Sr Patricia Miller in op-ed canonizes St. Obama for his respect for religious liberty. No, really.

Joseph Goebbels advised that when telling lies, tell a big one and tell it often. Another approach is to jam so many distortions into so brief a space that they are too hard to refute in as short a period and in keeping with attention spans.

Here is an op-ed piece from – to our shame as Catholics – a woman religious, Sr Patricia Miller in the Des Moines Register.

She must have an interior landscape like Salvador Dali painting, since she wafts incense at Pres. Obama for his, and the HHS mandate’s respect for the religious liberty of Catholics. n the HHS mandate.

I’m mobile right now do I will post this as is:

[…]

I believe President Obama’s vision to advance the common good and provide justice for all is aligned with the values Catholics cherish.

In this election, it has been unseemly to see partisanship and ideology above our call to serve the needs of the elderly and poor. As a lifelong Catholic, I have dedicated my life to care of my fellow human beings and tending to the needs of the poor and vulnerable in line with the tenets of the Catholic Church. I believe in President Obama’s commitment to provide health care for all citizens.

As a nurse and health care administrator for many years, I can say unequivocally our old health care system that left so many people without care and uninsured needed to be reformed. Our emergency rooms were overcrowded with people seriously ill with no prior records, with costly tests, treatments and follow-up. We spend twice more than any country in the world on health care with fewer results. Forty-five million citizens were without health care. That has dropped to 30 million already.

With the Affordable Care Act, no one can be denied care. It is the first time in history that a national commitment has been made to provide adequate care for all our citizens. The act is based on the Christian values that every person has the right to health, and we are responsible for each other.

Therefore, it is inclusive, accessible, affordable and accountable. It is already benefiting millions by offering preventive care and allowing our young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance, eliminating lifetime limits on policies, prohibiting dropping people from coverage when they become very ill or receive extensive treatments.

The president is diligent in viewing the needs of all citizens. Iowa, in 2000, was one of the first states to require our insurance companies to cover contraception. The bishops requested that those whose beliefs were against contraception not pay for others who use them. President Obama obliged with a plan that persons not using contraceptives, because of their beliefs, would not have their insurance increased, but it was refused by the bishops.

Through all actions and laws, President Obama is not taking away our religious freedom as Catholics. He has always considered the value systems of the different religions and tries to accommodate as best possible.

The president has been a faithful and loyal partner for Catholics starting as a community organizer in Chicago working with Catholic parishes in poor neighborhoods. His salary was funded by a grant from a group of the Catholic Church.

He knows that local churches often do more good for a community than a government program ever can. The Obama administration has proven its support for Catholics worldwide in the increase of funds directed toward charities, education and volunteer services to lift the vulnerable communities at home and abroad.

I believe President Obama’s values to advance the common good and provide justice and opportunity for all Americans are aligned with those Catholics cherish. This is in stark contrast with Mitt Romney’s support of the Ryan budget, which he has praised for being “marvelous.” The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has assailed the Ryan budget, stating, “A just spending bill cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to the poor and vulnerable persons; it requires shared sacrifice by all.” That letter was led by Des Moines Bishop Richard Pates.

The Nuns on the Bus tour to highlight the devastating impact of the Ryan budget noted “it’s not who we are as a nation, it is not in keeping with who we are, and we must speak out against it.”

The Ryan budget, which was passed by House Republicans, is an affront to Catholic social teaching by gutting programs, targeting the homeless, housing, nutrition, Medicaid, and Medicare while granting even more tax cuts to the wealthiest among us. This comes as we just learned the number of Iowans receiving food stamps has increased 7 percent in the last year.

President Obama has stood up for the Christian principles of loving our neighbor, caring for the disadvantaged and promoting the common good. I have seen his faith leading him to restore economic fairness and an economy where hard work and responsibility pays off, if everyone does their fair share and plays by the rules, our country will be better off.

[…]

Surreal.

Have at.

Work together on this.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Biased Media Coverage, Blatteroons, Dogs and Fleas, Emanations from Penumbras, Magisterium of Nuns, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, SESSIUNCULA, The Drill, Women Religious and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

69 Comments

  1. John-PaulSC says:

    She presumably composed this with a straight face?????

