Catholics in Political Life
Catlicos en la vida poltica
John Paul II On Catholic Universities
Executive Order 13535
Ensuring Enforcement
and Implementation of
Abortion Restrictions
Respect Life
Hope and Trust in Life
Theme of Respect Life
National Right to Life Center
Life at Risk - Nov. 2010
Documentation for Life
Rationing in the Health Law
Talking Points
and Older Americans
Exchange Limits
Shared Decisionmaking
The Vatican
Catholic Parents
Online
Good Counsel Homes
Faithful Citizenship
Current News from:
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pro-life Americans
Catholic Pro-Life
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Sanctity of Life -- Abortion
April 11, 2011 -- Archbishop Chaput
Politics and the Devil: Archbishop addresses Notre Dame students
Last Friday, April 8, Archbishop Chaput delivered the keynote address as part of the University of Notre Dame student-organized Right to Life lecture series. He encouraged the youth to be courageous in fighting for their beliefs, and to always remember what being Catholic really means.
Archdiocese of Denver
transcript of address
April 4, 2011 - ncregister.com
Life Bill Passes in South Dakota
State requires all seeking abortion to visit a pro-life pregnancy center.
In a forceful indictment of the way abortions are done in South Dakota, the state has passed a law requiring women to consult with a pro-life pregnancy center before getting an abortion.
Based on testimony of women who now regret their abortions, the state Legislature found that the overwhelming majority of women arrange their abortions without seeing a doctor or receiving any counseling about side effects.
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February 28, 2011 -- By TFP Student Action
SHOCKER: Catholic College Helps Planned Parenthood
Should Catholic universities aid Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups? The answer is obviously NO. However, Seattle University a Catholic institution offers students the option of interning for Planned Parenthood of Western Washington
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February 24, 2011 -- Catholic World Report -- Jim Graves
Look Forward and Upward
Bishop Robert Vasa on pro-abortion Catholics, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and what authentic renewal of the Church will look like
Bishop Robert Vasa has served as bishop of Baker, Oregon since 2000. On January 24, the Vatican announced that he will serve as coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California. Bishop Vasa will assist the current head of the diocese, Bishop Daniel Walsh, and then succeed him as bishop once Walsh reaches the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2012.
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February 4, 2011 -- CNA/EWTN News
Vatican to update bioethics guidelines for Catholic health care workers
The Vatican department in charge supporting Catholic health care workers has announced that it will soon release updated guidelines on bioethics issues.
The guidelines offered in the "Charter for Health Care Workers" provide a point of reference on Church teaching for medical professionals. It is being updated to provide current teaching on complex topics in the health care field like stem-cell research, reproductive issues, euthanasia and abortion.
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January 24, 2011 -- lifenews.com
Catholic Health Association Backs Bill for Obamacare Abortion De-Funding
by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 1/25/11 7:02 PM
The Catholic Health Association didnt believe abortion funding was in the final health care bill Congress approved last year and President Barack Obama signed into law, so it supported the bill. Now CHA is endorsing a measure that would remove the abortion funding from it.
Sr. Carol Keehan put forward the convoluted position in a new letter to Congressman Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, the sponsors of the legislation, sent yesterday.
I am writing to applaud your efforts to ensure the protection of the unborn and of providers conscience rights, Keehan writes. We want to offer our support for your legislation, H.R. 358, the Protect Life Act.
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"didnt believe abortion funding was in the final health care bill"?
Even after all the letters and emails we sent her? -- Unbelievable! Let's hope she repents and supports life.
January 24, 2011 -- catholic.org
Rick Santorum, Man with a Chest, Defends Right to Life and the Natural Law
Senator Rick Santorum's speech in Houston and recent interview with Terry Jeffrey are a breath of fresh air in an age of political sound bites. He is a man with a chest who defends the Right to Life and the Primacy of the Natural Law. He is man of courage in an age of cowardice
WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Throughout the day on Thursday I read the reactions from a wide ranging interview which former Senator Rick Santorum gave to Terry Jeffrey of CNSNEWS.com entitled "Santorum Says He Agrees With MLK on Moral Basis for Human Rights; Can't Understand Why Obama Would Deny Them to an Unborn Child."
