Talking about the "things that matter most" on Feb. 29
4:00 – A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest to Free China's Daughters
It’s been 31 years since China's” 'gendercide’ war on girls.” Chai Ling, the woman who, at age 23, was the commander-in-chief of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student rebellion, is now a U.S. citizen exiled from China. Risking imprisonment and possible death for her leadership role in the student democracy movement, she was on the run in China for ten months while being hunted by the authorities. She eventually escaped to the U.S., completed her education at Princeton and Harvard, found true love, and became a highly successful entrepreneur. But her desperate quest for freedom, purpose, and peace—which she had sought in turn through academic achievement, romantic love, political activism, and career success—was never satisfied until she had an unexpected encounter with a formerly forbidden faith. Her newfound passion for God led to her life’s greatest mission: Fighting for the lives and rights of young girls in China. She joins us.
5:00 – Why Catholics Are Right: Now in Paperback
Columnist, television host, author, and Canadian Catholic Michael Coren is here to examine four main aspects of Catholicism as they are encountered, understood, and more importantly, misunderstood, today. For some Catholicism is the only permanent, absolute body of truth, while for others it is the last permanent, absolute body that has to be opposed and stopped. Coren then traces Catholic history, with a discussion of the Crusades, Inquisition, Holocaust, and Galileo. He looks at Catholics and theology, explaining what and why Catholics believe what they do — Papal infallibility, Immaculate Conception, and Tradition vs. Bible alone. Finally, Coren outlines the pro-life position and why it is so important to Catholicism. Michael draws on history, politics, and theology to present the arguments for the truth of Roman Catholicism. He is with us today.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Today on Kresta in the Afternoon - February 28, 2012
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Feb. 28
4:00 – Issues for Catholic Voters: 2012 Edition
Pope John Paul II and, more recently, Pope Benedict XVI and the United States bishops have called on Catholics to renew their participation in American political life. That participation means, above all, taking the moral and social principles of the Catholic Faith into the voting booth. With the help of "Issues for Catholic Voters: 2012 Edition," Catholics can affirm that their participation in the political process is not an imposition of their faith on others but rather a service to the common good that is shared equally by all human persons. Catholics will come to understand the difference between principle and prudential judgment, as well as why some issues are more important in political thinking than others—dispelling the myth, for example, that caring about the protection of unborn life makes one a “single-issue” voter. Authors Deal Hudson and Matt Smith are with us.
5:00 – Kresta Commets - HHS Mandate Heads Back to Congress / Jesus, Lord of Politics
4:00 – Issues for Catholic Voters: 2012 Edition
Pope John Paul II and, more recently, Pope Benedict XVI and the United States bishops have called on Catholics to renew their participation in American political life. That participation means, above all, taking the moral and social principles of the Catholic Faith into the voting booth. With the help of "Issues for Catholic Voters: 2012 Edition," Catholics can affirm that their participation in the political process is not an imposition of their faith on others but rather a service to the common good that is shared equally by all human persons. Catholics will come to understand the difference between principle and prudential judgment, as well as why some issues are more important in political thinking than others—dispelling the myth, for example, that caring about the protection of unborn life makes one a “single-issue” voter. Authors Deal Hudson and Matt Smith are with us.
5:00 – Kresta Commets - HHS Mandate Heads Back to Congress / Jesus, Lord of Politics
Death toll in Ohio school shooting rises to 3
Demetrius Hewlin, a student from Chardon High School, and who was previously listed in critical condition, passed away, according to hospital MetroHealth System. His family released the following statement:
"We are very saddened by the loss of our son and others in our Chardon community. Demetrius was a happy young man who loved life and his family and friends. We will miss him very much but we are proud that he will be able to help others through organ donation. We ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time."
News of Hewlin's death came hours after another student, Russell King Jr., was declared brain dead, authorities said Tuesday. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office received the word about King Jr. just before 1 a.m. Tuesday, office administrator Hugh Shannon said in a statement. It was unclear whether King remained on life support; the statement referred to him as both deceased and brain dead.
"The cause and manner of death of this case are under on-going investigation and will be released upon completion," Shannon said in a statement. A spokeswoman at MetroHealth System said Tuesday morning that no information on his condition was available.
King, 17, was one of five students injured when a suspect identified by a family lawyer as TJ Lane began shooting at Chardon High School Monday morning. King was studying alternative energy at nearby Auburn Career Center and like the others who were shot was waiting for a bus for his daily 15-minute ride to the center. Student Daniel Parmertor died hours after the shooting.
Homeschooling families can’t teach homosexual acts sinful in class says Alberta gvmt
“Whatever the nature of schooling – homeschool, private school, Catholic school – we do not tolerate disrespect for differences,” Donna McColl, Lukaszuk’s assistant director of communications, told LifeSiteNews on Wednesday evening.
“You can affirm the family’s ideology in your family life, you just can’t do it as part of your educational study and instruction,” she added.
Reacting to the remarks, Paul Faris of the Home School Legal Defence Association said the Ministry of Education is “clearly signaling that they are in fact planning to violate the private conversations families have in their own homes.”
“You can affirm the family’s ideology in your family life, you just can’t do it as part of your educational study and instruction,” a government spokesperson told LifeSiteNews.
“A government that seeks that sort of control over our personal lives should be feared and opposed,” he added.
The HSLDA and other homeschooling groups warned this week that the new Alberta Education Act, which was re-tabled by Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservative government on Feb. 14th to replace the existing School Act, threatens to mandate “diversity” education in all schools, including home schools.
Section 16 of the new legislation restates the current School Act’s requirement that schools “reflect the diverse nature” of Alberta in their curriculum, but it adds that they must also “honour and respect” the controversial Alberta Human Rights Act that has been used to target Christians with traditional beliefs on homosexuality. ‘School’ is defined to include homeschoolers and private schools in addition to publicly funded school boards.
McColl emphasized that homeschoolers were already included in the current definition of ‘school’ in the School Act, going back to 1988 or longer. And Section 16, she said, “is specifically with regards to programs, courses, and instructional materials.”
According to McColl, Christian homeschooling families can continue to impart Biblical teachings on homosexuality in their homes, “as long as it’s not part of their academic program of studies and instructional materials.”
“What they want to do about their ideology elsewhere, that’s their family business. But a fundamental nature of our society is to respect diversity,” she added.
Pressed about what the precise distinction is between homeschoolers’ instruction and their family life, McColl said the question involved “real nuances” and she would have to get back with specifics.