  2. poorlady says:

    And is Sister expecting a gift or praise from President Obama for this???

  3. BaedaBenedictus says:

    I don’t have much to say since, after all, Sister is “in full communion” with Rome. ;-)

    I will point out that it is ironic that she summons the full authority of the USCCB to support her contention that the Ryan budget is immoral, yet she totally ignores USCCB admonitions against contraceptives as a taxpayer-supported form of “preventive healthcare” and the regime of mass slaughter of unborn children about which her beloved Obamessiah is so fanatical.

    But then, when has logic and consistency ever been a virtue for progressivists?

  4. dwfinke says:

    Sorry Sister, but for every wonderful Christian act that President Obama performs, he creates something anti-Christian. The whole package must be right and just. I am not too comfortable with a Mormon President, but I hope he stands up for universal Christian morals. Contraception is a license to have sex without a care like a wild animal.

  5. wmeyer says:

    This is precisely why I worry about the Catholic vote in November. How can any Catholic possibly imagine voting for this man? And if they can, how can they imagine they are Catholic? When the man’s principles–I use that word hesitantly–are clearly contrary to our faith…. Words fail me.

    There have been estimates that the roughly 54% of Catholic Americans who voted for Obama included a similar percentage of our bishops. Appalling.

  6. Kerry says:

    Did she read fish or bird entrails for her diagnosis?
    “I refute it thus!”: http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2012/07/you-didnt-build-that.html

  7. Rich says:

    Sister is simply parroting all the talking points the liberal media have thrown at Catholics and the bishops in response to their protest against the Obama administrations affront on religious liberty. These points have been refuted before and one may do so with basic knowledge of the actual facts surrounding theses cases, i.e., the supposed “compromise” was carried out by entering the mandate into the books “without change”. Rather than refuting what Sister writes point by point, I would offer the simple explanation that, like most liberal Catholics, mainstream liberal agendas take precedence over the precepts of the Catholic faith, and that her justification of being a Catholic and so liberal is carried out by paring the faith into little pieces, some of which are fit within her liberal agendas and the rest are discarded with whatever excuse she can pull out of her sleeve, i.e. And, such a defense of President Obama and his policies would help further the liberal agendas to which Sister prescribes.

  8. Sissy says:

    wmeyer, the protestant theologian, Dr. R.C. Sproul, said recently:
    “If I have any issue that determines my vote it is not the Trinity but abortion. Any candidate who supports abortion by law has completely abrogated his responsibility as a governor by failing to protect and maintain the sanctity of life. So I will not ever vote for a candidate in any office including dog-catcher who is pro-abortion.”

    It’s a sorry state of affairs when a protestant has a better grasp of Catholic teaching than a “Sister”.

  9. disco says:

    Like George Costanza says: it’s not a lie — if YOU believe it.

  10. FloridaJoan says:

    … sigh … :(

  11. Johnno says:

    Whenever people stand back and look at the great tragedies of history and ask “How could people let that happen and let things get that bad?”

    Here’s how… thanks to people like this sister who cannot comprehend how evil comes disguised as good.

    Humanity just never learns… The smae thigns repeat over and over and over and over again like a vicious cycle. And this is why Armageddon and God’s inevitable severe punishment of the world needs to happen. History must be allowed the time to record the complete absurdity that is humanity being left to his own devices at the peak of its instability. A testament that will stand forever.

  12. Marc says:

    Sr Patricia Miller: “We have no king but Caesar.”

  13. JARay says:

    Perhaps those liberals such as the above nun, should be made aware that telling half-truths is hardly praise. There is such a saying, that one can damn with faint praise and half-truths are indeed faint praise.

  14. Indulgentiam says:

    And to think that the name of her order, Lord have mercy on them all, is “The Congregation of the Humility of Mary” CHM Here is their website–http://www.chmiowa.org/contact.cfm Their mission statement reads like it was written by a protestant, liberal, new age democrat.
    I couldn’t stay on the site long, it was just so much tai chi, yoga and apparently they got the “call” to live the Gospel from each other. Well that explains Sr. Pat. Besides my gag reflex had already been overworked by the smell of the elephant droppings strewn liberally through her script, oops article. good grief! obama’s lackies must be working overtime hunting down every elderly sister with dementia so they can shove her in front of some advertising intern (no way these people are worthy of the name journalist). In the middle of the webpage says; “Click here for a list of names of CHM sisters” you will find Sr. Pat halfway down the page and if you click on her name you can send her an email. In charity, i will send her my promise of prayers and at least one Holy Hour for the salvation of her soul.

