Catholic values in a hostile political climate

I posted the following article on this blog on August 17, 2009 and received a few rebuttals claiming I was not pro life if I did not support a government health care plan.

At the time I posted this article I was (and still am) concerned about several issues regarding the current proposals to have the federal government greatly enlarge their role in our citizen’s health care needs.

1. The governments track record of management (or if you prefer, mismanagement) of virtually every government agency is extremely poor to be very generous. The current Medicare Medicaid programs are on track to go bankrupt in a few short years. The Post Office is notorious for mismanagement. The EPA, the IRS, etc. etc. all have over spent and underperformed for years.  
2. The government by almost all observers state the government is riddled with corruption. Special interests are draining tax payer moneys that should be going to the benefit of all.
3. The government and the current administration in particular are among the most untrustworthy we have seen. This administration has more instances of doing exactly the opposite of what they promised than any previous administration. This has lead to this administration making claims such as the Catholic Church and many Catholic groups have endorsed their health care plan. The fact is the Church and these groups have said they would support a health care plan that met all Church teaching criteria. The proposals up to this time have not met Church requirements.  Now, the Obama administration is claiming they will not (for instance) pay for abortions with tax payer moneys. The problem here it this administration has no credibility any longer.

Because of these concerns, I suggested in the referenced article that the Church and all Catholic agencies should not support any health care plan proposed by this administration. This administration has been openly hostile to Catholic teaching and simply put, cannot be trusted.

This administration has deliberately misled the American people about the number of people without health care and therefore the urgency of adopting health care reform. They have repeatedly stated that over 40 million Americans do not have health care insurance. This is an extremely misleading statement. First of all even if it were true that there were over 40 million people in this country without health care insurance, there is zero people in this country without access to health care. Since 1986 there has been a federal law requiring medical treatment for any and all who appear at any emergency room hospital in the United States, so for this administration to claim 40 million Americans do not have health insurance, while it may be literally true, they know that people hearing this believe that 40 Americans do not have access to health care and they make no attempt to clarify this.

The truth is that a large percentage of these 40 million Americans are not even citizens and have not paid into any of the social programs that support the free care they already get. And all people (even those here illegally) are receiving free medical care currently. And, I really do not object to this, what I do object to is the lies and attempts to take away more of our freedoms in this obvious power grab.

Problems with Catholic Organizations Supporting ANY government sponsored health care program at this time….

I am readdressing this issue because I learned today that I am not alone in this approach to resolving the health care issue. I received an article from the “Our Sunday Visitor” stating that several Bishops have begun to address this issue by becoming vocal about keep large government out of such endeavors. They are being backed by a long dormant Church principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity holds that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least-centralized competent authority. I am in complete agreement with these Bishops.

Here is a link to the entire article

Yesterday I attended a presentation by Scott Klusendorf one of the leading pro life speakers in the Country today.  Scott has debated many pro choice people and his speech yesterday was centered on the differences in thought between the opposing sides in this ongoing controversy.

Scott’s explanation as to why this debate continues to rage is because of our society’s indifference to truth. We tend to accept relativism instead of a definite truth. Instead of seeking what is true, we accept some middle ground that allows us to do what we would not do if we knew the truth.

If we truly believed that an embryo was human, we would not permit it to be destroyed.

Scott started his talk by outlining a few of the points his opponents make in their argument for a woman’s right to choose abortion.

1. Pro life people do not have the right to impose their opinion on others
2. Every person has the right to “choose”
3. Abortion is a choice between a woman and her doctor. No one else’s business.
4. Restricting abortion for the poor who cannot afford more children is unfair.
5. Women should have the right to abort their pregnancy at any time though out the nine months of pregnancy.
6. Women should not be required to give birth to an unwanted child that may be subjected to abuse, poverty, or illness.
7. Abortion should be permitted in all cases of rape or incest.

Scott surprises his opponent and his audience by agreeing with these arguments. He agrees with every aspect of their arguments; IF, the fetus is not human.

Scott’s point is that the whole controversy boils down to “is the fetus human?” Virtually no one would use any of these arguments to kill a 2 year old toddler. So, the question really is, “is the fetus human?” If the fetus is not human then all of the pro choice people are correct and we pro life people concede the right of a woman to have an abortion. The reason however, that we continue to oppose abortion is that all scientific evidence supports the fact that the fetus is human.  If we were however, to concede for arguments sake that we do not know when the fetus becomes human; does that alone permit us to morally kill the fetus? If there is a doubt should we assume the fetus is human or assume it is not human? To illustrate this point, Scott uses the analogy of hunting with a friend and you see a bush rustling, and you are not sure if it is the deer you have been pursuing or your hunting partner, do shoot hoping it is the deer, or do you not shoot until you know it is a deer?

