Real Catholic Blog

Many of you probably remember the purported 70,000 nuns who, during the final hours leading up to the health care bill vote in the House of Representatives, announced their support for the bill — and this was before the window dressing executive order bone President Obama threw Rep. Bart Stupak, the allegedly pro-life Democrat from Michigan. Making matters worse is the gloating from the vile, nefarious group Planned Parenthood.

Thomas Peters, at CatholicVoteAction.org Blog, makes note of the thank you message sent to the nuns by Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood. The abortion-on-demand leader wrote this Wednesday on the left-wing Huffington Post:

Richards claimed that it was Catholic nuns who “most importantly broke with the bishops and the Vatican to announce their support for health care reform.”

“This brave and important move, demonstrating that they cared as much about the health care of families in America as they did about church hierarchy, was a critical demonstration of support.”

These nuns must know Catholic Teaching. They must also know the heinous nature of Planned Parenthood. Most people, even if unfamiliar with an issue or proposal, can make an informed decision based on who supports and opposes it. Doubtless, these nuns knew the issue involved.

But even if they didn’t and were sold a bill of goods, in what world are they, or any Catholic with proper formation, living in when they side with Planned Parenthood? On anything?

The March For Life draws about 300,000-400,000 people each year to Washington, D.C., on the anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision, to remind lawmakers and the public that legalized abortion is not a forgotten issue in America. If that number is impressive, this year’s may double because of the proposed health care “reform” legislation in Congress that will expand abortion-on-demand by mandating insurance companies offer coverage, by eliminating conscious protections for medical professionals and offering tax payer funded abortions.

Stephen Phelan, communications manager for the Front Royal, Va.-based Human Life International, told Tim Drake of the National Catholic Register:

They said that last year there were between 300,000-400,000. How many more people come out this year because of the healthcare bill is uncertain, but there’s definitely a lot of energy. Every poll indicates that between 75-80% of people are opposed to abortion coverage in the bill, and in Massachusetts we’re seeing that even middle-of-the-road people are upset with this bill.

The Stop The Abortion Mandate Coalition is asking people to schedule meetings with their representatives and senators while in Washington (see video below). Meanwhile, Human Life International is hosting a conference at the March For Life that will include international pro-life leaders from Africa, Europe, South America, Asia and Oceania.

Although we encourage as many people as possible to attend the March For Life, we understand that it isn’t feasible for everyone. So does AUL Action. So it has created a Web site where you can participate in a “virtual March For Life” (click here). So, attend if you can. Participate over the Internet if you must. Either way, remember to write your representative and senators and urge them to vote against any bill that mandates abortion coverage, tax payer funding and the weakening of medical professionals’ conscience protections. The, most importantly, continue to pray for a just outcome.

March For Life . . . and visit your Congressional representatives while you’re at it. The Stop The Abortion Mandate Coalition tells you how to maximize your time in Washington this week.

It looks like U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) is in a bit of a bind. In an attempt to embarrass his bishop last fall — His Excellency Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island — to cover himself for his shameless advocacy of abortion-on-demand despite his professed Catholicism, he has seen his poll numbers drop. According to one cited on a cable news show last night, it’s down to 37 percent.

Mr. Kennedy has become so weak that the normally deep, deep blue Congressional district he represents is now competitive. Republican State Rep. John Loughlin (EastBayRI.com) now is on the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee’s “watch list” (Providence Journal Blog) as a possible target race. Not only that, but Representative Kennedy seems to have invited primary opposition (Los Angeles Times) as well.

