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Showing posts with label USCCB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USCCB. Show all posts

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Cardinal Dolan: US Bishops Won't Comply with Obama Rule on Birth Control Coverage in Insurance

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the conference's annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Monday, Nov. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
A top American bishop said Tuesday the Roman Catholic church will not comply with the Obama administration requirement that most employers provide health insurance covering birth control.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said church leaders are open to working toward a resolution with federal officials, but will meanwhile press ahead with challenges to the mandate in legislatures and in court.

"The only thing we're certainly not prepared to do is give in. We're not violating our consciences," Dolan told reporters at a national bishops' meeting. "I would say no door is closed except for the door to capitulation."

Read the rest of this entry at The Republic >> 

 

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Catholic Bishops Unanimously Adopt 'United for Religious Freedom' Statement


The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved by unanimous vote on Wednesday a statement reaffirming the church's long standing opposition to President Obama's health care mandate requiring employers and insurers to provide free contraceptive care to employees. The group is meeting in Atlanta, Ga., for their annual conference.



Friday, March 2, 2012

Bishops Vow Continued Fight Over Contraception Mandate After Senate Rejects Blunt Amendment

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the following statement yesterday after the Senate defeated a measure that would have prevented the federal government from forcing employers with religious and moral objections to offer contraception, sterilization and abortafacient drugs as part of their health insurance plans.


WASHINGTON -- The Senate’s 51-48 vote March 1 to table the bipartisan Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467), sponsored by Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and 37 other senators, impels the Church to strengthen its resolve to support religious freedom.

“The need to defend citizens’ rights of conscience is the most critical issue before our country right now,” said Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Bishop Lori chairs the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “We will continue our strong defense of conscience rights through all available legal means. Religious freedom is at the heart of democracy and rooted in the dignity of every human person. We will not rest until the protection of conscience rights is restored and the First Amendment is returned to its place of respect in the Bill of Rights.”

“I am grateful today to Senator Roy Blunt and the 47 other Senators who cast a bipartisan vote reaffirming our nation’s long tradition of respect for rights of conscience in health care,” said Bishop Lori. “We will build on this base of support as we pursue legislation in the House of Representatives, urge the Administration to change its course on this issue, and explore our legal rights under the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

Freedom of conscience has been in the forefront since the Obama Administration issued a regulation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act forcing most employers, including religious institutions, to provide coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs, even when they violate church teaching. 


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Bishops Plan Aggressive Expansion of Birth-Control Battle

From Reuters
By Stephanie Simon


Bishops listen to proceedings during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, Maryland November 14, 2011.  Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Catholic bishops, energized by a battle over contraception funding, are planning an aggressive campaign to rally Americans against a long list of government measures which they say intrude on religious liberty.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plans to work with other religious groups, including evangelical Christians, on an election-year public relations campaign that may include TV and radio ads, social media marketing and a push for pastors and priests to raise the subject from the pulpit.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

In Depth Analysis: The Bishops' Tougher Response to the Obama 'Compromise' Mandate

By Phil Lawler

After an initial muted reaction to President Obama’s proposed “accommodation,” the leaders of the US bishops’ conference have released a second, stronger statement, declaring that the mandate for contraceptive coverage in health-care programs remains “unacceptable and must be corrected.” 

On Friday evening, February 10—several hours after President Obama unveiled his “compromise” proposal—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released an official statement signed by five leading prelates. The bishops said that the revised plan “continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions.” 

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Another USCCB Official Supporting Pro-Abort Enemies of the Church

The USCCB announced today that Mary Mencarini Campbell has been appointed director for the Catholic Home Missions and associate director of the Office of National Collections of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The official news release states she "is best known for her untiring love and dedication to the Church."  

What church?  

Catholics, unlike Mary Mencarini Campbell, don't give to pro-abortion PACS, they don't support pro-death candidates, and they don't support organizations that hate the Church and everything for which it stands.  That official statement about Mary Mencarini Campbell is itself evidence of the deep malevolence that permeates the USCCB.

Many Catholics, ourselves included, will not give to any USCCB national collection or  a local bishop's appeal because of just these kinds of agents who work like cancer cells within the Church's own bureaucracy.  It has been a self-perpetuating bureaucracy since Cardinal Bernardin first installed leftist ideologues and transformed its mission.  American Catholics now have yet another reason to boycott USCCB collections. 

Perhaps when even more Catholics have been alienated from their Church because of the USCCB's far-left agenda, the funding for this apostate bureaucracy will dry up.  In the meantime, Archbishop Dolan would win the enduring admiration of millions of Catholics by clearing out his corrupt organization, ending its political and legislative agenda (which is ineffective anyway) and focusing a small, dedicated and faithful staff on the reevangelization of society and the salvific mission given the Church by Christ.

