An open letter to Cardinal Dolan about the Obama invitation

From Life Site News, Judie Brown

Your Eminence,

During the last week, there has been much written on diocesan websites and by other bishops concerning the controversy created by your invitation to President Obama to attend the Alfred E. Smith dinner. Much of what has been written seeks to justify that invitation.

American Life League recently launched an effort to convince you to rescind that invitation. The reason for this memo is to let you know exactly why we are doing what we are doing.

First, let me point out that Cardinal Egan invited Mr. Obama to this same dinner four years ago and we did not object. Although we disagreed with Obama’s basic philosophies, we felt that an attempt by the cardinal to show congeniality was worth trying.

However, it is now four years later and it is clear that whatever the cardinal hoped to accomplish at the 2008 dinner did not work. In four short years, President Obama has done everything in his power to undermine the teachings of the Catholic Church. As you know, he is implementing programs and policies that may soon make it necessary for the Church to repudiate our basic beliefs or close down all of our charitable and educational organizations.

Your Eminence, Mr. Obama has a long history with the Catholic Church. From his days as a community organizer working with Catholic churches in Chicago to his current attack on our beliefs, Obama has shown himself to be a shrewd politician with a captivating personality. How else do you explain the fact that, despite his very public support of abortion, contraception, and Planned Parenthood, he received 54 percent of the Catholic vote in 2008?

The question is NOT why you invited Mr. Obama to the dinner. The real question is why he accepted.

I submit to you that the reason he accepted is that he has nothing to lose. The Al Smith Foundation website touts that, at the 2008 dinner, Obama displayed “wit, wisdom, warmth, and wile.” I am sure the author of those words thought he was being totally complimentary, but the fact is that he was very accurate. Synonyms for “wile” are, of course, “hoax,” “ploy,” “scam,” and “deception.”

I believe Mr. Obama sees the 2012 Al Smith dinner as an opportunity to, once again, use his wiles to entice the Catholics in America to “trust” him——a trust that he has betrayed time and time again.

Your Eminence, when I think of the outcome of the event - where you are seen hosting both candidates for president - I am convinced the idea that will be transmitted through the images of that dinner will be that a vote for either candidate is okay with the hierarchy.

This is precisely why American Life League launched the No Dinner for Obama campaign. We don’t want Catholics to be confused about the most pro-abortion president in American history. Our duty is to be faithful and to defend moral principles, while begging our hierarchy to do the same.

We pray for you, and all members of the hierarchy, “Lead us out of temptation and toward truth, particularly today when so much is at stake.”

You and the bishops of the Church have convinced us over the last several months that the future of the Catholic Church in America is hanging in the balance. We MUST oppose the contraceptive mandate and all of the other affronts the current administration is throwing at us.

Inviting the head of that administration to dinner and a night of humor and congeniality is NOT how we are going to save our Church.

Please, your Eminence, cancel the invitation or cancel the dinner. If you do neither, I am very afraid that, at this time next year, you may be forced to cancel most Church activities that take place outside the confines of your physical churches.

Asking the blessing of Your Eminence, I am,

Yours respectfully in Christ,

Judie Brown, President American Life League

Link here

Baltimore Archbishop: Catholic Voters Can’t Vote for a Candidate Who Stands for an Intrinsic Evil

This has been stated time and time again. Nevertheless, it bears repeating.

“This is a big moment for Catholic voters to step back from their party affiliation,” Baltimore archbishop William E. Lori tells me from the Knights of Columbus annual convention in Anaheim, Calif.

For Catholic voters in November, Lori advises, “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”
. . .
“Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs?” the pope, perhaps prophetically, asked during his 2008 visit to Washington, D.C.

...“If we are going to transform the culture from within, which we are called to do, and defend our basic freedoms,” it will be primarily the role of the laity, Lori tells me.

“The bishops are teachers,” he said, but political leadership “really needs to come from the laity as citizens and mothers and fathers and voters.”

When it comes to election advice for Catholics: “The reality is we are defending something that transcends party. The defense of religious liberty,” he said, “should not be a Democratic or Republican issue.” For a Catholic voter, this should be “fundamental, as people of faith.”...