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January 23, 2011 -- Catholic World Report -- Jim Graves
Bishop Robert Vasa on pro-abortion Catholics, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and what authentic renewal of the Church will look like
Bishop Vasa, age 59, has been outspoken in his defense of Catholic doctrine and moral teachings, particularly related to the life issues. He made news recently when he declared that a bishops authority in his own diocese supersedes that of the national bishops conference, stating, It is easy to forget that the conference is the vehicle to assist bishops in cooperating with each other and not a separate regulatory commission. He added, there may also be an unfortunate tendency on the part of bishops to abdicate to the conference a portion of their episcopal role and duty.
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Thank you Bishop Vasa for defending our Faith.
January 22, 2011 -- cbsnews.com
Obama Marks Anniversary Of Abortion Rights Case
On Roe V. Wade Anniversary, Obama Says He's Committed To Constitutional Right To Abortion
President Barack Obama is marking the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision on abortion by calling the procedure a constitutional right he's committed to protecting.
Obama also said in a statement Saturday that he remains committed to policies designed to prevent unintended pregnancies. And he called on Americans to recommit themselves to ensuring that, in the president's words, "our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams."
Obama said the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion affirmed what he called a "fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters."
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January 7, 2011 -- ncregister.com
Saving Big Apple Babies
Archbishop Dolan and other pro-lifers pledge to help pregnant women in need.
In response to recent statistics revealing that 41% of pregnancies in New York City in 2009 ended in abortion, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan reiterated the pledge of his predecessors to help any pregnant woman in need.
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Dec. 31, 2010 -- An NCR Editorial
Sister Keehan is The National Catholic Reporter's person of the year for 2010
"NCR has never named a person of the year, and we might not again in the future. However, as we sent our last print issue to press in the waning days of 2010, we felt the need to single out one American Catholic who showed extraordinary leadership and courage this last year."
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In defiance of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sister Keehan supported the pro abortion healh care bill.
She praised Berwick's appointment to head Medicare even though she knows that he is pro-rationing
On July 5th. 2010. The Knights of Malta pressured Keehan to resign from a prestigious hospital board post.
On March 21, 2010 -- "The Catholic Health Association applauds the U.S. House of Representatives and President Obama for enacting health care reform legislation that will bring security and health to millions of American families"
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Olmsted, Keehan and Moral Authority
"The Catholic Health Association has once again found itself at odds with Church authority- this time, over Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted's decision to revoke the Catholic status of a hospital that admitted to serious ethics violations, including a highly-publicized abortion.
... In other words, what we have here is rot and decay, corruption and collusion. We have a Church in America that has become less about truth and more about Progressivism and Social Justice, both offsprings of the Marxist ideology condemned by every Pope since Pius IX.
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Dec 29, 2010 -- courierpostonline.com
ACLU launches war on Catholic hospitals
Last Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to federal health officials urging the government to force Catholic hospitals in the United States to perform abortions in violation of their core moral commitment to protecting the lives of the unborn. They're counting on sympathetic Obama rationing czar Donald Berwick to dictate which religious principles hospital operators can and cannot follow.
The ACLU reiterated its call for a federal probe -- read: fishing expedition -- of Catholic hospitals nationwide that refuse to provide "emergency" contraception and abortions to women. In practice, of course, every request for abortion is an "emergency" to the left.
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November 24, 2010 -- CNA/EWTN News
Dioceses around the world joining Pope's 'unprecedented' pro-life vigil
Catholic bishops across the U.S. are urging all of the faithful to unite their prayers with Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, Nov. 27, in an unprecedented worldwide vigil for unborn life.
The Pope will celebrate a special Vespers service that Saturday evening at St. Peter's Basilica, heralding the first Sunday of Advent. Pope Benedict has recommended that parishes, religious communities, associations and movements join him for evening prayer, in churches throughout the world.
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USCCB Pro-Life Committee Chairman Statement --
Cardinal DiNardo calls for awareness, prayer, healing and action in defense of life
Worldwide Vigil for All Nascent Human Life set for November 27
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Lifenews: The call is not limited to Catholics
The Pope is asking that all Diocesan Bishops (and their equivalent) of every particular church preside in analogous celebrations involving the faithful in their respective parishes, religious communities, associations and movements.