If anyone doubts that this bureaucracy works at cross purposes with the Pope, take a ride through the USCCB parking lot next Fall and count the Obama bumper stickers.  And what have they received for being the obedient lapdogs of the Democrat Party?  Nothing but contempt.  If Archbishop Dolan would like to clean up this cesspool, we will gladly provide damning specifics, starting with the Office of Education.

Mary Mencarini Campbell, who has been named director for the Catholic Home Missions and associate director of the Office of National Collections of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), contributed $252.40 in September 2004 to an organization led by the president of Emily’s List, according to federal election records. 

Campbell made her contribution to Americans Coming Together, an organization led by Ellen Malcolm. “Americans Coming Together’s creation is further evidence that mainstream America is coming together in response to President Bush's extremism--on the environment, reproductive choice, workers’ rights, civil rights and other critical issues,” the National Catholic Register quoted Malcolm as saying in 2003. Emily’s List, which Malcolm founded and also led at the time, exists to elect “pro-choice Democratic women,” according to its web site. 

Campbell served as program coordinator for the USCCB’s Secretariat for Evangelization and Mission from 1994 to 1998. She worked for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development from 1998 to 2007, serving as resource development specialist from 1998 to 2002 and coordinator of resource development from 2002 to 2007. Since 2007, she has served as the USCCB’s assistant director for promotions. 

In November 2004, Campbell criticized those who linked the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to leftist organizations. “It's completely false,” Campbell told the National Catholic Register. “Our criteria for funding are connected to the moral traditions of the Church.” 




Monday, October 3, 2011

US Catholic Bishops Establish Religious Liberty Committee

Several weeks ago, in response to the Obama administration mandating that Catholic institutions include coverage of contraception (including abortifacients) and sterilization in all private health insurance plans, Archbishop Timothy Dolan threatened "a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions."

Bishop William Lori
Today Archbishop Dolan announced that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is forming an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.  Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut will chair the new committee.  

We are underwhelmed.  If another committee at the corrupt, staff-run, inept United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is to be the bishops' response to immoral and tyrannical actions by the Obama administration, we are doomed.  Do they think they can bore their adversaries into surrender with another staff document?

We hope this is just window dressing prior to the real "national conflict."  For the battle itself, we would suggest that it be commanded by someone who knows what he is doing in public policy and the political sphere and is untouched by scandal -- Governor Frank Keating or Father Frank Pavone come to mind.

It's a shame the 300 old men represented by the USCCB have squandered their moral authority, not on the great moral issues of our time, but on details of public policy better left to the laity, and on which Catholics have every right to disagree.  That a majority of bishops protected perpetrators rather than victims in the sexual abuse of young people, further erodes their ability to counter the Obama administration's assault on Catholic institutions.


Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Archbishop Dolan Wins Upset Election as Head of Bishops' Conference

The American Catholic bishops avoided a public relations disaster by passing up "the next in line" and electing in his stead one of the best and brightest of their number. This, added to their decision to freeze at last year's level the budget for the liberal, staff-run US Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a hopeful sign that Pope Benedict's episcopal appointments are having an effect.

From LifeSiteNews
By Patrick B. Craine
In a surprise vote that was described as a “seismic shift” by one prominent Catholic commentator, the strongly pro-life Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York today beat out controversial sitting Vice President Bishop Gerald Kicanas to become the next president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Archbishop Dolan’s election is only the second time in history that the U.S. Bishops broke from their tradition of elevating the sitting vice president of the conference. Bishop Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona had been expected to take the role, but was the subject of criticism in the lead-up to the election over his connection to a Chicago priest convicted of child molestation, as well as his heavily liberal reputation on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.

Archbishop Dolan won on the third round of ballots with 128 votes to Bishop Kicanas’ 111. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver came in at third in each round.

“No one runs for this office. As bishops, we’re concerned with what’s going on in our own dioceses,” said Archbishop Dolan, according to the National Catholic Register. “No one seeks this office. My brother bishops elected me.”

Archbishop Dolan has a solid reputation as an outspoken pro-life leader. He has insisted that Catholics should never honor anyone taking a pro-abortion position, and he was a strong opponent of Notre Dame's decision to honour President Obama at their 2009 commencement. This fall, he joined the bishops of New York in calling on Catholics to make the right to life their primary concern at the ballot box.

Numerous Catholic commentators had warned that Bishop Kicanas, on the other hand, is made in the mold of his mentor Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who is known for his support of liberal movements in the Church. This week, Bishop Kicanas won an endorsement from the Rainbow Sash Movement, a militant ‘Catholic’ homosexualist group.

