Fr. Z's Blog

In Religion Dispatches which is associated with USC, Patricia Miller opines.

Who is Patricia Miller? She is described on the page:

Patricia Miller is the author of Good Catholics: The Battle Over Abortion in the Catholic Church. She has written extensively about the intersection of politics, sex and religion. She was the editor of Conscience magazine, the leading journal of pro-choice Catholic thought, and the editor-in-chief of National Journal’s daily health care briefings.

“Leading”?  According to… themselves?

So, Patricia Miller is an open, abortion promoter.  There is also a Sr. Patricia Miller, SSND.  I think they may be the same person.  Someone, please correct me if I am wrong.

Miller has rushed to trumpet a statement of some nuns in support of the ObamaCare pro-contraception, pro-abortion mandate being imposed by the government contrary to the 1st Amendment.

The group of nuns, the National Coalition of American Nuns, is even more openly dissident than the LCWR.  It is a tiny group that openly advertises the Womens Ordination Conference, Call To Action, Future Church, the National catholic Reporter … you get the idea.  They are openly what the LCWR would like to be openly.  However, it seems that their website has not been updated since 2009.  Some signers of a letter they sent to the Holy See include Joan Chittister, OSB, Jeannine Gramick, SL, Theresa Kane, RSM, Donna Quinn, OP.  Still, it seems that this is a tiny group of the more radicalized.

In short, this is an insignificant group of cranks on the farthest fringe of the liberal dissident nun phenomenon.

Therefore, Patricia Miller writes about it as it were highly significant, from her expert point of view.

Catholic Nuns Back Obamacare Contraception Access

The National Coalition of American Nuns has announced their support for women’s right to access contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act as the Supreme Court prepares to hear the historic Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood cases. [So, what?  I today announce my support for the Cubs right to win the World Series.  Hear that, everyone?  Make it happen!] While the plaintiffs in these cases are Mennonites and evangelical Christians, opposition to the contraceptive mandate was largely spearheaded by the Catholic bishops. [For people like the writer and the crank group in question, the bishops are the Bad Guys.  Remember, if the LCWR is the main exponent of the Magisterium of Nuns, these are the wannabes waaaaay out on the fringe.] Several key cases of Catholic non-profits, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, are making their way through the lower courts and may well end up in the Supreme Court themselves. [For the group in question, and the writer, the Little Sisters of the Poor are also The Bad Guys.]

“NCAN is dismayed that the Little Sisters of the Poor, [See?] the University of Notre Dame and other Catholic organizations are challenging the Affordable Care Act. Spurred on by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops these organizations are attempting to hold hostage all women by refusing insurance to them for contraceptives,” said the 2,000-member group in a statement.

“This has gotten out of hand,” Sister Donna Quinn, head of NCAN, told RD. [Remember Donna Quinn?  I refer you to my infamous post called Nuns Gone Wild! Sr. Donna Quinn, of the Sinsinawa Domincans in Wisconsin, has escorted women to abortion clinics in the Chicago area so they could abort their babies safe from pro-life protesters. ] “It isn’t ‘faith and freedom’ when reproductive autonomy isn’t extended by the Catholic Church to women. Now we have other Christian religions seeing what the bishops are doing and saying we will do likewise. It isn’t freedom when a woman can be held hostage by the owner of a business.”  [It is hard to find words to describe how stupid that argument is.]

The nuns are seeking support for their stand through an online petition. The Rev. Debra Haffner of the Religious Institute [more on her HERE. She is a “sexologist and ordained Unitarian Universalist minister”.  Whoohoo!  What else has she accomplished?  “Prior to founding the Religious Institute and entering ministry, Haffner was President and Chief Executive Officer of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (1988-2000), Director of Information and Education for the Center for Population Options,[5] Director of Community Services and Public Relations, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.[6] She has also worked at the Bureau of Community Health Services at the U.S. Public Health Service, and at The Population Institute.”  Get the idea?   Reading her background brought the word “eugenics” to mind. More HERE.] is helping NCAN coordinate the effort. “When I saw the brave stand these nuns were taking on the mandate, I started to think about what we could do to amplify their voices. So we launched a social media campaign asking people to ‘Stand with the Nuns’,” she said. [Remember all the catholics who jump onto the “stand with the nuns” rhetoric when nuns – whichever – back obviously liberal and obviously dissident causes, especially against the bishops (read: Magisterium of Nuns).]

“We really need to counter the idea that faith is opposed to family planning,” said Haffner, [What she really means is “contraception and abortion”.] who’s also helping to coordinate a Faith Rally at the Supreme Court on March 25, the day of the oral arguments for the mandate challenges. “All too often the media only shows a Catholic bishop to offer the faith perspective. More than 14 major religious denominations have statements supporting birth control and birth control access. People need to understand that this is not only an affront to women’s moral agency but opens the door to denying a whole range of services, from other kinds of reproductive health care to services to LGBT people,” she said.  [So, this whole thing is a ploy to grab a little attention.]

NCAN has a long history of reproductive justice and Catholic reform activism. Quinn has volunteered as an abortion clinic escort [Good grief.  They are even openly proud of that.] and was one of the leaders of a delegation of women religious to Rome 1994 to hold a parallel discussion about the role of women religious during the bishops’ synod on religious life, which largely excluded women.

Liberals have coalitions of myriad groups, many fronts for other, much larger groups.  The small groups provide cover and distraction for what the larger groups are really up to.  This is a common feature of the Left’s activity.  They work together, cover each other’s tracks, carry each other’s water, present a united front.