LifeNet

A Catholic homily on Obamacare & the Mandate - says it all

From the youtube posting:

On February 5, 2012 Father Sammie Maletta delivered a Homily at St. John the Evangelist Parish in St. John, Indiana. This Homily addressed how President Obama is threatening our Religious Freedom ...

We hope he's right about "We will go out of business before we will pay to have a child murdered."

Cardinal Dolan writes his fellow bishops on the HHS mandate: "Where does it end?"

This letter was just released by Cardinal Dolan, the current President of the US Bishops Conference, to his fellow Bishops. It's available on the USCCB website - we have taken it off The Catholic Key Blog.

Isn't it incredible that here in the United States the Bishops need to form an "Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty", as per the co-signature of Bishop Lori below!

In a new letter to his fellow US bishops, USCCB President Timothy Cardinal Dolan asserts that President Obama’s accommodation to the HHS birth control, abortifacient and sterilization mandate has changed nothing and he again asks the bishops to help in the fight to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

Full text below:

Dear Brother Bishops,

Since we last wrote to you concerning the critical efforts we are undertaking together to protect religious freedom in our beloved country, many of you have requested that we write once more to update you on the situation and to again request the assistance of all the faithful in this important work. We are happy to do so now.

First, we wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to you, and to all our sisters and brothers in Christ, for the remarkable witness of our unity in faith and strength of conviction during this past month. We have made our voices heard, and we will not cease from doing so until religious freedom is restored.

As we know, on January 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a decision to issue final regulations that would force practically all employers, including many religious institutions, to pay for abortion inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraception. The regulations would provide no protections for our great institutions—such as Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities—or for the individual faithful in the marketplace. The regulations struck at the heart of our fundamental right to religious liberty, which affects our ability to serve those outside our faith community.

Since January 20, the reaction was immediate and sustained. We came together, joined by people of every creed and political persuasion, to make one thing resoundingly clear: we stand united against any attempt to deny or weaken the right to religious liberty upon which our country was founded.

On Friday, February 10, the Administration issued the final rules. By their very terms, the rules were reaffirmed “without change.” The mandate to provide the illicit services remains. The exceedingly narrow exemption for churches remains. Despite the outcry, all the threats to religious liberty posed by the initial rules remain.

Religious freedom is a fundamental right of all. This right does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it: it is God-given, and just societies recognize and respect its free exercise. The free exercise of religion extends well beyond the freedom of worship. It also forbids government from forcing people or groups to violate their most deeply held religious convictions, and from interfering in the internal affairs of religious organizations.

Recent actions by the Administration have attempted to reduce this free exercise to a “privilege” arbitrarily granted by the government as a mere exemption from an all-encompassing, extreme form of secularism. The exemption is too narrowly defined, because it does not exempt most non-profit religious employers, the religiously affiliated insurer, the self-insured employer, the for-profit religious employer, or other private businesses owned and operated by people who rightly object to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. And because it is instituted only by executive whim, even this unduly narrow exemption can be taken away easily.

In the United States, religious liberty does not depend on the benevolence of who is regulating us. It is our “first freedom” and respect for it must be broad and inclusive—not narrow and exclusive. Catholics and other people of faith and good will are not second class citizens. And it is not for the government to decide which of our ministries is “religious enough” to warrant religious freedom protection.

This is not just about contraception, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilization—although all should recognize the injustices involved in making them part of a universal mandated health care program. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. It is about people of faith. This is first and foremost a matter of religious liberty for all. If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end? This violates the constitutional limits on our government, and the basic rights upon which our country was founded.

Much remains to be done. We cannot rest when faced with so grave a threat to the religious liberty for which our parents and grandparents fought. In this moment in history we must work diligently to preserve religious liberty and to remove all threats to the practice of our faith in the public square. This is our heritage as Americans. President Obama should rescind the mandate, or at the very least, provide full and effective measures to protect religious liberty and conscience.

Above all, dear brothers, we rely on the help of the Lord in this important struggle. We all need to act now by contacting our legislators in support of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which can be done through our action alert on www.usccb.org/conscience.

We invite you to share the contents of this letter with the faithful of your diocese in whatever form, or by whatever means, you consider most suitable. Let us continue to pray for a quick and complete resolution to this and all threats to religious liberty and the exercise of our faith in our great country.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Most Reverend William E. Lori
Bishop of Bridgeport
Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty

Florida Congressman Allen West, addresses the rally at the 2012 March for Life

On January 23rd. Congressman West is one of two African-American Republican Congressman. He quotes from the Bible, Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson.