For vice president of the conference, the bishops chose Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky. He received 147 votes to Archbishop Chaput’s 91.

Archbishop Kurtz has led the bishops’ effort to defend true marriage, and has called that battle “one of the premier social justice issues of our time.”

He warned at the bishops’ meeting yesterday that if the courts are allowed to overturn Proposition 8 – which established true marriage in California – the impact will be “akin to Roe v. Wade.” “In a sense, today is like 1970 for marriage,” he told the bishops, according to Catholic News Agency. “If, in 1970, you knew that Roe v. Wade were coming in two or three years, what would you have done differently?”

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Leo XIII Decried Socialism, 150 Years Later The USCCB Embraces It

"The socialists wrongly assume the right of property to be of mere human invention . . . and, preaching up the community of goods, declare that ... all may with impunity seize upon the possessions and usurp the rights of the wealthy. More wise and profitably, the Church recognizes the existence of inequality amongst men."

—Leo XIII, Dec. 28, 1878

From Pew Sitter
By Frank Walker


Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, founder of the excellent CatholicCulture.org,
was surprised by the “bitterness” he found from readers responding to the Bishops’ support of extended unemployment benefits last week. He presses the need for some “cautions” and “perspective” particularly when we begin to denounce the Bishops as socialists. He insists that we be ‘very careful in using this term” and not resort to “inaccurate name-calling.” Why are the bishops not socialists? According to Mirus it is because they never have advocated the state ownership of private means of production.

This incomplete defense is followed by a lengthy and abstract discussion on balancing solidarity and subsidiarity, building “intermediary” institutions, correcting the tax structure, pursuing the “twin goals of stimulating the production or wealth and preventing the marginalization of those who fall behind;” and patient acceptance with the way things are until something better can be created. “Conservative Catholics need to recognize that it is not wrong in Catholic social theory to engage government in fostering the economic common good. ” Here we must wonder where a conservative may disagree. Would they be against the ‘economic common good,” or just against re-distributionist confiscation and its uniformly negative results?

This familiar lullaby is epidemic in faithful Catholic intellectual circles. It grows mainly out of pride and a misunderstanding of the social justice writing of Leo XIII, Chesterton, and the Distributists. Such destructive thinking needs to be addressed as it runs contrary to natural law and the laws of God. Furthermore the Bishops, as they manifest culturally and politically via the USCCB, are not only socialists, but function regularly as statist agents. They do not shout for socialism; they just enact it and applaud its ongoing construction. They should be assessed not by what they advocate, but by what they achieve and destroy.

Mirus predictably goes on to say that there is no place for the wrong kind of rhetoric in this “legitimate debate” and that we should approach the discussion as “Catholics,” and not as conservatives or liberals. This tired approach, which draws a moral equivalency between capitalism and socialism, only exists to drag Catholics and others leftward toward oppression and despair. The article’s thesis on growing the correct types of “intermediary” institutions to replace federal programs first; smacks of Friedrick Hayek’s utopian “planners” People do not need new kinds of well-conceived institutions in America. They need freedom and the Church needs faith.

Dr. Mirus urges that Catholics respect the correct role of the state to care for the poor and the needy, and that conservative Catholics be charitable. He tells us that “It is simply not possible to be a Catholic while embracing a morally-deficient conservatism.”

This somewhat veiled condemnation of right and left alike, handed down by Catholic thinkers over the last two centuries, must be unpacked then scrapped. If capitalism “makes no provision for charity” it is because it simply trumpets freedom, leaving people to do as they may and as they must. Capitalism should not even be an “ism,” as socialism is. It is just what happens when you leave people to their own lives and property. It does not contradict Church teaching, it is simply a necessary component of it, as freedom is necessary to salvation.

Free “capitalist,” individuals are still compelled to charity in the name of Christ. That has nothing to do with government. It’s like blaming public schools for not giving out better free lunches and daycare. That is not their role and the failure is not theirs. Discussions of give and take in economic systems are not within the subject of charity; which is the purview of free human beings and the associations they freely create.

The oppression that the Distributists ascribe to capitalism is really just the collusion of business titans and big government. Ubiquitous corporate empires which destroy families and property then marginalize the poor, are not the natural course of free people in a free society. Furthermore, they were never an aspect of Christendom, where true charity was a holy institution and subsidiarity reigned in life and politics.

The comparisons of the economic systems of socialism and capitalism are unsound, and people understand this, which is why they protest big government. When we say “socialism and capitalism,” what we are really talking about is oppression and freedom. Are both morally deficient? I say no. The peasants of the Old World, the American founders, and the wandering ancient people of God all understood: the freedom that comes from Him is ours to use for good.