The pro choice people seem to take the position that since they do not know if the fetus is human or not, It is okay to accept this as an unknown and an excuse to do what is convenient. The fact that they do not know does not mean there is no truth or correct answer. There was a time when people were not sure if slavery was right or if the world was flat or round, but there always was a correct answer, as there is for this question.  We should always error on the side of morality.

Some pro choice people like to make this an argument about religion. Religion has nothing to do with if we have the right to kill another human being. The most devout atheist does not believe we have the right to kill another human being. The religion argument is nothing but an attempt to change the subject and not face the real issue.

Some pro choice people like to use the argument that the fetus is not fully human by using the well known argument of the laboratory fire. This argument goes like this; you are in a laboratory that is on fire, in one corner are several frozen embryos, in another corner is a 2 year old toddler, you have time to save only the embryos or the toddler, which do you save? Because most people would choose the toddler, the pro choice argument is that even you pro life people do not believe that the embryos are human. Scott’s rebuttal is that emotional feelings do not change the fact of what is human and what is not. His example was if his 8 year old daughter was in the auditorium with us and a fire broke out and he had the choice of saving his daughter or all of us, we would all be “toast”; this does not prove that none of us were human.

Over the years of dialog I have had with those supporting the right to “choose” I have always been intrigued by the fact that they, almost without exception, have not watched, and refuse to watch any picture, video, or image of an actual abortion.  Of course the excuse is always, “I refuse to watch such gory pictures” because they are offensive to me. Interestingly, these same individuals will pay good money to go to a movie which contains more graphic images then the abortion images. So, what is the real reason they do not want to see the images of an abortion; maybe, because they don’t want to subject themselves to the reality of abortion?

This link will take you to a short video of not an actual abortion but the after math; if you have not seen these images, you need to see them at least once, once will be enough. If these images do not convince you that the fetus was human, I don’t think anything will.

Abortion after math Video

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die

so that you may live as you wish.

~Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

As the previous and present administrations of our government continue to destroy our highly successful political experiment of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; we need to turn back to the wisdom of Church teaching. Pope Benedict XVI’s recent encyclical “caritias-in-veritate” contains not only Pope Benedict XVI’s own very extensive wisdom, but also contains references to previous Pope’s encyclicals which clearly and incontrovertibly outline where our social and economic problems lie. Before “we the people” can expect our leaders to learn from this wisdom, we ourselves need to come to an understanding of the truth of this teaching.

With all of the negatives that our technology brings us, there is at least one very powerful good that many of us are ignoring. In the past, before the age of the internet, the vast accumulated knowledge of mankind was difficult to access for the average person. Not so with the age of the internet, all of the various Pope’s encyclicals and more are available to us with a simple click of the mouse. Every thinking American should be taking advantage of this wealth of wisdom at our finger tips.

For those who have doubted the wisdom of Church teaching in the past, or even those who have accepted it but not thoroughly understood it, now is as good a time as ever to jump into this pool of knowledge and then begin to share your new found wisdom with those around you.

Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical is an extremely good place to start. Don’t let the length or sometime unfamiliar words deter you. Read slowly, take your time, stop and mark your place when you get tired, use on line encyclopedias to look up unfamiliar words, and use the hyper links provided to take quick looks at referenced material; but do get started.

Most of this material has been skimmed in a very cursory manner by left wing news agencies and dismissed with obvious ridicule because it does not fit their ideological mind sets, however, for any open minded thinking individual, the evidence of truth is overwhelming. The wisdom and prophetic messages of previous Popes such as Pope Paul VI will astound you. Pope Paul VI was so clear about what would happen if we followed the path being proposed in the 1960’s. You will be convinced he was indeed a modern day prophet.    

The following is a short excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI’s “caritias-in-veritate” to get you started.

14. In his Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens of 1971, Paul VI reflected on the meaning of politics, and the danger constituted by utopian and ideological visions that place its ethical and human dimensions in jeopardy. These are matters closely connected with development. Unfortunately the negative ideologies continue to flourish. Paul VI had already warned against the technocratic ideology so prevalent today[26], fully aware of the great danger of entrusting the entire process of development to technology alone, because in that way it would lack direction. Technology, viewed in itself, is ambivalent. If on the one hand, some today would be inclined to entrust the entire process of development to technology, on the other hand we are witnessing an upsurge of ideologies that deny in toto the very value of development, viewing it as radically anti-human and merely a source of degradation. This leads to a rejection, not only of the distorted and unjust way in which progress is sometimes directed, but also of scientific discoveries themselves, which, if well used, could serve as an opportunity of growth for all. The idea of a world without development indicates a lack of trust in man and in God. It is therefore a serious mistake to undervalue human capacity to exercise control over the deviations of development or to overlook the fact that man is constitutionally oriented towards “being more”. Idealizing technical progress, or contemplating the utopia of a return to humanity’s original natural state, are two contrasting ways of detaching progress from its moral evaluation and hence from our responsibility.

 caritias-in-veritate

Many Catholic groups have come out and supported a government sponsored health care program that meets all requirements of Catholic teaching, namely health care for all human life from conception to natural death.