But in a second interview Wednesday evening, McColl said the government “won’t speculate” about particular examples, and explained that she had not yet gotten a “straight answer” on what exactly constitutes “disrespect.” She did say that families “can’t be hatemongering, if you will.”
In the first interview, she justified the government’s position by pointing to Friday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the Quebec government’s refusal to exempt families from its controversial ethics and religious culture program. That program, which aims to present the spectrum of world religions and lifestyle choices from a “neutral” stance, is required of all students, including homeschoolers.
“Just last Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada released a unanimous decision on – now it’s S.L. v. the Commission scolare des Chênes 2012 – and that’s the same, section 16 has to apply to everyone, including home education families,” she said.
Pro-family observers warned that the ruling risked emboldening other provincial governments in their effort to impose “diversity” programs. The last two years have seen major battles in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and now Alberta over the increasing normalization of homosexuality in the schools.
The Supreme Court’s narrow ruling did not specifically address homeschooling, however, and left the door open to further court challenges. The court argued that the Quebec family seeking the exemption had simply failed to meet the burden of proof necessary to show that their children’s participation in the course would impede the parents’ ability to raise the children in their Catholic faith.
Patty Marler, government liaison for the Alberta Home Education Association, said she was surprised at the Ministry’s straightforwardness, and questioned how they are going to be able to draw the line between school time and family time.
“We educate our children all the time, and that’s just the way we live. It’s a lifestyle,” she said. “Making that distinction between the times when we’re homeschooling and when we’re just living is really hard to do.”
“Throw in the fact that I do use the Bible as part of my curriculum and now I’m very blatantly going to be teaching stuff that will be against [the human rights act],” she said.
Marler pointed out that the issue has direct implications on how families teach their children about marriage because the Alberta Human Rights Act was amended in 2009 to define marriage as between two “persons” instead of a man and a woman. “When I read Genesis and it talks about marriage being one man in union with one woman, I am very, very clearly opposing the human rights act that says it’s one person marrying another person,” she said.
According to Faris, the issue with McColl’s statements “isn’t about sexuality or anything else on the gay issue, it’s about the government trying to control how we teach our own children in our own homes.”
He said her comments are “particularly interesting in light of the - at the very least - misleading information that a lot of homeschoolers have been getting when they’re calling the Minister’s office, saying ‘Look, there’s no changes here. We’re not going to do anything differently’, and other things like that.”
“The long arm of the government wants to reach into family’s homes and control what they teach to their own children in their own homes about religion, sexuality, and morality,” he said. “These are not the words of a government that is friendly to homeschooling or to parental freedom.”
The Progressive Conservative government has 67 of the 83 seats in the province’s legislature, so the bill’s passage is essentially assured. But an election is imminent and the new right-wing Wildrose Alliance Party is expected to have a strong showing. A Forum Research poll last week showed the upstart party polling at 30% behind the government’s 37%.
The Home School Legal Defence Association is calling on Alberta citizens to contact the Education Minister and their elected representatives.
Donohue: Catholic Contenders Elicit Hatred
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| Bill Donohue |
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
Some of the critics of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have gone beyond Catholic bashing.
Garry Wills is so excited he sees Santorum as a modern-day Torquemada, a man who “equates contraception with the guillotine.” That this lunacy appeared on the blog site of the New York Review of Books speaks volumes. On examiner.com, Michael Hughes compares Santorum to the Taliban, arguing he wants “a Christian form of Sharia law.” Mark Morford at sfgate.com says Santorum reminds him of a molester, someone who is trying to save “the dying Catholic church.”
Larry Doyle at Huffington Post went beyond the candidate to slam all Catholics for participating “in a barbaric ritual…a ‘mass’ in which a black-robed cleric casts a spell over some bread and wine…[resulting] in a cannibalistic reverie.” Sexpert Dan Savage said that when Newt Gingrich was married to his second wife, he was “still f***ing the consecrated host out of his ‘devout Catholic’ mistress.”
The Catholicism of these candidates only explains some of the hatred. John Cassidy in The New Yorker says that Santorum “with his seven kids” (which he notes first and foremost) is radically different from the magazine’s readership. He is right: those for whom abortion is the most precious right can’t figure Santorum out. Neither can Ivan Strenski at religiondispatches.com. While he says photos of Santorum and his daughter who suffers from Trisomy 18 “touched his heart,” he also wonders, “Why would one choose, in effect, to take the risk of bringing a doomed child into the world?”
These people may be threatened by Catholicism, but what gives them the chills are babies. And they really flip over couples like the Santorums and the Palins who don’t abort their disabled children.
7 States and 5 Catholic Plantiffs Sue Over HHS Mandate
In their lawsuit filed Feb. 23 against the federal government, the 12 plaintiffs challenge the rule they say “would coerce religious organizations … to directly subsidize contraception, abortifacients, sterilization and related services in contravention with their religious beliefs.”
They maintain that the administration’s rule, requiring insurance coverage of the controversial drugs and devices, is an “unprecedented invasion” of their “First Amendment rights to free speech, free exercise of religion and free association.”
“This case illustrates that the federal government’s rule punishes people of faith in all situations, just because they want to make decisions according to their own religious beliefs,” Alliance Defense Fund legal counsel Matt Bowman told EWTN News on Feb. 23.
“In this case, you have individuals, Catholic agencies, a religious school, a nun and a variety of states trying to defend their citizen’s right not to have their religious freedom attacked by this federal mandate involving abortion-inducing drugs and other items.”
The lawsuit is the fifth and largest so far against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who confirmed on Feb. 10 that many religious institutions would be forced to underwrite “preventive services” as part of federal health-care reform.
Other defendants named in the suit include U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, all of whom are being sued in their capacity as officials of the U.S. government.
The 12 plaintiffs include the attorneys general of Nebraska, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma. They are joined by Catholic Social Services, Nebraska’s Pius X Catholic High School, and the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America.
Two Catholic women, Sister Mary Catherine, CK, and lay missionary Stacy Molai, are also suing Sebelius, Geithner and Solis.
While all of the plaintiffs allege a government violation of the First Amendment, they do so on particular grounds due to their individual circumstances.
The Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, also known as the Catholic Mutual Group, was founded in 1889 and currently provides coverage to over half of U.S. Catholic dioceses, along with over 250 religious orders and other institutions.