Catholic thinkers rightly understand that the conservatism written into the American framework is not a complete system. What they miss however is that the founders understood natural law and a truly just society. James Madison, when asked to support a law which provided assistance to a needy cause, famously said, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” In his mind, this would have been stealing.

The founders respect for freedom of individuals and property is, as many evangelicals will say, “biblical.” Christ did nothing to alter this scriptural truth. He was not political. His parables are full of support for the rights of individuals to their money and property. What he gave to us in terms of charity and mercy did not remove any “jot” of the old law; it only added to it. We must do the same and respect the ancient laws while adhering to the requirements of Christian love as free men and women. Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, founder of the excellent CatholicCulture.org, was surprised by the “bitterness” he found from readers responding to the Bishops’ support of extended unemployment benefits last week. He presses the need for some “cautions” and “perspective” particularly when we begin to denounce the Bishops as socialists. He insists that we be ‘very careful in using this term” and not resort to “inaccurate name-calling.” Why are the bishops not socialists? According to Mirus it is because they never have advocated the state ownership of private means of production.

This incomplete defense is followed by a lengthy and abstract discussion on balancing solidarity and subsidiarity, building “intermediary” institutions, correcting the tax structure, pursuing the “twin goals of stimulating the production or wealth and preventing the marginalization of those who fall behind;” and patient acceptance with the way things are until something better can be created. “Conservative Catholics need to recognize that it is not wrong in Catholic social theory to engage government in fostering the economic common good. ” Here we must wonder where a conservative may disagree. Would they be against the ‘economic common good,” or just against re-distributionist confiscation and its uniformly negative results?

This familiar lullaby is epidemic in faithful Catholic intellectual circles. It grows mainly out of pride and a misunderstanding of the social justice writing of Leo XIII, Chesterton, and the Distributists. Such destructive thinking needs to be addressed as it runs contrary to natural law and the laws of God. Furthermore the Bishops, as they manifest culturally and politically via the USCCB, are not only socialists, but function regularly as statist agents. They do not shout for socialism; they just enact it and applaud its ongoing construction. They should be assessed not by what they advocate, but by what they achieve and destroy.

Mirus predictably goes on to say that there is no place for the wrong kind of rhetoric in this “legitimate debate” and that we should approach the discussion as “Catholics,” and not as conservatives or liberals. This tired approach, which draws a moral equivalency between capitalism and socialism, only exists to drag Catholics and others leftward toward oppression and despair. The article’s thesis on growing the correct types of “intermediary” institutions to replace federal programs first; smacks of Friedrick Hayek’s utopian “planners” People do not need new kinds of well-conceived institutions in America. They need freedom and the Church needs faith.

Dr. Mirus urges that Catholics respect the correct role of the state to care for the poor and the needy, and that conservative Catholics be charitable. He tells us that “It is simply not possible to be a Catholic while embracing a morally-deficient conservatism.”

This somewhat veiled condemnation of right and left alike, handed down by Catholic thinkers over the last two centuries, must be unpacked then scrapped. If capitalism “makes no provision for charity” it is because it simply trumpets freedom, leaving people to do as they may and as they must. Capitalism should not even be an “ism,” as socialism is. It is just what happens when you leave people to their own lives and property. It does not contradict Church teaching, it is simply a necessary component of it, as freedom is necessary to salvation.

Free “capitalist,” individuals are still compelled to charity in the name of Christ. That has nothing to do with government. It’s like blaming public schools for not giving out better free lunches and daycare. That is not their role and the failure is not theirs. Discussions of give and take in economic systems are not within the subject of charity; which is the purview of free human beings and the associations they freely create.

The oppression that the Distributists ascribe to capitalism is really just the collusion of business titans and big government. Ubiquitous corporate empires which destroy families and property then marginalize the poor, are not the natural course of free people in a free society. Furthermore, they were never an aspect of Christendom, where true charity was a holy institution and subsidiarity reigned in life and politics.

The comparisons of the economic systems of socialism and capitalism are unsound, and people understand this, which is why they protest big government. When we say “socialism and capitalism,” what we are really talking about is oppression and freedom. Are both morally deficient? I say no. The peasants of the Old World, the American founders, and the wandering ancient people of God all understood: the freedom that comes from Him is ours to use for good.

Catholic thinkers rightly understand that the conservatism written into the American framework is not a complete system. What they miss however is that the founders understood natural law and a truly just society. James Madison, when asked to support a law which provided assistance to a needy cause, famously said, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” In his mind, this would have been stealing.