 

Chris Bell & others speaking @ 2012 March for Life about Pregnancy Care Centers

Chris, co-founder with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, of Good Counsel Homes.

This is at the pre-march rally. 

 

Without hedging, a Catholic priest defends Church teaching on sexuality and artificial contraception

A pretty fine presentation, and in the NY Times!

The Message on Contraception, Without Apology

It was last Sunday morning, and the Rev. Roger J. Landry, whose accent is from working-class Lowell, Mass., but whose college degree is from nearby Harvard, had just finished officiating at the 8:30 Mass at St. Anthony of Padua, his church in this old whaling town. After his fiery sermon attacking the Obama administration, several people in the pews applauded — a sound striking for its echoes in the cavernous, awesome church, and for its rarity. One does not applaud in Mass.

But Father Landry did not mind the enthusiasm. He is a traditionalist, and he is eager to share his opinions with his flock. This is a priest who believes official Catholic teaching about contraception, and who is not afraid to say so.

Such men may not be the exception, but it’s not clear that they are the rule. ...

******

Father Landry also gives sermons on contraception, something very few priests do. He says he relies on Pope John Paul II’s argument against contraception, which he summarizes. “That God has made us fundamentally for love,” Father Landry said, “and that marriage is supposed to help us to love for real. In order for that to happen, we need to totally give ourselves over to someone else in love, and receive the other’s total self in love.

“What happens in the use of contraception, rather than embracing us totally as God made the other, with the masculine capacity to become a dad, or the feminine capacity to become a mom, we reject that paternal and maternal leaning.”

Father Landry argues that contraception can be the gateway to exploitation: “When that petition is made for contraception, it’s going to make pleasure the point of the act, and any time pleasure becomes the point rather than the fruit of the act, the other person becomes the means to that end. And we’re actually going to hurt the people we love.”

Many non-Catholics — and many Catholics — see the church’s teaching on contraception as cruel toward women. But Father Landry says it’s women who intuitively get how divorcing sex from procreation allows men to use them; in his experience, it is almost always the woman who moves a couple toward abandoning artificial contraception.

“They have a lot of times experienced having been used in their marriage or their previous relationship,” Father Landry said.

Hit the link for the enitre article.

Excellent flyer: "Seven Reasons Why Abortion is the Preeminent Political Issue"

This fine flyer is the work of Citizens for a Pro-life Society, whose Director is Monica Migliorino Miller, PhD. This is a Michigan-based group and Dr. Miller is a theology professor at St. Mary's College of Madonna University in Orchard Lake, Michigan.

It''s all summed up on one page, which you can easily download and print -

Seven Reasons Why Abortion is the Preeminent Political issue

Planning starts for Rally against HHS Mandate attack on religious freedom and conscience

First plan is for March 23rd, nationwide.

Stand up for Religious Freedom

More information as it becomes available.

40 Days for Life: kicking off in Bronx, Manhattan

Information here -

40 Days for Life: NYC-Bronx

40 Days for Life-NYC Kick Off 2/17/12

New Life Outreach International Church
2757 Morris Avenue
Bronx, NY 10468

Tomorrow night we have an awesome line up of speakers to prepare for our two site 40 Days for Life campaign starting on Ash Wednesday, next week. Join our Bronx rally at the New Life Outreach International Church on Morris Avenue at 6:45-9PM. Plan to pray at Dr. Emily's Abortion Center at 560 Southern Blvd., Monday through Saturday from 2/22/12 till 4/1/12. And/or join us at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, at 434 West 33rd St. in Manhattan, on Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays, starting on 2/23/12 till 3/31/12. Please click on the link below to register or RSVP.

Get more information Register Now! I can't make it

With a 40% NYC abortion rate can we afford to not pray, fast and outreach? If you cannot join us would you help me fund our core team at the locations for the 40 Days of Lent? Give at Make A Sacrificial Lenten Gift here.  Please. Yours for Life,   Chris Slattery, Founder & President Expectant Mother Care-EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers, Co-Director, 40 Days for Life/NYC www.EMCFrontLine.org www.40DaysforLife.com/NYC

WSJ op ed - it's basic: "Birth-Control Mandate: Unconstitutional and Illegal"

A sraightforward and easy to understand explanation as to why the Obama/HHS contraception/sterilization/abortion mandate is unconstitutional. The op ed is not very long - 16 paragraphs - but very comprehensive.

