Even before Pres. Obama made the announcement that he is taking his “Plan B” pill, an exponent of the Magisterium of Nuns, Sr. Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association (which – against the US bishops – gave cover to Catholic democrats to vote for abortion providing Obamacare) made a statement that she is pleased with Obama’s compromise… er um… accommodation.
BEFORE the President’s announcement.
This suggests to me that someone in the White House contacted Keehan to make sure that she would back Obama on this even if the American bishops were not adequately appeased (read “duped”) by Obama’s compromise… er um… accommodation.
The American bishops had better figure out very soon that an alternate “magisterium” is being created against their own authority, and that the exponents of that false “magisterium” are in bed with those who would violate the 1st Amendment in order to get their way.
It sounds as if Pres. Obama is about to give “Plan B” a try in regard to his attacks on the Catholic Church and the first amendment. He may be close to aborting his aggressive mandate against religious liberty. A bitter pill for him to swallow.
It’ll be interesting to see what he conceives to be an “accommodation”.
UPDATE 17:30 GMT:
I watched the President a few minutes ago, and I am still mulling.
It was hardly a surprise that he would start out justifying what he did.
Again, I note the constant use of the Orwellian term “preventive services” and the incessant emphases on “access” (as if women can’t get what they want when they want it) and absolute dedication to make this all “free” (as if nobody has to pay for it anywhere along the chain), and their relentless use of questionable numbers/statistics to side-step the moral question by claiming a “majority” (as if there were no objective right or wrong).
For Pres. Obama, it seems contraception is an absolute good. It is so good, that he thinks some people have to violate their consciences in order to conform to his view.
Also, if this “accommodation” was already studied in the past, why was it not adopted in the first place? They reason is obvious: an ideological conviction that government can force Churches to conform to a policy.
For example: What if the Catholic institution/business is self-insuring and doesn’t use some outside insurance company?
And, even if the insurance companies are forced to provide whatever Pres. Obama chooses (and pass the cost on to people who pay premiums), will the Catholic institution be force to disperse what the insurer is forced to provide?
Moreover,
You will hear in the White House spin on this the word “women… women… women”.
This is not a “woman issue”. This is a 1st Amendment issue.
I also just heard Sec. Sebelius spinning the President’s change of tack. Again I am reminded of the phrase by Mary McCarthy back in the 70?s about Lillian Hellman:
“Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”
UPDATE 18:00 GMT:
A correspondent writes with his reaction:
This will blow the cost of polices through the roof and then [Obama’s supporters and all liberals] will put the blame on bishops “who didn’t want to help the poor and forced us to do this” or on “greedy” companies which have a bottm line to keep an eye on and will have to find a way to recoup the added costs.
This is why slowly but surely the State remains as the sole provider.
The bishops must do their homework and understand why this is socialism, why it is immoral and why socialized medicne has always been a privileged means to institute socialism by maiking everybody dependent on graciously granted “rights”.
In looking for a quote by Pius XII, a reader directed me, us, to a speech of Ven. Pius XII delivered on 14 October 1953 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 45 (1953) pp 679 ff.) at the opening of the North American College in Rome.
Here is the main part of the speech, after the intro and before the usual conclusions.
Pretty inspiring stuff.
My emphases.
[…]
[The completion of the North American College] lights a stronger flame of hope for the Church in the United States of America and in the world. All this, it seemed to Us, adds up to a grave and sacred responsibility that rests on you, Our dear young seminarians, and on those who are to follow you. Will the sacrifices cheerfully offered for your sake be repaid in kind and with interest? Will the hopes and plans cherished by your Bishops, cherished by Us, be fulfilled? Your eager hearts are quick to answer: yes. But reflect a moment. That will be true only under one condition, that you become priests worthy of the name.
In the priesthood man is elevated to an almost staggering height, a mediator between a world in travail and the celestial kingdom of peace. Christ’s ambassador, steward of God’s mysteries, he exercises a divine power. Heir to the priestly and kingly offices of the divine Redeemer, he is commissioned to carry on the task of salvation, bringing souls to God and giving God to souls. Never, then, unmindful of the supreme importance of such a vocation, the priest will not busy himself with useless things. Modeling his life on that of Him he represents he will gladly spend and be spent on behalf of souls. Souls he seeks everywhere and always, not what the world can offer him. «To be a priest and to be a man dedicated to work is one and the same thing», wrote Bl. Pius X; and he liked to quote the words of the synod presided over by St. Charles Borromeo: «let every cleric repeat again and again: he has been called not to a life of ease and leisure, but to hard work in the spiritual army of the Church».