More here

Is it possible to see some PUBLIC EXCOMMUNICATIONS of those "Catholics" who publicly and obstinately defy the Church and her shepherds?

For example, Archbishop Lori could address the scandal occurring from the words and actions of former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend who is promoting same-sex "marriage" and is urging Catholics to uphold Maryland's same-sex "marriage" law at the polls. She is pushing Catholics to oppose Church teaching.

Vatican Canon Law Adviser: NY Governor Andrew Cuomo Should Be Denied Communion

(CNSNews.com) – In receiving communion at a Mass offered by the Roman Catholic bishop of Albany, NY, that state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, who supports abortion, gay marriage, and lives with his girlfriend, committed an “objectively sacreligious” act that “produces grave scandal,” according to Dr. Edward Peters, a top expert in Catholic Church law and a consultant to the highest court at the Vatican.

Peters specifically cited Cuomo's cohabiting with Food Network hostess Sandra Lee as "publicly acting in violation of a fundamental moral expectation of the Church," and that "as long as he persists in such conduct, he should refrain from taking holy Communion" and "if he approaches for holy Communion, he should be denied the august sacrament in accord with Canon 915."...

More here

Dr Edward Peters: Bp. Olmsted, Canon 216, and St. Joseph's Hospital

Dr Peters writes:

Well, the situation at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, in terms of its compliance (or lack thereof) with several fundamental points of Catholic medical-moral teaching, was apparently worse than we thought. Bp. Olmsted’s decision to decertify St. Joseph’s as a Catholic institution is quite well grounded.

Read why here

Phoenix hospital that performed abortion no longer Catholic

From LifeSiteNews:

PHOENIX, Arizona, December 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Catholic hospital that performed a direct abortion last year has lost its official endorsement as a Catholic institution by the local bishop.

Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Az. announced in a news conference Tuesday morning that St. Joseph’s Hospital was no longer Catholic after it refused to comply with the bishop’s terms, which included renouncing the direct killing of an unborn baby of a woman suffering from pulmonary hypertension, at 11 weeks gestation.

Olmsted said that, “Communication with leadership at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Catholic Healthcare West has only eroded my confidence about their commitment to the church’s ethical and religious directives for health care,” according to local news reports...

More here

Cardinal Burke: Authentic Catholic universities help resist ‘secular dictatorship'

The authentically Catholic university helps students resist “secularist dictatorship” by keeping Jesus Christ at the center of its mission and by exposing the moral bankruptcy of contemporary culture, Cardinal Raymond Burke said Dec. 4...

In a lengthy discussion of the nature of Catholic higher education, he said that a Catholic university faithful to its identity will help students give an account of their faith and help them resist “the secularist dictatorship which would exclude all religious discourse from the professions and from public life in general.”...

Cardinal Burke lamented the fall of many American Catholic colleges and universities that have become “Catholic in name only.”...

On the issues of creating curricula and hiring professors, Cardinal Burke advised “special care,” noting the poor religious formation of many young Catholics.

“Given the religious illiteracy which marks our time and in fidelity to the seriousness with which university studies should be undertaken, there is really no place for engaging in speculative theology and certainly no time to waste on superficial and tendentious theological writings of the time,” the cardinal contended...

Much more here from Catholic News Agency (CNA).

Rather timely considering the plans SLU has for a speaker

Remembering Veteran's Day

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has protected our freedom of religion.

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has protected our freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has protected our freedom of speech.

It is the VETERAN, not the community organizer, who has protected our freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has protected our right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN, not the politician, who has protected our right to vote.

It is the VETERAN, who salutes the Flag,



It is the VETERAN, who serves under the Flag.



May God bless and protect those who have served or continue to serve our country with dedication, courage, and sacrifice.

This is a re-post from a couple of years ago...I felt it was even more appropriate now given today's political climate.