    Queen of the Holy Rosary pray for us!

  15. Supertradmum says:

    I know this sister and I am very familiar with this order. I attended one of their universities for four years as an undergraduate. I watched them put aside their habits in 1970 and fall farther and farther away from orthodoxy very quickly. By 1970, before Roe v. Wade, they had allowed NOW to open an counseling office on campus for contraception and abortion information. I know, as I was asked to be part of this, which I refused. They were in the forefront of radical feminism since that time.

    I have met Sister Pat Miller. I know personally most of the sisters in Davenport. I can assure you that this stand is not new. Do not think this article is the result of anything but more than 40 years of disobedience to Rome and liberal theological thinking. The leaders of this order have been more career women than sisters.

    They use a version of the breviary which is unapproved and uses inclusive language. None of their decisions as an order have been based on anything but their interpretations of social justice. I am grieved yet again, as I have been treated in the past very kindly by some of the sisters in this order with whom I had some degree of friendship, yet realize that the vast majority have not only lost their first Love, Christ, but have lived for over 40 years in direct disobedience to Rome in several areas.

    Pray for these women. This article is not a one off thing, but a demonstration of almost half a century of rebellion.

  16. John-PaulSC says:

    If the Sister really believes what she posits, she is deserving of a lot of prayers for her conversion back to the faith.

  17. SegoLily says:

    Again, proof that Campaign for Human Development funds went to pay salaries for community organizers and pro-abortion, pro-contraception thugs such as Obama. I wonder how many bishops have the self awareness to understand that in today’s first reading God will deal justly with shepherds who lead His lambs astray and that likely means many of the Catholic hierarchy over these past 40-50 years. Too little much too late as the flame of Western Civilization flickers and dies.

    I don’t hold much hope that Catholics will vote for Romney in numbers large enough to defeat Obama. I do have much hope that the Catholic Chruch will come through the storm just fine, but it will take 300 years.

  18. This woman can utter such nonsense but still is officially within the church whereas the SSPX are on the fringes, decrying such abuse on the part of these ecommunists ! Now go figure.

  19. aviva meriam says:

    Another Protestant Theologian (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) said the following:

    Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.

    Why was this so obvious to Bonhoeffer 70 years ago, yet impossible for Sr to Understand?
    why would she think it is consistent with Catholic principles to defend someone who funds (and demands that everyone fund), Murder? How can that be consistent with Catholic values?

    I think the most appropriate term for her and her defense of Obama is “Useful Idiot”

  20. aviva meriam says:

    Bonhoeffer continued (in Ethics):

    A great many motives may lead to an action of this kind; indeed in cases where it is an act of despair, performed in circumstances of extreme human or economic destitution and misery, the guilt may often lie rather with the community than with the individual. Precisely in this connection money may conceal many a wanton deed, while the poor man’s more reluctant lapse may far more easily be disclosed. All these considerations must no doubt have a quite decisive influence on our personal and pastoral attitude towards the person concerned, but they cannot in any way alter the fact of murder

    I will pray for her, but first I will pray for all those who might be swayed by her arguments.

  21. The Egyptian says:

    In the past we here have joked about the use of a “biretta”, but honestly it would take a twelve gauge with an extra wise pattern to hit all the lies and garbage in this piece. And the sisters wonder why they have lost almost all respect, Joseph Goebbels indeed

  22. Gretchen says:

    She, like many others of her ilk, have made little gods of the poor to further the agenda of the left. To the exclusion, I may add, of unborn babies and their mothers.

    Mother Mary, pray for us!

