This morning, I wrote to agree with Chad the Elder that the Catholic grass roots didn’t look like they cared that much about religious freedom – in part because a Catholic (indeed, Christian) laity was pretty much desensitized. like the fabled “frog in boiling water”, to the effects of losing that freedom, and that their leadership hadn’t done much to change that in a few decades.
On the other hand? Maybe there’s some hope:
Catholic leaders are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama’s new heath car reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals and charities to buy birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization coverage for their employees.
“Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” said Catholic League head Bill Donohue.
Already Archbishop Timothy Dolan has spoken out against the law and priests around the country have mobilized, reading letters from the pulpit. Donohue said Catholic officials will stop at nothing to put a stop to it.
Hopefully it’s not too little too late.
You’ll think this is balogney, but of the 12 people in my caucus on Tuesday, 9 were from my local parish (I was one of three that were not); true story.
They were there specifically to express their anger over Obama’s shredding of our 1st amendment rights. Proposed resolutions to the MNGOP plank included removing the word “innocent” from “Republicans believe in the sanctity of all innocent lives” (innocent is in there as a tacit approval of the death penalty), and inserting abortifacients to the list of things Republicans oppose federal funding for.
The conveiner said that was the first time he’d ever witnessed resolutions created by comittee.
Dolan and Charles Chaput (the Archbishop in Philly) are part of the generation of leaders that JPII nurtured. They won’t roll over — I can promise you that.
As an ex-Catholic and having my mom’s side of the fam be EXTREMELY liberal yet still Catholic it will be interesting to see how they react to that or if they even care. Personally I will stand shoulder to shoulder with any acts of civil disobedience around here in the twin cities and even get arrested protecting them. This will NOT stand.
If JPII can help defeat Communism, Benedict casn defeat Obamunism.
Is there such a thing as sainthood for heretics? Our president will soon have a marble bust of (H)imself prominently displayed in the Church of the Unholy Iniquities.
You’ll think this is balogney
Nope. Not a bit.
Ben, I have to agree with you. As I have posted before, my mother is an Italian Catholic and would walk to church in a blizzard, but she is a democrat. My dad was and my two brothers are unionistas, so there is some influence there. I say that anyone that professes to be a true practicing Catholic, that is a liberat DemocRAT, is a hypocrite!
I honestly believe that if Obama doesn’t back down, if his ideological purity overcomes his pragmatism and he refuses to undo this requirement, the Vatican will shut down all the catholic hospitals in America. It won’t happen before the elections in November, but going forward watch the re-election chances of anyone who supports this, when we suddenly find ourselves with 50% of the hospital capacity we used to have.
Bill: The Catholic church would never shut down hospitals, but they could insist their employees sign a waiver stating they will not file claims for the services in question. This would necessitate a lawsuit by the Obomanoids – something I believe all people of faith would gladly take to the Supreme Court in order to reveal precisely how much the justices revere the First Amendment.
If Obama doesn’t back down and these institutions decide to go with civil disobedience, will we see gov’t raids on Catholic and Southern Baptist facilities? Imagine the photos we’ll get from that.
Liberals love causes. Right now one of their causes is abortion. But I wonder if a few will want to relive the civil rights protest of the 50s and 60s and fight the gov’t on this.
Big Stink such a waiver would probably end up with 50% of a Hospital being owned by a couple of nurses after their lawsuit.
Obama is driving wedges between his loyal followers, spitting out the lukewarm and attempting to discredit his enemy the Church.
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