It’s too early to tell, but maybe Mr. Kennedy will learn a bit of a lesson: Keep private conversations private and learn your Catechism before you do spout off. Perhaps most importantly, despite assertions to the contrary, it’s the Left that uses the Church for political gain; so now, perhaps, he and others  will learn the pitfalls of such cynical ploys that attempt to belittle and demean others and their reputations.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a feel good story about a lost soul finding the Light of the World. But it is true. George Soros, the extremely leftist billionaire, an admitted atheist who believes in — and uses his vast fortune to advance — abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, euthanasia, sex workers’ rights and plethora of  radical, secular progressive issues, is a major funder of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  

CCHD is the arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the faithful support for its programs that aidthe poor. CCHD takes the money it receives and distributes grants to several organizations that work on poverty issues. Among those organizations: the notoriously corrupt ACORN. After this came to the USCCBs’ attention last year, it cut off funding to ACORN — after several years and $7.3 million hard earned dollars from the faithful.

Now, it’s a bit of the reverse. Soros, through a leftist organization he started, the Open Society Institute, has funded the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, an organization  formed by the bishops, to the tune of more than $500,000. Among the goals of the network: To advance the socialized medicine legislation now before Congress (including language permissive of taxpayer funding of abortion). So, we have an atheist funding the Catholic bishops. Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media, and writing for Right Side News, has the story, here.

Here’s an excerpt from Kincaid: 

But a review of the records of his (Soros’) Open Society Institute finds that a group calling itself Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) has received $200,000 from them over the last several years.

James Todd of Pewsitter.com, which represents traditional Catholics, calls such groups “CINOs,” or Catholics In Name Only. He explains, “This group and several others have sprung up recently — I suspect purposely organized and funded — to counterbalance the growing influence of the faithful Catholics AND to try to deceive and mislead the middle of the road Catholics that have determined the last 13 Presidential elections.”

An AIM investigation also finds, however, that Soros money has gone into the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), an organization established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops back in 1988. It has received at least $530,000 from the Open Society Institute.

It’s a pretty tangled web, with elements of money laundering and front groups. As such, it’s pretty alarming — and disappointing about our bishops. It’s worth reading Kincaid’s entire piece — and follow the links to further educate yourself. Meanwhile, several prominent Catholics have urged boycotting contributions to the CCHD and to give directly to organizations that directly help the poor and not lobby for legislation that promotes anti-Catholic teachings.

It’s the hottest of topics in the realm of Catholics and public policy: What, on the surface, seems to be the only good thing about the health care bill barely passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Saturday night, was the Stupak Amendment, offered by Representative Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) It upholds the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortion, and explicitly denies any part of the health care bill from mandating insurance companies cover abortion services or compromises medical professionals conscience protections.

However, by passing the amendment and adding it to the bill, it made a horrible bill — which still violates Catholic teaching by eliminating health care to elderly and sickly people by rationing it and denying access to it — more palatable to certain members of the House, and was enough for them to vote in favor of the bill as a whole. Not only that, but certain radical feminists in Congress are not unhappy that the Stupak Amendment moved the bill forward to the Senate, where they are hopeful it will eventually get stripped out and eventually approved by the House after a conference report. So says U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the House’s chief deputy Democrat whip (see Life Site News).

On the other hand, as Matt Bowman of CatholicVote.org writes, passing the Stupak Amendment ultimately will make the bill distasteful for the abortion-on-demand crowd and force them to abandon ship.

So, a lot remains to be seen — and done. If you are concerned, and we all should be, it is not a time to relax under a false pretense, nor throw in the towel in frustration. Contact your senators and carry on the good fight.

Or are they temporarily disappointed? Hopefully, they’ve awakened, and wouldn’t it be sweetly ironic if it was Madam Speaker Pelosi who stirred the sleeping giant that a unified American Catholic Church can be in injecting morality into public policy. The fear is that the bishops, if health care “reform” with all pro-abortion provisions is defeated, will go back to cozying up to leftists in Congress for so-called “social justice” legislation.

Here’s the story: It appears the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is ready to take massive action, including the mobilizing of every parish in the country, to fight the abortion-on-demand health care legislation in Congress. According to Priests For Life, the bishops are calling for bulletin inserts and other communications in every parish immediately to inform American Catholics of the dangers of the legislation.

Now, if we can get the excellencies to realize that we all agree on social justice, but that social justice does not mean socialism and disregard of established law, we’d really have something.