“Insurers are often run by people with religious faith, who should not have to choose between their belief and their participation in our society,” Bowman noted, explaining the importance of Catholic Mutual Group’s involvement in the suit.
Because the group does not primarily employ workers who share its religious beliefs, it would be subject to the contraception mandate if it chose to change its employee health-care plans from those it offered as of March 2010.
Catholic Social Services, a Nebraska-based charitable organization, does not qualify for the mandate’s religious exemption because it serves people of all faiths. Pius X High School, similarly, could be forced to cover services which its current insurance plan excludes for moral reasons. According to the seven state attorneys general, the contraception coverage rule’s implementation would force many non-exempt religious institutions to stop offering health insurance for reasons of conscience.
Many of these employees, the lawsuit notes, would have to shift to Medicaid in order to comply with the federal health-care law’s individual coverage mandate, placing a financial burden on states already facing a spike in Medicaid enrollments because of the health-care law. Both of the individual plaintiffs object on moral grounds to subsidizing contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs through their health plans.
Sister Mary Catherine’s plan would be subject to the mandate, while Molai may have to choose between a morally offensive plan and the loss of health insurance in the future.
Bowman told EWTN News that the broad spectrum of plaintiffs showed the mandate’s dramatic impact on religious liberty throughout society. He praised the state attorneys general for their willingness to defend freedom for all faiths.
“This is not an issue that is isolated to one church,” said Bowman. “The federal government’s actions attack the freedom of all Americans to live and practice, whatever their faith is, without being forced to violate the sanctity of human life and sexuality.”
“It is the duty of government to protect the rights of the citizens, because those rights come from God. They don’t come from the federal government that claims the ability to define who’s ‘religious’ and who isn’t.”
“The states in this case are doing what the government should do, which is to protect American citizens from the attack on freedom that the federal government, and the people in charge of it at the moment, are waging against religious believers.”
As controversy and lawsuits continue over the federal contraception mandate, the president of New Hampshire’s College of St. Mary Magdalene is calling for changes to a similar law in his state.
“The state of New Hampshire is interfering with our ability to be fully Catholic and violating our religious freedom,” George Harne told a Constitutional Review and Statutory Committee of the New Hampshire state Legislature on Feb. 23.
The legislature is considering whether to amend an existing state law that requires employers to offer coverage of contraception and sterilization in their health plans. Passed in 2000 by a Republican legislature, the law imposes a mandate similar to the controversial new federal rule.
In the wake of the national controversy, some New Hampshire legislators have moved to introduce a religious-freedom exemption into their own state’s existing contraception-coverage mandate.
Due for a vote in early March, the proposed amendment would allow New Hampshire employers to opt out of covering the controversial “preventive services” in their health-insurance plans. Following Harne’s testimony on Thursday, the review committee voted 10-6 to recommend a change in the law.
Harne told the committee that upon becoming president of the College of St. Mary Magdalene in 2011, he “undertook a complete review of every aspect of our institution to ensure that we were truly Catholic, not merely Catholic in name only.”
“Our commitment is firm. We will not compromise the Catholic identity of our college,” the president declared. “Every aspect of our identity must be consistent with the teachings of the Church.”
Republican House Speaker William O’Brien only recently learned that the state mandate existed, having discovered it while criticizing the president’s similar national plan, according to The Associated Press.
At Thursday’s hearing, O’Brien said it was “a true shame that this disastrous federal law has forced us to come here today to offer relief to people of faith to ensure they are not forced to buy a product that they believe is immoral.”
At the national level, O’Brien has accused President Obama of sacrificing religious freedom to win women’s votes through mandated insurance coverage of contraception. He spoke out on Thursday against the “trampling on our religious rights by the president seeking electoral advantage.”
The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union says it will sue to block the religious-freedom exemption to the local contraception mandate if it passes in the legislature.
Local News Uses Puppets to Cover Trial
(WSJ) CLEVELAND—Kirk Maynard arrives for work at a television station here each evening with four trunks full of puppets, 25 in all.
But Mr. Maynard's puppets—including a bucktoothed squirrel, a lime-green lawyer and an obese man with a removable beard—aren't putting on a show for kids or some offbeat comedy revue.
They are covering one of the biggest corruption trials in Ohio history—delivering their reports of real testimony and wiretapped conversations from a yearslong investigation of Jimmy Dimora, the Democratic kingpin accused of racketeering by prosecutors in federal court in Akron.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Obama urges churches to get political
It is hardly newsworthy for President Obama to beckon African Americans to support his presidential campaign, but his clarion call to black churches to get on board represents a break with presidential politics: it is a deliberate challenge to the IRS stricture governing the role of religion in politics.
In the video [click here], President Obama explicitly calls on African Americans to go “to your faith community” to get the word out about his campaign. He even goes so far as to say that “congregation captains” should be organized to accomplish this goal.
This is good news. It means that the IRS harness on the clergy is officially off. Priests can now appoint “congregation captains” who will inform the faithful about attempts by the Obama administration to deny Catholics their First Amendment rights. By formally appealing to their parishioners to mobilize against the Obamacare legislation, priests will be faithfully implementing the president’s new initiative.
Bishops, of course, will be able to seize on this ground-breaking proposal by asking priests, nuns, brothers, school teachers—lay leaders of every cause—to get the word out about the draconian Health and Human Services edict.
In other words, by undoing the IRS muzzle on black ministers, Obama has also made it possible for bishops and priests to organize against his war on Catholics with impunity. The timing is auspicious.
Today on Kresta in the Afternoon - February 27, 2012
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Feb. 27
GUEST HOST: PETER HERBECK
4:00 – Spiritual Combat
Last year Pope Benedict XVI said "Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism". Ralph Martin is here to discuss the daily reality of spiritual combat.
4:40 – ChristLife: Equiping Catholic for the New Evangelization
ChristLife is a lay Catholic ministry established in 1995 in response to the Church's call to a new evangelization. The vision is to equip Catholics for the essential work of evangelization so that others might come to know personally the love of God through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, becoming his followers and members of the Church. Assistant Director Pete Ascosi is with us.
5:00 – Discipleship
“The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.” (On Evangelization in the Modern World). We talk with Paco Gavriledes, Director of Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Detroit, about evangelization and discipleship.
5:30 – Fellowship of Catholic University Students
From its humble beginnings at Benedictine College in 1998 with two lay missionaries, to today’s missionary staff of over 260 serving on 60 campuses- the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS)( has grown every year. We talk with Founder and President Curtis Martin about today’s University student and the challenges they face.