"It violates the First Amendment and the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

The birth-control coverage mandate violates the First Amendment's bar against the "free exercise" of religion. But it also violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That statute, passed unanimously by the House of Representatives and by a 97-3 vote in the Senate, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993. It was enacted in response to a 1990 Supreme Court opinion, Employment Division v. Smith.

That case limited the protections available under the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion to those government actions that explicitly targeted religious practices, by subjecting them to difficult-to-satisfy strict judicial scrutiny. Other governmental actions, even if burdening religious activities, were held subject to a more deferential test.

The 1993 law restored the same protections of religious freedom that had been understood to exist pre-Smith. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act states that the federal government may "substantially burden" a person's "exercise of religion" only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person "is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest" and "is the least restrictive means of furthering" that interest.

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The refusal, for religious reasons, to provide birth-control coverage is clearly an exercise of religious freedom under the Constitution. The "exercise of religion" extends to performing, or refusing to perform, actions on religious grounds—and it is definitely not confined to religious institutions or acts of worship. Leading Supreme Court cases in this area, for example, involve a worker who refused to work on the Sabbath (Sherbert v. Verner, 1963) and parents who refused to send their teenage children to a public high school (Wisconsin v. Yoder, 1972).

In the high-school case, the Supreme Court found that even a $5 fine on the parents substantially burdened the free exercise of their religion. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, employers who fail to comply with the birth-control mandate will incur an annual penalty of roughly $2,000 per employee. So it is clearly a substantial burden.

******

Does the mandate further the governmental interest in increasing cost-free access to contraceptives by means that are least restrictive of the employer's religious freedom? Plainly, the answer is no. There are plenty of other ways to increase access to contraceptives that intrude far less on the free exercise of religion.

Health and Human Services itself touts community health centers, public clinics and hospitals as some of the available alternatives; doctors and pharmacies are others. Many of the entities, with Planned Parenthood being the most prominent, already furnish free contraceptives. The government could have the rest of these providers make contraceptive services available free and then compensate them directly. A mandate on employers who object for religious reasons is among the most restrictive means the government could have chosen to increase access.

The mandate also fails the "compelling government interest" test. Given the widespread availability of contraceptive services, and the far less restrictive other ways to increase their availability, the government can hardly claim it has a "compelling" interest in marginally increasing access to birth control by requiring objecting employers to join in this effort.

******

In an effort to rally its base in the upcoming November election, the Obama administration seems more interested in punishing religiously based opposition to contraception and abortion than in marginally increasing access to contraception services. ...

... the birth-control mandate violates both statutory law and the Constitution. The fact that the administration promulgated it so flippantly, without seriously engaging on these issues, underscores how little it cares about either.

 

Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren: "I'd rather go to jail than obey mandate"

Rick Warren is the author of the worldwide best seller The Purpose Driven Life and Pastor of Saddleback Church.

He gave the invocation at the Obama inauguration.

Here's Warren's commentary on the HHS mandate -

“I’m not a Catholic but I stand in 100% solidarity with my brothers & sisters to practice their belief against govt pressure,” Warren said. “I’d go to jail rather than cave in to a govement mandate that violates what God commands us to do. Would you? Acts 5:29.”

Richard Land, a pro-life leader who is a top official with the South Baptist Church, said the same thing the day prior.

“When it comes to abortifacients, and many birth-control methods are abortifacients,” Land said, this mandate is “reprehensible in its demands for people to violate their conscience.” “We are not going to do this. We have a First Amendment right to freedom of conscience, and we’re going to defend it. If we have to defend it by going to jail, so be it.”

Rev. Matthew Harrison is another Protestant leader who is opposed to the mandate.

“We have a full-tilt assault on religion, especially full creedal Christians, right now,” he said. “This is a fundamental attack on the Roman Catholic Church’s ability to be in the public square, being in partnership with the government providing for the needy.”

He says the “ultimate goal is to drive religious people out of public life in this nation and out of the reception of any kind of funding or partnership with government for good in society.”

Harrison is 100% right!

WSJ on Obama accommodation: "Makes the birth control mandate worse"

Yesterday's announcement by the President that all insurance companies simply had to make contraception, et al, free to everyone has pleased some of the lap dog Catholics who support him, like EJ Dionne and Sister Carol Keehan. It is most charitable to say these people are merely stupid and not trying to actually undermine their Church.

