You have probably already heard of the Obama Administration’s latest outrage — just one of many — against religious freedom in this country. The Department of Health and Human Services, in its latest formulation of the new requirements for health-care insurance offered by employers, has announced that there will be no religious exemption for those who find it immoral to provide insurance for contraception, sterilization or abortifacient drugs — that is, of course, all Catholic employers.
HHS Kathleen Sebelius did thoughtfully mention that the employers will have a whole year to comply, or, as Cardinal-designate Dolan has put it, to “learn to violate our consciences.” (Sebelius, is, by the way, Catholic).
More than 60% of all the bishops who are heads of dioceses in the U.S. have weighed in against this violation of the right to practice our religion unimpeded, and have urged people to write to the Presdient, HHS and their Senators and Congressional representatives. At least one bill to kill this mandate is already in the works.
There is much more excellent coverage at www.americanpapist.com., including a full list of bishops’ statements.
One thing everyone can easily do — petition the White House here The petition already has almost 7,000 signatures - it needs 25,000 to get noticed for government action.
The administration would apparently just really love for this to go away until after the election. We must not let them!
I have a few more thoughts on the wider implications of this particular mandate, but they will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day.
Yesterday, October 16, at Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI made a momentous announcement: the Church will be celebrating a “Year of Faith” that will kick off a year from now: it will begin on October 11, 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and will last until November 24, 2013, the Feast of Christ the King. The Pope explained: “It will be a time of grace and commitment to an ever fuller conversion to God, to reinforce our faith in Him and to proclaim Him with joy to the men of our time.”
An interesting fact: the opening of the “Year of Faith will also coincide with the celebration of Papa Luciani’s 100th birthday on October 17, 2012.
The original “Year of Faith,” called by Paul VI in 1967 to mark the nineteenth centenary of the martyrdom of St. Peter and Paul, was important to Albino Luciani, then bishop of Vittorio Veneto. He gave his priests a suggested program for it in September 1967. An excerpt:
. . . Try to have your faithful live the “Year of Faith” by speaking to them with enthusiasm about the Word of God, Jesus, and the Church more than about errors. And don’t be satisfied when your listeners are convinced: once they are convinced, they must act, they must act! Like Paul, strive so that “the word of God may make progress and be hailed by many others” (2 Thes. 3:1). Show by ardent words and actions, with a pure and charitable life, that you are “racing to grasp [Christ] since you have been grasped by Him” (cf. Phil. 3;12). When you talk about the Church, say that Christ loved her and “handed himself over for her. . . to sanctify her. . . in order to present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle. . . that she might be holy and without blemish” (cf. Eph. 5:25 27).
The Year of Faith also means shedding light on the faith. Now, faith is saying “yes” to God, clinging to Him with our whole spiritual being and making our own the truths which He has revealed to us and set before us by means of the Magisterium of the Church. Explain it to the faithful: this “yes” is an act of loving trust in God and at the same time an acceptance of His truths. We do not believe because we like these truths or because they are convenient to us, or because they are in agreement with scientific data or the fashion of the day, but because they have been revealed by Him who loves us and neither can nor will deceive us. If it were not for Him, we would not believe.
The Apostles and their successors, Pope and bishops, willed by Christ as official teachers of the Faith, are not in that position as masters, but simply as servants of the Word of God; they safeguard it and explain it without adding or taking away anything from it. Accepting and venerating their teaching is the means ordinarily necessary to arrive at the true Faith and the best way to be members of the Church. (Opera, vol. 4)
Still a wonderful program, more than 40 years later. I will also note that Papa Luciani wrote this letter to his priests in answer to a request from some of them that he expound on the errors that were rampant in the Church after the Council. Luciani did write about some of these errors, but stressed throughout that the best exposition of the faith was a positive one. I may have more about this little work, which he called “Something Less than a Syllabus,” later on. It is a really fascinating exposition, with a great deal of good advice for priests on how to handle teaching sensitive subjects in the faith.
Today is also Papa Luciani’s birthday - he would be 99 if alive now. This is a great time to announce that along with several other people I am planning some special events here in New York in connection with his centenary next year. I will be more specific later on. So keep checking for updates.
It’s about time! From the Sycamore Trust, the assocation for the protection of the Catholic identity at Notre Dame:
Counsel for Notre Dame and for the ND88 announced today a settlement pursuant to which the criminal charges against the ND88 have been dismissed.
Under the agreement, the ND88 agreed not to sue the University for damages and the University in return agreed to ask the prosecutor to dismiss the charges, which he has done.