GUEST HOST: PETER HERBECK
4:00 – Spiritual Combat
Last year Pope Benedict XVI said "Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism". Ralph Martin is here to discuss the daily reality of spiritual combat.
4:40 – ChristLife: Equiping Catholic for the New Evangelization
ChristLife is a lay Catholic ministry established in 1995 in response to the Church's call to a new evangelization. The vision is to equip Catholics for the essential work of evangelization so that others might come to know personally the love of God through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, becoming his followers and members of the Church. Assistant Director Pete Ascosi is with us.
5:00 – Discipleship
“The task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.” (On Evangelization in the Modern World). We talk with Paco Gavriledes, Director of Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Detroit, about evangelization and discipleship.
5:30 – Fellowship of Catholic University Students
From its humble beginnings at Benedictine College in 1998 with two lay missionaries, to today’s missionary staff of over 260 serving on 60 campuses- the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS)( has grown every year. We talk with Founder and President Curtis Martin about today’s University student and the challenges they face.
Live Lent with courage, Pope urges Christians
(CNA) As he observed Ash Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to live the 40 days of Lent with faith and patience, aware that God will bring light, truth and joy into the darkness.
“In these 40 days that will lead us to Easter may we find new courage to accept with patience and with faith situations of difficulty, of affliction and trial, knowing that from the darkness the Lord will make a new day dawn,” the Pope said Feb. 22, the first day of Lent.
“And if we are faithful to Jesus and follow him on the way of the Cross, the bright world of God, the world of light, truth and joy will be gifted to us once more.”
The Pope delivered his comments at his weekly general audience, which was held in the Vatican’s Pop Paul VI Hall and was attended by over 7,500 pilgrims.
He explained that in the early Church it was only those preparing to be baptized who would observe the 40 days of Lenten preparation. Subsequently, however, all Christians were invited “to experience this journey of spiritual renewal, to conform themselves and their lives to that of Christ,” including those who had fallen away from the Church.
He explained that in the early Church it was only those preparing to be baptized who would observe the 40 days of Lenten preparation. Subsequently, however, all Christians were invited “to experience this journey of spiritual renewal, to conform themselves and their lives to that of Christ,” including those who had fallen away from the Church.
The Pope said that the “participation of the whole community” emphasizes that “redemption is not available to only a few, but to all, through the death and resurrection of Christ.”
“The time leading up to Easter is a time of ‘metanoia,’ a time of change and penance, a time which identifies our human lives and our entire history as a process of conversion, which begins to move now in order to meet the Lord at the end of time,” he said.
Pope Benedict noted that the Church calls the 40 days leading up to Easter “Quadragesima.” And it does so with a “clear reference to Sacred Scripture,” where the number 40 often symbolically used to express “a time of expectation, purification, and return to the Lord,” he taught.
The Pope said that the “Christian liturgy of Lent” is meant to spur a “journey of spiritual renewal” and time more focused on learning how to imitate Jesus, who showed Christians “how to overcome temptation with the Word of God.”
The Pope asked those at today’s audience to note how God sustained his people, even in the wilderness. After their exodus from Egypt, for example, God preceded the Jewish people “in a cloud or a pillar of fire, ensured their daily nourishment showering manna upon them, and bringing forth water from rock.” It was in many ways a “time of the special election of God” or, added the Pope, “the time of first love,” of a people for their God.
But time spent in the desert can also be “the time of the greatest temptations and dangers,” Pope Benedict observed, pointing out that this happened to Jesus but “without any compromise with sin.” Jesus always sought “moments of solitude to pray to his Father” but it is in those moments he was most assailed by “temptation and the seduction of devil.” It was there, for example, that he was offered “another messianic way, far from God’s plan.”
Just as this dynamic is found in the Old and New Testaments, the Pope said, it can also be found in the “condition of the pilgrim Church” as it makes its way through “the “wilderness’ of the world and history.”
This wilderness is made up of “the aridity and poverty of words, life and values, of secularism” and the “culture of materialism which encloses people within a worldly horizon and detaches them from any reference to the transcendent,” he said.
It is in such an atmosphere that “the sky above us is dark, because it is veiled with clouds of selfishness, misunderstanding and deceit.”
At the same time, “the wilderness can become a period of grace” for the Church, because “we have the certainty that even from the hardest rock God can cause the living water to gush forth, water which quenches thirst and restores strength.”
Pope Benedict finished by saying that this hope in God’s power should sustain the Church and each Christian during the following 40 days.
Pope Benedict finished by saying that this hope in God’s power should sustain the Church and each Christian during the following 40 days.
Catholic Church asks Israel’s president to help end attacks on Christian places of worship
The custodian of holy places in the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, recalled in his letter sent Sunday to President Shimon Peres that vandals spray-painted “Death to Christians” and “We’ll crucify you” on the Baptist Church in Jerusalem and similar hate graffiti on a Greek Orthodox monastery in the city.Pizzaballa wrote that “red lines that must not be crossed have been crossed” and asked Peres’ help to eradicate “this dangerous phenomenon.”
The anti-Christian graffiti is suspected to be the work of Jewish extremists.
There was no immediate comment from Peres’ office, though the president has condemned the violence in the past.
Michigan's GOP presidential primary race remains tight, polls say
Two polls released Sunday showed a tight race between Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. One, from Public Policy Polling, had Romney up 39% to 37% (with 13% for Ron Paul and 9% for Newt Gingrich), continuing a recent trend in polls showing Romney ahead.
But the other, from Mitchell Research/Rosetta Stone and performed for the Michigan Information & Research Service (MIRS), showed Santoum back on top, 37% to 35% for Romney. (It also reversed the order of those trailing, with Gingrich having 9% and Paul having 8%)
A third poll, from Foster McCollum White & Associates showed Romney with a much larger lead – 39% to 31% (with Gingrich and Paul each with 9%).
What it may indicate is an electorate so volatile and split that it is impossible to pick a winner. PPP noted that Romney has a big advantage among people who cast their absentee votes early and that gives him an edge – even though Santorum actually holds a slight edge among those who plan to vote Tuesday.
Meawnhile, Santorum’s favorability rating has declined as Romney and his supporters have hit hard at him, bringing it to a point now where Romney’s favorability is 5 points better than Santorum’s. And Romney has made significant progress in picking up support from Evangelicals, tea party voters and self-described very conservative voters, key blocs for Santorum.
