How is this for Catholic University. The University of San Francisco (Jesuit) will automatically enroll students in a heath plan that includes abortion coverage and have their accounts billed for it.
Published in 1934 in American Weekly Magazine by Margaret Sanger guidelines for having a child that seem like pure parody. A reader sent me a link to a blog with the text of it.
An image of a very pregnant Mary, the mother of Jesus, looks down on Old Town
from a billboard on West Burnside Street and Northwest Third Avenue. In the
weeks before Christmas, she is a reminder of the approaching celebration of
her son’s birth.
She’s also a testament to a Milwaukie woman’s deeply held beliefs.
"I’m not political," says Valerie Aschbacher,
who commissioned the sculpture that was photographed for the billboard. "Mary’s not political. She’s an image of the gospel of life."
Many people would not agree. They see life — when it begins and how it ends
— as a political issue. Abortion and physician-assisted suicide continue to
be campaign issues for many voters.
So it’s not surprising that Aschbacher’s billboard has sparked a dispute in
a time divided by life issues.
It is such a sad thing that a pregnant Mary on a billboard cand be condensed
to being a "political issue." That all the Christmas commercialization has
made people immune to the so-called reason for the season. That it was a very
pregnant Mary who made the trek to Bethlehem with her husband Joseph. Yet now
Mary who had a sword pierce her heart will spark a dispute. Not surprising though
since Mary points to Jesus and it is Jesus who is seen as a contradiction
and a scandal that will divide those who won’t follow the truth.
"Mary gave birth in the lowliest of places," she says. "Where else would she want to come but to the lowliest place in the state of Oregon."
Growing up in Portland certainly Burnside is not the nicest of areas, though
much improved since the early 70s.
The rest of the article is interesting and nicely no quotes from local abortion
provides to provide "balance." Though the comments on the article are pretty
snarky. As a piece of art it is not much to my taste, but at least the message is true.
Images of an obviously pregnant Mary are rare, said Jane Kristof, professor emeritus
of art history at Portland State University.
"Generally, it was considered undignified," she said. "The same is true of Mary nursing." Artists instead rendered Mary gesturing toward her stomach to suggest that she
was pregnant, Kristof said.
Mary Full of Life "looks like she’s pregnant
with the world," said Sheila O’Connell-Roussell, a Marian scholar on staff at Marylhurst University.
She agreed that historical images of Mary are much more subtle about her pregnancy.
[article]
Mostly true, though images of a breast-feeding Virgin Mary were not rare
in Medieval and Renaissance art.
New York, December 1 – Two new radio advertisements for condom use began to target Catholics in the U.S. Hispanic community here today, World AIDS Day, with the message that “good Catholics use condoms” to protect the people they love.
The 60-second Spanish-language ads, which will air nationwide in 2009, “take on myths about condom use in Catholic and Latino communities,” said a statement from the sponsors, the Washington-based nonprofit organization Catholics for Choice and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
“Catholics use condoms because we know it is the responsible, loving and caring thing to do,” said Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice. Catholicism “has not always been honest about sex,” he said, adding that the spots will “break the silence” in the Latino community and encourage safer sex.
Hispanics now suffer 20 percent of new U.S. HIV infections and Latina teens are twice as likely to have an unintended pregnancy as their non-Hispanic peers, said Silvia Henriquez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. “It is time we protect ourselves and our partners.”
One of the ads features a grandmother talking about her grandson, who is gay, and the other involves a couple discussing the importance of love, faith and condom use in their relationship. “We are Catholics and people of faith and we know sex is sacred and that we need to take care of each other. And this means using a condom every time we have sex,” the second ad says.
Well if “good Catholics” use condoms, than Lord preserve me in being a “bad Catholic” in their understanding. This is certainly part of what Isaiah said “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.”
They also don’t explain why a Catholic couple faithful to Church teaching would ever need a condom in the first place? Fidelity to the marriage covenant is a hundred percent effective on STDs. Though I guess there view of the world is that you can’t trust your spouse. Or that fornication/adultery are acceptable choices anyway. But for them it is all “good.” Plus they are using the old time eugenics policies of Planned Parenthood, that is going after minorities.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), often called the “Planned Parenthood of the UK” has release an ad to promote morning-after (abortion) pills. The St. John’s Valdosta Blog has the ad which has to be seen to be believed. Though you will need a palate cleanser afterward.
