Quick Takes (22)

In this last week, under the guise of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, Catholics are coming under fire.  We are being told, in no uncertain terms, that we must violate our consciences in the most fundamental of ways.  Catholic institutions, according to the current administration, must fund birth control, sterilizations, and abortion causing drugs. 

There is just so much to be said about this I just don’t know where to start.  All sorts of thoughts are swimming around in my mind. 

And my heart hurts.

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I am incredibly proud and encouraged by the stand our bishops are taking.  There is a united, consistent message being spoken from the pulpits.  This latest dictate is unacceptable and we will not comply.

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I find the timing of this directive from HHS curious – it was announced just three days before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  How many tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of marchers descended on Washington DC for the March for Life?  As far as the eye could see there were young, old, families, and singles standing together for life. 

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Of course the mainstream media is dragging out poor representatives of our faith to get the needed sounds bites for their stories. 

Sister Christine Schenk of Cleveland, a Sister of St. Joseph and director of FutureChurch, a coalition of parish-based Catholics, said she believes the issue is "much more complex" than the religious freedom concerns voiced by U.S. bishops.  She said the bishops should consult employees at Catholic institutions, many of whom are not Catholic, and ask how they feel about birth control.  "I believe 98 percent of Catholics think use of birth control to be moral, and that the decision is best left up to them," Sister Christine said. "I have real serious trouble with church leaders who make decisions without any immediate experience of the consequences of the decisions that they are now making that will be impacted on every Catholic employee and every non-Catholic employee at every Catholic institution."

She “believes” the use of birth control is okay???  What does she believe about her faith???

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This is a direct and deliberate attack on our Church and on our Faith.  Michelle Malkin says for better than I could ever hope to.  Check out her column here.

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First they came for the Socialists,

and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,

and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me –

and there was no one left to speak for me.

--Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

(An ardent nationalist and prominent Protestant pastor who

emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent

the last 7 years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. )

-5-

"From a human point of view, we may be tempted to surrender, when our government places conception, pregnancy and birth under the 'center for disease control,' when chemically blocking conception or aborting the baby in the womb is considered a 'right' to be subsidized by others who abhor it," said Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Why is it okay for the government, the media, our friends & neighbors, hollywood, etc. to have opinions about our sex lives but not our moral leaders? 

-7-

“Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.”

– GKC Autobiography, 1937 

Check out more Quick Takes this week at Betty Beguiles.

AMDG