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October 14, 2010 -- courageouspriest.com
"Father Frank Pavone: There Can Be No Truce On Abortion!"
Justice Demands That Human Life Be Defended!
Father Frank Pavone- It is dismaying to hear some pro-life politicians calling for a "truce" on social issues like abortion - possible White House contenders Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour among them. Their suggestion is that it's more important to do whatever is necessary to get elected than to worry about issues that appear to be intractable.
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October 12, 2010 LifeSiteNews.com -- John-Henry Westen
Vatican Archbishop Burke: Public Repentance is Required for Pro-Abort Politicians
Speaking at the Human Life International World Prayer Congress Saturday, Archbishop Raymond Burke received sustained applause when he noted that Catholic politicians who support abortion are required to repent publicly.
Speaking to pro-life leaders from 45 nations, the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura (the highest Vatican court) also noted that those who recognize the scandal caused by such public, dissident Catholics assist the Church in repairing a serious breach, but are nevertheless often ridiculed for it.
Achibishop Burke stressed that both bishops and the faithful must be obedient to the Magisterium which he described as the teaching of Christ as handed down through the successor of Peter and the bishops in union with him.
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Read the complete talk - in PDF format
September 30, 2010 -- Washington Post -- Rob Stein
Scientists overcome hurdles to stem cell alternatives
Scientists reported Thursday they had developed a technique that can quickly create safe alternatives to human embryonic stem cells, a major advance toward developing a less controversial approach for treating for a host of medical problems.
The researchers published a series of experiments showing they can use laboratory-made versions of naturally occurring biological signals to quickly convert ordinary skin cells into cells that appear virtually identical to embryonic stem cells. Moreover, the same strategy can then coax those cells to morph into specific tissues that would be a perfect match for transplantation into patients.
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September 9, 2010
August 2011 marks the United Nations "International Year of Youth," a year, in theory, that exists to promote the full flourishing of youth and their participation in society. In reality, however, the "International Year of Youth" threatens to be a stage for empowering youth by rejecting traditional views on life, the family, and sexuality.
Advocates on the sexual left are pushing for the expansion and enforcement of youths sexual and reproductive rights, which means access to abortion and contraception, and the rejection of gender for youth. Those who hold these ideas will attempt to encode them into official UN conventions and policies, beginning with the statement issued from the World Youth Conference in Mexico this August.
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Please sign and promote the youth statement
August 25, 2010
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE)
FBI and the Department of Justice join pro abrtion groups for FACE act training.
Among the organisers and speakers:
National Center Women and Policing
Criminal Section Civil Rights Department of Justice
Civil Rights Unit FBI HQ
National Abortion Federation
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
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Aug 16, 2010 -- CNA News
Chilean bishop urges defense of life in order to end 'culture of death'
While in Mexico attending an event organized by the Latin American Bishops Conference, Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Chomali of Santiago in Chile, who is an expert in bioethics, stressed the urgent need to defend life, marriage and the family, both in pastoral work and in the political world.
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Jul 15, 2010 -- (CNA/EWTN News).-
New Mexico cancels plan to cover elective abortion with federal funds
Press inquiries and pressure from pro-life groups appear to have caused a federally funded New Mexico health insurance program to drop elective abortion from its list of covered procedures.
The New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool (NMNIP), an effort of the Obama Administration's recent health care overhaul, was the subject of media inquiry and intense criticism by pro-life groups as it previously covered elective abortions using federal funds.
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July 15, 2010 -- (CNS)
Cardinal praises HHS for reiterating abortion exclusion in health plans
The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities praised the Department of Health and Human Services July 15 for reaffirming that no federal funds will be provided to cover elective abortions under state-run health insurance plans. The statement came from Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston after HHS spokeswoman Jenny Backus said that "in Pennsylvania and in all other states, abortion will not be covered in the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan except in the cases of rape or incest, or where the life of the woman would be endangered."
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We hope and pray that Jenny Backus is right.
July 14, 2010 -- By Susan Jones -- (CNSNews.com)
Obama Administration Approves First Direct Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Through New High-Risk Insurance Pools
If you want proof that President Obama's Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio)
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April 9, 2010 -- Deal W. Hudson -- insidecatholic.com
Sr. Anita Baird Apologizes for Defending Obama
The day after she defended Obama as "pro-choice," as opposed to "pro-abortion," Sr. Anita Baird, an employee of the Archdiocese of Chicago, apologized for the remark.
