Catholic Relief Services Scandal Hits the Blogosphere

August 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In July, LifeSiteNews broke the story of Catholic Relief Services, “the official overseas relief and development agency of the USCCB,” granting $5.3 million to CARE, a pro-contraception and pro-abortion organization.

Since then, numerous blogs have picked up the story—and investigated further. “Red State” has reported on CRS as a dues-paying member of both the pro-conraception CORE Group and the pro-abortion group MEDiCAM.

“Societas Restituo Catholicam” has the evidence on MEDiCAM in a detailed post showing visual proof of the company’s “firm commitment to expanding abortion” since 2005.

In a press release, CRS said their involvement with these organizations actually demonstrates “our faithfulness to Church teaching” because they can “contribute our Catholic voice to the conversation.”

The inconsistencies of the explanation have been hashed out at “Veneremur Cernui” in a series of posts going back to February 2010, when CRS hit the spotlight for giving money to global warming advocates.

Each blog names employees at CRS who are, the evidence suggests, directly involved in programs that go against Church teaching. They take issue with the CRS’s statement that “CRS seeks to advance the common good of the world through the uncommon excellence of our staff, partners and programs.”

“Red State” reports that two CRS employees, Rolando Figueroa and Kristin Weinhauer, reviewed a document “produced through a project that CRS had direct oversight for” that clearly promotes contraception—especially among young people—as a means of protecting against STDs.

“Societas Restituo Catholicam” shows that Dr. Sok Pun, another CRS employee, is on the 2011 Steering Committee of MEDiCAM.

Another blog, “Rorate Caeli,” posts on the CRS scandal and makes a fresh point: while Catholics can make the choice to stop donating to CRS, “ultimately the bishops of the United States are directly responsible…and they are the ones who must be pressured to immediately intervene and completely overhaul CRS.”

Source here

The rot of the death culture is sickening...where is the the oversight? Simply disgusting!

Obama Administration Tries to Force Catholic Employer to Violate Beliefs

Obama Administration Tries to Force Catholic Employer to Violate Beliefs or Pay $9,672,500 a Year

Hercules Industries, a Colorado-based HVAC manufacturer, is a family-owned business that has been operated for 50 years. Currently, the four Newland siblings – James, Paul, William, and Christine – own the business and employ 265 people. According to CNS News, the Department of Justice is taking action to ensure that this Catholic family complies with the demands of the contraceptive mandate in ObamaCare:

"The Justice Department last week presented the Newland family of Colorado–who own Hercules Industries, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning business–with what amounted to an ultimatum: Give up your religion or your business.
. . .
The Newland family has taken the time to evaluate their own religious beliefs and has come to the conclusion that they are morally unable to provide contraceptives, abortifacients, abortion, or sterilization in their employee health care plan. Hercules Industries is self-insured by the Newlands. Despite the Newlands’ sincere religious beliefs, the Department of Justice insists that this Catholic family must comply with the contraceptive mandate...

Read more here

We, the Just-Us department thugs, have spoken!
Peasants! SUBMIT!
Convert to Islam if you want religious freedom!

The Congress should defund the DOJ, HHS, DHS, and every other worthless, tyrannical agency of the federal beast. But alas, they are either weak and afraid of their true masters or they are willfully complicit in the treasonous destruction of the country and the Constitution.

When does a dinner invitation become a scandal?

When it involves the fabled Al Smith Dinner in New York, all you have to do is invite President Obama:

By tradition, the storied Al Smith Dinner has provided a few hours of comic relief from the angry volleys of the campaign trail — a white-tie charity banquet held in the weeks before Election Day, hosted by the archbishop of New York and featuring speeches by the two presidential candidates on the condition that they lob nothing more than good-natured jibes.

But the Catholic hierarchy’s fierce feud with President Obama, abetted by the increasingly sharp tone of the 2012 elections, is threatening to invade this demilitarized zone and give New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan a case of pre-dinner agita.

Dolan has reportedly extended an offer to Obama (as well as his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney) to attend this year’s dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, scheduled for Oct. 18, and reports say the president has accepted. That has mobilized abortion opponents, who view Obama as the worst thing since Roe v. Wade and an enemy of religious liberty because of his administration’s controversial birth control mandate.

The Rev. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, a leading abortion opponent based in Staten Island, said Monday (Aug. 6) that “the polite putting aside of differences for a while amounts to scandal.”

“There comes a time when enough is enough and we can no longer afford to give people a reason to doubt our position as a Church,” Pavone wrote in an email. “So no, I don’t think the invitation is appropriate at this time.”

“Better to cancel the event than have it become another cause for scandal in the Catholic Church,” Randy Engel, head of the U.S. Coalition for Life, told LifeNews.com, an anti-abortion website.

The New York Archdiocese has not formally announced that Obama and Romney have been invited, or have accepted. But Meghan McGuinness Myers, executive director of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, which organizes the annual fundraiser on behalf of various children’s charities, told LifeSiteNews that Obama had been invited and had accepted.