The founders respect for freedom of individuals and property is, as many evangelicals will say, “biblical.” Christ did nothing to alter this scriptural truth. He was not political. His parables are full of support for the rights of individuals to their money and property. What he gave to us in terms of charity and mercy did not remove any “jot” of the old law; it only added to it. We must do the same and respect the ancient laws while adhering to the requirements of Christian love as free men and women.


Monday, May 17, 2010

From Under the Rubble

Theodore Cardinal McCarrick: 'Show Me The Money!'

From The Wanderer
By Christopher Manion


America’s prelates have finally rallied to confront a pressing moral issue. No, not to oppose the billions in federal funding for Planned Parenthood, nor the additional billions for foreign- aid population programs targeting Catholic Third World countries. No, our prelates have united to condemn those “ mean- spirited” Americans, millions of them practicing Catholics, who support Arizona’s decision to enforce longstanding federal immigration statutes. The bishops’ spokesman on the issue, Roger Cardinal Mahony, charitably accuses the law’s supporters of favoring “ German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques.”

This is nothing new. For years — decades, really — most of our bishops have calibrated Catholic social teaching to conform to the increasingly liberal Democrat agenda. For instance, embattled Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has often branded opponents of amnesty as “ anti- immigrant.” In less- than- perfect charity, the USCCB has obediently perpetuated that canard. But again, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

And the piper’s tune was called with truly brazen audacity on May 6 by America’s leading pro- abortion Catholic Democrat, who made it perfectly clear just who’s boss when it comes to the Church’s politics.

From Foxnews. com: “ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday urged Catholic leaders to ‘ instruct’ their parishioners to support immigration reforms, saying clerics should ‘ play a very major role’ in supporting Democratic policies.

“‘ The cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops that come to me and say, “ We want you to pass immigration reform,” and I said, “ I want you to speak about it from the pulpit…. The people, some ( of whom) oppose immigration reform, are sitting in those pews, and you have to tell them that this is a manifestation of our living the gospels”,’ she said.”

Now this triumphal diktat represents a verifiably “ German Nazi and Russian Communist technique,” aimed directly at the heart of the Church on the part of the omnipotent state. Has even one prelate had the temerity to condemn it publicly? Or did Pelosi’s cardinals, archbishops, and bishops show up with their birettas in hand, instead of Canon 915? ( Canon 915 states in part: “ Those who have been . . . obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”)

Conflict Or Capitulation?

“ In my judgment a conflict between the state claiming unlimited powers and the Catholic Church is inevitable” — Hilaire Belloc, Essays of a Catholic ( 1931).

Pelosi’s brazen outburst represents a primal scream from a depraved powermonger railing at the successors of the apostles: “ Get in line!” But the bishops quietly comply. How did it come to this?

A longtime conservative activist recently gave me a clue. He was explaining why government spending kept growing under George W. Bush, even though most Republicans opposed it. “ The way politicians see it,” he explained, “ interest groups have very specific priorities. When they get their first priority, they are happy. Under George W. Bush, pro- lifers got their judges, the neocons got their war, and evangelicals got their ‘ Faith- Based Initiatives.’ Now, while many groups might want less spending, no powerful interest group came to Bush with ‘ less spending’ as its first priority. So spending just kept going up.”

So the politician’s task is to deliver a group’s first priority. He doesn’t ask, “ What else do you want,” he turns to the next interest group and addresses their highest priority. No matter how much members of an interest group might talk about “ too much spending,” the politician knows that, if they get their first priority, the rest is just background noise.

Let’s analyze the USCCB from this perspective. What does the hard- nosed Capitol Hill pol see as the Catholic Church’s “first priority”? Remember, even though the bishops are undoubtedly a powerful interest group, their first priority is all they will get. Their lower priorities will stay on the shelf — that is the way the game is played.

For almost 100 years — especially since Archbishop Joseph Bernardin planted the USCC’s flag firmly on the left 40 years ago — our bishops have advocated a wide range of liberal social welfare initiatives. They have also strongly opposed abortion. So what’s the score in 2010? Abortion is still legal, but the liberal social welfare agenda has prospered — and so has the USCCB. Catholic “ social justice” bureaucracies flourish, from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to the huge USCCB headquarters in Washington. The bishops’ anointed experts have developed strong ties with the Washington left, on and off Capitol Hill, and those ties have paid off.

Today the Church receives two billion dollars a year from the government for Catholic Charities, tens of millions more for Catholic universities and hospitals, and tens of millions a year more for the USCCB itself.

With that scorecard, would the average Washington politician draw the conclusion that the life issues — especially abortion — are the bishops’ first priority?