The Wall Street Journal points to the total and utter bogusness:

An 'accommodation' that makes the birth-control mandate worse.

... you almost have to admire the absurdity of the new plan President Obama floated yesterday: The government will now write a rule that says the best things in life are "free," including contraception. Thus a political mandate will be compounded by an uneconomic one—in other words, behold the soul of ObamaCare.

Under the original Health and Human Services regulation, all religious institutions except for houses of worship would be required to cover birth control, including hospitals, schools and charities. Under the new rule, which the White House stresses is "an accommodation" and not a compromise, nonprofit religious organizations won't have to directly cover birth control and can opt out. But the insurers they hire to cover their employees can't opt out. If that sounds like a distinction without a difference, odds are you're a rational person.

Say Notre Dame decides that its health plan won't cover birth control on moral grounds. A faculty member wants such coverage, so Notre Dame's insurer will then be required to offer the benefit as an add-on rider anyway, at no out-of-pocket cost to her, or to any other worker or in higher premiums for the larger group.

But wait. Supposedly the original rule was necessary to ensure "access" to contraceptives, which can cost up to $600 a year as Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray wrote in these pages this week. The true number is far less, but where does that $600 or whatever come from, if not from Notre Dame and not the professor?

Insurance companies won't be making donations. Drug makers will still charge for the pill. Doctors will still bill for reproductive treatment. The reality, as with all mandated benefits, is that these costs will be borne eventually via higher premiums. The balloon may be squeezed differently over time, and insurers may amortize the cost differently over time, but eventually prices will find an equilibrium. Notre Dame will still pay for birth control, even if it is nominally carried by a third-party corporation.

This cut-out may appease a few of the Administration's critics, especially on the Catholic left—but only if they want to be deceived again, having lobbied for the Affordable Care Act that created the problem in the first place. The faithful for whom birth control is a matter of religious conviction haven't been accommodated at all. They'll merely have to keep two sets of accounting books.

>>>>>>

Yesterday's new adventure in damage control and bureaucratic improvisation makes the compliance problem much worse. There is simply no precedent for the government ordering private companies to offer a product for free, even if they recoup the costs indirectly. Why not do that with all health benefits and "bend the cost curve" to zero? The shape of the final rule when the details land in the Federal Register is anyone's guess, including the HHS gnomes who are throwing it together on the fly to meet a political deadline.

One major problem will be how the rule applies to large organizations that self-insure. Arrangements in which an employer pays for care directly and uses insurers to manage benefits and process claims (not to take on insurance risk) account for the majority of the private market. In these cases there isn't even a free lunch to pretend exists.

And the last point is a major one - most large organizations self-insure and use the insurer to manage and administrate benefits, so the insurer only pays on large claims (what's called a stop loss). The small claims - say under $25,000 or $50,000 - are paid by the organization themselves, from a fund they've set aside.

Hit the link for the whole editorial.

A canon lawyer on Nancy Pelosi's status as well as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

A short (six paragraphs) posting on"A Canon Lawyer's Blog".

The lawyer is Edward N. Peters, JD, JCD, Ref. Sig. Ap.

Hit the link; it's a short posting.

Canon 915, as I and others have explained many times, is not about impositions on individual conscience, it’s about public consequences for public behavior. It’s about taking people at their word and acknowledging the character of their actions. It’s about not pretending that people don’t really mean what they repeatedly say and what they repeatedly do.

Dominican sisters speak out against Obama insurance mandate

DOMINICAN SISTERS OF ST. CECILIA CONGREGATION

Statement from Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation February 6, 2012

 

Health Insurance Mandate: Religious Freedom and

Conscience Rights in United States

Seriously Threatened

The United States, from its very beginnings, has been an example of true human freedom and religious liberty for all. During its history, in fact, our nation has sheltered countless people who came here from countries where their basic freedoms were either in danger or being denied altogether. Sadly, Americans now face a similar threat. At this moment, which is strange and new to us, our own religious freedom and rights of conscience are in jeopardy. Sharing the very serious concerns expressed by Pope Benedict XVI and by our U.S. bishops in recent weeks, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia will set aside nine days of prayer and fasting during the month of February, asking Our Lady to intercede for our country.

 

Background

The Holy Father noted in a recent address to U.S. Bishops visiting Rome that Catholics in the United States face "grave threats to the Church's public witness" and "attempts to limit the most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion." He was responding to the American bishops' concerns about "concerted efforts...to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices" and the "tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship." Pope Benedict stressed that it is imperative that "the entire Catholic community in the United States" recognize and counter these threats.