Those words, beloved sons, recall another fact one dare not forget. We belong to the Church militant ; and she is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass her destruction. Not only in the far-off centuries of the early Church, but down through the ages and in this our day, the enemies of God and Christian civilization make bold to attack the Creator’s supreme dominion and sacrosanct human rights. No rank of the clergy is spared ; and the faithful—their number is legion—inspired by the valiant endurance of their shepherds and fathers in Christ, stand firm, ready to suffer and die, as the martyrs of old, for the one true Faith taught by Jesus Christ. Into that militia you seek to be admitted as leaders.
Imprisonment and martyrdom, We know, do not loom on the horizon that spreads before your eyes. In an atmosphere of untrammeled freedom, where «the word of God is not bound», the Church in your country has grown in numbers, in influence, in strength of leadership in all that makes for the good of the commonwealth. The college on the via dell’Umiltà has seen your priests increase from twenty-fìve hundred to forty-fìve thousand and more-proud and glorious tribute to the unselfìsh, clear-visioned Catholic family life that prevails among you; a mission country become a seminary of apostles for foreign fìelds. But the Church militant is «one body, with one Spirit … with the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism».(Eph 4, 4 ff.) And that Spirit calls for more than a dash of heroism in every priest who would be worthy of the name, whatever the external circumstances of time and place.
The spirit of the martyrs breathes in every priestly soul, who in the daily round of pastoral duties and in his cheerful, unrelenting efforts to increase in wisdom and in grace, gives witness to the Prince of shepherds, who endured the cross, despised the shame «when He gave Himself up on our behalf, a sacrifice breathing out fragrance as He offered it to God». (Eph 5, 2.)
We raise a fervent prayer to Mary Immaculate, under whose patronage you have placed your country, to Mary gloriously assumed into heaven, whom you have wished to honour in your chapel here, that she would always show a mother’s loving care of the clergy of America, and guide you, beloved seminarians, bearers of such high hopes, along the way that leads to that holiness which will bring her to recognize in you a greater and greater resemblance to her own divine Son.
[…]
Pius XII describing the Church in the USA in 1953. My my how times have changed.
When I was in my gawdawful American seminary in 1980’s I was accused on more than one occasion of wanting the 1950’s back. Though I was born in 1959 and was a convert and never knew the Church of the 1950’s, what Pope Pius is talking about was the sort of vision I wanted for my Church and from my seminary and in my country.
And, animi caussa, some footage of Pius XII at the NAC. No sound, alas.
I sense that there is something of this spirit stirring in seminarians and young priests and new bishops in the United States.
I want fully armed deacons during my next Solemn Mass.
Or is the deacon just holding the bishop’s weapon during Communion? I think a paten is more traditional.
I believe there is a canon which forbids clerics from bearing arms, which surely deals with being in the military and being armed and participating in combat as a combatant rather than as a chaplain …. but I think there are times when it is a good idea to have heat-packin’ deacon near by.
Our pastor has a policy of no infant baptism during Lent. We have baby due prior to Ash Wednesday and would like to baptize son after.
I am under impression canon law mandates infant baptism soon after birth.
Can this policy stand in the face of the canon?
There is no canonical reason for prohibiting baptisms during Lent.
This is a practice pushed by the same sort of liturgists who came up with the dopey idea of removing holy water from stoups during Lent. It’s silliness. It is more than silliness. It is dangerous. It plays games with things that are truly important.
Canon 867 establishes that parents “are obliged to see that their infants are baptised within the first few weeks” (Parentes obligatione ne tenentur curandi ut infantes intra priores hebdomadas baptizentur).
There is admittedly some wiggle room there. Nevertheless, “a few weeks” is ordinarily something less than a month. A case could be made that a child born on Ash Wednesday who is baptized on Easter Sunday is baptized “within the first few weeks,” but unless there is a serious reason for delaying the baptism (e.g., travel time for distant relatives, military obligations, etc.), the question is: why delay the baptism?
If you want to do something about this, speak to the pastor first. Find out his reason is for the “policy”. It may be that he forgot to pay the water bill and the parish’s water supply has been turned off and it will take some time to reconnect the pipes, and, since he is embarrassed about the screw up, he is covering his tracks by imposing this silly policy. If that is his explanation, offer to pay for a couple gallons of bottled water to assist the good pastor in the interim.
If the pastor refuses to allow an exception, let him know that you are going to make an appeal to the local bishop. Then write to the bishop (or perhaps to the “regional vicar” if this is a big diocese), with a copy to the pastor, asking if the policy could be changed, or if permission is needed to seek baptism at another parish that is more accommodating to the needs of the faithful. (No permission is needed, in fact, but ask anyway.)