Groups such as the Saint Vincent DePaul Society, Catholic Charities, and even the USCCB have recently announced support for such a government program.

While this sounds like a viable thing we all could and should get behind and support. There are a couple of problems with this.

Number one, the current administration has clearly demonstrated their willingness to say one thing and do another. Even if by some change in their approach to this subject they agree to ALL of the requirements of Church teaching to get approval of a government controlled national health care plan, their track record tells us that they will not live up to any such agreement and our Children and Grandchildren will be saddled with a health care plan that funds abortions, does not provide for health care of an unborn human, and will deny health care to old or terminally ill patients.

Number two, the current administration will (as they already have) start spouting advertisements that the Catholic Church, St. Vincent DePaul, and Catholic charities supports the currently proposed health care plan which clearly provides for all of the issues listed above.

I believe the best course of action now, is the one many Americans are taking. Get Vocal, attend town meetings, write your representatives and let them know we do not trust them for obvious reasons and because of this we will not support ANY health care plan sponsored by this anti life pro death culture administration…

Thanks to Obama’s lifting of the ban on embryonic stem cell research, Pfizer pumps $100M into embryonic stem cell research

 I just took a loss on a loser stock. I have held it through 10 years of losses because I “thought” they were a good company deserving of my loyalty; however, I learned today that they have taken $100,000,000 of their investors money and put it into embryonic stem cell research.

I have placed a sell order for every last Pfizer share as of tomorrow morning and I urge all pro life people to do the same.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE

I received an email from the Cardinal Newman Society this evening with this link to a video message from Father Corapi. It needs no extra verbiage from me. Please take six minutes to view it.

Click HERE

Unfortunately, there are still a majority of Catholics who do not believe or support the Catholic Church’s teaching of Humanae Vitae. This is largely because they do not understand the truth of this teaching. Whether they do not understand because of a lack of information from the Church leaders, they have just not applied themselves to learning their faith, they have been brainwashed by the secular media, or a combination of all of the above; the fact is they (we) need to reexamine our position on this important truth and become supportive of it.

One cannot watch and absorb the content of the video linked below without realizing the truth of Humanae Vitae. This deplorable situation started with Catholics and others accepting contraception as an acceptable form of birth control. This seemly simple step (in the mind of some Catholics) opened the door to all kinds of problems as was predicted by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae. Indeed all of these problems have manifest themselves since that most regrettable period in the 1960’s. The separation of sex and reproduction has started a chain of events that seems unstoppable and according to the linked video is indeed unstoppable at this point. While this may mean the end of ours and many cultures in the coming decades, it is not too late to turn around our own attitudes and actions in this direction. We need to get the word out to all people of good will to quit promoting contraception, abortion, and all sin related to attacks upon the family unit. This is our minimum responsibility to our future generations.   

Please watch the video at the link below and pass this post to all of your contacts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

Today’s news item is proof that God still lives in the hearts and minds of many faithful people. Mary Ann Glendon is obviously more concerned for our Country and Church than for personal glory. Indeed a rare thing in today’s world.

Ms Glendon released to the press this morning her letter declining Father Jenkins invitation to the Notre Dame commencement to receive the Laetare metal

Text of letter can be found here:

http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2009/04/27/declining-notre-dame-a-letter-from-mary-ann-glendon/

The Laetare Medal is an annual award given by the  University of Notre Dame  in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic Church and society. The award is given to an American Catholic layperson “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity.” First awarded in 1883, it is the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics. The medal is an external award which can be given to a person from outside the University of Notre Dame. It is named the Laetare Medal because the recipient of the award is announced in celebration of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent.

S.270 Aid for pregnant women

While is seems unlikely we will in the short term convince those supporting abortion that Humanae Vitae and Catholic Church teaching on the sanctity of human life is the key to a better society, there is a small glimmer of hope that we can come together on one small step for the safety of some future people that may otherwise have been aborted.