Archbishop Nienstedt Refuses Communion to Dissidents

At today's Noon Mass, a statement was read over the intercom prior to ommunion by the Archdiocese's Communication's Director one Dennis McGrath. This Sunday was Vocation Sunday and the Archdiocese has more students studying for the priesthood than it's had for thirty years, but Archbishop was not present.

The statement was to the effect that only baptised Catholics who are disposed to receive Communion and in agreement with the entirety Church's teaching may receive Communion, and specifically, that Rainbow Sashers may not receive Holy Communion, but they were invited to remove their sashes.

The approach he's taken to this situation matches the description of him given by the Star and Tribune as "cool and collected."...

More here

And another report here

It's Official: Raymond *CARDINAL* Burke!!!

Pope names 24 new cardinals

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has named 24 new cardinals, including a large number of Italians, two Americans and prelates for key posts in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The new cardinals include Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and Archbishop Raymond Burke, formerly the La Crosse, Wis., bishop who now leads a Vatican court. Burke has been sharply critical of the Democratic Party in the United States for its support of abortion rights.

The pope made the announcement Wednesday, putting his mark on the body that will elect his successor.

Other key posts were Warsaw, Munich, Kinshasa, Quito, Lusaka, Zambia, and Sri Lanka.

Source

Congratulations and prayers to Archbishop Burke!

Read Archbishop Burke's statement on the announcement of the consistory for the creation of Cardinals here

St. Stanislaus Lawsuit filed in St. Clair County

From the Belleview News Democrat:

St. Stanislaus lawsuit filed in St. Clair County alleges law firm used a 'spy'

A St. Louis-based law firm with an office in Belleville planted a spy and encouraged the former attorney for a rebel parish fighting the Archdiocese of St. Louis over property to violate, "...every relevant ethical duty and breached virtually every rule in the Rules of Professional Conduct," according to a lawsuit filed in St. Clair County.

Lawyers for the archdiocese planted the spy and caused a former lawyer for St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis to turn against his ex-clients in the archdiocese' efforts to regain control of a church and its property, according to the lawsuit.

Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale "violated every relevant ethical duty and breached virtually every rule in the Rules of Professional Conduct" when it enlisted Roger Krasnicki, the former attorney for St. Stanislaus Church, stated a complaint in the Oct. 15 lawsuit filed by Thomas Q. Keefe Jr. of Belleville....

Read more here

Vatican Archbishop Burke: Public Repentance is Required for Pro-Abort Politicians

October 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Speaking at the Human Life International World Prayer Congress Saturday, Archbishop Raymond Burke received sustained applause when he noted that Catholic politicians who support abortion are required to repent publicly.

Speaking to pro-life leaders from 45 nations, the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (the highest Vatican court) also noted that those who recognize the scandal caused by such public, dissident Catholics assist the Church in repairing a serious breach, but are nevertheless often ridiculed for it...

Archbishop Burke stressed that “both bishops and the faithful” must be obedient to the Magisterium...“If the shepherd is not obedient the flock easily gives way to confusion and error.”

Burke, who is also a member of the Congregation for Bishops added: “A most tragic example of the lack of obedience of faith, also on the part of certain Bishops, was the response of many to the Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae of Pope Paul VI, published on July 25, 1968. The confusion which resulted has led many Catholics into habits of sin in what pertains to the procreation and education of human life.”...

The Vatican prelate [also stated]:

Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church’s unity is founded on speaking the truth with love.

The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life.

Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities.

More here.

(Read the complete talk here) [PDF}.

[Hat tip to Penny for the link!]

Priest is excommunicated over 'ordination' of woman

[Bishop Thomas Olmsted], the bishop of Phoenix has excommunicated another priest.

The Rev. Vernon Meyer, who had submitted his resignation to the bishop earlier this summer, becomes at least the fifth priest to be ousted from the church under Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. He was not defrocked, which is a separate penalty...

Pray for the conversion of the heretics who repudiate Christ and His Church.

More here.

Archbishop Carlson: Abortion Supporters Are Excommunicated, Should Not Receive Communion

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, July 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a new column, Archbishop Robert Carlson takes to task those who argue that abortion is simply a political issue, pointing out that it is also a serious moral issue. He also makes clear that one cannot be a good Catholic and be "pro-choice."

