No Choice for Doctors: Catholic Democrats Deny Conscience Protection

Sixteen Catholic Senators, 15 Democrats and one Republican, voted last Thursday to deny conscience protection to doctors and other health care workers. Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment to the Senate budget bill would "protect the freedom of conscience for patients and the right of health care providers to serve patients without violating their moral and religious convictions." It was defeated 56-41.

If all Catholic Senators had voted in favor of the amendment it would have passed 62 to 35. Once again Catholic Democrats did the dirty deed. Is it any wonder one is tempted to ask, "Can Catholics be Democrats?" Only one Catholic Democrat voted for Coburn's amendment, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. What impact did Bishop Joseph Martino's correction and denial of Communion under Canon Law 915 have on the Senator. Please pray for Bob Casey and for the conversion of his brethren who voted against choice, the choice of doctors NOT to perform abortions and other evil acts that violate their ethics (and the ethics of the pagan doctor Hippocrates who used to be the standard for medical care). The death of conscience legislation will force many Catholics out of health care careers. Isn't that consoling? Think of how safe you will be when the only medical care is available from those who think killing patients is an appropriate medical treatment. Baby boomers, get your affairs in order.

Catholic vote tally:

Sixteen Catholic Senators voted against conscience protection: Begich (D-AK), Dodd (D-CT), Kaufman (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Harkin (D-IA), Landrieu (D- LA), Collins (R-ME), Mikulski (D-MD), Kerry (D-MA), McCaskill (D-MO), Menendez (D-NJ), Gillibrand (D-NY), Reed (D-RI), Leahy (D-VT), Cantwell (D-WA), Murray (D-WA).

Nine Catholic Senators voted in favor of the amendment; Murkowski (R-AK), Martinez (R-FL), Risch (R-ID), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Vitter (R-LA), Johanns(R-NE), Voinovich (R-OH), and Casey (D-PA).

Earthquake in central Italy - 6.3 on richter - close to 100 dead so far

Aerial footage of quake aftermath

Italy earthquake kills more than 90 and leaves thousands homeless

Massive earthquake hits Italy

Pray for the repose of the souls of the dead and for the tens of thousands left homeless.

Another Catholic College; Another Horrendous Commencement Speaker!

This time at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia. Pro-abortion media cutie Chris Matthews (of Obama sends a shiver up my leg fame) is scheduled to fulminate at St. Joe's May 16th graduation. The pro-abortion commentator is well-known in pro-life circles for calling those who oppose abortion terrorists.

LifeSiteNews reported on the coming event writing, "Referring to the Senate confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's radically pro-abortion pick to head the Dept. of Health and Human Services, Matthews asked Lois Romano of the Washington Post, 'Is she gonna get through the terrorism of the anti-abortion people?' Matthews went on to complain about the possibility that Sebelius' connections to notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller could slow up the Senate proceedings."

Are we surprised that a Jesuit university would invite a pro-abortion speaker who labels pro-lifers (Doesn't that include ALL Catholics?) terrorists? That puts him squarely in the camp of government officials who consider anyone who supports Ron Paul, any third-party candidate, or has a pro-life bumper sticker on his car a potential militia member and possible terrorist. The real domestic terrorists are those who are using the powers of government to overthrow the freedoms guaranteed and hard-won by the Founding Fathers.

If you want a chilling thrill up your spine (or your leg) read this Fox article describing the "fusion centers" being established around the country by the Department of Homeland Security. Being labeled a terrorist for opposing abortion or increased taxes or for carrying too much money when you travel is no joke and Matthews is one of those tossing around the dangerous rhetoric that makes me and other pro-life activists de facto "terrorists" no matter how innocent.

That St. Joseph's would invite this loose cannon to scandalize their graduates is not only pathetic, but sinful. I've provided contact information below if you have the time and energy to engage in ANOTHER battle for the truth with those who should be raising up the kingdom of God, not destroying it.

Pray for a cleansing of the Jesuit order or, failing that, its demise. When the shepherds become wolves the sheep are, indeed, headed for the slaughter.

St. Joseph's University:
Timothy R. Lannon, S.J.
Office of the President
Saint Joseph's University
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19131-1395
tlannon@sju.edu
University operator: 610-660-1000

It's Palm Sunday -- and so the Passion Begins!