The relevant portion of the apology is found at LifeSiteNews:
"In order to clarify my quote that appeared on LifeSiteNews.com, I am affirming my belief in the teachings of the Catholic Church and understand that there can be no distinction between pro-abortion and pro-choice, because the choice at issue is the choice to kill a child," wrote Baird in a statement released Wednesday. "I also apologize to those who were scandalized by my statement."
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April 8, 2010 -- Ed
This pro-abortion bill would not have passed without the help of Catholic nuns:
Sister Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association.
Sister Simone Campbell of Network.
They must have understood that they were supporting taxpayer funded abortion. If they did not, they don't deserve their high positions.
April 7, 2010 -- Deal Hudson
Archdiocese of Chicagos Sister Baird Defends Obama As "Pro-Choice"
The President is not pro-abortion, the President is pro-choice. I think they are two very different things. This is a mantra we often hear from Catholics who support pro-abortion politicians, but this time they were uttered in support of President Obama.
The words came from Sr. Anita Baird, the founding director of the Office of Racial Justice at the Archdiocese of Chicago. She was being interviewed by Kathleen Gilbert of LifeSiteNews.com on the upcoming event honoring Chicago priest, Fr. Michael Pfleger, who publicly announced Obama was the best thing to come across the political scene since Bobby Kennedy. He was serving, at the time, as a volunteer adviser to the Obama campaign and a member of the Catholics for Obama Committee.
Cardinal George, Pflegers ordinary in Chicago, suspended him from his parish for two weeks after his outburst praising Obama. Sr. Baird told LifeSiteNews.com Fr. Pflegers public support for Obama was not an issue here, since he had served a two-week suspension from his parish, St. Sabinas.
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In Vitro Fertilization - Why Not?:
A refresher on the Church's teaching
The faceoff a couple of weeks ago between the Catholic Healthcare Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops over the senate healthcare bill underscored the reality of deep-seated disagreements and confusion over Catholic teaching on key moral issues. Of the many we could list, perhaps no other has been so under-taught and consequently misunderstood than the Church's stance on in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The Catholic Church teaches that IVF is morally illicit without exception, even when the couple uses their own egg and sperm, and without super-ovulation of the mother or the creation of multiple embryos for implantation. Catholics and non-Catholics alike have struggled to understand this moral teaching and wonder how the Church can condemn a medical procedure aimed at bringing about new human lives.
Father Thomas Berg -- April 06, 2010
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The President
Executive Order 13535 of March 24, 2010
Ensuring Enforcement and Implementation of Abortion Restrictions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the ''Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act'' (Public Law 111-148), I hereby order as follows:
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Washington D.C., Mar 24, 2010 (CNA).- Sister Carol Keehan, President of the Catholic Health Association, has been awarded with one of the 21 pens used by President Barack Obama on Tuesday to sign the health care bill.
Sister Keehan, who strongly supported the controversial health care bill despite the opposition of the U.S. bishops, was joined in receiving presidential pens by some of the most strongly pro-abortion members of the Congress: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Senator Dick Durbin, majority whip; Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee; Senators Tom Harkin and Christopher Dodd; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer; James Clyburn, majority whip; George Miller, chairman of the Education committee; Henry Waxman, chairman of Energy and Commerce; Sander Levin, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee; John Dingell and Charles Rangel, former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Millions of babies were sentenced to death and the fate of Catholic hospitals jeopardized.
March 21, 2010
Catholic Health Association Congratulates Nation's Leaders for Enacting Historic Health Reform
Millions of People Will be Helped, Lives Saved
The following statement is being released by Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, president and chief executive office of the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA):
The Catholic Health Association applauds the U.S. House of Representatives and President Obama for enacting health care reform legislation that will bring security and health to millions of American families. The reform law will save and improve lives across our country. It represents great progress in the long effort to make health care available and affordable to everyone in the United States.
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and millions of babies will be aborted. Do you care Sr. Keehan?