  23. heway says:

    This poor soul is all wet on every count! As are the tour bus people!
    Wait till the MD’s in her hospital are informed that they will lose their license if they do not perform abortions…and the nurses are out of a job by refusing to participate in immoral procedures. Doesn’t she know this man’s history with partial birth aboriton??? Because of the background that she so uses to let you know that she is an informed source…she will not be able to claim ignorance before the court of the Lord!
    Btw, in 1968, I applied for a $4000 grant from Human Development Fund -got it and used it to provide a summer in a state park for inner city children complete with volunteer teachers to insure that they had remedial studies. No one was salaried!
    Also, no one can be refused service at a hospital ER, although it is more advisable to go to an MD and pay a $20 co-pay. Can anyone explain the Cobra law? Nursing in So. California, I witnessed many border crossers give birth in the USA, because they could not be refused admission.

  24. Charles E Flynn says:

    @aviva meriam:

    Bonhoeffer was a deep thinker and Sister Patricia Miller is not.

  25. Horatius says:

    Those in her diocese should write to the Bishop. Parish members, too, should band together. Perhaps the Vatican will close down such a sad, benighted place, in the course of things. But if members of her own diocese do not complain, going through proper channels, and above the Bishop if necessary, they will have no reason to expect anything different from the sister and her order.

    The worry about the Catholic vote and Obama, by one of the posters here, is very well justified. Thus, those aggrieved at what she says in her own diocese who remain silent will have, arguably, aided and abetted the most anti-Catholic president in modern times.

    May I add that what she writes is possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever read written by a Catholic? I know I am making an assumption on that last point, but shilling for the abortion president is gross beyond words. Unless Catholics in her diocese fight back with the truth, this lost sister may have her way, another term for the honorand of the University of Notre Dame.

  26. poohbear says:

    Her order, based on their website, looks more like a commune that a convent. It is very sad that there are so many ‘sisters’ who are so confused. Really, why are groups like this still in the church? What, if anything, can be done to remove these groups from the Church?

    I clicked on their translation of the Magnificat– I really wish I had not. Very sad. This is why there are so many confused (little-c) catholics out there.

    I did fill in their prayer request form and ask them to pray for themselves, asking the Holy Spirit to lead them home to the Truth. You never know, anything is possible with God.

  27. Cathy says:

    Has anybody noticed the overall over-use of the term “value”? I would like to know, what Sr Pat thinks are the “values” Catholics cherish? When the nuns threw off their habits, abandoned community life and entered into “social justice”, what happened to the cost of educating Catholic children, employing nurses for Catholic Hospitals, and caring for the elderly in Catholic nursing homes? Somehow demanding the government provide money to hire people and dictate what services would be provided and at what cost and to whom does not seem to be what the founders of their orders set out to do or what they considered Catholic “values”.

  28. Indulgentiam says:

    What is really incomprehensible, maybe only to me, is that they are allowed to continue undisturbed and yet the SSPX is considered schismatic or pretty darn close too it. I went back to their website, couldn’t help it really, its like passing a 20 car pile up you can’t help but stare mouth agape. On one page it states: “For people seeking to live an authentic spirituality in the 21st century, the Congregation of the Humility of Mary provides a fertile ground in which to nurture one’s spiritual life. Branching out to include women and men…” huh?!? so what does that mean? male sisters? i need a drink :|

  29. frjim4321 says:

    I don’t see where the author is “canonizing” the President. I do think she goes a bit overboard in her praise. Keeping in mind that her op ed piece was a reaction to another article I think in general she was provding some rationale for the fact that Catholics of conscience will be voting for both the President and Romney in November.

    Bringing up trivia such as “throwing off the habits” is not helpful here. Virtually none of the women religious around here are in archaic dress and a great many of them are extremely loyal, committed, spiritual and selfless individuals.

  30. SonofMonica says:

    Reads as though it were written by a sixth grader who is employed by the Obama campaign.

  31. Southern Catholic says:

    frjim- They are extremely loyal and committed to what exactly? Certainly not the the teachings of Christ and the Church.

  32. ts aquinas says:

    I bet Patricia Miller has a nice little money trail to find linking to an Obamnite organization for saying these things. That or she’s completely nuts, or both?

  33. Supertradmum says:

    Do not bother to write to the bishop. Nothing is new. You should see the Benedictines across the Mississippi on the Illinois side. And, the Sinsinawa Dominicans. The Midwest is full of these non-ordered orders.

  34. Legisperitus says:

    More treason.