 

While faced with multiple threats to religious liberty, the most immediate concern is a January 20, 2012 ruling by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), made in conjunction with the recently approved healthcare law. In identifying the "preventive services" that must be covered in most health insurance plans, this HHS mandate specifies "all FDA approved forms of contraception," including sterilization and some abortifacients. Although the ruling does allow an exemption for certain religious organizations, the exemption is so narrow that most religious institutions - including most Catholic schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and charitable agencies - do not meet the criteria.

 

As a result of this ruling, religious employers will be required to pay for forms of health insurance coverage that violate both their religious beliefs and their rights of conscience. This would be the case with employers at both Catholic and many other religiously-affiliated institutions.

 

This decision was immediately denounced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as numerous individual bishops and other religious leaders, both Christian and non-Christian. According to the terms of the mandate, most new and renewed health plans will be required to include the aforementioned services beginning August 1, 2012. Nonprofit employers who, because of their religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage, may have an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new law; but they must certify that they qualify for delayed implementation. In the meantime, they must provide their employees with specific information about sites where "contraceptive services" can be obtained. Thus religious employers are obliged by law to cooperate in actions which they hold in conscience to be intrinsically evil.

 

Cardinal-Designate Timothy M. Dolan, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has termed the HHS decision "literally unconscionable." The Washington Post, in a January 22 editorial, noted that the final HHS ruling "fails to address the fundamental problem of requiring religiously affiliated entities to spend their own money in a way that contradicts the tenets of their faith."

 

Numerous bishops and other religious leaders have continued to issue public protests against the HHS decision. The bishops have vowed to continue fighting the mandate, urging their people to do the same.

 

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation strongly share the concern of our bishops and other religious leaders who have expressed opposition to this decision of the HHS. We are providing in this newsletter links to statements and articles giving more complete information about the implications of this ruling, one which poses an unprecedented threat to freedom of religion and conscience in our country.

 

United in Prayer

We beg God for the preservation of our great and beautiful country, and of the freedom we have all enjoyed and been privileged to share with others. The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia invite you to join with us in a novena of prayer and fasting, asking Mary, Patroness of the United States of America, to implore God's loving mercy on us at this critical time. The novena will begin February 11 and end February 19, 2012. The sisters will be praying the following prayer each of the nine days.

 

Act of Consecration of the United States to the

Immaculate Heart of Mary

 

Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in heaven, who chose Mary as the fairest of your daughters; Holy Spirit, who chose Mary as your spouse; God the Son, who chose Mary as your Mother; in union with Mary, we adore your majesty and acknowledge your supreme, eternal dominion and authority.

 

Most Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that she may present the country to you. Through her we wish to thank you for the great resources of this land and for the freedom, which has been its heritage. Through the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church in America. Grant us peace. Have mercy on our president and on all the officers of our government. Grant us a fruitful economy born of justice and charity. Have mercy on capital and industry and labor. Protect the family life of the nation. Guard the precious gift of many religious vocations. Through the intercession of our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the poor, the tempted, sinners - on all who are in need.

 

Mary, Immaculate Virgin, our Mother, Patroness of our land, we praise you and honor you and give our country and ourselves to your sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pierced by the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon, save us from degeneration, disaster and war. Protect us from all harm. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, you who bore the sufferings of your Son in the depths of your heart, be our advocate. Pray for us, that acting always according to your will and the will of your divine Son, we may live and die pleasing to God. Amen.

 

Imprimatur, Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle, Archbishop of Washington, 1959, for public consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary;

renewed by U.S. Bishops, November 11, 2006

 

March for Life San Francisco - January 21, 2012

Estimated crowd of 50,000. Pretty decent coverage by the local press - definitely check out the pictures in the San Francisco Mercurynews.com  -

Walk for Life rally and march

Here's a video, posted by a young man who's giving a little commentary -

 

The website & the national petition to stop the HHS mandate

Here - with extensive information -

STOP HHS Mandate

 

See also this article - President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast. Catholics Won’t Get Fooled Again

Sleepy Hollow, NY: St. Theresa of Avila Church @ the March for Life

Awesome stuff - Thank you Sr. Mary Ann!

Email the Susan B. Komen Foundation to let them know you support their defunding of Planned Parenthood

This is crucial! The pro-abortion world and their lap dog media know this is a major turning and are attacking Komen with all they've got!