Read more.

From The Deacon's Bench

A Petition to Cardinal Dolan & the Archdiocese of New York: Disinvite President Obama from the Al Smith fundraising dinner

Pope: U.S. faces threats to religious freedom of ‘unprecedented gravity’

ROME, Italy, August 7, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI is warning that the United States is facing threats of “unprecedented gravity” to religious freedom.

In a letter on behalf of the pope to Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone observed that “concerted efforts are being made to redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom.”

The comments come as the U.S. bishops campaign for religious liberty in the face of attacks such as President Obama’s HHS mandate, which requires employers to cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs in their health insurance packages.

The bishops recently concluded their “fortnight for freedom” - two weeks of intensive “prayer, study, catechesis, and public action.” Shortly before launching the event, the bishops had reaffirmed their condemnation of the HHS mandate, nothing that the rule effectively punishes Catholic institutions for operating in the public sphere.

“Those deemed by HHS not to be ‘religious employers’ will be forced by government to violate their own teachings within their very own institutions. This is not only an injustice in itself, but it also undermines the effective proclamation of those teachings to the faithful and to the world,” they wrote....

More here

Priests for Life to Defy New Obamacare Pro-Abortion Mandate

From LifeNews:

The pro-life Catholic group Priests for Life is the first to announce it will openly defy the new pro-abortion mandate the HHS department put in force today under the Obamacare health care law.

The new mandate compels religious employers to pay for and refer employees for birth control, abortion-causing drugs and contraception in violation of employers’ religious beliefs.

Father Frank Pavone told LifeNews his pro-life group doesn’t qualify for the narrowly-drawn exemptions in the mandate, so his organization will not comply with it and will run the risk of fines and other possible punishment.

“The unjust and unconstitutional HHS mandate, against which Priests for Life and 57 other plaintiffs have sued the federal government, takes effect today. We at Priests for Life do not qualify for the year that the government has offered certain groups to “adapt” to the mandate. And we are not “religious” enough for this Administration,” he explained. “But regardless of all that, we do not adapt to injustice; we oppose it.”

“Therefore today, on behalf of our organization and on behalf of myself personally, I announce our conscientious objection to this mandate,” he said. “Priests for Life has the highest respect for civil government and advocates the observance of all just laws. But this policy is unjust, and today I reaffirm our intention to disobey it.”

More here

ALL Catholics and other pro-life individuals should stand firm and oppose the regime of death peddlers who are intent on enslaving and controlling the lives of people who were once free. The time has come to resist and stand against the thugs and reprobates.

Obama Administration Threatens Catholic Colleges on Birth Control, Abortion

In its latest threat to the religious liberty and independence of Catholic colleges and universities, the Obama administration has issued new regulations that open the door to possible state intrusion into curriculum, student policies and hiring decisions.

The regulations issued Friday effectively force many states to increase oversight of postsecondary education through state chartering or licensing, which is a necessary condition for colleges to participate in federal student aid programs.

Most Catholic colleges accept low-cost federal student loans and grants. If forced to forego federal aid, these colleges would be at a disadvantage in recruiting students....

Continued here

This demented, marxist, usurper of the Presidency needs to go! Prudence dictates that my words describing this narcissistic tyrant be severely restrained. Pray for our country and for this man's pathetic soul!

CCHD - Same as it ever was?

USCCB “Review and Renewal of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development” betrays utter lack of reform

I've downloaded and read the CCHD “Review and Renewal of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development as Accepted and Affirmed by the USCCB Administrative Committee,” – promulgated on September 15, 2010 – and can only cry in absolute frustration, that nothing has changed. The new, improved CCHD is still all about funding Alinskyian organizing (organizing based on the organizational theories of the late, great Saul Alinsky)….which is still all about progressive politics…which is still all about killing babies...

Continued here at Orate Fratres

I, personally, would have a difficult time EVER contributing to this cause (agenda) of the USCCB until such time as it is thoroughly cleansed of those responsible for its rot and decay.

Vatican Archbishop Burke: Public Repentance is Required for Pro-Abort Politicians

October 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – 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...

Archbishop Burke stressed that “both bishops and the faithful” must be obedient to the Magisterium...“If the shepherd is not obedient the flock easily gives way to confusion and error.”

Burke, who is also a member of the Congregation for Bishops added: “A most tragic example of the lack of obedience of faith, also on the part of certain Bishops, was the response of many to the Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae of Pope Paul VI, published on July 25, 1968. The confusion which resulted has led many Catholics into habits of sin in what pertains to the procreation and education of human life.”...

The Vatican prelate [also stated]:

Lying or failing to tell the truth, however, is never a sign of charity. A unity which is not founded on the truth of the moral law is not the unity of the Church. The Church’s unity is founded on speaking the truth with love.