What a picture we saw at Mass this morning. Before the processional the priest blessed the palms and read the gospel of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. How soon things changed. By the end of Mass we had walked the way of the cross. We saw Judas betray Jesus with a kiss and Peter with three denials punctuated by curses. We heard the crowds (ourselves taking their places) scream "Crucify him!" and watched Pontius Pilate try to wash innocent blood from his guilty hands. We walked along the via crucis adding our own sinful abuse of Christ to the weight of His cross. And we saw the Roman soldiers wield all the tools of torture from the multi-thonged scourge studded with bone, to the crown of thorns, to the nine-inch nails used to brutally attach the precious body to the wooden beams.

And how does Jesus respond through it all? Silence and prayer. "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."

There is an awful (and awe-full) passion meditation from Pierre Barbet's A Doctor at Calvary. Barbet was a surgeon who wrote the book in the 1950s after examining the Shroud of Turin. His analysis of Christ's suffering is told with a doctor's eye for detail and a sense of the physical pains that accompanied each stage from the sweat of blood on the Mount of Olives until Christ took his last agonized breath and whispered, "It is finished" on Calvary hill. My husband and I read the meditation every Good Friday to remind us once more of the terrible price Christ paid because of our sins.

Let me give you one paragraph to meditate on and urge you to buy the book. "The crucifixion begins. Oh, it is not very complicated; the executioners know their work. First of all He must be stripped. The lower garments are dealt with easily enough, but the coat has firmly stuck to His wounds, that is to say, to His whole body, and this stripping is a horrible business.Have you ever removed the first dressing which has been on a large bruised wound, and has dried on it? Or have you yourself ever been through this ordeal, which sometimes requires a general anaesthetic? If so, you know what it is like. Each thread has stuck to the raw surface, and when it is removed it tears away one of the innumberable nervous ends which have been laid bare by the wound. These thousands of painful shocks add up and multiply, each one increasing the sensitivity of the nervous system. Now it is not just a question of a local lesion, but of almost the whole surface of the body, and especially of that dreadful back. The executioners are in a hurry and set about their work roughly. Perhaps it is better thus, but how does this sharp, dreadful pain not bring on a fainting fit? How clear is is that from beginning to end He dominates, He directs His Passion."

May we all enter into this Holy Week of suffering and glory and exit it filled to the brim with increased faith, hope, and charity.

N.B. The picture above is the living face of Jesus reconstructed from the image of the dead face of Jesus on the Shroud of Turin. There are blessings attached to devotion to the Holy Face. Look into His eyes and know His love for you.

Gallup shows Protestants are more Catholic than Catholics

In a new analysis of poll data from 2006-2008, Gallup shows that non-Catholics are more conservative when it comes to core moral issues than Catholics are. Irregular church-goers, both Catholic and non, not surprisingly reject many central moral issues. But what is baffling is that regular Church-going Catholics are less likely to hold moral absolutes about marriage, sexuality, and respect for life than their non-Catholic brothers and sisters.

Take a look at the charts comparing Catholics and non-Catholics at Belief Net. Twenty-four percent of Catholics who attend Mass weekly or more approve of abortion compared to 19% of church-going non-Catholics. Fifty-three percent approve of fornication and embryonic stem cell research, while non-Catholics rack up 30% and 45% respectively. Catholics approve of homosexual relations to the tune of 44% compared to 21% of non-Catholics. If Gallup is right in their analysis the Catholic Church in America is in deep trouble. (But I guess we knew that already despite those who view the world through rose-colored glasses.) Cafeteria Catholics are in the majority. And those of us who stand with Christ and His Church are the faithful, and often abused, remnant.

Well, I suppose that's no surprise. I keep hearing in my head Jesus' lament, "When I return will I find any faith on the earth?" Not much it seems, but there will be a few of us. I'm encouraged when I think of the Catholics of Nagasaki who kept the faith alive for over 200 years after the expulsion of the missionaries (mostly Jesuits) from Japan. Come to think of it, maybe the faith would be in better shape in the U.S. if the Jesuits, with a few notable exceptions, had been expelled after Vatican II.

Ah well, let us pray for a restoration of the faith. Perhaps we need a big infusion of Protestant (and Muslim) converts who bring their moral thinking with them, especially on the life issues. They seem to have it more together than many Catholics.

What do you think is the cause of so many Catholics rejecting the truth? Inquiring minds want to know. Identifying the causes of a problem is the first step in solving it. What's your opinion?

The Brown Shirts Are Here!

The video below contains an audio clip from a young man who was detained at the airport in St. Louis by FIVE armed police officers -- get this -- because he had $4700 in his carry-on luggage. What was his "crime?" When the officers asked why he had the money he asked them whether he was required by law to answer their questions. They immediately went into brown-shirt mode. It reached the point where they were going to take him down to the police station when a plainclothes cop (FBI) came in and whispered something in their ears and they let him go. He made his plane. He was smart enough when the interrogation started to click the recording button on his fancy cell phone and got the entire encounter on tape.