  35. Pingback: 7.23.2012 Sister News Monday « SisterNews.net

  36. albizzi says:

    Sr Pat Miller, another name on the sooo looong list of Obama’s groupies

  37. frjim4321 says:

    Soth Chris — seems a bit out of whack if you are equating wearing a habit with being loyal to Christ. I’ve known my share of habited nuns who have been gravely dysfunctional women and as mentioned some incredible sisters who wear normal clothing. Has nothing to do with the subject of this post which is a woman religious responding to another op ed which seems to have promoted the myth that Catholics can only vote for Romney.

  38. PA mom says:

    Frjim1234 re: “myth that Catholics can only vote for Romney”

    How practical that they have used a mythical Catholic to dispel that myth.

  39. frjim4321 says:

    LOL we don’t get to decide who real Catholics are. That was definitively determine for most of us at baptism or for some at confirmation or profession of faith.

  40. Indulgentiam says:

    PAMOM, please pardon me. It is not my intention to speak for you.
    @frjim4321, I think that by mythical catholic she is referring to the judas’ that talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

  41. PA mom says:

    Frjim1234 Glad I could brighten your morning with a chuckle ;)
    Of course I don’t, and I am sure she has been a million times the Catholic I am over her lifetime of sacrifice and service. But she isn’t making a convincing case for the current health of it in this article.

  42. PA mom says:

    Indulgentiam, yes, thank you. It is a source of frustration that those are the only Catholics who make the papers. Makes it seem like they are the definition of Catholic, and that definition has Democrat in capital letters embedded into it. If it was ever that simple, it isn’t any more.

  43. jaykay says:

    FrJim4321: that’s an interesting comment about “archaic dress”. Do you mean the older style of habits, with long skirts, wimples and full veils, or the more modified versions in vogue since the 70s?

    I don’t think Bl. John Paul II viewed the modern habit as a form of “archaic dress” in Vita Consecrata (1996) : “Since the habit is a sign of consecration, poverty and membership in a particular Religious family, I join the Fathers of the Synod in strongly recommending to men and women religious that they wear their proper habit, suitably adapted to the conditions of time and place.”

    But an interesting comment, all the same. Are Roman collars “archaic” also?

  44. Southern Catholic says:

    frjim: Where in my post did I “equating wearing a habit with being loyal to Christ?” Being loyal to the Church and Christ is supporting life and the moral teachings of the Holy Church. In her praise of Obama she completely disregards his pro-abortion, anti-religious, and pro-contraceptive position of our “leader”. While social justice is good, it is not more important than protecting life.

  45. SKAY says:

    The medical people that I come in contact with do not see the rosy scenario that this sister is promoting. The very fact that all of the Democrats in the Democrat controlled House and Senate that voted in this monstrosity also were given the chance to include themselves in Obamacare and give up their gold plated healthcare insurance plan (ammendment by the Republicans).–voted against that opportunity. Obama and his family will not be living under it either.
    Of course they openly admitted that they had not read the bill in the first place–yet they kept telling us how wonderful it would be. It seems the sister is listening to their propaganda because it is all she wants to hear.

    “The Nuns on the Bus tour to highlight the devastating impact of the Ryan budget noted “it’s not who we are as a nation, it is not in keeping with who we are, and we must speak out against it.”

    Who is funding the Nuns on the Bus tour? I think atheist Soros and Obama backer is smiling.
    The Church is one of his targets.

  46. irishgirl says:

    @ Hieromonk Gregory: Amen to what you said, Brother! My exact thought! Why is it that these so-called ‘sisters’ say and do these things, and yet no sanctions are ever leveled against them, whereas the SSPX is called schismatic and is still out on the fringes of the Church? Go figure….
    And Amen to you too, Indulgentiam @ 9:40 pm! Very much as Gregory said!

  47. Sissy says:

    frjim4321: is it permissible for a Catholic to vote for someone who openly and enthusiastically endorses infanticide? Just wondering.

  48. wmeyer says:

    Another point, Southern Catholic, is that “social justice” is a phrase with no fixed meaning, whereas Church doctrine is fixed and immutable, in regard to murder, in any form.

  49. robtbrown says:

    frjim4321 says:

    LOL we don’t get to decide who real Catholics are. That was definitively determine for most of us at baptism or for some at confirmation or profession of faith.