Politicians might not be saints, but they’re not dumb. Politicians also understand the law. So they notice when bishops refuse to implement Canon Law (and Canon 915 is mandatory, not optional) in the case of even the most flagrant Catholic pro-abortion scandalmongers. Politicians draw the logical conclusion. And politicians are also well aware that, as Cardinal McCarrick judiciously put it a few years back, Catholic bishops do not want to “alienate” important pro-abortion Catholics on Capitol Hill because “[taxpayer] money is needed for Catholic hospitals, charities, and education.”

The bottom line: To the crass politician — the vast majority — the bishops’ actions have made it clear that their first priority is money.

Winners And Losers

Does that mean our bishops don’t really oppose abortion? Of course not. But listen to them with a politician’s ear. Left- wing politicians will always invoke the usual nostrums condemning “ waste, fraud, and abuse.” Of course, they do not mean it. Those categories finance the power of the left, and they are not about to eliminate them. To repeat: When leftist politicians rant and rave against “ waste, fraud, and abuse,” they are lying. Now, when bishops condemn abortion, they are telling the truth. But politicians wonder, do they really mean it? If they do, why has it never been the bishops’ first priority?

When bishops condemn abortion, as Theodore Cardinal McCarrick carefully observed, they must always keep in view their first priority — the money. If our bishops were seriously to make the life issues their first priority, they would invite a long and bruising battle. Eventually they might win on abortion ( I think they would, in fact, and pretty quickly), but they would definitely lose the money. Nothing personal, that’s just the way the system works. And that’s not all. The left is spiteful. After the enraged pols shut the water off, they might decide to go after the Church’s tax exemptions.

And there’s more: Imagine pro- abortion Sen. Patrick Leahy’s outrage if he were excommunicated. He might not be able to receive the Eucharist, but as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, he could still issue subpoenas.

In recent years, the bishops have received tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. The way the politicians see it, that money has bought the bishops’ tacit agreement never to go to the mat about abortion. Sure enough, the bishops never have. Instead, while formally opposing abortion, their “ experts” have for 40 years emitted a steady ooze of “ social justice” drivel, imparting the imprimatur of the Catholic Church to virtually every line- item in the left- wing policy agenda of the proabortion Democratic Party. In return, the bishops have gotten — the money.

To put it plainly, since 1968, in the hearts and minds of American bishops and in the halls of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, there has been a struggle between Humanae Vitae — which is the infallible teaching of the Magisterium — and government- funded “ social justice,” the left- wing Marxist agenda upon which the bishops have bestowed a Catholic imprimatur.

It’s clear today that Humanae Vitae has lost.


Monday, April 26, 2010

Kevin Hall Blasts Sisters of Charity and Their South Carolina Hospitals for Supporting ObamaCare


From LifeSiteNews
By James Tillman


A former board member of the Sisters of Charity Foundation has blasted Providence Hospital and the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine in South Carolina, for having endorsed the pro-abortion health care reform bill that was opposed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and by countless pro-life organizations.

Instead of adopting the position of the USCCB that the bill lacked sufficient protections for conscience rights and the unborn, the religious order followed the lead of the Catholic Health Association (CHA), which threw the American Church into turmoil after it defied the bishops and supported the health bill just days before the final vote.

Kevin Hall, who resigned from the board after the religious order put its weight behind the bill, recently wrote of his dismay over the situation: "While the bishops and millions of ordinary Catholics - Democrat and Republican alike - were working hard to promote reform that protected the poor and protected the unborn and protected the consciences of health care workers, Providence and the Sisters of Charity ended up supporting a bill endorsed by the likes of Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League.

“Such strange company should have been a clue to the sisters and Providence that their efforts were seriously misguided."

Providence Hospitals is a non-profit organization in the Midlands area of South Carolina, sponsored by the Sisters of Charity Health System. When the health care reform bill passed, Sisters of Charity Health System CEO and President, Sr. Judith Ann Karam, released a statement saying that "this is an important day for all Americans."

She continued: "This law will help extend quality health care coverage to 32 million Americans and contains important insurance market reforms."

"The measure offers real health care solutions while respecting the dignity of life."

Hall said that he only learned of the Sisters' position from that press release, because they had neglected to brief their board on their position. "That was, needless to say, disappointing," he told LifeSiteNews.com

He also explained that the Sisters' had essentially taken for granted that the Catholic Health Association's (CHA) position was correct without performing any sort of independent analysis. CHA President Sr. Carol Keehan had admitted that the bill was not "perfect" but thought that it was a "major first step" and a "historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans."