The PPP poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
The Mitchell poll, however (margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points), shows a different race shaping up, with Santorum’s recent campaign reestablishing sizeable leads with his core blocs of support – Evangelicals, tea party supporters and very conservative voters.
“Santorum’s strong appeal to social conservatives has been very effective,” said Steven Mitchell of Mitchell Reserch. “This race is still very close, but momentum seems to have changed. Get out the vote efforts will really count.”
Foster McCollum White’s poll (margin of error plus or minus 2 percentage points) indicated Romney was benefited by last Wednesday’s debate while Santorum was not.
The swing in the polls could also be explained by when they were done: Foster McCollum White’s poll was conducted on Thursday, the day after the debate, while PPP and Mitchell did theirs on Sunday, after several days of aggressive campaigning by both candidates.
With the polls split as they are, Tuesday's results could very likely come down to which candidate is better able to turn out his voters. Romney, with a deeper organization and greater resources, would be expected to have the edge there, but if Santorum still holds the very conservative vote by a wide margin, it could be the difference-maker. Those voters are far more likely to turn out for a Republican primary.
Thousands of women oppose contraception mandate in open letter
To learn more about the HHS contraception mandate, visit www.StopHHS.com.
(EWTN) More than 2,000 women signed an open letter opposing the Obama administration’s contraception mandate in a sharp contrast to those who have sought to represent all women in supporting it. “Don’t claim to speak for all women,” the Feb. 17 letter tells President Barack Obama, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius and members of Congress.
Women from a wide span of political, religious and educational backgrounds joined together to back Catholic organizations protesting a new federal mandate that will require employers to provide health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.
Organizers said the letter has received about 2300 signatures in less than a week.
The signatories include women from a variety of professions, including doctors, teachers, lawyers, mothers, business owners and community volunteers.
Although the signatories are not all Catholic, they all proclaimed that they are “proud to stand with the Catholic Church and its rich, life-affirming teachings on sex, marriage and family life.” Many have worked for Catholic schools, hospitals and social service organizations at some point and “are proud to have been part of the religious mission” of those institutions.
They noted “the shared sense of purpose” with which employees performed their service for the community and observed that “in a religious institution, a job is always also a vocation.”
The letter was initiated by Helen M. Alvaré, associate professor of law at George Mason University School of Law, and Kim Daniels, former counsel to the Thomas More Law Center, where she focused on health-care related conscience rights.
It was written as a response to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other supporters of the mandate who have repeatedly suggested that few if any women in the U.S. oppose it.
“We listened to prominent women purport to speak for us,” said Alvaré and Daniels in a Feb. 21 National Review Online article explaining the letter. “We watched them duck the fundamental religious-liberty issues at stake,” they added. “And we saw them assume that all women view cheaper contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs as unqualified goods.”
Alvaré and Daniels circulated their letter of protest to a few dozen friends. Within days, it had spread to thousands of women who were eager to make their voices heard.
“Almost every email contained a letter expressing the woman’s enormous relief at the chance to speak for herself,” said Alvaré, who also serves as the chair of the Witherspoon Task Force on Conscience Protection and a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
She said that it was “moving” to read the emails expressing “gratitude for the Catholic Church’s willingness to stand down the government’s claim to speak for all women and women’s health.”
Notable signers of the letter include Dr. Janet Smith, professor of ethics at Sacred Heart Minor Seminary in Michigan; Angela M. Pfister, associate director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture; and Joan
Desmond, writer and senior editor for the National Catholic Register.
The signatories called it “more than a little mistaken, and more than a little dishonest” to try to silence those who disagree with the mandate by invoking “women’s health.”
They noted the serious side effects of many contraceptives, as well as the destruction of embryos and the fact that government contraceptive programs have led to “more empty sex, more non-marital births and more abortions.”
“It is women who suffer disproportionately when these things happen,” they explained.
“No one speaks for all women on these issues,” the signatories said. “Those who purport to do so are simply attempting to deflect attention from the serious religious liberty issues currently at stake.”
The women called on the administration “to allow religious institutions and individuals to continue to witness to their faiths in all their fullness.”
 |
| Helen M. Alvaré, associate professor of law at George Mason University School of Law. |
(EWTN) More than 2,000 women signed an open letter opposing the Obama administration’s contraception mandate in a sharp contrast to those who have sought to represent all women in supporting it. “Don’t claim to speak for all women,” the Feb. 17 letter tells President Barack Obama, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius and members of Congress.
Women from a wide span of political, religious and educational backgrounds joined together to back Catholic organizations protesting a new federal mandate that will require employers to provide health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.
Organizers said the letter has received about 2300 signatures in less than a week.
The signatories include women from a variety of professions, including doctors, teachers, lawyers, mothers, business owners and community volunteers.
Although the signatories are not all Catholic, they all proclaimed that they are “proud to stand with the Catholic Church and its rich, life-affirming teachings on sex, marriage and family life.” Many have worked for Catholic schools, hospitals and social service organizations at some point and “are proud to have been part of the religious mission” of those institutions.
They noted “the shared sense of purpose” with which employees performed their service for the community and observed that “in a religious institution, a job is always also a vocation.”
The letter was initiated by Helen M. Alvaré, associate professor of law at George Mason University School of Law, and Kim Daniels, former counsel to the Thomas More Law Center, where she focused on health-care related conscience rights.
It was written as a response to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other supporters of the mandate who have repeatedly suggested that few if any women in the U.S. oppose it.
“We listened to prominent women purport to speak for us,” said Alvaré and Daniels in a Feb. 21 National Review Online article explaining the letter. “We watched them duck the fundamental religious-liberty issues at stake,” they added. “And we saw them assume that all women view cheaper contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs as unqualified goods.”
Alvaré and Daniels circulated their letter of protest to a few dozen friends. Within days, it had spread to thousands of women who were eager to make their voices heard.
“Almost every email contained a letter expressing the woman’s enormous relief at the chance to speak for herself,” said Alvaré, who also serves as the chair of the Witherspoon Task Force on Conscience Protection and a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
She said that it was “moving” to read the emails expressing “gratitude for the Catholic Church’s willingness to stand down the government’s claim to speak for all women and women’s health.”
Notable signers of the letter include Dr. Janet Smith, professor of ethics at Sacred Heart Minor Seminary in Michigan; Angela M. Pfister, associate director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture; and Joan
Desmond, writer and senior editor for the National Catholic Register.