    Although I agree that wearing the habit isn’t necessarily an indication of faithfulness, it is nonetheless a sign, just as a Confederate Flag is. Someone who flies the Stars and Bars isn’t necessarily in favor of slavery, but nevertheless by the flag is associated with it.

    More importantly, to say that Baptism makes someone a real Catholic (or Orthodox) doesn’t tell the whole story. Hitler was Baptized, also Stalin.

    Although only God judges the heart (cf invincible ignorance), we are able to judge external forum. And someone, habit or not, who adamantly denies Church doctrine (e.g., male priesthood) or morals (e.g., abortion) is in some very important sense not a real Catholic because there is an a priori denial of the Church’s Divine authority to teach.

  50. wmeyer says:

    If Baptism were the only requirement to being a “real Catholic”, then the Prots would have it right with their crazy notion that being born again makes them saved, regardless of their subsequent actions. Making a practice of violating Church teaching does not sound to me like “living your faith.”

  51. nanetteclaret says:

    frjim4321 –

    The various statements above regarding fully-habited (long habits with veils – archaic is the term I believe you used) nuns being more faithful to the Magisterium than non-habited nuns is simply factual. Full habits = Tradition = obedience to the Magisterium. Non-habits = Progressive = non-compliance with the Magisterium. There are too many examples of this particular result not to believe it is actually a cause and effect scenario. Sure, you may find a few non-habited nuns who are still Faithful, but I dare you to find a fully habited nun who is NOT! You said that you have known some fully-habited nuns who have been “gravely dysfunctional.” What is your definition of dysfunctional? Dysfunctional and disobedient are not the same thing.

  52. Indulgentiam says:

    when i see a Priest in a Cassock or Clerical Suit or a Nun in Full Habit my eyes are drawn to them and something inside me whispers “light in the darkness” “otherworldly light” i just don’t get that when i see a Priest in a polo shirt and a pair of golf paints. and when i see a sister in capris, sneakers and a t-shirt that reads “i’m a sista” all i’m thinking is; Sheesh! yeah, yeah don’t judge a book by its cover. peddle it to the woodstock generation. Sacred–set apart by God for His purpose. we should all be a credit to Our Father in all ways but especially those whom He has called to special privilege.

  53. Horatius says:

    Catholics there should still call the Bishop, for starters. As for there being nothing new in that neck of the woods, that is no surprise, but is apathy the proper response, or a condition for the rot to spread even more? I can imagine what Sister says surprises nobody, Catholic or otherwise, but within days of the Vatican stripping a Peruvian university of its pontifical and Catholic status, the faithful should not stand idly by while the faith is twisted beyond recognition–not causing scandal to the hard boiled onlooker, of which I am one, but allowing non-Catholics to think there is no difference between the Church and the public square. Sister makes herself a party to the culture of death manifest in the present administration and that will appear as normal, Catholic belief, just part of the polluted mainstream, unless she is called on it, soon, vigorously, and publicly.

  54. AvantiBev says:

    An antidote to this drivel can be found in two books I recently purchased:
    Father Sirico’s DEFENDING FREE MARKETS and Dennis Prager’s STILL THE BEST HOPE. Both make the point that for the Left – of any religious persuasion — material equality trumps freedom everytime. So if we are ALL miserable waiting in line for weeks or months to get to see that government supplied doctor or that “free” surgery on our hip or heart, that trumpsreturning to free market choices in health care which may deliver unequal outcomes. Of course in nationalized health control, the unequal outcomes come at the expense of the old or severely injured who will be judged and then taken to a “checkout” room.

  55. Johnno says:

    At such points as these I think we’ll all be better off safely assuming that sisters like these are fully in the enemy camp and act as saboteurs and double agents intending to poison the well and create confusion deliberately. We ought to treat them as such. Time to call spades, ‘spades.’ And in the unlikely event that she is not really a tried and true spade but just one of those unwitting shovels whose conscience might not be ‘fully formed’ according tot he new polite liberal Catholicism we’re forced to adhere to out of political correctness, we ought to still treat her as such in the hopes she’ll reevaluate her cognitive facilities once more people start identifying her as a spade and using her to dig up the weeds rather than treating her as the flower pot she conscientiously thinks she is.

