Real Catholic Blog

When I saw the “Tim and Pam Tebow Pro-Life Ad” earlier today, I was astounded. What was all the fuss about from the pro-abortion groups? Unless, of course, they are against free speech. That may be because they certainly are against choice, at least when that choice is a woman carrying her baby to term and giving birth. But, decide for yourself. Here’s the ad by Focus On The Family:

The “controversial” Tim and Pam Tebow pro-life ad: Not much to it, but it does ask that you see the full story at Focus On The Family’s Web site.

Below is a very informative video from RealCatholicTV.com (via YouTube.com) about corruption and scandal at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, especially as it relates to personnel there and the activities in which they are engaged which are counter to the teachings of the Church. One individual, John Carr, served on the board of the radical leftist group Center for Community Change (see Bellarmine Veritas Ministry).

Mr. Carr and others at the USCCB are funding organizations — remember the revelation of its funding to ACORN? — that have a left-wing political agenda including those that work to advance the agendas of pro-abortion and homosexual rights groups. As Michael Voris (Catholic.org) and Vic Faust (The American Catholic) explains in the video, it calls into question the role of the USCCB. For example, the Conference doesn’t rule on doctrine and teaching — that is up to the Vatican.

However, that doesn’t stop it from issuing letters, which it represents as authoritative. But its biggest fault is that it has and continues to staff its organization with leftist political ideologues who have, since the USCCB’s inception, used the imprimatur of the U.S. Bishops to influence the notions of the faithful, seminaries and Catholic colleges. In this way, it has poisoned the faithful by confusing them as to what the Church (God) teaches. This has led to division within the Church and a weakened voice in the culture of our country which abets abortion, a weakening of marriage and a general deterioration of our culture and spiritual lives.  

By the way, we have added two sources from the video — RealCatholicTV itself and Bellarmine Veritas Ministry to our Media section and Blogroll, respectively. Two others, American Life League (see article) and Pew Sitter (see article) are mainstays in our Public Policy Section and Media sections, respectively.

The USCCB needs a staff and policy house cleaning. Michael Voris and Vic Faust  provide a detailed report.

I just received this e-mail from our friends at CatholicVote.org. Last week, its president, Brian Burch, asked people to sign a petition to back up CBS’ decision to air an pro-life ad during this Sunday’s Super Bowl, featuring star college quarterback Tim Tebow and his mom, who was urged to abort him 20-plus years ago. Big money pro-abortion groups have pressured CBS to pull the ad, so CatholicVote.org stepped in as a counter balance. We hope you signed on. Here’s Brian’s update:

Dear CatholicVote Member,

The President of CBS received a surprise at 9:53 a.m. yesterday.

A large Fed Ex box filled with nearly 500 pages of signatures from over 50,000 friends of CatholicVote arrived at the office of CBS President Leslie Moonves.

Enclosed in the package was a personal letter thanking CBS for standing firm and agreeing to air the ad produced by Focus on the Family featuring Florida football star Tim Tebow and his mother.

I explained that CatholicVote was especially interested in their decision because of our own efforts last year. With your help last January, we pushed hard to have our ad featuring President Obama aired during the Super Bowl.

NBC ultimately rejected the ad, yet I remain enormously proud of what we did together. We stood firm for the principle that every human life matters. We proudly stepped forward to tell the world that every human life is a gift — including the lives of those with whom we may disagree.

We had 2 million people watch our ad on YouTube over the past 12 months, while also sparking a healthy discussion in the media and on the Internet. And the ad was mentioned repeatedly again this year as controversy over the Tebow ad was discussed.

Did we help pave the way for this year’s Tebow ad to be aired? Who knows? What really matters is that we are winning.

Focus on the Family has taken the lead in making a Super Bowl ad a reality for an estimated 400 million people around the world. They deserve our heartfelt thanks.

I know when I see the ad this Sunday, my heart will swell with pride. This ad is not merely a story about Pam Tebow and her son, but also a statement about being pro-life in America.

We aren’t outsiders. We are mainstream, proud, and inspiring the rest of America with what we believe.

And more people every day are coming to see what we see: Life is indeed beautiful.

Be sure to catch Thomas Peters on Fox News tonight. Enjoy the Super Bowl. See you next week.

Sincerely,

Brian Burch, President

CatholicVote.org

P.S. Send us your prediction on the score for the Super Bowl. Pick the winner and the score. Whoever is closest will receive a surprise gift next week and get a shout out at our legislative arm, CatholicVoteAction.org. (Our combined sites receive 15,000 visitors every day!)

Last night, Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, R.I., appeared on The O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel to dispel myths and misstatements about his role as Bishop in dealing with Church Scandal — that is, the misrepresentation of Church Teaching by one who claims to be of the Faithful. In this case, that someone is a public and powerful person, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) (see Yahoo! News), who publicly claims it is fine to be pro-abortion-on-demand and be a Catholic in good standing.

Something new to me in watching the interview is that Bishop Tobin is the author of the new book, Effective Faith. I hope to have more on this in the near future. The interview itself was excellent. Bill O’Reilly was thorough in his questions and effectively took the opposing angle. Bishop Tobin’s responses regardig why Rep. Kennedy should not receive Holy Communion were grounded in the Truth, so it was no surprise he was unruffled, firm and unapologetic, while laying out the Church’s teachings cogently, logically and theologically precise.

In addition to the interview, below, here is a link to its coverage on WPRI-TV/12 in Rhode Island. Also, Bishop Tobin was a recent guest on Hardball With Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Matthews was utterly offensive and disrespectful and Deacon Keith Fournier of Catholic Online calls for his firing. 

Here’s the interview. Let me know what you think of it.

Bishop Thomas Tobin honesty and steadfastness for the Truth was a natural on the “no spin zone” last night.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, R.I., will give an exclusive interview to Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor tonight on the Fox News Channel (8:00 Eastern, repeated at 11:00 and throughout the night). Bishop Tobin has been in the news of late because U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, and an adamant pro-abortion proponent, has made public Bishop Tobin’s correspondence to him.

Yesterday, the congressman released a 2007 letter in which Bishop Tobin requested that Rep. Kennedy refrain from receiving Holy Communion because of his abortion on demand positions and misrepresenting the Faith. Currently, the two have disagreed publicly on the congressman’s support of the abortion provisions in the health care bill.

Each time Bishop Tobin as counseled him on the teachings of the Church, all in private, Rep. Kennedy has gone public with the release of the personal, pastoral letters. But Bishop Tobin has responded with clarity and grace, despite the breach of confidentiality. While a Bishop/member-of-the-flock feud rarely becomes public, there are great lessons to be learned about this — namely, that public figures cannot bring scandal upon the Church by misrepresting Church teaching and expect those pledged to uphold The Truth let them continue misleading the faithful.

The interview should be of utmost interest. I hope all Real Catholic Blog readers will get a chance to view it. Then, please leave your comments and impressions of the interview and the controversy in general. Also, here is a link to an online poll from NBC10 in Providence. Please take the time to vote in it.

I found this doing some research on something else, and if this isn’t the world turned upside down, I don’t know what is: A year or so prior to the controversy over Notre Dame conferring an honorary doctorate to pro-abortion President Barack Obama, and allowing him to speak at its commencement, a university in Rome tried to keep Pope Benedict XVI from speaking there! Unbelievable! Maybe it’s a translation thing, but the definition of tolerance has one strange meaning in Italian. 

From CatholicNewsAgency.com/YouTube.

Let’s get this straight: One college protested the Holy Father’s appearance because of his teachings, while one welcomed with open arms a president who contradicts them?