Catholic Fire

I will express my comments on this CNA article below in red. While expressing support for some kind of health care reform, Cardinal Justin Rigali, the chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat on Pro-Life Activities, says the present reform proposal is “seriously deficient” because it bypasses restrictions on the federal funding of abortion and allows federal officials to make unlimited abortion a mandated benefit. Yes, I agree with this. Obama's health care reform plan forces taxpayers to pay for abortions, which violates their consciences and forces them to finance legislation, which is not only immoral, but is destructive to a human being's physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being. Abortion -- the murder of another human being and the maiming of that child's mother-- is an intrinsically evil act. Abortion is not health care -- it is death care! Writing in an August 11 letter to each member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Cardinal Rigali noted that the U....

From Stephen Ertlet at LifeNews.Com: Leading pro-life advocates have been criticized by the mainstream media for organizing an active opposition to the radical Freedom of Choice Act because the bill has yet to be filed in Congress. However, a leading pro-abortion Congressman calls FOCA a top priority and says the bill is coming soon. A spokesman for Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who is chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee that could consider the bill, says the bill is forthcoming. FOCA "is among the congressman's priorities. We expect to reintroduce it sooner rather than later," Ilan Kayatsky told the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Article.

Mesa, Ariz. - This morning when President Obama arrived in Mesa, Arizona to announce his $75 billion "Homeowner Stability Initiative," a group of about 200 Catholics were holding a prayer vigil across the street. The group was praying that Obama will change his mind about supporting the unpopular Freedom of Choice Act. Fr. Jack Spaulding, the pastor of St. Timothy’s Catholic Church, led a prayer vigil that lasted about 45 minutes. "As Catholics, this is a tremendous opportunity for each one of us to put our faith into action through a peaceful and prayerful acknowledgement that everyone, including our president, must respect the sanctity of all human life, especially the unborn," Fr. Spaulding said. Walter Zorich, 71, told the Arizona Republic that he came to the vigil to "pray for the president and his staff that they make good decisions." Article

Thomas Peters at American Papist has the scoop on this. He describes it as being worse than FOCA. Select things the Prevention First Act (PFA) will do: Make Title X (family planning) a permanent program and fund it at $700 million or more. Mandate that health insurance programs that cover prescriptions must cover abortifacient contraceptives. Create a government program to push abortifacient "Emergency Contraception." Take all federal money away from any hospital that refuses to administer the abortifacient Emergency Contraception to victims of rape. Create additional massive government funding for Planned Parenthood style sex education programs (abstinence-only programs are specifically excluded from funding). Permanently include family planning services as part of the Medicaid program. Read the rest at American Papist.

The ‘Freedom of Choice’ Act will… • Nullify requirements that abortionists be licensed physicians...WTF?! • Eliminate health and safety regulations for abortion clinics...WTF?! • Nullify parental consent and notification laws...WTF?! • Invalidate laws to inform patients...WTF?! • Repeal the Hyde Amendment: Taxpayers will pay for abortions...WTF?! • Remove waiting periods...WTF?! • Prohibit bans on abortion after viability...WTF?! • Remove protections for physicians and hospitals that refuse to participate in abortions...WTF?! • Repeal the Partial Birth Abortion Ban...WTF?! A recent Harris poll shows that 82% of Americans want abortion to be either illegal under all circumstances or limited in its legality. -- FOCA would effectively remove all limitations on abortion Learn more at What The FOCA? Share the truth about FOCA with everyone today.

Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Friday was awarded one of six Life Prizes at a gala at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. Speaking about the pro-life movement, he encouraged pro-lifers to persevere and insisted that Catholic predictions about societal decline had proven correct. Doerflinger spoke in an interview with Kathryn Jean-Lopez for National Review On-Line. In the interview, he encouraged pro-life Americans not to “despair and give up.” “Our situation is similar to what it was in 1993: the White House and both chambers of Congress basically against us on the abortion issue. Our opponents thought they would soon reverse the Hyde amendment against federal abortion funding, begin funding destructive human embryo research, and pass the Freedom of Choice Act,” he told National Review Online. “None of these things happened, and President Clinton’s repeated vetoes of a ban on ...

Washington DC, Jan 23, 2009 / 05:48 am ( CNA ).- More than 100 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed a letter to President Barack Obama asking that he withdraw his campaign pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) and other pro-abortion rights laws. FOCA is legislation designed to protect abortion rights even if the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade is overturned. It threatens to abolish existing minimal state and federal restrictions on abortion and could even threaten the rights of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions. Article I find this encouraging and I believe that this is the result of our postcards, emails, and phone calls to our congressmen. It's important that we continue to let them know how we feel about FOCA and Obama's pro-death agenda.

Dear Members of the Marian Catechist Apostolate, Today is the 36th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous decision in the cases Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, by which the highest court of our nation took away the safeguard of the most fundamental of all rights, the right to life, from the most vulnerable members of the human family, the unborn. Rightly, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has, for some time, designated this day as a Day of Penance for Violations to the Dignity of the Human Person, and of Prayer for the Full Restoration of the Legal Guarantee of the Right to Life. January 22nd is to be observed “as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373). The legacy of the just-mentioned decisions has been an unconscionable decline in the respect for all ...