Since time is of the essence, pursuing further recourse to the Congregation for Sacraments and Divine Worship would probably be pointless: you probably wouldn’t get a response back before Easter.
If no response is given from the bishop and the pastor is unwilling to budge, take your adorable little pagan heathen to another parish with a less rigid, less silly pastor and ask for the sacrament.
You have heard that the Diocese of Orange (in California) acquired for their new cathedral the well-known “Crystal Cathedral” which was a protestant mega-church.
Think what you want about the building, it’s done now. It may be that some surprisingly good fruits could come from this new tree. Time will tell.
In any event, you can offer names for the new cathedral. It needs a real name, after all.
The Diocese of Orange has a page where you can make suggestions. If you do go, please make a serious suggestion.
Even in their jesting, people are showing how effected they have been by the trend to name parishes after some concept or doctrine rather than a saint. Yes, in yesteryear we named parishes “Transfiguration” and “Incarnation”, etc.
Perhaps the new Cathedral could be given a pro-life symbol as patroness: St. Gianna Beretta Molla? Read about the 2nd miracle for her cause here.
I saw an article on CWN which made me think about the Obama Administration and Pres. Obama’s attacks on the Catholic Church and on the 1st Amendment.
Cardinal Zen urges tougher stand against Beijing’s intrusion in Church affairs
Cardinal Joseph Zen is urging the Holy See to take a stronger line against encroachment by the Chinese government in the life of the Church in that country.
The retired Bishop of Hong Kong, an outspoken critic of Beijing, expressed disappointment that some Catholic activists—notably the St. Egidio community—have been anxious to maintain friendly ties with the Beijing regime despite repeated infringements on religious freedom in China. He called for a tougher Vatican diplomatic stance as well.
“After much (I would say excessive) acquiescence by the Holy See, the Chinese government has shown no willingness to respect the essential nature of the Catholic Church, as it is peacefully accepted all over the civilized world,” the cardinal said. He argued that the Holy See, in its diplomatic efforts, should hew closely to the line set forth by Pope Benedict XVI in his letter to the Church in China, refusing to cooperate with the government-appointed representatives of the Catholic Patriotic Association and demanding full independence for the Church in China.
Pres. Obama’s Christian side seems to have been formed by Black Liberation Theology (a variant of Marxism).
I suspect Pres. Obama would not be sorry to have an American Patriot Catholic Association in the public square, rather than a strong, vociferous Catholic Church.
He could impose mandates and force Catholic institutions to pay for your contraception and abortifacient pills. He could, with the help of the Patriotic Catholic Heathcare Association, require Patriotic Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. He could require Patriotic priests to approve of unnatural relations with marriage ceremonies. He could edit pastoral letters of Patriotic Bishops to their flocks… and not just in the Army or his new Civilian National Security Force!
The bishops would all have special photos taken in front of the flag, just like they do somewhere else.
Whoops! Let’s get that right.
“But Father! But Father!”, some of you are saying. “This is over the top. Nothing like that is possible here. This isn’t China! This is America!”
I have sometimes said, and I am not alone in saying it, that in the religion of liberalism abortion is like a sacrament.
I just read this on LifeNews.com about the new head of Planned Parenthood’s abortion super-store in Texas.
New Head of Biggest Planned Parenthood Says Abortion Sacred
by Sarah Crawford | Houston, TX | LifeNews.com | 2/9/12 12:21 PM
A Planned Parenthood affiliate’s newest president and CEO said in an official statement that she regards her work for the biggest abortion business in America to be a holy profession.
Melaney Linton, who will now oversee Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, is determined to further the Life-ending work of Planned Parenthood:
“I am honored and humbled to be entrusted with such a sacred duty…I pledge to do everything in my power to fight back against the ideological attacks on Planned Parenthood and women, so that no teen will ever say she didn’t know how she got pregnant, no one will ever be denied basic reproductive health care, and no woman will ever be forced to bear children she cannot adequately support.”
[…]
Planned Parenthood receives tax dollars. It was originally set up with eugenicist goals to exterminate black people. It promotes promsicuity so that it can make more money from the abortions that result.
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
Even before Pres. Obama made the announcement that he is taking his “Plan B” pill, an exponent of the Magisterium of Nuns, Sr. Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association (which – against the US bishops – gave cover to Catholic democrats to vote for abortion providing Obamacare) made a statement that she is pleased with Obama’s compromise… er um… accommodation.
From a reader:
