If Pres. Obama can tell the Church what to cover, he can tell the Press what to cover

Posted on 13 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fourth EstateWhat’s next?

Pres. Obama has attacked the 1st Amendment. He is trying to tell the Church what it must do in a matter of conscience based on natural law, reason, and doctrine.

The first clause of the 1st Amendment concerns freedom of religion.

The second clause concerns freedom of the press.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If the Obama Adminstration can, though the erosion of the 1st Amendment, tell churches what to do and what to pay for, then eventually the press will be subjected to the same treatment.

How long before the Obama Administration makes a play for the press?

On news reports and from the shills of the Administration you will hear polling numbers about the number of Catholic women who have used artificial contraception. Sure, people sin all the time. Doctrine is based on reason and revelation, not polls and our propensity to do things that are wrong. On new reports and from shills of the mainstream media, you will read about how enlightened Pres. Obama is and how partisan the Church is. Sure, the liberal mainstream media pants after Obama like lickspittle sycophants. But there is a difference between being stupidly naive and therefore willingly giving the Administration cover and being told what you can or cannot publish.

Editors of papers and news programs should think long and hard about how they are covering this story.

They would do well do drop the shallow presentation of this as a fight between Pres. Obama and the Church about contraception and start defending the freedom of the Fourth Estate.

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , , , , ,
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Archbp. Chaput: Pres. Obama’s “deep distaste for religion’s moral influence”

Posted on 13 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Archbp. Chaput: Pres. Obama's "deep distaste for religion's moral influence"The Archbishop of Philadelphia, Most Rev. Charles Chaput, has a good opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Pres. Obama’s modifications of his attack on the 1st Amendment (“Plan B”).  Read the whole thing, but here is an excerpt from the end:

[…]

The current administration prides itself on being measured and deliberate.

The current HHS mandate needs to be understood as exactly that. Commentators are using words like “gaffe,” “ill conceived,” and “mistake” to describe the mandate. They’re wrong.

It’s impossible to see this regulation as some happenstance policy. It has been too long in the making.

Despite all of its public apprehension about “culture warriors” on the political right in the past, the current administration has created an HHS mandate that is the embodiment of culture war. At its heart is a seemingly deep distrust of the formative role religious faith has on personal and social conduct, and a deep distaste for religion’s moral influence on public affairs. To say that this view is contrary to the Founders’ thinking and the record of American history would be an understatement.

Critics may characterize my words here as partisan or political. These are my personal views, and of course people are free to disagree. But it is this administration – not Catholic ministries, or institutions, or bishops – that chose the timing and nature of the fight. The onus is entirely on the White House, which also has the power to remove the issue from public conflict.

Catholics should not be misled into accepting feeble compromises on issues of principle. The HHS mandate is bad law; and not merely bad, but dangerous and insulting. It needs to be withdrawn – now.

[..]

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty | Tagged , , ,
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Keep your eye on the real problem with Pres. Obama’s attacks on the 1st Amendment

Posted on 13 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

All weekend I saw news items about the US Catholic Church resisting the Obama Administration over “CONTRACEPTION”.  When the story came up on the television, across the screen there would be a graphic saying, inevitably, “Contraception”.

No.  This is not principally about “contraception”.  Once the media or White House frames the conflict in those terms, the issue becomes confused.

The conflict is over the 1st Amendment and the imposition of the Executive Branch on the exercise of religion.

One comment I heard was a good reminder of how the media will confuse the public and distract from the real point.  When Pres. Clinton had his problem over Monica Lewinsky, the media turned it into a problem about sex.  But the real problem was far more serious.

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged ,
20 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes

Posted on 13 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point from the sermon you heard during Mass over the weekend?

Relate it here.

BTW… I had a note last week from someone asking if I posted these entries on Monday to try to get you to pay closer attention to sermons.

Imagine such a thing!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
36 Comments

What is your good news?

Posted on 13 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Do you have good news to share with everyone?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
28 Comments

18 Feb – Blackfen (Sidcup, London): Bloggers meet at Fr. Finigan’s parish

Posted on 13 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma, for Catholic bloggers and those who use the new media, will be meeting at Fr Tim Finigan’s parish, Our Lady of the Rosary (Blackfen), this coming Saturday, 18 February.