Former Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork has predicted that upcoming legal battles will have significant ramifications for religious freedom. He names as issues of major concern the continued freedom of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions and the likely “terrible conflict” resulting from the advancement of homosexual rights. Speaking in an interview published Tuesday by Cybercast News Service, Judge Bork discussed the contentious nature of modern politics. “Everything is up for debate these days. I can’t think of anything that isn’t,” he said. “You are going to get Catholic hospitals that are going to be required as a matter of law to perform abortions,” he claimed . “We are going to see in the near future a terrible conflict between claimed rights of homosexuals and religious freedom… You are going to get Catholic or other groups’ relief services that are going to be required to allow adoption of a child by homosexual couples. We are going to have a real conflict...

President Barack Obama promised Planned Parenthood that, “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA). If he keeps this promise, American Right To Life president Brian Rohrbough said, “President Obama will press the reset button on the pro-life movement and reverse decades of legislation, regulations not built on the firm foundation of personhood, but misguided laws built on sand shifting in the political wind.” Catholic Bishops are warning that FOCA would regulate even pro-life medical facilities, pushing Catholic hospitals toward aborting children. MORE Image via The Black Cordelias.

On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama, the most pro-death president in our country’s history, will be sworn into office. 2009 will be remembered as one of the most challenging years for the pro-life movement. For, Barack Hussein Obama emphatically promised more than a year ago, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." The Freedom of Choice Act is a sweeping bill that would abolish all pro-life regulations across the nation, from parental notification laws to bans on federal funding of abortions. It would not only make unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy a national law but it would overturn the laws in all 50 states designed to reduce abortions. Today we commemorate Sanctity of life Sunday and this coming Thursday we celebrate the 36th anniversary of Roe V Wade. This is the year that I wanted more than ever to go to Washington DC to participate in the March for Life. This is the year that I wanted to protest the mass slaughter o...

American Life League explains the dangerous consequences the Freedom of Choice Act poses to pre-born babies throughout the country.

CWA Organizes Opposition to Obama's Freedom of Choice Act during March for Life Two days after Barack Obama's inauguration, pro-lifers will be doubling their impact during the March for Life, the annual pro-life rally in Washington, D.C., held on January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. As tens of thousands gather to oppose the deadly Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion, Concerned Women for America (CWA) will be handing out snacks with information on how to oppose the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a bill supported by Obama. The next day, pro-lifers in Washington and around the country will be joining CWA's FOCA Lobby Day by contacting their congressmen - in person or by phone - urging them to oppose this bill that would eliminate every federal and state law that restricts abortion. CWA will host an Open House on the morning of the March for Life. Pro-lifers will gather at CWA's office for refreshments and to stock up on FOCA Fact Cards to hand out at ...

"You’ll have to drag me out, go right ahead. I’m not closing this hospital, we will not perform abortions, and you can go take a flying leap.’” ~ Bishop Paul Loverde from the diocese of Arlington weighing in on the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), saying that if he oversaw a Catholic hospital he would neither close the facility nor allow it to perform abortions if FOCA were to become law .

Are you willing to do it?

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. Entire article at CNS News. H/T: Jay Anderson

Via Bill Donahue at The Catholic League: “For the past several months, the Bush administration has been drafting regulations that would protect the rights of doctors, nurses and health workers from being discriminated against if they refuse to perform or assist in abortions, as well as other morally contentious procedures. At stake are the religious rights of these professionals. We urge President Bush to move quickly before the next administration begins. “President-elect Barack Obama has pledged his support for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a bill so draconian that it would jeopardize the right of Catholic hospitals and doctors to refuse to perform abortions. Now the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has sent him a letter calling on him to make good on his pledge. But if he were to do that, it would lead, in the words of one Vatican official, to the ‘equivalent of a war.’ “To put it differently, were FOCA to become law (it needs to be reintroduced in the House), the cul...

But we aren't done fighting yet. Voters have made this election a first for America by electing the most pro-abortion president in the history of our nation. Senator Barack Obama will assume the power of the presidency, defined as the most powerful position in the world. During his political career, Barack Obama has consistently voted against innocent preborn children. He has repeatedly voted to deny basic medical care to babies who survive late-term abortions, and voted against efforts to end the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure. As a candidate for president, Senator Obama had pledged to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which would override any and all restrictions on abortion throughout nine months of pregnancy. It would also force taxpayers to fund abortion-on-demand. Of equal concern is Senator Obama’s pledge to appoint only judges who support Roe v. Wade, which could effectively impose the death penalty on future generations of America’s innocent unborn children....

By Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas One of the saddest moments for me during this year’s election campaign occurred during the vice presidential debate, when the “Catholic” vice presidential candidate, Senator Joseph Biden, bragged about his role in preserving Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision which in effect legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. This outburst of pride by Sen. Biden occurred as part of his response to a question inquiring how his thinking had changed since he first entered public life. Senator Biden answered by noting that when he first became a member of the Senate, he believed judicial appointments should be made purely on the basis of the legal competence of a candidate. However, at some point in his Senate career, his thinking evolved. Senator Biden now believes that ideology must also be a factor in evaluating the suitability of a judicial candidate. By his own admission, Sen. Biden’s leadership o...

Barack Obama has on repeated occasions stated that he is a Christian. However, his actions speak otherwise. In this video, Rev. Don Hamer, on behalf of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, shares reason number 4 why Barack Obama is not a Christian by any biblical or historic standard. For the other six reasons and six videos, go here.