In other sleazy news Dawn Eden passes along the following information to me.
Planned Parenthood, which made headlines a few months back with its ultra-creepy teen sex-ed Web site TakeCareDownThere.org (which now has its offensive videos back online after having taken them down temporarily), also produces the utterly puerile “Speaking of Sex” YouTube series and podcast .Â
The latest taxpayer-subsidized “Speaking of Sex” video is unusually revolting and offensive, even for Planned Parenthood. It’s aimed, as usual, at teens–but send your little ones out of the room before watching it on Planned Parenthood’s official YouTube site:,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_wRD4TmYug
Incidentally, at the bottom of Planned Parenthood’s Web page on in-clinic abortion , the organization promises, “A short video about abortion procedures is under production.” Something tells me it won’t look anything like Father Frank Pavone’s excellent “This Is Abortion” series.
What to get for the girl who doesn’t want to have anything? The Planned Parenthood Christmas gift certificate:
“Looking for an unusual, yet practical gift this holiday season? Planned Parenthood of Indiana (PPIN) is now offering gift certificates for services or the recipient’s choice of birth control method,” the abortion business says.
The gift certificates can be purchased in increments of $25 online at the group’s web site or for any amount at some of PPIN’s 35 statewide facilities.
While PPIN president and CEO Betty Cockrum says they can be redeemed for contraception, birth control and legitimate medical services like breast exams and Pap tests, they can also be used to pay for abortions.
“Why not buy a loved one a gift this holiday season that they really need,” Cockrum says in a press release LifeNews.com obtained. “The gift certificates are also a wonderful idea for that person in your life who puts everyone else first.”
Ah, if only King Herod had sent one to Mary . . . Do they have musical cards that play “When A Child Isn’t Born”?
Mark Steyn titled his post Complete with Attractive Gift Card Showing Baby-free Manger!
Since 2002 Planned Parenthood has sold Choice on Earth cards and i once provided a “Baby-free Manger” for them.
Though it looks like Planned Parenthood has closed down it’s online store except for publications this year. So maybe this year we won’t have “Choice on Earth” cards, just “gift” cards. Gee at one time I thought it was called the gift of life, not a “gift” card can be used for the “gift” death.
Besides nothing celebrates the birth of our savior Jesus Christ like a Planned Parenthood gift card for abortion and contraception. King Herod must be pleased that the murder of innocents continues to this day and now you can use a convenient “gift” card to sponsor it. The Planned Parenthood gift card, “Don’t leave womb without it.” In fact just don’t leave womb in a single piece.
Their “gift” card should look like this.
President-elect Obama has named the executive director of Emily’s List — Ellen Moran — as White House communications director.
Yes the director of the pro-abortion PAC that since its founding in 1984 has raised over $240 million to elect 71 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 13 to the U.S. Senate, and eight governors. Another pro-abortion “moderate” for the Obama administration.
I do find it interesting how much grief so-called single issue voters get, yet Emily’s list which is a single issue PAC for a single gender seems to be immune to this charge by the left. I guess you can be a single-issue type as long as you are on the right side of the single issue.
Plus we got pro-abortion Catholic Tom Daschle as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in Obama’s Cabinet. From the vice-president on down we are getting cafeteria Catholics galore. They will work quite well with Nancy “I still haven’t gotten around to speaking with my bishop yet” Pelosi.
None of this bothers me though. After all Catholic Obama supporters told us that Obama is really more pro-life and that his policies will reduce abortion. Strangely I had never come up with the idea of appointing a militantly pro-abortion women as White House Communication Directory or appointing others all on the same side of the pro-abortion deep end. Silly me I would have thought that this would have a negative effect on a policy to reduce abortion.
I guess I am just so politically naive that I don’t understand how promising to approve FOCA which removes every single state law restricting abortion will reduce abortion. I actually thought that it was parental notification and laws regarding ultrasounds that were mainly what have lead to a decline in surgical abortions in recent years. Hey maybe we need to get rid of laws regarding murder to reduce the murder rate. Let’s put fried chocolate candy bars at the top of the food pyramid to improve nutrition.