So now carrying cash makes you a suspected terrorist. (So does being a Ron Paul supporter!) Think of that. What's the limit? Is $2000 okay? How about $500? Watch the video; it's unbelievable! God bless this young lover of liberty.

I had a similar situation happen outside an abortion mill several years ago. I was sidewalk counseling when a car stopped in the driveway and I stepped over to the window to talk to the couple who took my literature. The officer (They always had a police car in the parking lot on Saturdays.) asked me to get out of driveway I did.

Then he came over and insisted I give my name or he would arrest me. I started to comply but he got my Irish up so I asked what law required me to answer. Was I being charged with breaking a law? We had been told being in the driveway was okay by his supervisor if we weren't blocking people trying to go in and out which I told him. Nevertheless, he told me if I didn't answer he'd give me a summons. Which he did when I continued to refuse.

The next business day I went down and had a talk with the Commonwealth's Attorney who told me that if I were being charged with a crime I had to comply, but the exact opposite was what happened. To make a long story short they dropped the charges and (on my insistence) sent me a letter telling me that I did not have to appear in court. We never had a problem with that officer again.

Stand up for your rights like this man did. If you don't, the next bullying may not be just words but the nightstick and the cattle prod.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMB6L487LHM

What's in your wrinkle cream?

I received the following email from an internet acquaintance and thought it was worth sharing. These days you need to know what's in your cosmetics. The ugly truth is that cosmetic firms have been using aborted babies in their beauty products for years. Just think -- you too can have skin like a newborn. They just don't tell you that an unborn baby was killed to do it.


Discovering the "Power" of PSP Proteins

3/30/09

Dear Friends,

I attended a fundraiser for a Catholic elementary school in D.C. this weekend. My children attended this school and I was happy to support it by buying raffle tickets and by bidding on auction items. I went home with a number of prizes that I was excited to receive. One of those prizes was a collection of skin care products that were donated by a VA plastic surgeon.

My “over 50” wrinkles are evident and well earned, and I relished the idea of having a supply of expensive miracle creams at my free disposal. I sat down yesterday and read some of the accompanying literature and was wowed with the dramatic results documented in clinical trials. The “power of psp proteins” would turn back the clock and my face would be desirably smoother and younger looking in 60 days. But something in me sank when I read that “psp” contained protein from skin cells and that I would indeed need to dispose of my “prize”. It’s “power” has a dark side.

I read feverishly looking for evidence it was plant or animal based protein used in the lotions. I can live with rat protein being used for products, but something in my heart told me this was not from any animal, but from a baby. The worst of my fears proved true, for after googling the cited studies and getting a lot of scientific protein data that curdled my blood, I found right in the product’s basic brochure that “a dedicated cell bank was established for developing new skin treatments using a single donation of fetal tissue.” Further evidence surfaced that a 14 week old fetus was “skinned” for purposes of setting up this cell line. The mother had signed a permission form. I wonder if she knew what she was doing or that years later her baby’s protein would be continually replicated for such use. I wonder if any women who is about to have an abortion is capable of truly informed consent.

That flooded me with the memory that I too had signed a permission form when I aborted my precious child 24 years ago. Had I not known my baby died at less than 8 weeks, I would have wondered had this skin had come from him. I remember being in a daze when I signed that form, being told that good would come from my abortion, that it wasn’t a “baby” and was “just a clump of cells”, not really differentiated into a child yet. I was evidently distressed. The argument was likened to donating organs after death; let something good come from this sad event. I’ve heard this argument before and from lofty places. Doesn’t God make good come even from our sins? Shouldn’t we do the same and allow this for the good? (This cell line is also used in treating burn victims with apparent success.) The problem is we are not God. By condoning such action we are allowing an intrinsically evil event to be propagated and used for our own benefit, a kind of cannibalism of our unborn. It is a twisted idea of making something good come from something that is evil. It is still wrong.

How emboldened the purveyors of death have become that they proudly print right on the brochures that their “unparalleled innovation” is the result of “donation” of fetal tissue. I can only hope that this is an isolated product that will be exposed for what it is and rejected by the public. But I fear that will not be the case. Even I, who now know the truth of the “power of psp protein” and the personal wounding of abortion, am still tempted to use this line of beautifully packaged products with wonderfully demonstrated results, but I won’t. I already caved on my principles 24 years ago with devastating results and, by the grace of God, I will not do that again.