March 21, 2010
"NETWORK congratulates the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the historic healthcare reform legislation. This is a remarkable time in our nations history as we finally take concrete steps to bring healthcare to tens of millions of people who have been denied this essential right. Providing them with healthcare while continuing to make sure that federal money does not go to abortion will save many, many lives.
NETWORK helped make this happen!"
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Federal money will go to abortion and NETWORK helped.
March 14, 2010 -- catholicadvocate
Catholic Health Association's Support for Health Care Bill Exposes Failure of USCCB Strategy
The Catholic Health Association, a lobbying group for Catholic hospitals, has now offered its support for the health care bill containing abortion funding. A statement from CHA president, Sr. Carol Keehan, expresses concern on life issues while underscoring the bills requirement that a separate check would have to be written for abortion coverage.
Keehans statement, along with the March 11 letter of her vice president, Michael F. Rodgers to the Congress, is a masterpiece of doublespeak. On behalf of CHA, both Keehan and Rodgers urge passage of the bill. But, while Keehan cites the separate check stipulation for abortion coverage to assuage her concern, Rodgers admits abortion coverage would have to be amended in a second corrections bill.
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March 21, 2010
Nuns Gone Wild
Liberal Nuns Support Abortion Funding
in the Name of Social Justice
Father Z reaches out to correct disillusioned Nuns in an article he called A Magisterium of Nuns.
Fr. Z - In this matter of contingent, prudential judgments, whose judgment will in time prove to have been the more prudent?
The Catholic bishops with pro-life groups or their opposition, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and Catholic Health Association (CHA) and National Catholic Reporter (NCR), etc?
I happen to think the bishops are right and the CHA and NCR and LCWR are wrong. I think the bishops are right this time, not because they are bishops, by the way, but because they happen to be right. Even if there really is a barrier between federal money and the procuring of abortions, a barrier which might allow a Catholic legislator in this byzantine tangle to vote for the bill, is that barrier going to stand?
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February 12, 2010
Reid: Abortion should not scuttle health care bill
Sen. Harry Reids move to scuttle a fellow Democrats effort to toughen abortion restrictions in the health care bill was the plain pragmatism of a majority leader who knows where the votes are - and faces a tough re-election next year.
Nelsons amendment drew the opposition of senators who favor abortion rights, and jeopardized legislation that would deliver on President Barack Obamas top legislative priority and boost Reids difficult prospects for a fifth Senate term.
In a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday event, the Nevada Democrat urged his colleagues to reject Sen. Ben Nelsons amendment to stiffen curbs on abortion in the worked-over health care bill. Reid opposes abortion but recognized the threat Nelsons amendment posed to the overall bill to expand health coverage to some 30 million uninsured Americans.
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Health Reform 2009
December 10, 2009 - Rachel Larris
Rebuked Pro-Choice Nun Still Fighting For Women's Rights
Just because she was officially rebuked, she hasn't backed down. Sister Donna Quinn, the Chicago Roman Catholic nun who was reprimanded last month for her years of work volunteering as an abortion clinic escort, is still backing women's reproductive rights, which puts her in opposition to the leadership of the U.S. Catholic Church. Sister Quinn recently sent a thank you note to activists who lobbied their senators to vote against the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment.
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August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)
American Nuns Honor Pro-Abortion Cokie Roberts
While American Catholic nuns continue to undergo scrutiny from a Vatican investigation, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) invited Cokie Roberts, a political commentator who has criticized the Church's prohibition against abortion, contraception, and homosexuality, as the keynote speaker for their annual meeting this week. Another Catholic group, Supporting Our Aging Religious (SOAR), has announced it will host a dinner in honor of Roberts and her husband Steve in November of this year.
New Orleans native Cokie Roberts spoke at the LCWR summit in the same city Tuesday, according to a Times-Picayune report.
Cokie Roberts, a Roman Catholic, is an ABC News political commentator and National Public Radio senior news analyst who has spoken out against laws restricting abortion. Roberts characterized the partial-birth abortion ban as "cynical game-playing" by pro-life activists, and said she found it "offensive as a woman" that the Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2007.
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August 12, 2009 -- Kathleen Gilbert -- LifeSiteNews.com
NETWORK's Sr. Campbell Backs Ryan-DeLauro "Planned Parenthood Bailout Bill"
Measure Mandates that State Medical Programs Include Abortion
- The executive director of the Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK and other left-leaning Catholic groups have heaped praise on a bill issued by two pro-abortion legislators that, while touted as a "common ground" measure, would both pour more federal funding into Planned Parenthood and mandate abortion coverage in state medical assistance programs.