We have so much to learn from Obama Catholics in this non-intuitive way of being pro-life. I can hardly wait for Obama’s pro-Roe v Wade Supreme Court picks that will keep states from regulating abortion as a way to reduce abortion. Plus getting rid of the Mexico City Policy and the Hyde Amendment are more ways to reduce abortion.
I can hardly wait for President Obama’s message for the March for Life which occurs 2 days after his inauguration. It will surely be a cheery message about children being a punishment and how it is all above his paygrade.
(CNSNews.com) – Catholic members of Congress who vote for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) could face “automatic excommunication” if the act is determined to be “formal cooperation” in the evil of abortion.
When asked last week whether a Catholic politician voting for the FOCA – which would impose nationwide abortion on demand and government funding of abortion – would incur automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said the question would need to be discussed once the actual language of the bill was known.
George is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
In order to be considered in the next Congress, which convenes in January, the Freedom of Choice Act needs to be reintroduced. In the current Congress, it has been sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
At a press conference at the fall meeting of the USCCB held in Baltimore last week, CNSNews.com asked Cardinal George if the language in the Catholic Catechism that says “formal cooperation” in abortion incurs the penalty of excommunication would apply to a Catholic member of Congress voting for FOCA.
“The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense and the church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life,” CNSNews.com asked.
The CCC actually goes on to say right after this "A person who procures a completed abortion
incurs excommunication latae sententiae," and Canon 1398 says the same. It has not been an interpretation of this canon that it extends further than those directly involved in a "successful procured abortion."
“If openly Catholic politicians vote for this Freedom of Choice Act, which would pretty much allow unfettered access to abortion in the United States, would it be an automatic grounds for excommunication? But even if it’s not automatic … could you just explain the process of the excommunication?” CNSNews.com added.
“The excommunication is automatic if that act is in fact formal cooperation, and that is precisely what would have to be discussed once you would see the terms of the act itself,” responded George.
I would love this to be true, but I seriously doubt that regardless of how the law is written and how ardent it is in supporting abortion that it will result in an automatic excommunication. Certainly those who voted for abortion including partial-birth abortion have ever been seen as excommunicated by their own action. I would certainly loved to see Rome broaden the Canon to mean precisely this (which I think would be possible). Though Canon 915 certainly applies to those who "obstinately persist in
manifest grave sin" could be denied Communion. Individual bishops though could certainly excommunicate those politicians who would vote for FOCA.
“The categories in moral theology about cooperating in evil, which make you complicit in the evil even though you don’t do it yourself, are material cooperation, which is usually remote and therefore doesn’t involve you in the moral action except in a very auxiliary and minor way, and formal cooperation, which would involve you even though you are not doing it, in the way that makes you culpable,” said George.
“So we would have to take a look at each case, and at each law, to determine whether or not the cooperation is material or formal. We’ve never done that,” he added.
Not sure how a vote for FOCA could result in only "material cooperation" with evil.
Fr. Frank Pavone of the Priests for Life told CNSNews.com: “Any legislator who would vote for such an extreme piece of pro-abortion legislation [FOCA], and any executive who would sign it or judge who would uphold it, or even a citizen who would lobby in any way in favor of it, would be committing a serious sin, objectively speaking. It is cooperation with evil in a totally unjustified way.”
Totally agree with that.
Pavone said that the Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law lays out multiple conditions which must be met before an automatic excommunication occurs. “This really becomes a legal question that would require analyzing those conditions in an actual situation, and it is a step removed from the more clear-cut case of a person actually performing or undergoing the procedure [of abortion],” he said.
Dr. Mark Miravalle, a theology professor at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, said of a Catholic politician voting for FOCA, “I think you would have to conclude that it would be a formal act, a formal cooperation [in the act of abortion].”
The purpose of FOCA, he continued, “is to ensure the right of a woman to have an abortion.”
One theoretical case where it would not be formal cooperation, but material, he said, was if the politician was pro-life at heart but did not favor legislation as the way to overturn abortion. Miravalle said, however, that such a case would be an "extremely rare and almost entirely theoretical impossibility, given the gravity of the legislation."
[article]
WASHINGTON: A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws.
The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions."
It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to "assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity" financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
This of course will cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth from pro-abortion types.