The signatories called it “more than a little mistaken, and more than a little dishonest” to try to silence those who disagree with the mandate by invoking “women’s health.”
They noted the serious side effects of many contraceptives, as well as the destruction of embryos and the fact that government contraceptive programs have led to “more empty sex, more non-marital births and more abortions.”
“It is women who suffer disproportionately when these things happen,” they explained.
“No one speaks for all women on these issues,” the signatories said. “Those who purport to do so are simply attempting to deflect attention from the serious religious liberty issues currently at stake.”
The women called on the administration “to allow religious institutions and individuals to continue to witness to their faiths in all their fullness.”
Pope tells infertile couples to shun artificial procreation
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday urged infertile couples to shun artificial procreation, decrying such methods as a form of arrogance.
Speaking at the end of a three-day Vatican conference on diagnosing and treating infertility, Benedict also reiterated church teaching that marriage is the only permissible place to conceive children. Matrimony "constitutes the only 'place' worthy of the call to existence of a new human being," he said.
The pope pressed the church ban against artificial procreation, saying infertile couples should refrain from any method to try to conceive other than sex between husband and wife.
"The human and Christian dignity of procreation, in fact, doesn't consist in a 'product,' but in its link to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the spouses of their union, not only biological but also spiritual," Benedict said.
He told the science and fertility experts in his audience to resist "the fascination of the technology of artificial fertility. Benedict cautioned the experts against "easy income, or even worse, the arrogance of taking the place of the Creator," an attitude he indicated underlies the field of artificial procreation.
Sperm or egg donation and methods such as in vitro fertilization are banned by the church for its faithful.
The emphasis on science "and the logic of profit seem today to dominate the field of infertility and human procreation," the pope said.
But he added that the Church encourages medical research into infertility.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Virginia house passes revised ultrasound bill
 |
| VA. Governor Bob McDonnell |
(EWTN) The Virginia House of Delegates approved a revised version of a bill requiring a woman to have an ultrasound and be offered the chance to see the image before having an abortion. Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, said she was disappointed that the bill was amended but applauded the passage of the legislation, which she described as “essential” to the pro-life cause.
The altered bill, which states that a woman must receive an external, transabdominal ultrasound before an abortion, passed by a vote of 65-32 on Feb. 22. The initial legislation was amended to exclude the requirement for an internal, transvaginal ultrasound after Gov. Bob McDonnell indicated that he would not otherwise support it.
Gov. McDonnell, who may be a possible competitor for the GOP vice presidential candidate, is known for his commitment to life issues during his time in elected office.
“I believe deeply in the sanctity of innocent human life and believe governments have a duty to protect human life,” he said in a Feb. 22 statement.
However, he said that he had concerns about requiring women to undergo “an invasive procedure.”
The governor acknowledged that determining the gestational age of the fetus is “essential for legal reasons, to know the trimester of the pregnancy in order to comply with the law, and for medical reasons as well.”
But he said that in most cases, an “external, transabdominal ultrasound” is sufficient to determine the unborn baby's age.
He asked the General Assembly to amend the legislation “to explicitly state that no woman in Virginia will have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound involuntarily.” He requested that the bill state that only an external ultrasound will be required.
McDonnell’s statement came as a surprise to many pro-life advocates as he had previously indicated that he would sign the original bill.
Critics of the amendment argued that the original bill had not actually mandated internal ultrasounds because it had not specified what type of ultrasound must be performed.
They suggested that the distinction between types of ultrasounds was an attempt to fight the bill’s real purpose, which they see as ensuring that a woman “be given an opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus prior to the abortion.”
Cobb said that she is disappointed, especially given “the strong pro-life credentials of this Governor and the fact that both chambers of the General Assembly have already passed this bill.” However, she added, “the passage of an ultrasound bill is essential to advancing a culture of life in Virginia.” She explained that the Family Foundation has ceased its opposition to the amendment because it believes that failing to pass a timely ultrasound bill would be a worse than passing the amended bill.
The ultrasound legislation, which will now move back to the state Senate, is one of several bills being considered by the current Virginia legislature, which is strongly pro-life.
Other laws that are being considered include a bill that would allow civil wrongful death lawsuits to include the death of an unborn child and another providing that “unborn children at every stage of development” enjoy the rights and privileges of other persons in Virginia.
Lawyers Reveal Contraceptive Mandate Lawsuit Strategy
To learn more about the HHS mandate, visit www.StopHHS.com.
(WNS)--Ave Maria University filed suit Feb. 21 in U.S. District Court against the federal government over the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate, bringing the total number of lawsuits filed against the policy to six.
The suits-five filed by colleges and universities and one filed by the Catholic cable network EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network)-are spread across the nation's appellate court districts, part of a coordinated effort lawyers hope will help put the cases on a fast track to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The idea of bringing lawsuits in different districts around the country is part of a larger strategy," said Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing four of the plaintiff groups. "I think it's a pretty well-accepted fact that you do that sort of thing not only to represent a wide array of clients but also to create the possibility of disagreement among different courts."
Duncan, on behalf of the Becket Fund, represents Ave Maria University, a Catholic college based in Naples, Fla. If Ave Maria loses its case at the District Court level, the Becket Fund will appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Atlanta. EWTN, based in Birmingham, Ala., also falls within the 11th Circuit. But the other two groups represented by the Becket Fund are pursuing their cases in different districts: Colorado Christian University is in the 10th Circuit, while Belmont Abbey College, which is physically located within the 4th Circuit, has filed its suit in the District of Columbia.
Although Becket Fund lawyers hope to win all four cases, they don't really expect to. "You want to get a reasonable number of decisions so that you don't put all of your eggs in one basket," Duncan said. "Naturally, we don't want to lose any of these cases at any phase, but realistically, judges have different views."
Disagreement among appellate court judges will sharpen the case for Supreme Court review, Duncan said.
According to Brad Jacob, a professor at Regent University School of Law, in Virginia Beach, Va., it's also one of the surest ways to get a case heard by the nation's highest court, where the justices take only a fraction of the appeals presented to them. "Nothing is a sure thing, but the most likely way to get an issue before the Supreme Court is to have a lot of high-profile cases coming down in the different circuits with different results," he said. "Everyone starts getting nervous when fundamental interpretations of constitutional law are different."
On Feb. 20, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) announced suits filed on behalf of two other schools-Louisiana College, which falls within the 5th Circuit, and Geneva College, in the 3rd Circuit.