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August 10, 2009 -- Alex Majthenyi
To: Sister Carol Keehan
Subject: Health Care
The current health care reform bill clearly supports taxpayer funded abortions.
The current administration will not pass a plan that does not include abortion.
Please stop supporting health care reform.
Please stop supporting abortion.
Alex Majthenyi
August 10, 2009
Reply:
From: Sister Carol Keehan [mailto:ckeehan@chausa.org]
To: 'Alex Majthenyi'
Subject: REPLY RE: Health Care
Alex Majthenyi: For the last two years the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA) has been guided by the foundational document, "Our Vision for U.S. Health Care," ( http://www.catholichealthcare.us/NR/rdonlyres/E60430CC-C0FD-4099-A563-A1C621DC83A2/0/OurVisionDoc.pdf ) which details the moral case for reform by clearly presenting a set of values and principles.
The lead value is: "Human Dignity: Because each person is created in the image of God, each life is sacred and possesses inalienable worth.
Health care is essential to promoting and protecting the inherent dignity of every individual from conception to natural death." Among the principles articulated is: "Health care in the U.S. should be patient centered and designed to address health needs at all stages of life, from conception to natural death." The Catholic health ministry of the Church continues Jesus mission of love and healing and is rooted in the belief that every life is a sacred gift.
Guided by these values, principles, and Catholic social teaching, CHA has written letters to members of Congress and the White House often in conjunction with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops calling for legislation that does not include an expansion of abortion. Furthermore, our commitment to the inherent dignity of all persons has called us to advocate laws and policies that protect our religious and moral tenets. In personal conversations with members of Congress and their staffs and in letters, CHA continues to work to ensure that public policies reflect the importance of religious freedom and conscience clause protections in the delivery of health and social services. Clearly, our letters, statements, web-based information and outreach efforts speak eloquently to the deep commitment to the dignity of life. Therefore, the association and its members continue to push a legislative agenda that would commit this nation to respecting the dignity and life of each person while ensuring enactment of a health care system that is of the greatest possible quality and available and accessible to everyone. Also, I invite you to read the Catholic News Service article on our position http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0903516.htm . Best wishes.
Fred Caesar
Special Assistant to the President - Communications Catholic Health Association of the United States
1875 Eye Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC, 20006-5440
P (swb): 202-296-3993
F: 202-296-3997
E: fcaesar@
chausa.org
August 10, 2009
To:Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director
NETWORK
President Obama is pro-abortion and a strong supporter of the "Freedom of Choice Act". As Senator, Obama said: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do."
The proposed Health Care Reform bills are ambiguous and leave ample room for interpretation. Abortion is not mentioned in the but certainly would be covered. Legislators have stated that they would not include abortion limitations in the bill and have repeatedly defeated pro-life amendments.
We realize that your organization may be supporting it hoping that it will be amended to ban abortions It will not. If the bill passes taxpayers will be funding abortions.
Supporting this bill is supporting abortion. Supporting it also provides propaganda material for the administration, misleads Catholics and will alienate contributors.
You state that "we can't miss this opportunity to do something" but supporting abortion is worse than doing nothing.
Alex Majthenyi
No Reply
"Freedom of Choice Act" FOCA
July 17, 2007
"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.
That's the first thing that I'd do."
Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. July 17, 2007
April 26, 2007
The House bill, H.R. 1964, was introduced by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who is the chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee that has jurisdiction over such legislation. The House bill had 71 cosponsors. (70 Democrats, 1 Republican)
The Senate bill, S. 1173, introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.), had 13 Democratic cosponsors,
The bills would invalidate all federal and state limitations on abortion and prohibit denial of choice:
(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman;
Text of House bill
Text of Senate bill
April 18, 2007
The U.S. Supreme Court decision upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The next day, Democratic members of Congress reintroduced the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA), a proposed federal law to nullify virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion.
