His Excellency Most Rev. Edward Slattery, Bishop of Tulsa, has issued his statement about Pres. Obama’s attack on the 1st Amendment, on religious liberty, and on the Catholic Church.
He provides also a video.
He calls the mandate “evil”.
I was delighted that His Excellency quoted from Leo XIII’s encyclical Diuturnum illud which I posted about the other day (here):
“…if the will of rulers is opposed to the will and the laws of God, then those rulers exceed the bounds of their own power and pervert justice. Nor can their authority be valid, since authority without justice is null.”
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WDTPRS kudos to Bp. Slattery!
Kudos to Bp. Slattery and Boomer Sooner!
It would be nice to hear a similar statement from Archbishop Niederauer of San Francisco who just last week blessed the knuckling under of Catholic Healthcare West. If one can believe the newspaper, our local CHW hospital jumped the gun by rushing to remove the crucifixes from the patients’ rooms only to replace them when they received a number of complaints.
“elected officials whose duty it is to protect the inalienable right we have from God to worship Him and to defend the Constitution of the United States which guarantees that our right of conscience may neither be violated nor held in contempt.”
In regard to the seriousness and gravity of this contradictory mandate to our rights protected by the Constitution, since I have little knowledge of these matters, I again have to ask in all sincere ignorance and naivete why I don’t see or hear the concept of impeachment being discussed?
Is this not an impeachable offense? What am I missing here?
It should be at least an impeachable offense, but is that enough? If a state can recall its governor why should not the nation’s chief officer be subject to the same treatment? Since that seems never to have been mentioned perhaps there is a rule against it.
Impeachment and charges of treason are things from which this generation of politicians run with all possible speed. Also, the Constitution has been trampled upon for at least the last 50, and arguably over 100, years. However, if Congress and the courts will not take action, then the Republic is dead, and tyranny is our immediate future. Lacking a constitution which is respected, there are no limits on what passes for government, and we can only anticipate a living proof of Lord Acton’s words: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
We might also be mindful of another of his sayings: “And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.”
wmeyer,
Have you got a source for that second quote? Lord Acton was an associate of Gladstone and an historian — I find it curious that he would use a very recently coined (1895, and American, at that) word such as “gangster”.
There was once a writer called Jack London, and if I am not mistaken, at the beginning of the 20th century he told something like this – that America will become socialist in one hundred years or something like that. It seems that this is happening. Yet blessed is the nation when it has the bishops like bishop Slattery. He is the true bishop who cares for the souls of his flock.
My favorite parts of his statement are, “As your bishop, I want to make it clear that I consider this mandate unconstitutional, unjust and evil.” And, “Because this mandate is unconstitutional, we will refuse to comply with it.” It doesn’t get much clearer than this. There is no ambiguity in his words. No one in his diocese should have any doubt or difficulty understanding what he is saying. I feel so blessed to have Bishop Slattery as my bishop.
God bless His Grace for rightly dividing the Word of Truth which is one of the main obligations laid on a bishop’s shoulders!
Subdeacon Joseph: I think you mean ‘divining’ instead of ‘dividing’, right?
In any case, MAJOR KUDOS to Bishop Slattery, for telling it like is!
Irishgirl: Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
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