Kevin Theriot, senior counsel with the ADF, said the spread of the organization's cases is not part of a grand strategy but acknowledged that its lawyers hope to end up with clients in every district. "If we win in the 5th Circuit, that doesn't directly affect a school in Washington," he said. "You can really only solve the problem for a school if you get the circuit where they are to rule in their favor."
Theriot expects to file at least two more cases on behalf of other schools within the next 60 days. The Becket Fund also will consider other cases, Duncan said.
Although the organizations aren't working together directly, they likely will make many of the same arguments.
"We're all on the same page with these lawsuits, and we're all hoping to support each other," Duncan said.
Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist
He told the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, that he preferred to call himself an agnostic rather than an atheist.
The two men were taking part in a public “dialogue” at Oxford University at the end of a week which has seen bitter debate about the role of religion in public life in Britain.
Last week Baroness Warsi, the Tory party chairman, warned of a tide of “militant secularism” challenging the religious foundations of British society. The discussion, in Sir Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre, attracted attention from around the world.
As well as being relayed to two other theatres, it was streamed live on the internet and promoted fierce debate on the Twitter social network.
For an hour and 20 minutes the two men politely discussed "The nature of human beings and the question of their ultimate origin" touching on the meaning of consciousness, the evolution of human language – and Dr Williams’s beard.
For much of the discussion the Archbishop sat quietly listening to Prof Dawkins’s explanations of human evolution.
At one point he told the professor that he was “inspired” by “elegance” of the professor’s explanation for the origins of life – and agreed with much of it.
Prof Dawkins told him: “What I can’t understand is why you can’t see the extraordinary beauty of the idea that life started from nothing – that is such a staggering, elegant, beautiful thing, why would you want to clutter it up with something so messy as a God?”
Dr Williams replied that he “entirely agreed” with the “beauty” of Prof Dawkins’s argument but added: “I’m not talking about God as an extra who you shoehorn on to that.”
There was surprise when Prof Dawkins acknowledged that he was less than 100 per cent certain of his conviction that there is no creator.
The philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, who chaired the discussion, interjected: “Why don’t you call yourself an agnostic?” Prof Dawkins answered that he did. An incredulous Sir Anthony replied: “You are described as the world’s most famous atheist.” Prof Dawkins said that he was “6.9 out of seven” sure of his beliefs.
“I think the probability of a supernatural creator existing is very very low,” he added.
He also said that he believed it was highly likely that there was life on other planets.
At one point he discussion strayed onto the theoretical question of whether a traditional cut throat razor could be described as a more complicated thing than an electric shaver. There was laughter as the Archbishop said he would attempt an answer before adding: “Not that I know much about razors.”
During a wide-ranging discussion the Archbishop also said that he believed that human beings had evolved from non-human ancestors but were nevertheless “in the image of God”.
He also said that the explanation for the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis could not be taken literally.
“The writers of the Bible, inspired as I believe they were, they were nonetheless not inspired to do 21st Century physics,” he said.
When Prof Dawkins suggested that he believed the Pope took a rather more literal interpretation of the origins of humans, the Archbishop joked: “I will ask him some time.”
Today on Kresta in the Afternoon - February 24, 2012
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Feb. 24
4:00 – Kresta Comments
4:20 – The Living Stations of the Cross
Experience the Passion like never before. Walk with Jesus on the Way of the Cross. Witness the Last Supper. Share in His agony in the Garden. Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of His trial and crucifixion in the original musical production The Living Stations of the Cross. Live and feel the most important mystery of our faith. Now, with the approval of Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, the production is again coming to the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. We talk with Kelly Nieto, producer and creator of the Living Stations.
5:00 – Is MI A Last Stand for Romney or Santorum?
GOP presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum planned to focus their efforts today in Michigan, where polls show the two candidates in a neck-and-neck race for the support of Republican voters in Romney's home state. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, polling third or fourth in polls, also planned to rally supporters in Michigan, while rival Newt Gingrich will wrap up a trip to Washington State. We talk with Gary Bauer about how MI will influence this primary.
5:40 – The Secret World of Arrietty / Lent and Film
The Secret World of Arrietty just might change the way you look at the world around you — right around you. A wide-eyed sense of discovery and revelation permeates the film, and what it reveals is … the mystery and wonder of an ordinary home. That according to Catholic film critic Steven Greydanus. He joins us to talk about the film as well as some recommendations for Lent and Film.
4:00 – Kresta Comments
4:20 – The Living Stations of the Cross
Experience the Passion like never before. Walk with Jesus on the Way of the Cross. Witness the Last Supper. Share in His agony in the Garden. Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of His trial and crucifixion in the original musical production The Living Stations of the Cross. Live and feel the most important mystery of our faith. Now, with the approval of Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, the production is again coming to the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. We talk with Kelly Nieto, producer and creator of the Living Stations.
5:00 – Is MI A Last Stand for Romney or Santorum?
GOP presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum planned to focus their efforts today in Michigan, where polls show the two candidates in a neck-and-neck race for the support of Republican voters in Romney's home state. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, polling third or fourth in polls, also planned to rally supporters in Michigan, while rival Newt Gingrich will wrap up a trip to Washington State. We talk with Gary Bauer about how MI will influence this primary.
5:40 – The Secret World of Arrietty / Lent and Film
The Secret World of Arrietty just might change the way you look at the world around you — right around you. A wide-eyed sense of discovery and revelation permeates the film, and what it reveals is … the mystery and wonder of an ordinary home. That according to Catholic film critic Steven Greydanus. He joins us to talk about the film as well as some recommendations for Lent and Film.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Live Lent with courage, Pope urges Christians
“In these 40 days that will lead us to Easter may we find new courage to accept with patience and with faith situations of difficulty, of affliction and trial, knowing that from the darkness the Lord will make a new day dawn,” the Pope said Feb. 22, the first day of Lent.
“And if we are faithful to Jesus and follow him on the way of the Cross, the bright world of God, the world of light, truth and joy will be gifted to us once more.”
The Pope delivered his comments at his weekly general audience, which was held in the Vatican’s Pop Paul VI Hall and was attended by over 7,500 pilgrims.
He explained that in the early Church it was only those preparing to be baptized who would observe the 40 days of Lenten preparation. Subsequently, however, all Christians were invited “to experience this journey of spiritual renewal, to conform themselves and their lives to that of Christ,” including those who had fallen away from the Church.