  56. jaykay says:

    Speaking from the European perspective in Ireland where we have an utterly dysfunctional State health system (practically all of the hospitals set up by the Church and now funded by the State) my advice is: keep it out of their hands! Everybody who can afford it has private insurance. Same in the UK. State-controlled health care is a sure recipe for disaster. We managed very well with people who had genuine vocations for caring. It wasn’t perfect- what is?- but by God I would rather have been cared for in my local hospital when it was run by the Mercy Sisters 30 years ago than now under the auspices of our local health “authority” with its ratio of roughly 50% administration staff to 50% professionals. Parts of it are actually filthy, something which never occured under the Reverend Mother Matron.

  57. I was particularly intrigued by the Sister’s assertion that [emphasis added]

    It is the first time in history that a national commitment has been made to provide adequate care for all our citizens. The act is based on the Christian values that every person has the right to health, and we are responsible for each other..”

    What most intrigues me is that, try as I might I seem unable to recall, or find, that verse in Scripture where Jesus commands me to harangue Caesar to compel my neighbor(s) to provide the funds with which to ensure that the ill person be given medical care. Nor do I recall Jesus having commanded me to implore Caesar to disregard my, and my neighbor’s, right to the use of our respective property in order to accomplish that mission (cf. Matt. 20:1-16 and esp. v. 15), whether or not we choose to obey His command to each of us to do so using the riches over which He has made us stewards. Nor do I recall, whether from scripture, or from our governing documents, anyone having a right to health. I think, in accordance with the governing documents of our nation, we have a right to be born, to defend ourselves against unlawful deadly threats, and not to be coerced, most especially not by the state, to violate our properly formed consciences.

    Poor Sr. Patricia appears to be quite delusional on this subject. Either that or she has an entirely different translation of Holy Scripture than I have ever read.

    Pax et bonum,
    Keith Töpfer

  58. @Supertradmum,

    One is almost tempted to adapt your term “non-ordered orders” to “disordered orders.”

    Pax et bonum,
    Keith Töpfer

  59. @Johnno,,

    You write:

    Whenever people stand back and look at the great tragedies of history and ask “How could people let that happen and let things get that bad?”

    Your response hints at the answer. It all boils down to making choices based upon the intentions of the candidate or proposal, and not at its, almost invariably predictable, results.

    Pax et bonum,
    Keith Töpfer

  60. Belle says:

    Sr. Millar says>With the Affordable Care Act, no one can be denied care<
    jk
    What about the baby in the womb or one who is born of a parent who is 26 years old or under and covered by their parents insurance?. Then they have to have a seperate policy for the newborn
    http://www.insuranceforums.info/can-stay-parents-health-insurance-once-have-baby-t8706.html#p44700

    If Obamacare is not promoting abortion then I don't know what is.
    PS. I hope the link works.. this is my first time posting here.

  61. heway says:

    @Fr. Jim..have to agree about ‘archaic dress’ This am when dressing, I was thinking about the poor nuns in their 70’s plus that are putting on nylons and the accompanied gear; the wimple (which she made, washed, starched and ironed), belts, beads, etc. My hosopital nuns are now free of having to do something with all that apparatus during an emergency. Attitude makes the person, not the clothes!
    In high school we all had similiar outfits. The windows had to raised high even in freezing weather to expell the overload of b.o.

  62. AnAmericanMother says:

    The term “social justice” is a perversion — it means whatever the speaker wants it to mean, which is usually “my pet political cause, to the exclusion of everything else”.

    Justice is justice. No need for qualifiers, which inevitably exclude justice that the speaker is not interested in (e.g. justice for the victims of abortion, euthanasia, radical feminism, corruption, and theft).

  63. wmeyer says:

    The term “social justice” is a perversion — it means whatever the speaker wants it to mean, which is usually “my pet political cause, to the exclusion of everything else”.

    Amen to that, AAM!!! It appears also to be a dodge for the bishops, a means of bypassing doctrine.