The day will begin with Holy Mass at 10.30, celebrated by Fr Tim Finigan. This will be followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction (with opportunities for Confession). Fr Sam Medley will then address those present – and possibly others online – on the theme of Catholic blogging as a form of Eccelsial communion. We will all then gather for lunch and drinks, which the parish will kindly provide. This will be an opportunity to socialise and get to know other Catholics and bloggers. There will then follow a brief Guild meeting. The day will end with an act of prayer at 3.30pm.

It’s relatively easy to get to Blackfen from central London – by train from Charing Cross. Blackfen is actually in Sidcup, 20 mins walk from the train station or only a few minutes by taxi. Directions on how to get there can be found on the parish website.

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole |
1 Comment

The White House in bed with the Magisterium of Nuns

Posted on 12 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Jack Lew, White House Chief of Staff, was on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.  He was also on Meet The Press.

It was a stark lesson in exactly what I have been talking about with my phrase “The Magisterium of Nuns“.

What I mean by that phrase is a hitherto loose – now coalesing – group of catholics in organizations and as individuals who are setting themselves up as an alternate teaching authority, “magisterium”, over and against the legitimate authority of bishops. Why “of Nuns”? Because they key figures are women religious, such as Sr. Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association (who gave cover to catholics in Congress to vote for Obamacare) and Sr. McBride in Phoenix (who approved a direct abortion at a catholic hospital), and a coven of other women religious who have set themselves against Catholic doctrine concerning the exclusive ordination of men, contraception, homosexuality, etc.

Pres. Obama’s attacks on the 1st Amendment and on the Catholic Church have brought greater cohesion to The Magisterium of Nuns.

When the President issued his “Plan B” pill – which changed nothing – the Catholic Health Association and Catholics United stepped up with NARAL and Planned Parenthood were ahead of the newscycle. The White House had obtained their backing and statements of approval before the President made his announcement.

Today on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace elicited from Jack Lew the perfect example how the useful idiots of the Magisterium of Nuns are being instrumentalized by the President against the bishops: they are going with the authority of the Catholic Health Association in clear contradistinction to that of the US bishops.  The same thing occurred on Meet The Press.  Lew set the Catholic Health Association with Planned Parenthood against the American hierarchy.

Watch this clip.  I wonder when soon-to-be Cardinal Dolan will see this? Creepy.

Pay attention especially to about 5:15 on. Wallace asks about the Bishops and Lew responds with the CHA. Then Lew digs in.

Remember: make the lie big, keep the lie simple, and repeat the lie until everyone believes it.

And note the relentless use of “right”.

The main concern in this dispute, for all Americans, is the attack on the 1st Amendment and therefore, on the Church.  That is an attack from without.

There is also the problem within.

When looking at a question concerning the Church we can usefully view it from the ad extra perspective and the ad intra, from outside the Church and within the Church.  The Magisterium of Nuns problem is an ad intra issue.

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , , , ,
57 Comments

BUGINICARE DEVELOPMENTS

Posted on 12 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Back in 2009 I posted about:

BUGNINICARE

UNIVERSAL SPIRITUAL-CARE REFORM FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

(Socialized Worship)

Taking his cue from post-war European national health care programs, Annibale Bugnini, assisted by a small circle of spiritual-care specialists and church policy makers, spearheaded a massive overhaul of the Catholic Church’s spiritual care system in the 1960s. The centerpiece of “Bugninicare” was a program known as Novus Ordo, so-called because it introduced a New Order into the regulation of the Church’s worship. The NO regulations were aimed at extending spiritual-care benefits to those for whom active participation was previously thought to be inaccessible. Bugninicare guaranteed that barriers to full participation were removed, thus permitting access to spiritual care on the part of ordinary believers. Bugnini and his consultants were convinced that the costs their programs would exact would not be excessive.