The Pope said that the “participation of the whole community” emphasizes that “redemption is not available to only a few, but to all, through the death and resurrection of Christ.”
“The time leading up to Easter is a time of ‘metanoia,’ a time of change and penance, a time which identifies our human lives and our entire history as a process of conversion, which begins to move now in order to meet the Lord at the end of time,” he said.
Pope Benedict noted that the Church calls the 40 days leading up to Easter “Quadragesima.” And it does so with a “clear reference to Sacred Scripture,” where the number 40 often symbolically used to express “a time of expectation, purification, and return to the Lord,” he taught.
The Pope said that the “Christian liturgy of Lent” is meant to spur a “journey of spiritual renewal” and time more focused on learning how to imitate Jesus, who showed Christians “how to overcome temptation with the Word of God.”
The Pope asked those at today’s audience to note how God sustained his people, even in the wilderness. After their exodus from Egypt, for example, God preceded the Jewish people “in a cloud or a pillar of fire, ensured their daily nourishment showering manna upon them, and bringing forth water from rock.” It was in many ways a “time of the special election of God” or, added the Pope, “the time of first love,” of a people for their God.
But time spent in the desert can also be “the time of the greatest temptations and dangers,” Pope Benedict observed, pointing out that this happened to Jesus but “without any compromise with sin.” Jesus always sought “moments of solitude to pray to his Father” but it is in those moments he was most assailed by “temptation and the seduction of devil.” It was there, for example, that he was offered “another messianic way, far from God’s plan.”
Just as this dynamic is found in the Old and New Testaments, the Pope said, it can also be found in the “condition of the pilgrim Church” as it makes its way through “the “wilderness’ of the world and history.”
This wilderness is made up of “the aridity and poverty of words, life and values, of secularism” and the “culture of materialism which encloses people within a worldly horizon and detaches them from any reference to the transcendent,” he said.
It is in such an atmosphere that “the sky above us is dark, because it is veiled with clouds of selfishness, misunderstanding and deceit.”
At the same time, “the wilderness can become a period of grace” for the Church, because “we have the certainty that even from the hardest rock God can cause the living water to gush forth, water which quenches thirst and restores strength.”
Pope Benedict finished by saying that this hope in God’s power should sustain the Church and each Christian during the following 40 days.
US clergy declare 'state of emergency' over contraception mandate
To learn more about the contraception mandate, visit www.StopHHS.com.
(EWTN) A group of ministers from numerous religious backgrounds sent a message to the White House declaring a “state of emergency” over a health insurance mandate that may force religious employers to violate their consciences.
“Protestants are beginning to close ranks and join our Catholic friends on this issue,” said Lutheran minister Dr. Norman Lund.
Lund told EWTN News on Feb. 21 that he considers the issue to be part of his Christian identity and “an issue worth fighting and dying for.” He explained that the core problem “is not birth control” but “the freedom of churches to determine their own policies and positions on issues like birth control.”
“In other words,” he said, “this is an issue of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.”
Lund is a member of the National Clergy Council, a group that represents Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical and Orthodox leaders.
After deliberating with pastors and theologians across the country, the council has declared a state of emergency for the Churches in response to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.
The mandate will require employers to provide health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences and religious beliefs.
A declaration outlining a “State of Emergency and Time for Speaking” was delivered to the White House on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, in an appeal to President Barack Obama.
The statement affirms the council’s “unwavering position” on the “sanctity” of conscience rights and maintains the “God-given” ability to live out principles of conscience within a religious institution.
Clergy members said they hope the matter can be resolved by a repeal of the mandate, but warned that “we must hold to our convictions and positions and act according to our prerogatives no matter the legal, social, pecuniary, or political consequences.”
The council noted that its statement was inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and martyr who worked to resist the Nazis.
It described Bonhoeffer as “an exemplar of what it means to hold to and to exercise one's religious, moral, and ethical convictions, even to the surrender of every other right, including the right to one's life.”
At the Feb. 2 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., President Obama was given a copy of Bonhoeffer’s biography by author Eric Metaxas.
Calling for “all people of conscience” to stand with them, the council members informed Obama that they “must take extraordinary action to respectfully resist your decrees.” The National Clergy Council joins with a growing number of faith groups that have objected to the contraception mandate on the grounds of religious freedom.
The U.S. bishops have called for the mandate to be repealed, and multiple members of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities – representing both Catholic and Protestant schools – have urged the administration to substantially change or remove it.
(EWTN) A group of ministers from numerous religious backgrounds sent a message to the White House declaring a “state of emergency” over a health insurance mandate that may force religious employers to violate their consciences.
“Protestants are beginning to close ranks and join our Catholic friends on this issue,” said Lutheran minister Dr. Norman Lund.
Lund told EWTN News on Feb. 21 that he considers the issue to be part of his Christian identity and “an issue worth fighting and dying for.” He explained that the core problem “is not birth control” but “the freedom of churches to determine their own policies and positions on issues like birth control.”
“In other words,” he said, “this is an issue of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.”
Lund is a member of the National Clergy Council, a group that represents Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical and Orthodox leaders.
After deliberating with pastors and theologians across the country, the council has declared a state of emergency for the Churches in response to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.
The mandate will require employers to provide health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences and religious beliefs.
A declaration outlining a “State of Emergency and Time for Speaking” was delivered to the White House on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, in an appeal to President Barack Obama.
The statement affirms the council’s “unwavering position” on the “sanctity” of conscience rights and maintains the “God-given” ability to live out principles of conscience within a religious institution.
Clergy members said they hope the matter can be resolved by a repeal of the mandate, but warned that “we must hold to our convictions and positions and act according to our prerogatives no matter the legal, social, pecuniary, or political consequences.”
The council noted that its statement was inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and martyr who worked to resist the Nazis.
It described Bonhoeffer as “an exemplar of what it means to hold to and to exercise one's religious, moral, and ethical convictions, even to the surrender of every other right, including the right to one's life.”
At the Feb. 2 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., President Obama was given a copy of Bonhoeffer’s biography by author Eric Metaxas.
Calling for “all people of conscience” to stand with them, the council members informed Obama that they “must take extraordinary action to respectfully resist your decrees.” The National Clergy Council joins with a growing number of faith groups that have objected to the contraception mandate on the grounds of religious freedom.
The U.S. bishops have called for the mandate to be repealed, and multiple members of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities – representing both Catholic and Protestant schools – have urged the administration to substantially change or remove it.