This is a notable victory for the defendants, who refused to take an easy way out, and a prudent backing off by the University. Defendants had filed notice of their intention to sue the University for discriminatory arrest and the time period for filing their suits was about to expire. Presumably the complaints would have been filed within a few days if a settlement had not been reached.
By securing the defendants’ promise not to sue, the University has not merely avoided possible monetary liability but has also protected its officers and agents from potentially troublesome examination by defense counsel in both criminal and civil cases.
University officials, for example, would doubtless have been called upon to explain why the University has let go pro-gay and anti-war demonstrators who were arrested for trespass while it has supported the prosecution of these pro-life demonstrators – an uncomfortable fact uncovered by Sycamore Trust that contradicted Father Jenkins’s assertion that the University was treating the ND 88 like everyone else.
Of course, it would have been far better had the University taken this action some two years ago out of Christian compassion and a solidarity of interest with these pro-life defendants. There is no way now for the University to erase the damage these prosecutions have caused to its pro-life standing through the drumbeat of criticism from pro-life forces. While one hopes there has been even at this late date a change not only of mind but also of heart on the part of the University, this “Agreement Not To Sue” appears on the face of it to be essentially a lawyer’s move to cut losses and avoid risks.
Still, it is a very welcome development. A burden has been lifted from the defendants; the University has finally relented, whatever the reason; it has forestalled what would probably have been a mounting crescendo of criticism lasting for many months, perhaps even years; and the squandering of the pubic treasury on dozens of criminal trials and appeals has been averted. Counsel for the University have brought their client to a wise decision, and one may hope that it comes to more than that.
So do I. Let’s hope Notre Dame has learned a lesson and becomes a real Catholic University in the future.
There’s little time to spare - the New York City Council is meeting tomorrow to consider Bill 371, an ordinance that aims to restrict the free speech of crisis pregnancy centers in New York City. Please pray they will not pass it. If you can, join the rally in front of the Council meeting tomorrow. We will be meeting at 12:15 p.m. in front of old Trinity Church at Wall Street and Broadway and march to the meeting place at 49-51 Chambers Street (The Emigrant Savings Bank), where we will hold a rally. Spread the word!
Update, March 3:
We had a pretty good turnout — but they passed the bill anyway.
We had about 100, maybe 150 in the end. “Reinforcements” arrived around halfway through - though I think they may have first been on the other side of the building. It was hard to get a clear idea of the length of the line on the narrow sidewalk with just a cell phone camera. But here are a couple of photos:
The essential thing to do now is to immediately ask New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to veto the bill. You can do that here.
E-Mail:
* http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
Call:
* PHONE 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)
Write:
* Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Fax:
* (212)-312-0700
I listened to a Catholic podcast interview with him some months ago, when it was clear that he was very frail; he could hard speak above a whisper. It was clear that this 84-year-old man didn’t have long to live. Nevertheless, I felt a shock as well as a pang of sorrow when I learned of Dr. Bernard Nathanson’s death today. His was an amazing story - from Jewish atheist and proud abortionist, one of the founders of NARAL to anti-abortion activist and Catholic convert. He wrote a truly amazing book caled Aborting America (1979), in which he exposed the lies at the bottom of the movement he helped create. And then there were his films, The Silent Scream and Eclipse of Reason.
I didn’t ever get to read his conversion story The Hand of God, but hope to soon. He was indeed a brave man who confessed to his sins and spent the rest of his life making amends. Here are some articles that give further details of his life.
He becme a powerful pro-life warrior; I’d even venture to say he was a more effective advocate for life during the many years he continued as an atheist before becoming a Catholic. It’s hard to refute arguments like his, based on the scientific evidence.
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
The photo above was taken at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in March 2007.
Quote of the Month
"The conviction that there is a Creator God is what gave rise to the idea of human rights, the idea of the equality of all people before the law, the recognition of the inviolability of human dignity in every single person and the awareness of people’s responsibility for their actions. Our cultural memory is shaped by these rational insights. To ignore it or dismiss it as a thing of the past would be to dismember our culture totally and to rob it of its completeness. The culture of Europe arose from the encounter between Jerusalem, Athens and Rome – from the encounter between Israel’s monotheism, the philosophical reason of the Greeks and Roman law. This three-way encounter has shaped the inner identity of Europe. In the awareness of man’s responsibility before God and in the acknowledgment of the inviolable dignity of every single human person, it has established criteria of law: it is these criteria that we are called to defend at this moment in our history."
Pope Benedict XVI to the German Parliament, Sept 22, 2011.