"People who are casual about the sin of abortion and who choose to view it as a political issue rather than the serious moral issue that it is are guilty of violating the Fifth Commandment," he writes.

Human life is sacred, according to the archbishop, because "from its beginning until its natural end, it involves the creative action of God."

"God alone is the Lord of life," he states. "No one has the right to end arbitrarily what God has begun, and sustained, through the gift of His love."

For this reason, he writes, "since the first century, the Church has addressed the moral evil of abortion and the killing of a defenseless baby in the womb."

"You cannot be 'pro-choice' (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing," he says. "That's why the Church asks those who maintain this position not to receive holy Communion.

"We are not being mean or judgmental, we are simply acknowledging the fact that such a stance is objectively and seriously sinful and is radically inconsistent with the Christian way of life."...

More here

Obama praises Catholic Health Association for role in passage of health(Death) care legislation saying...

“I especially want to thank Sr. Carol Keehan”

Rejoicing, the dissenters and heretics continue to subvert the truth with more spin and lies:

On Monday, the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and its president, Sister Carol Keehan, opened the second day of the association’s annual summit with a video featuring praise from Pres__ent Barack Obama and Sen. Bob Casey Jr. for the organization's support of the healthcare bill signed into law by the pres__ent on March 23...

The video tries to provide, in less than 10 minutes, doctrinal and historic justification to CHA's controversial support of the healthcare bill, despite the opposition of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)...

The video does not feature any U.S. Catholic bishop or USCCB spokesperson, although the opening Mass for the CHA assembly was presided over by Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida....

Lest we forget, it was Bishop Lynch who failed to do his duty to help Terri Schiavo...

More here

Reflections on the Sacrament of Marriage by Bishop Michael Sheridan, S.T.D.

Spring is a time when the sacramental life of the church is particularly evident. These are the days when we celebrate First Holy Communions, confirmations, ordinations and marriages. It is to the last of these sacraments that I devote my thoughts today.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) gives us this beautiful definition of marriage, based on the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the sacrament of matrimony:

"The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament" (no. 1601). Phrase by phrase, this definition gives us a little "catechism" on marriage.

The matrimonial covenant. The 1917 Code of Canon Law referred to the "marriage contract." Although a contract does not differ significantly from a covenant, the Second Vatican Council chose to call marriage a covenant rather than a contract because of the sacred nature of a covenant. Scripture uses "covenant" to speak of the solemn agreements entered into between God and his creatures. Jesus established a "new and eternal covenant" through his sacrificial death and resurrection. More than simply a legal agreement (contract), marriage is a profound and deeply spiritual agreement that stems from a solemn oath (vows). For this reason, marriage establishes a lifelong bond that ends only with death.

A partnership of the whole life. The sacred covenant that is marriage is not simply an agreement to exchange certain rights and duties. In marriage, "the partners mutually surrender themselves to each other (cf. "The Constitution on the Church in the Modern World," Vatican II, no. 48). This mutual giving of two persons reflects Christ’s gift of himself to us in love even to the shedding of his blood. The marriage partnership is one of total self-giving. This helps us to understand why contraception is sinful. When a married couple uses contraception, they are saying to each other, "I give you myself completely — except for my fertility. Contraception contradicts the very nature of marriage.

The good of the spouses. There are two ends or purposes to marriage. The first is the good of the spouses. Here we are speaking of spousal — or conjugal — love. There are few words that are more misused and misunderstood in our contemporary culture than "love." Popular media would have us believe that love is little other than an emotion — and a fleeting one at that — or simply physical attraction. In fact, genuine spousal love is far more.

Again, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of themselves that they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an arrangement ‘until further notice.’ The ‘intimate union of marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons, and the good of children demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable union between them’" (1646).

But there is more. Marriage was not created by God only for the good of the spouses. There is a second — and equally important — purpose of marriage.