  64. Indulgentiam says:

    If you have a few minutes today may i suggest that you google “social justice” then click on—Definition for social justice—at the very top, then click the blue “more info”. Here is a small sample:
    “Web definitions: Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating an egalitarian society or institution that is based on the principles of of equality and solidarity…”

    “Includes a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.”—hmmm sounds like communism to me

    My ROFL favorite is the definition by “Free Republic”: Social Justice: ” That wonderful principle which defines society as a paint-by-the-numbers pastiche of equally entitled victim-groups who should be deliberately included in the outer, larger society according to their guilt-driven social demographic percentages, not by personal achievement. Social Justice is the demand for a Numeric Parliamentary Model of society based on “fairness,” specifically “Political Identity Fairness.” Since blacks, women, and gays have been hurt by American history, it only makes sense that adjustments must be made in the American future to correct these ancient, systemic inequities. Social Justice is the realization that some (all) liberal special-interest groups deserve more than they’ve got (or earned), and that it’s the role of Liberal-Activist Government to legally provide these people with the lives they truly deserve by redistributing “The Wealth” from the oppressor class to the victim class. ” NOW THAT’S TRUTH IN JOURNALISM!

    They have a whole page entitled “The Liberal Lexicon A Conservative’s Dictionary of Libberish”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/673701/posts

    I intend to keep this dictionary very handy b/c they are inside the walls. This woman should surprise no one. Our Lady has warned us of the threat that has been growing in the Church. How they have slunk and insinuated themselves into every corner of the Church biding their time. They have perceived that some of us have been wakened and before we wake the others they must strike. They are gathering and marshaling their forces. Only fools would not study the enemy and prepare.

  65. wmeyer says:

    I intend to keep this dictionary very handy b/c they are inside the walls. This woman should surprise no one.

    A superb reference.

  66. Springkeeper says:

    So in Sister’s eyes-
    Obama= the right way to be a Catholic
    and
    Bishops= absolutely wrong way to be a Catholic?

    I work in the health care industry. Obamacare has not helped any patient I have met but it sure has hurt some of them with the sudden increase in their premiums and their loss of employer coverage.

  67. Indulgentiam says:

    heway: ” Attitude makes the person, not the clothes!” that’s not the message touted by feminists and the fashion industry. Their mantra is: “What do you have that makes you feel strong? Successful? Empowered? Consider how changing your clothes can change your attitude.” Lots of women fall for this garbage.

    A couple of years ago our little Latin Mass Community had the privilege and pleasure of a visit from The Slaves of The Immaculate Heart of Mary from Still River, Ma. These Brides of Christ are unmistakable as they wear the Full Habit, not the polyester to the knees thingy, the REAL as you so call it ‘archaic dress’. They played kick ball with the girls under the hot southern sun, in Full Beautiful Habit. Approaching one, she had NO body odor b/c i guess she knows where to buy deodorant, the girls asked; “aren’t you hot?” with a lovely smile she answered; “whats a little heat” and ran full tilt beating several of them back to the field. The Mother Superior, a fine lady and clearly no longer a young women, also had no b.o. my guess is she also knows where to buy deodorant. Not a one of them had b.o and they ran and played for hours. I went to Catholic School many, many, many, moons ago when classrooms had NO air conditioning. Our Nuns wore Full “archaic” Habits and none of them had b.o, can’t say the same about some of my classmates though.
    I have worked in inner city hospital ER’s, otherwise known as war zones and those “beads” you refer too, i assume you mean a Rosary and i pray you are not a Nun, have NEVER gotten in the way. As a matter of fact quite the opposite. It is amazing how a crack addict, handcuffed to a gurney, spitting and swearing will suddenly still and stare fixedly at the Rosary hanging on the belt of a Nun in Full Habit. I will say that the sight of a Rosary hanging on the gang member in the next gurney had not the same affect.
    “It is the love of God that inspires the attitude that the clothes reflect a vow. Any woman who considers any vow made to her Lord and Spouse cumbersome is not herself a fitting spouse for the King of Kings Who bore His Cross and more without complaint.” The attitude of a Nun in Full “archaic” Habit
    Nuns wearing habits are a bold rebuke to a corrupt society hypnotized by its own vanity. They are a mystery. Those habits are an invitation to God. They preach to us. They say, “I have something deeper that gives my life meaning and I don’t need or want all that other stuff.”

    Compare these Brides of Christ–http://www.saintbenedict.com/true-devotion/sbc-true-devotion.html

    With women like Sister Pat, which ones are unmistakably in this world but not of it or more to the point lost in it?

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