Special guarantees were built in to Bugnini’s socialized spiritual care system to protect the rights of women. The program also reached out to previously disenfranchised sectors of the general population, ensuring that mainline Protestants, Pentecostals and charismatics would no longer be excluded from participation. In fact, Bugninicare so lowered the bar of spiritual care throughout the Church that other obstacles to full participation, stemming from language, education, religion, gender and sexual orientation, were also effectively removed. The goal of equal distribution of spiritual care in the Church was now guaranteed. Novus Ordo was designed by Bugnini as a monopoly, a “single-provider” liturgy that would allow no room for competition from previous forms of spiritual care delivery. In order to ensure that élite types would not be able to opt out of the Novus Ordo, spiritual care decisions in the Church were left to a small circle of bureaucrats, headed by Bugnini.

An update is in order:

BUGINICARE MANDATE OPPOSED BY RADICAL PROPONENTS OF DIVERSITY

Opponents to the single spritual care delivery monopoly, such as Pope Benedict XVI, with Summorum Pontificum, found that their efforts to roll back the draconian consequences of Bugninicare would only be thwarted by liturgists and their epsicopal allies eager to preserve the Novus Ordo monopoly in Catholic worship.

These activists opposed what they termed “privatized” worship as a throwback to the back-alley Masses of yesteryear, accessible only to an elite few.

Despite Pope Benedict’s attempt to promote diversity in worship, Novus Ordo activists and their principle allies looked to liturgical and canon law for technicalities designed to frustrate the aspirations of Catholics advocating either greater diversity or greater freedom of choice in worship.

Numerous groups of American nuns have mobilized to sustain the Buginicare Novus Ordo monopoly against Pope Benedict’s efforts to introduce legitimate diversity.

BUGINICARE DEVELOPMENTS

Posted in Classic Posts, Lighter fare, Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The future and our choices | Tagged ,
40 Comments

“Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!”

Posted on 12 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

When considering the Presidents attack on the 1st Amendment, and the resistance of the bishops, we have to remember another point.

The bishops supported Obamacare in principle. They thought they wanted to support an Obamacare without things that the Church objects to. They thought they wanted a top down healthcare much as what Vatican City State and Roman Curia employees get.

The problem with buying into top down health care is that, once you permit it to take over, you won’t be able to stop whatever its adminstrators want to impose.

I have been listening to White House shills and surrogates hammer away that “preventive health” is a “right”. Remember the adage: make the lie big, keep the lie simple, and repeat the lie until everyone believes it.

Today I also heard a story about a women who wanted to be a man, and who went through some transgendering surgical mutlilation to simulate that aspiration. Apparently “he” just gave birth… as a “man”.  That’s going to be a “right”, mark my words.

Think about what is down the pike, folks. Even if the bishops win this battle over “exemptions”, Catholic institutions will be forced to acquies to any “right” the government begins to tout as a right.

Think about how complicated things will get when the administrators of top-down health care start determining matters of brain death and when organs can be transplanted.

Think about how end of life issues will be determined and who will be involved.

The US Bishops put their foot wrong on the first rung of the ladder into the tarpit.

We are probably going to have to get out of hospitals or lose our identity.

None of this means that we should stop fighting the Obama Administration’s attack on the 1st Amendment. We must not comply with what they want to do to us as Americans and as Catholics. But let’s not be naive about how we got here in the first place.

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UPDATE:

Since I wrote this, I found THIS.

Posted in Dogs and Fleas, Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice |
36 Comments

Leo XIII on abusive legislation

Posted on 11 February 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Pope Leo XIII in Au Milieu des Sollicitudes 24 (1892):

“Here is precisely the ground on which, political dissensions aside, upright men should unite as one to combat, by all lawful and honest means, these progressive abuses of legislation. The respect due to constituted power cannot prohibit this; unlimited respect and obedience cannot be yielded to all legislative measures, of no matter what kind, enacted by this same power. Let it not be forgotten that law is a precept ordained according to reason and promulgated for the good of the community by those who, for this end, have been entrusted with power. Accordingly, such points in legislation as are hostile to religion and to God should never be approved; to the contrary, it is a duty to disapprove them.”

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged ,
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