The procreation and education of offspring. By its very nature, marriage is ordered to the procreation of children. While not every act of marital intercourse will result in the conception of a child, every act of intercourse must be open to the gift of a child. Here, again, we see why every act of contraception is a gravely sinful. Contraception literally truncates the meaning of marriage. It eliminates one of the intrinsic purposes of marriage. "Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which is ‘on the side of life,’ teaches that ‘it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life.’" (CCC 2366).

Raised to the dignity of a sacrament. Marriage as a natural institution comes from the creation as recorded in the Book of Genesis. The marriage of two baptized Christians, however, is different from marriage as a purely natural union. "The grace of the sacrament perfects the love of husband and wife, binds them together in fidelity, and helps them welcome and care for children. Christ is the source of this grace and he dwells with the spouses to strengthen their covenant promises, to bear each other’s burdens with forgiveness and kindness, and to experience ahead of time the ‘wedding feast of the lamb’" (United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, 285).

Although not in the definition of marriage, there is another point of church discipline that needs to be made. Catholics are bound most seriously to have their marriages witnessed by a priest or deacon. Dispensation from this law is possible; but, if a Catholic attempts marriage before anyone other than a priest of deacon without dispensation, that marriage is invalid, and the Catholic party(ies) to the marriage may not receive the sacraments of the church until the union can be regularized.

The apostle Paul teaches us that marriage is "a great foreshadowing; I mean that it refers to Christ and the church. In any case, each one should love his wife as he loves himself, the wife for her part showing respect for her husband" (Eph 5:32).

May this be true of every Christian marriage!

Source: This column originally appeared in the June 4, 2010 issue of The Colorado Catholic Herald

June 27 Credo Forum-Mr William A. Donohue

Credo of the Catholic Laity is proud to present as our Sunday June 27 Forum Speaker, William A Donohue ,the foremost lay defender of Catholic rights in the United States.

His topic will be: Current Threats to the Religious Freedom of Catholics.

Bill is President and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the nation's largest civil rights organization. He is the publisher of the Catholic League Journal, Catalyst. Bill is also an adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation and serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Scholars and the New York state chapter of NAS.

He serves on the board of advisors of the Washington Legal Foundation, the Educational. Freedom Foundation, The Association of Catholic Social Scientists, Catholics United for the Faith, and many more. His memberships include: The Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Catholic War Veterans. He is an Honorary member of The Catholic Social Workers National Association, serves on the Manhattan Committee on Foreign Relations Advisory Board, and on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy.

Bill is the author of four books and many articles. His first book, The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union, was published in 1985. His second book, The New Freedom: Individualism and Collectivism in Social Lives of Americans, was written while Bill was a Bradley Resident Scholar at the Heritage Foundation; it appeared in 1990. The third book, Twilight of Liberty: The legacy of the ACLU, was published in 1994. His most recent book, Secular Sabotage: How Liberals are Destroying Religion and Culture in America, was published in 1999 and is available at bookstores and from Amazon.

Bill started his career as a teacher in the 1970's, working at St Lucy's in Spanish Harlem. In 1977 he took a position as a college professor, teaching at La Roche College in Pittsburg. In 1980 he was awarded his Ph.D. in sociology from New York University.

I am sure most of you are familiar with Bill Donohue. He has received many awards from the Catholic Community and appeared on thousands of television and radio shows, speaking on civil Liberties and social issues and defending the Catholic Church from its many detractors.

See the flyer here for full details on this event. Get your checks in early because we expect a sellout crowd.

'Planned Parenthood' president thanks dissenting "nun" for pro-abortion health care deform

Planned Parenthood head thanks religious sisters for ‘critical support’ of health care bill

Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2010 / 07:28 am (CNA).- Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has praised the Catholic religious sisters who endorsed the Senate health care bill, claiming they deserve gratitude for making “a critical demonstration of support” for a bill that significantly increased coverage of “reproductive health care.”

Writing for the Huffington Post Wednesday in her capacity as president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Richards claimed that it was Catholic nuns who “most importantly broke with the bishops and the Vatican to announce their support for health care reform.”