From C-Fam and similar emails have gone out from other prolife groups. You just need to send a quick email to Komen: <[email protected]>

Yesterday it was announced that the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which is the largest global funder of breast cancer research, has defunded Planned Parenthood. This is an amazing victory for pro-lifers who have asked Komen for years to stop funding the abortion giant.

The announcement was made yesterday and the Komen office has received more than 2,000 emails denouncing the decision. We need for the Komen people to hear from pro-lifers.

I ask you right now, no matter where you are in the world, to email the Susan G. Komen Foundation and thank them for defunding Planned Parenthood.

Please stop what you are doing right now and write to [email protected] and say (in English please): "Thanks for defunding Planned Parenthood!" That is all you have to say! And it will make a huge difference.

Do it right now. Do not wait. Write right now to [email protected] and say (in English) "Thank you for defunding Planned Parenthood."

Many thanks for your help. This is really important. They have taken a brave stand and we have to stand with them.

Go to  [email protected]  right now. Please write from all over the world.


Yours sincerely,

Austin Ruse
President/C-FAM
Publisher/Friday Fax

Senator Marco Rubio at Susan B. Anthony convention: "our nation can never truly become what it fully was intended to be" until it ends abortion

Great talk as Rubio cuts through the goobly gook -

“The issue of life is not a political issue, nor is it a policy issue, it is a definitional issue. It is a basic core issue that every society needs to answer,” he said. “The answer that you give to that issue ends up defining which kind of society you have.”

Rubio criticized those who back away from the pro-life fight because it “makes us uncomfortable,” explaining that while other issues — like jobs, the debt, and the economy — are important, abortion is more than a political issue.

“This is an issue that, especially for those that enter the public arena and refuse to leave our faith behind, speaks to more than just our politics,” Rubio said. “It speaks to what we want to do with the opportunity we have been given in our life, to serve and to glorify our Creator.”

******

Rubio insisted that in the struggle between the rights of the mother and the rights of the unborn, the deck is stacked against the unborn because they cannot vote. He urged the audience to be the voice for those who cannot speak.

“The way we look at [human rights atrocities] in history and condemn them — this era will be condemned for this, I have no doubt about it,” Rubio said. “Our job is to accelerate the process of getting there, to ensure that sooner rather than later — God willing, in our lifetime — we can arrive to a consciousness in this nation that this is wrong, that the right to life is a fundamental one that trumps virtually any other right I can imagine, because without it none of the other rights matter.”

Rubio compared today’s pro-life movement to abolitionism, the civil rights movement and women’s suffrage.

“At the end of the day our nation can never truly become what it fully was intended to be unless it deals with this issue squarely,” he said. “America cannot truly fulfill its destiny unless this issue is resolved. It’s that important.”

hitt he link for the complete article.

Fr. Rutler on the Obama Administration attack on religious groups and conscience: "The Pope told you so"

Fr. George Rutler, the noted author and pastor of the Church of Our Saviour in New York City. Hit the link for the entire not very long essay; excerpts below.

... on the cusp of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued an “interim final rule” which requires all private health plans, including those of Catholic hospitals and schools, to include coverage of prescription contraceptives, female sterilization procedures, and abortion counseling.

For a while, various Catholic leaders had hoped that they might reach an understanding with the Administration, and some even felt more at peace with the president’s assurances. But “peace for our time” only lasts until Poland is invaded. Cardinal Mahony, whom no one would fault for intransigence, now says, “I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on the freedom of conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic Community can muster.”

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When a writer for The National Catholic Reporter supports the Catholic Church against the Obama administration,  one wonders if it might be the effect of solar radiation, but it has happened now.  And The Washington Post joined the ranks with an editorial saying that “requiring a religiously affiliated employer to spend its own money in a way that violates its religious principles does not make an adequate accommodation for those deeply held views.”

****** 

Since our Lord did not humiliate the frightened apostles by saying “I told you so” when he rose from the dead, I shall not say “I told you so” to any who, just three years ago,  underestimated the plottings of social engineers whose audacity is only an audacity of hopelessness.

 

The Pfizer birth control pill mistake: "...There are over the counter termination kits available."

UPDATE:  NBC deleted the line above from this video - as well as some other rather vile lines. They cut 25 seconds out  - we will try and find the original on youtube.

From NBC Today Show. Listen to the entire 1:43. A classic example of verbal engineering.

 

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