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The Gospel of Life
Health Care Rationing & End of Life
On March 23, 2010 President Obama signed into law an anti-life, unpopular healthcare restructuring plan, passed by the slimmest of margins. If the Obama Health Care Rationing Law is not repealed by 2013 before its most dangerous provisions come into effect, the result will be the rationing denial of lifesaving medical treatment, and consequent premature and involuntary death, of an unknown but immense number of Americans. The pro-life movement must devote itself over the upcoming critical years to ensuring that the American people are given the facts needed to counter the misinformation.
Under the Obama Health Care Law, doctors and hospitals will no longer be free to determine, in consultation with the patient, what treatment and diagnostic tests are best suited to the patients condition. Instead, as a condition of being allowed to contract with qualified health insurance plans, all doctors and other health care providers will have to comply with quality and efficiency standards imposed by Washington with the objective of forcing private health care spending below the rate of medical inflation.
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November 2010 - National Right to Life Center
Life at Risk -- Four Routes to Rationing
How the Obama Health Care Plan Will Ration Your Familys Medical Treatment - A Factsheet
1. How the Law Will Limit What Health Care Providers Can Do to Save the Lives of Your Family Members
2. Medicare: How the Law Limits Senior Citizens Right to Use Your Own Money to Save Your Own Life
3. How Insurance Exchanges Will Limit Your Right to Use Your Own Money to Save Your Family Membersf Lives
4. Shared Decisionmaking.: How the Law Tries to Persuade Patients They are Better Off Without Treatment
Document (pdf)
Rationing in the Obama Health Law
"If you remember nothing else, remember and relate the rationing danger of the Independent Payment Advisory Commission:"
The report(pdf)
We Are The People of Life
By Father Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
The Gospel of Life is not just another document. It is literally a celebration. It celebrates Christ, who is personally the Gospel and the Life. It celebrates humanity, love, and true freedom.
The Church knows how to celebrate. The world has forgotten. The Church knows how to receive and give life and love. In fact, the very meaning of life is to give and receive love (see paragraph #81). But the world has become too preoccupied with usefulness, efficiency, and productivity (#22). The world is too busy with its frantic flight from all suffering and death (#64, #66-67). It flees these because it has forgotten what they mean. It sees them only as things to be avoided and controlled. Ironically, such forgetfulness envelops the world even more in the very things it tries to escape. And in the midst of its slavery to death, the world shouts about freedom, all the while fearing it will be shackled by the one who brings true freedom, namely, Christ.
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How important is it to proclaim the entire Gospel of Life?
Father Tom Euteneuer
If you dont proclaim the whole Gospel of Life, youre just anti-abortion. And it is important to be anti-abortion, but the Church isnt only anti-abortion. As we see the Churchs comprehensive teaching on the life issues, it sees the sanctity of human life from across the spectrum, from the moment of natural conception to the moment of natural death. And it sees human life inserted into the context of certain sacred realities like marriage and family, which are divine institutions.
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Father Thomas J Euteneur is the President of Human Life International, (HLI) based in Front Royal Virginia. He has held this position since December 2000.
Archbishop Burke Laments "Party of Death"
ROME, OCT. 2, 2008 -- ZENIT.org News Agency
With a heavy heart, Archbishop Raymond Burke acknowledges that the U.S. Democratic Party is quickly moving to become the "party of death."
The new head of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature said this in an interview published Saturday by the Italian episcopal conference's daily newspaper Avvenire.
In this interview conducted by Gianni Cardinale, the archbishop, who was formerly the archbishop of St. Louis, comments on his move to Rome and his views of election-year politics in the United States.
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The Vatican's Summary of "Evangelium Vitae"
Released by the Vatican on March 30, 1995 along with the encyclical.
From its very title, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), the new encyclical of Pope John Paul II demonstrates its highly positive character and its great spiritual thrust. While realistically countering unprecedented threats to life and the spread of a "culture of death," the primary intention of the papal document is to proclaim the good news of the value and dignity of each human life, of its grandeur and worth, also in its temporal phase. The cause of life is in fact at the same time the cause of the Gospel and the cause of man, the cause entrusted to the church.
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Evangelium vitae
Ioannes Paulus PP. II -- 1995.03.25
Text of the encyclical
Healthcare Reform
January 5, 2011 -- Steven Ertelt -- LifeNews.com
Obama Admin Removes Death Panels After Pro-Life Backlash
After massive pro-life backlash following the publication of new rules instituting "death panels," the Obama administration has agreed to remove them from ObamaCare.