(I hesitate to name the products for fear of giving it publicity, but for those who would like to expose the “lie” of this “new skin”, look up Neocutis Inc., San Francisco, CA and at www.neocutis.com)

Nancy Tanner

Where have all the Catholic colleges gone? Gone to perversion almost every one...

Well, they canceled the porn flick at the University of Maryland, but X-rated behavior is welcome on many a Catholic campus. Today is the last day of Xavier University's "Queer Week" and same-sex hand-holding day. I am tempted to laugh in disbelief because what does the administration think these folks do after they've moved from hand-holding to the more intimate stages of their perverted relationships? Have they never heard of "fisting?" The capacity for denial among liberal professors and their administrations is unlimited. No doubt fornication week is next; after all, shoudn't schools offer equality in sexual sin?

But I'm behind the times. Georgetown already thought of that. In February they held their "Sex Positive Week" which, according to the Cardinal Newman Society, "included talks celebrating extra-marital sex and pornography. One talk was given by a director of pornographic films." Ah yes, what all discerning students need to know. This month G-town moved on to promoting abortion, attacking crisis pregnancy centers, and offering a propaganda lecture on how one can be both religious and pro-choice. (Can these students spell "pharisees" or "hypocrisy?" How about their professors?) Meanwhile the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on campus has been desecrated for the second time in less than a month. Any surprise? So far the administration's response is described as "tepid." It would not surprise me if they simply removed the statue. After all, there's nothing much Catholic about Georgetown these days and it's such a nuisance to have to clean the statue.

Please pray the rosary in atonement for the desecration. Even better make the five first Saturdays which include a specific atonement for insults to Our Lady by desecration of her images.

(NB: Note the irony of this article about the first Saturdays coming from Notre Dame's website. What could be more a desecration of the Mother of God than to invite a man who champions the destruction, not of statues, but the living image of God in His tiny infants. While you're praying the rosary, don't forget to offer it as well for Notre Dame.)

One snippet of good news. Notre Dame students are organizing a prayer rally on Palm Sunday to protest the invitation to President Obama to speak at commencement. The prayer rally will take place in front of the campus Main Building on April 5 at 2:00 p.m. Central Time after the noon Palm Sunday Mass at Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Events in the rally include: invocation, address by the ND Response Chairman, keynote speaker, Rosary, announcements, and a bringing flowers to the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. The students are inviting “all those who share our concerns to support our efforts by joining in this respectful display." The Cardinal Newman Society is asking their supporters and those who signed their petition to the university to support the students by attending the rally or praying a rosary of reparation.

See more here...

Send your kids to college so they can watch porn flicks!

The University of Maryland planned to show a hard-core porn film this weekend as part of its student activities program. The coordinator of the theater, Lisa Cunningham said, "We thought this would be something fun for the students to do, especially since we're getting close to the end of the semester...we thought it would bring out the students." Is this an adult speaking? Hey, pass out mirajuana brownies while you're at it and you'll get every stupid (and randy) kid on campus and a lot of the neighbors as well. The morally upright students will be outside picketing. But hey! The university was being responsible -- they were going to have Planned Parenthood give a talk on safe sex before the show. Maybe they'd even practice putting a condom on a banana.

But something happened on the way to the porno flick -- a handful of politicians threatened to cut off the taxpayers' money to UM. Funny how being threatened with the loss of millions of dollars made the administration listen up and think twice. So the students may have to study this weekend instead. What a terrible alternative. Wonder what the parents who are paying big buck for their kids "education" think.

During the debate on the floor of the Senate the legislators kept having to change the subject because of the youngsters coming in on field trips. Maybe the politicians should take over the administration of UM; they apparently have more sense.

For more read:

Screening of porn film at University of Maryland canceled

More bishops speak out on Notre Dame

View earlier post.


Cardinal Francis George

Bishop Thomas Doran

Tally from LifeSite News

1) Bishop John D'Arcy - Fort Wayne-South Bend
2) Cardinal Francis George - Chicago, President, USCCB
3) Archbishop John C. Nienstedt - Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota
4) Bishop Morlino - Madison
5) Bishop Robert Lynch - St. Petersburg
6) Archbishop Timothy Dolan - New York
7) Cardinal Daniel DiNardo - Houston
8) Bishop Thomas Olmsted
9) Bishop Gregory Aymond - Austin A
10) Archbishop John J. Myers - Newark
11) Reverend Edward J. Slattery, Tulsa
12) Bishop Kevin Rhoades - Harrisburg
13) Bishop R. Walker Nickless - Sioux City.