"As a Catholic, I find it crushing to see our hospitals, once uniquely Christian ministries, go the way of secular health care where financial and political considerations rule the day," wrote Hall. "Fortunately, Sister Keehan does not speak for most Catholics or for the Church. It is terribly disappointing that she does speak for Providence Hospital and the Sisters of Charity."

Sr. Karam responded to Hall's accusations, however, by saying that "we have long championed health care reform that expands coverage while protecting life from the moment of conception to death."

She continued: "Through our own analysis, we strongly believe, and are in accord with the Catholic Health Association and other health care providers, that this law would not provide federal funding for abortions and includes many safeguards to ensure this does not happen."

"To be very clear, our hospitals and our health system will never support legislation that allows federal funds for abortion."

Yet such an argument is unconvincing to Hall.

"As [the Sisters of Charity Foundation's] immediate past president," he wrote, "I fear that Providence and the sisters have done a grave disservice to the unborn, to the church and to parishioners everywhere."

"When the chips were down, Providence Hospital was not faithful to the bishops' leadership or the truth they professed on behalf of the church."


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

ObamaCare: An Urgent Message to Our Catholic Readers


You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men.

(Matthew 5:13)
The Catholic Health Association has recently endorsed the Democrats' health care bill. This organization is comprised of 600 hospitals, hospices, long-term care facilities, and 3 of the largest HMO's in the nation. They are a network of institutions that may have some association with religious orders or the dioceses in which they operate, but they do not have the authority or competence to represent the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church. That they use the name "Catholic" to endorse policies antithetical to the Church is an attempt to sow confusion, undermines the authentic teaching of the Church, and is a grave sin.

Some have said that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) should condemn the Catholic Health Association for its advocacy of policies that would fundamentally change our country. However, the USCCB is itself a voluntary association of bishops with no more authority to teach, govern and sanctify than the Catholic Health Association, and we have seen how the USCCB has engaged in the same sorts of deception.


While it is the responsibility of individual bishops to address broad, moral concerns, to teach the faith, govern the local Church, and administer the sacraments, Catholic social teaching recognizes that it is primarily the responsibility of Catholic laymen to work out the details of a just, truly human, and Christian society.
Sadly, many Catholic leaders have become advocates for reforms that are in direct contradiction to long established and carefully stated moral teachings of the Church.

As we have noted before, there are wolves in prominent positions throughout the Church. We think the late Pope Paul VI had them in mind when he spoke of "il fumo di Satana nel tempio di Dio" ("the smoke of Satan in the Temple of God.") In regard to the Obama administration's effort to fundamentally transform America by seizing command of one sixth of America's economy, every Pope since the time of Marx and Engels has condemned socialism. Socialism was condemned in the 1878 papal encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris by Pope Leo XIII. It was even more thoroughly critiqued and condemned again by that Pope in the landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum, when he wrote:
"Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonwealth. The first and most fundamental principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property."
It was denounced in the 1931 letter Quadragesimo Anno in which Pius XI famously wrote that "no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist." Other twentieth century Popes have been clear on this issue, including Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Centesimus Annus, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of Rerum Novarum.

My fellow Catholics, we are confronted with evil the likes of which we have never encountered before. This week will be a pivotal moment for our nation, in which we decide whether we will be a people of the government, or have a government of the people. Will we take the side of those carrying out Lenin's prescription for destroying a society by debauching its currency, or will we affirm Winston Churchill who wrote that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation?" Will we agree with Ronald Reagan who said that as "government expands, liberty contracts"? Or will we side with Obama, Pelosi and Reid in their seizure of private sector industries and our freedoms?

Churchill wrote that "When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits-not animals."
Now is the time to affirm what our Church taught so clearly before schismatics created confusion. To affirm truths about the dignity and freedom of man, we must stand like those faithful clergy and laymen who died for their faith in the last century, rather than relent to totalitarian statism and socialism.

It is a time to remember the thousands of Catholic servicemen and women who lived and died for faith, freedom, individual rights and opportunity, and where the possibility of being forced to pay for the state-sanctioned murder of infants was unthinkable. It is time to affirm and be faithful to the commitment made and the graces received in the Sacrament of Confirmation. We are obliged and duty bound to protect our nation from false notions about man and society that have so recently gained a foothold in our country after they were thoroughly discredited in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

The Democrats' plan for health care in America, whether it contains specific language sanctioning taxpayer funding for abortion or not, is anti-life and evil. It fundamentally changes the nature of our society, our relationship to government, undermines our economic security, makes government the final arbiter as to what health care you should receive, rations health care, and ultimately decides who lives and who dies. And does anyone think that a President who has voted to let infants surviving abortion die of neglect, will not find ways to advance his demonic culture of death? Our Secretary of State has lectured Brazil in just the past week on why they should sponsor this kind of infanticide.