The "death panels" caused considerable concern for pro-life groups, which believe they would have given financial incentives to doctors to hold end-of-life discussions with patients that will lead to the rationing of their medical care.
Under the regulations the Obama administration put in place in December, which LifeNews.com was the first to cover, doctors would instruct patients in the annual "voluntary" exams to write "advance directives listing the kind of treatment they wish to receive or not receive if they are unable to make their own medical decisions.
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July 15, 2010 (C-FAM) -- by Joan Frawley Desmond -- National Catholic Register
Sister Carol Keehan: 'I Don't Worry About Us Rationing'
Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, came under fire from some quarters when she vocally supported this year's congressional reform of the health-care delivery system.
Now Sister Carol, a member of the Daughters of Charity, is being criticized for her support of Dr. Donald Berwick, a professor at Harvard Medical School who received a recess appointment from President Obama to be administrator of the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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Jul 9, 2010 -- (CNA)
Catholic Health Association praises Berwick recess appointment to Medicare post.
The Catholic Health Association (CHA) has applauded President Obamas recess appointment of Harvard pediatrician Dr. Donald Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Sr. Carol Keehan, D.C., CHAs president and chief executive officer, said Berwick is needed to work on the health care mandates created by the recent health care legislation. In a Wednesday CHA press release, she reported that CMS has not had a permanent administrator since 2006.
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The same Catholic "nun" who supported and applauded the Obama pro-abortion health carwe bill is now applauding the choice of a pro rationing director.
On June 8th, 2010 American Life League President Judie Brown called for Cardinal Francis George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to demand the removal of Sr. Carol Keehan from her position as head of the Catholic Health Association.
On July 5th. The Knights of Malta pressured Keehan to resign from a prestigious hospital board post.
Cardinal Francis George, please restore our faith in the Conference of Catholic Bishops and request her dismissal.
President Omama's view:
At a healthcare town hall, he says stopping futile procedures for the terminally ill can lower costs.
Reporting from Washington President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive and ultimately futile procedures performed on people who are about to die and don't stand to gain from the extra care.
In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."
He added: "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller."
Source: Obama discusses deathbed measures
Peter Nicholas, LA Times, June 25, 2009
The Republican Party's Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights is straightforward. It calls for:
* Protecting Medicare and not cutting it in the name of "health care reform;"
* Prohibiting government from getting between seniors and their doctors;
* Outlawing any effort to ration health care based on age;
* Preventing government from interfering with end-of-life care discussions;
* Ensuring seniors can keep their current coverage; and,
* Protecting veterans by preserving Tricare and other benefit programs for military families.
The Veterans Administration
Wile this policy is being debated another end of life publication surfaced at the Veterans Administration:
Your Life, Your Choices: Planning for Future Medical Decisions
This 52 page booklet was produced in 1997 but was withdrawn. It was again produced and distributed in August of 2009. It was posted to the VA website at: http://www1.va.gov/pugetsound/docs/ylyc.pdf
As of today (Aug 24, 2009) that address returns an error message: PAGE NOT FOUND
Elswhere on the VA site we found the booklet with this message::
Note The following is a 1997 publication that was produced under VA IIR Grant No. 94-050, "Development of an Advance Care Planning Workbook," 4/01/95 3/31/97.
The document is currently undergoing revision for release in VA. The revised version will be available soon.
In any case, you will probably receive a similar booklet if a health reform bill passes. Meanwile, you can read the booklet here:
Your Life, Your Choices
Mother Teresa
Augut 25, 2010 -- CALCUTTA, India, (Zenit.org)
"Mother Teresa wanted everyone to know and love Jesus... She was convinced that every soul desires Jesus' salvation, whether or not he realizes it. The work of conversion, however, remains a work of God. It is not our task. Only God can convert a soul. Mother Teresa dedicated her own life to the task of loving Jesus and transmitting this love to those around her. That was her only goal."
Sister Mary Prema, superior-general of the Missionaries of Charity on the 100th Anniversary of Mother Teresa's Birth
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February 3, 1994 -- Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, DC
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.
And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
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