But three officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its legal counsel, whom President George W. Bush appointed, said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion.
The counsel, Reed Russell, and two Democratic members of the commission, Stuart Ishimaru and Christine Griffin, also said that the rule was unnecessary for the protection of employees and potentially confusing to employers.
Yes not allowing discrimination based on religious belief will "overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion." It must be opposite day there.
Obama has said the proposal will raise new hurdles to women seeking reproductive health services, like abortion and some contraceptives. Michael Leavitt, the health and human services secretary, said that was not the purpose.
Officials at the Health and Human Services Department said they intended to issue a final version of the rule within days. Aides and advisers to Obama said he would try to rescind it, a process that could take three to six months.
Yes allowing someone to follow their religious beliefs is a "hurdle to overcome." Not being able to force people to not follow their conscience is a problem. Yes those few people who actually have properly formed consciences are a defect that must be trampled over. You will assimilate to the culture of death or else! You can only have a consciously objection if it is to the military don’t you know. Don’t worry oh culture of deathers since this will only be a temporary span of time where conscience is king and Moloch will get back his crown within three to six months.
The proposal is supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Health Association, which represents Catholic hospitals.
Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, said that in recent years, "we have seen a variety of efforts to force Catholic and other health care providers to perform or refer for abortions and sterilizations." [article]
Quite successful efforts especially when it came to pro-life pharmacists to have them fired. Planned Parenthood has called doctors, nurses, and pharmacists refusing to do what is evil a "significant and growing trend" and of course it must be quashed.
"It is not possible to anesthetize the conscience, for example, when it comes to molecules whose aim is to stop an embryo implanting or to cut short someone’s life… I invite your federation [of pharmacists] to consider conscientious objection which is a right that must be recognized for your profession so you can avoid collaborating, directly or indirectly, in the supply of products which have clearly immoral aims, for example abortion or euthanasia…" — Pope Benedict XVI, address to Catholic Pharmacists, 29 Oct 2007
Life Prizes is an annual prize program awarding up to $600,000 for outstanding efforts to awaken the conscience of America to the sanctity of human life through public advocacy, scientific research, outreach and public disclosure activities, legal action and other noteworthy achievements. Life Prizes is an initiative of the Gerard Health Foundation, the private charity foundation of Raymond B. and Marilyn A. Ruddy, long-time pro-life philanthropists.
…The $600,000 in prize money will be divided among the following six winners:
American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) – Association of pro-life physicians that saves lives by remaining steadfastly committed to life within a stridently pro-abortion profession and which conducts research, writing, and public advocacy especially on the negative impact of abortion on women.
Richard Doerflinger – Associate Director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, bioethics expert, consummate researcher, and has been involved in almost every major pro-life legislative initiative since 1980. He has contributed behind the scenes to all major pro-life statements from the Catholic bishops during the last quarter century.
Margaret “Peggy” Hartshorn – President, Heartbeat International, a preeminent network of more than 1,000 pregnancy resource centers spread throughout the world that has directly saved the lives of innumerable unborn children and their mothers from abortion through vital pregnancy support.
Jill Stanek – Nurse who first publicly exposed infanticide of abortion survivors, Born-Alive Infant Protection Act proponent and chief witness, and prolific writer who uses the media and her popular blog to continue revealing the truth about late-term abortion.
Lila Rose – Founder of student pro-life organization Live Action and President of its UCLA chapter. She has launched several successful, undercover investigations that exposed the racism and statutory rape cover-up by Planned Parenthood.
Kay Coles James – Founder and President of The Gloucester Institute, an outreach and education initiative for young African Americans focused on developing solutions for the challenges facing communities today, utilizing lessons learned from the civil rights movement, including a recognition that the first civil right is life itself. She and her husband, Charles James, have worked to advance the pro-life cause for three decades as advocates in the highest levels of government, including the Reagan and both Bush presidential administrations and as founders of a pregnancy resource center and Black Americans for Life. [article]
This is a pretty cool idea and the finalists ere evaluated with the assistance of their Awards Selection Advisory Committee, which included the Archbishop of Denver Charles Chaput, the Reverend Dr. Alveda King, Ambassador Raymond Flynn, and Professor Hadley Arkes of Amherst College.