The American poet James Russell Lowell wrote:
"Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;"
Mid-Lent is a good time for every Catholic to decide on which side one will fight. Will we support policies from the pit of Hell, or will we resist, call our Congressmen, and take whatever actions are appropriate to our state in life to ensure that such legislation is not passed? And if it is passed, will we ensure that the next Congress rolls it back and fundamentally changes the direction in which our country is headed? One cannot be both Catholic and socialist.

God has a plan for your life. It is no accident that he created you for this time. Raise your voices and, in the words of the prophet Isaiah:
"Arise, shine, your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rests upon you ...nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn."

Monday, February 8, 2010

The Continuing Scandal at the USCCB


Bishop William Murphy Dodges The Issue

From New York Catholics



In this latest installment on the scandal unfolding at the USCCB in Bishop Murphy's Committee on Justice Peace and Human Development, Michael Voris succinctly explains how Bishop Murphy is trying to sidestep the real issues at hand by painting this controversy as an attempt to attack John Carr.

As Michael says, John Carr, the Executive Director of Bishop Murphy's Committee which has been reported as funding numerous pro-abortion and pro-homosexual Saul Alinsky-style community organizing groups to the tune of millions of dollars, is not the issue here.

The issue is two-fold:

1) Did Bishop Murphy's Committee in fact give millions of dollars to community action groups that are sympathetic to Marxism, abortion and sodomy?

2) If Bishop Murphy's Committee is responsible for doing the above, what did Bishop Murphy know and when did he know it?

Bishop Murphy is accusing the Catholic organizations who are reporting the USSCB scandal, of calumniating John Carr, instead of addressing the allegations of mis-allocation of funds to the enemies of the Faith.

Here is Bishop Murphy's statement in a CNS interview:
"I'm concerned about these attacks on John Carr and I know they are false and I think they are even calumnious. I am taking this to be a very sad, sad commentary on the honesty of some people in these pressure groups."
As you can see, Bishop Murphy is trying to turn the substantive question of whether his Committee has given millions of dollars to groups which support the Culture of Death into an attack on his subordinate, John Carr.

Then, the Bishop launches into his own adhominem attack on the leaders of these Catholic organizations, Reform CCHD Now, Human Life International, American Life League, and Bellarmine Veritas Ministry, by suggesting that they are dishonest, vilifying calumniators.

Bishop Murphy, being a member of the episcopacy doesn't give you the right to try and destroy the reputations of these good Catholic people who are trying to get to the truth of what has been going on in your Committee.

There is only one relevant question here, which I'll repeat again: "Bishop Murphy, what did you know and when did you know it?"


Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Totally Corrupt USCCB is Exposed



We have been reluctant to post this story about corruption well-known to us for decades. We remember seeing a parking lot full of Clinton-Gore bumper stickers at the USCCB offices, months after the 1992 elections. And all of our dealings with that organization and one of their state affiliates have made clear that this network, hijacked by left-wing ideologues, is more concerned with money, power, and advancing a political agenda, than it is with the Permanent Things and the Kingdom of God.

The Church is an institution that is both human and divine. As with any human institution, the muck and mire of sin that afflicts us all is present, manifesting itself from time to time. But this is a particularly dark age for the Church because many of those charged with teaching, governing and sanctifying, the bishops, have been timid, reluctant, or have refused to carryout their responsibilities.

The actions and omissions of certain American bishops cry out to heaven for vengeance. What has been exposed this week is pure evil. It is Satan operating within the Church. And it is long past time for laymen to refuse to fund any project of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is time to employ the great Catholic principle of subsidiarity, and to provide charity at the local level, individually, or through small, parish and local networks. It is time we let pastors know that we will no longer support diocesan fund-raising until a full investigation of the USCCB corruption is undertaken, a house-cleaning is carried out, and those responsible have repented and been retired.

If the American bishops are incapable of "fraternal correction," and it appears that they are, Rome should intervene to remove the quislings on the staff of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and hold their employers accountable. We cannot wait for this scandal to resolve itself through time and attrition. The work of thousands of good and holy priests, nuns, religious brothers and sisters, and laymen is being undermined by a handful of corrupt and incompetent bishops and their agents.

Light vanquishes the darkness, and we believe that Christ is purifying His Church through the revelations and humiliations of recent years. We continue to believe that there are many holy shepherds in the Church, led by a great successor of Peter, who is healing ancient wounds and divisions and valiantly building up the Kingdom of God. We will pray for that renewal.