Democratic Senator Lincoln Davis of Tennessee first introduced H.R. 6145 in the 109^th Congress in 2006. It became bogged down in typical bureaucracy and the 109^th Congress closed without taking action. Sen. Robert Casey (D) Pennsylvania reintroduced the bill as S.2407 Dec 4^th 2007 in the 110^th Congress, again the bill died on the floor. Now Senator Lincoln Davis has reintroduced the bill to the current congress as S.270.  According to the “Washingtonwatch.com” website the current polling for this legislation is 23% for and 77% against.  I have to believe that those opposing it do not understand its purpose. Many tax payers are so over burdened with taxes that they just say “no” to everything. This bill however should be passed with all speed. Please let your representatives know that you want them to insure this bill passes. The mainstream media as always is silent on this important issue. Any issue that does not cause dissent is instantly dismissed. I could not even find any discussion about this bill on blogs or news sites from either side of the abortion issue. Unless we make this bill more visible and inform pro life (and pro choice) people to get behind it; it will also face the same fate as H.R. 6145 and S.2407.

Please check out information on this important legislation and pass the word to all you can to support it. Most importantly, Send emails, letters, and fax’s to all of your representatives.

U.S Bishops’ Pro-Life Chief Praises Democrats http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/04/24/us-bishops-pro-life-chief-praises-democrats-abortion-reduction-bill.html

Casey Editorial: Aid for pregnant women key to fewer abortions

http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2009/03/29/editorial/guest_columnists/sc_times_trib.20090329.d.pg4.tt29casey_s1.2404232_gue.txt

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – Office of Domestic Social Development

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/2008PWSA.pdf

Cardinal Rigali Praises House Re-Introduction of ‘Pregnant Women Support Act,’ Urges Co-Sponsorship

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20090424/pl_usnw/cardinal_rigali_praises_house_re_introduction_of__pregnant_women_support_act___urges_co_sponsorship

Casey Reintroduces Pregnant Women Support Act

http://casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=f4577a46-d28f-42ca-a356-e9dde9d5d5db

The bill (For some reason this link does not always work, if you have trouble with it try to copy and paste the link into your browser.)

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.270:

S. 270, The Pregnant Women Support Act

Take action

http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_SN_270.html

H.R. 6145 Pregnant Women Support Act 109^th congress 2005-2006

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-6145

S. 2407, The Pregnant Women Support Act

110^th congress 2007-2008

·         This item is from the 110th Congress (2007-2008) and is no longer current. Comments, voting, and wiki editing have been disabled, and the cost/savings estimate has been frozen.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2407

Contributors to charitable organizations should carefully study that organization prior to donating or supporting them. Many well meaning charitable organizations that may have started with high moral standards; have fallen victim to the massive left wing forces that are pushing to change our Christian Judah culture to one of secularism. These forces obviously believe that for them to be successful they must undermine many Christian Judah firmly held beliefs. Among these beliefs that are currently under attack are; Sanctity of human life issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and traditional marriage.

One should watch in particularly for any association between the charitable organization one is considering support for and Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a not very well disguised organization in the forefront of pushing the culture of death on our nation.  Planned Parenthood has been very successful in associating themselves with many previously legitimate charitable organizations. Once one of these previously legitimate organizations becomes associated with Planned Parenthood, one cannot know that their well intentioned donations will not end up funding Planned Parenthood and their sinister work of ending the short sacred life of millions of our unborn citizens. Planned Parenthood has made a very successful and profitable business of collecting donations from ill informed or misdirected individuals, organizations, your tax dollars, and also charging their unsuspecting victims for killing their babies. This all goes on under the noses of us all because we have – God help us -for too long looked the other way.

This abortion mill has become so ingrained into our society that many have become numb to it. I have spent many hours communicating with supporters of pro choice politicians attempting to make them see the error of their support and I have found that most of these individuals are so deep in their denial that they absolutely refuse to learn about what abortion really is. They openly admit to not allowing any information about how abortions are performed to be presented to them. In their minds ignorance is bliss. Whether or not these individuals realize it, they are condoning it by their silence.

The truth about Planned Parenthood – link to

http://www.traditionalvalues.org/pdf_files/TVCSpecialRptPlannedParenthood.pdf

Susan G. Komen big supporter of Planned Parenthood – Links to 

http://www.lifeissues.org/AbortionBreastcancer/komen/master_report.pdf     

http://abortion-not.org/komenbclink.htm

Unicef Calls for Legal Abortion in Dominican Republic – Link to

http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1118/pub_detail.asp

 Please don’t misunderstand me, I encourage charitable contributions to worthy charities and there are plenty of good ones out there. Just know how your contributions are being used.