“This brave and important move, demonstrating that they cared as much about the health care of families in America as they did about church hierarchy, was a critical demonstration of support.”

The group NETWORK claimed in a March 17 letter to the House of Representatives that it represented 59,000 women religious across the U.S. It urged members of Congress to support the bill....

Apostates and heretics - the whole lot! It's yet another in a LONG LIST of SCANDALS which generally remain unaddressed by US BISHOPS. The fact that these schismatic malcontents have yet to be disciplined is even more of a scandal to faithful Catholics.

Pray that our bishops and priests be graced with zeal and courage to do what they should do in addressing schism and heresy among those who claim to be "Catholic" yet continually pervert the Truth who is Jesus, Himself!

Article here.

US Catholic Bishops contributed to "Health Care Reform" Debacle

From a thoroughly Catholic perspective, the health care reform debate wasn’t nearly as simple as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops made it out to be, as though preventing public funding of abortion and negotiating conscience clauses was enough to render Obamacare worthy of Catholic support.

This, however, is exactly the stance taken by the USCCB from the very outset, and it only opened the door for those difference-making pro-life legislators to take comfort in the promise of an executive order restricting federal funding of abortion and to justify voting “yes.”...

This article on Catholic Exchange highlights the faulty way in which the USCCB approached the health care reform debate, and their socialist tilt toward policy in general.

More here

Catholic Health Assoc. Health Bill Support 'Utterly Un-Catholic': HLI President

WASHINGTON, DC, March 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the U.S. bishops step up their opposition to the abortion-expanding Senate health bill this month, the Catholic Health Association (CHA) has again muddled the pro-life Catholic response by issuing warm support for the bill - despite its not being "perfect" on the abortion issue. The president of Human Life International responded by condemning CHA's support for the bill as "utterly un-Catholic" and "a grave insult" to Catholics.

In remarks posted on the CHA website, president and CEO Sr. Carol Keehan wrote: "As I watched our president present his plan to pass the health reform legislation, it was clear this is an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans....

Idiotic morons welcome those like Keehan...While she may be infatuated with a pathological liar and malignant narcissist who supports murdering unborn children, she should, at the very least, read the 2300+ monstrous pages of deathcare BEFORE she proclaims that this Trojan horse will provide " an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans."

Only an incompetent imbecile could make such a claim.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, a leading commentator on social issues among Catholic bishops, on Monday slammed Catholic organizations who are backing the bill for providing moral cover for a deeply problematic measure.

In an On The Square blog post, Chaput wrote that, "Groups, trade associations, and publications describing themselves as 'Catholic' or 'prolife' that endorse the Senate version—whatever their intentions—are doing a serious disservice to the nation and to the Church, undermining the witness of the Catholic community and ensuring the failure of genuine, ethical health care reform."

"By their public actions, they create confusion at exactly the moment Catholics need to think clearly about the remaining issues in the health care debate. They also provide the illusion of moral cover for an unethical piece of legislation," wrote Chaput....


Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews.com that while he could not say whether Keehan is "really acting on bad faith" or "just deeply confused" about the radically pro-abortion health care bill, "Her organization stands to gain a great deal by its passage, and they regulary collaborate with the proponents of this legislation, so her credibility on this issue is, to put it mildly, less than rock solid."

"It is a grave insult to Sister's fellow Catholics that she would stoop to lend what some will see as a Catholic stamp of approval to this destructive and, if enacted, irreversible assault on life," he continued. "Nothing in this bill merits for it the support of any thinking, faithful Catholic. Period.

"To pretend otherwise not only places one in opposition to the bishops, but requires that one disregard the right to life of the the weakest and most vulnerable among us. This is utterly un-Catholic."

Read more.

Dr Edward Peters: Resources for Understanding and Applying Canon 915.

Dr. Peters writes:

Serious discussion of Canon 915 requires access to key documents on the law and awareness of the positions taken thereon by qualified commentators. I have developed a webpage for those who wish to understand, and perhaps contribute to, the discussions on the application of Canon 915 in the life of the Church. I will try to update the page as feasible.

More here.