Real Catholic Blog

Here is a message from Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests For Life, from last week. It’s succinct, but powerful. We cannot let the soon to be hectic time of year distract us from the importance of the health care legislation pending in Congress, for it most assuredly will undermine the sanctity of the unborn.

Advent is upon us when we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, the miracle of the Word made flesh. How can we celebrate that birth but forget the destruction of millions of unborn children each year, each a miracle itself, miracles denied by abortion? Please pray vigilantly for the end of abortion.

Dear Friends,

Sunday (was) the Feast of Christ the King and the last Sunday of the liturgical year. The following week, Advent begins and the Church focuses on the coming of Christ, both at Christmas and at the end of time.

Christ is truly king over heaven and earth. How important it is for us to remember that in this battle for health care reform to protect the unborn. This battle is ultimately about who rules over us; it is about who our King is. Our worship of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords impels us to communicate with our elected representatives and urge them to do what is right.

God bless you.

- Fr. Frank Pavone

President Barack Obama must be on the defensive. In fact, he’s publicly quoting Bible verses now, saying some are “bearing false witness” against his health care “reform” legislation. He’s even found time to preach, calling his health care plan a “moral obligation” (see CNSNews.com). However, he particularly detests people who are bringing to light the truth about how this bill will fund abortion on demand.

One of those people is Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia and chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities. The president said in a radio interview today that anyone who says the bill will cover abortion services is committing a “fabrication.”  (If so, then why is Planned Parenthood in on the crafting of this bill?)

This is what Cardinal Rigali wrote in his pastoral letter (see entire letter here):

Because some federal funds are authorized and appropriated by this legislation without passing through the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, they are not covered by the Hyde amendment and other federal provisions that have long prevented federal funding of abortion and of health benefits packages that include abortion. The committee rejected an amendment to extend this longstanding policy to the use of federal subsidies for health care premiums under this Act. Instead the committee created a legal fiction, a paper separation between federal funding and abortion: Federal funds will subsidize the public plan, as well as private health plans that include abortion on demand; but anyone who purchases these plans is required to pay a premium out of his or her own pocket (specified in the Act to be at least $1.00 a month) to cover all abortions beyond those eligible for federal funds under the current Hyde amendment. Thus some will claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion under the Act.

But this is an illusion. Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions.

When the president spoke at Notre Dame this past spring, he waxed on about coming together with Catholics, finding areas of agreement and respectfully disagreeing when necessary after honest dialogue. It looks here as if Cardinal Rigali knows more about the president’s own bill than the president does. But it doesn’t sound like the president truly is interested in honest dialogue.

So, for his respectful disagreement and research on the issue, this is how the leader of the free world reaches out to one of the American Church’s leaders. Just who is fabricating here, Mr. President?