That means, less jobs folks. Here are two recent examples:

The Green family talk about their Christian faith, their business (Hobby Lobby) and how religious freedom is being infringed.

Another businessman, employer and healthcare provider for many, speaks about the impact of ObamaCare on him. Listen to Autocam CEO John Kennedy:

Other Resources on Religious Freedom

Here are several good resources:

Further Reading

Here is a sampling of some new articles written on this topic in the last few weeks:

  1. America edging toward confrontation on religious freedom, Archbishop Chaput warns
  2. Amicus Briefs Filed in First Federal Appeal Regarding the HHS Mandate
  3. Appeals Court Grants Expedited Review of HHS Mandate
  4. August 1st: Mandate-day for Business Owners – A Dark day for Religious Liberty in America
  5. Ave Maria President: HHS Mandate Threatens Millions in Fines, Harms Faculty, Drains Resources and Endangers Future
  6. Becket Fund Testifies Before Congress
  7. Biden’s Remarks Debunked as Catholic Institutions and 13 States File Amicus Briefs Opposing HHS Mandate before DC Circuit Court of Appeals
  8. Cardinal George says mayor overstepped with Chick-fil-A remarks
  9. Catholic Doctors Tackle How to Survive in an ‘Increasingly Toxic Culture’
  10. Christianity Demands More Than Just Freedom To Worship!
  11. Conscience rights for pharmacists upheld in Illinois ruling
  12. Constitutional Experts Call Obama’s Abuse Of Power Historic
  13. Corporate Exercise of Religion and Other Thoughts on the RFRA Claim in the Mandate Litigation
  14. East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University Sue over HHS Mandate
  15. Federal Court Asked to Dismiss Lawsuit Against Montana Jesus Statue
  16. For This Employer, Faith Is No Hobby
  17. Former diplomat prods US to widen worldwide religious freedom efforts
  18. Hobby Lobby Sues over HHS Mandate
  19. Hobby Lobby responds to DOJ brief against religious freedom
  20. Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius
  21. Illinois cannot make pharmacists give ‘morning after’ pill-court
  22. Mayors chicken out of true family values
  23. New study finds rise in religious restrictions worldwide
  24. Obama Administrations attack on Catholics in healthcare
  25. Obama reaffirms support for HHS mandate, downplays controversy
  26. Obama vs. Religious Freedom: Why his administration threatens your right to worship
  27. Religion and the Election of 2012
  28. Reply Filed in HHS Mandate Case
  29. Supreme Court to Consider Hearing Weighty Church-State Controversy
  30. The Government’s Argument is Atrocious!
  31. Thousands join grassroots women’s movement opposing HHS mandate
  32. What’s Next for Conscience Rights
  33. Wheaton College Seeks Emergency Relief Against HHS Mandate
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