The person who experiences scandal at public actions of Catholics, which are gravely contrary to the moral law, not only does not destroy unity but invites the Church to repair what is clearly a serious breach in Her life.

Were he not to experience scandal at the public support of attacks on human life and the family, his conscience would be uninformed or dulled about the most sacred realities.

More here.

(Read the complete talk here) [PDF}.

[Hat tip to Penny for the link!]

Milwaukee Archbishop: You Can’t Call Yourself Catholic and Support Contraception

MILWAUKEE, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The incoming Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, has responded to a campaign by "Young Catholics for Choice" to promote use of contraception and abortion among Catholic youth.

Using media advertising the group is, says the Archbishop-Designate, "attempting to convey the message that Catholics can disregard Church teaching regarding contraception, abortion and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing." However, "Nothing could be further from the truth."...

More here.

I don't want kids so close together...

This following is from an email I received:
-----------------

A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: 'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even one year old and I'm pregnant again.

I don't want kids so close together.

So the doctor said: 'Ok, and what do you want me to do?'

She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'

The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.

She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.

Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of two babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms.'

The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!'

'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be ok with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'

The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point. He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same!
-----------------

The sad act remains, however, that there are some so-called human beings who would not object to the doctor's suggestion. Some would even call it a laudable and worthy plan. Some would even go so far as to deny medical treatment to the born alive so that they would die (B. Hussein Obama, for instance)...

We need to pray and do penance for our national crimes with hope that God will forgive us our millions upon millions of sins.

Obama Expected to Embrace UN and Transnationalism

From C-FAM:

In the new Presidential administration, there will be a sea change in the way the US treats the UN and concepts like global governance and transnationalism. Look for the US to ratify a slew of dicey UN treaties. Look for a rejuvenated UN to begin announcing a gaggle of nasty global conferences. There is trouble ahead.

We report on what we expect from the Obama administration.

Spread the word.

Yours sincerely,
Austin Ruse
President

PS Our UN Petition for the Unborn Child is not up over 130,000! If you have not signed, go to www.c-fam.org and sign it. Then tell all your friends.
_____________

Obama Administration Expected to Expand US Relationship with UN and UN Treaties

Likely Obama Supreme Court Pick’s Globalist Views Alarm Social Conservatives

Britain Honors Birth Control, Eugenics Advocate with Postage Stamp

(CNSNews.com) – Britain’s Royal Mail is under fire over a decision to honor a birth control pioneer and eugenicist who shared views on racial purity with the Nazis.

Marie Stopes [who died in 1958] is one of six female pioneers commemorated in a series of postage stamps named “Women of Distinction,” which will be on sale from mid-October.
[...]
Interested in “selective breeding,” she founded an organization called the Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress, and in 1935 – according to published accounts – Stopes attended a Nazi-hosted population conference in Berlin.
[...]
Anthony Ozimic, political secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, also slammed the Royal Mail decision.

“Praising Marie Stopes as a woman of distinction should be as unacceptable as praising Adolf Hitler as a great leader,” he said. “Both promoted compulsory sterilization and thereby the eventual elimination of society's most vulnerable members to achieve what they called racial progress.”
[...]
Although the Roman Catholic Church was the leading opponent of her activism, she also was accused by rivals in the birth control movement of anti-Semitism.
[...]
According to her biography in The World of Genetics, it was after Stopes met and was inspired by American birth control activist Margaret Sanger in 1915 that she “began crusading for sexual freedom and birth control....”

Is this pure stupidity or pure evil? Much of the world appears to have gone mad, deranged or possessed.

More unbelievable news from our friends at C-Fam:

Dear Colleague,

More scoops for you. The reason I keep repeating that is because the Friday Fax is the only weekly source of this kind of news. No one from our side covers this beat like we do. You should spread the word far and wide.

We report today on a resolution of the Organization of American States that basically endorses hate crimes based on “sexual orientation and gender identity.” Even the Bush Administration endorsed this resolution that could come to be used against religious people who criticize homosexual behavior, like this Friday Fax.

We also report on the mega-AIDs conference meeting right now in Mexico City. There is one “Catholic” panel at the conference and it is being chaired by the anti-Catholic group Catholics for Choice. Funny old world, isn’t it?

Spread the word.

Yours sincerely,
Austin Ruse
President

More here.

The Letter Ignored By Countless Bishops and Conferences

A few days ago, LifeSiteNews published a letter from 1968 in which Pope Paul VI asked the world's bishops to stand firm with him in the Church's irreformable teaching against contraception and the release of the . As we know, many bishops, priests and laity rebelled against the Pope and the Church - and many did so openly. Today, we still witness and suffer the ill effects of that revolt.

Please read the letter here at LifeSiteNews or here at CatholicCulture.

Fr John Corapi: On the 40th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae

The Catholic Church is in the process of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the prophetic and landmark encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, on human life. At the time the Holy Father promulgated the encyclical there was a general spirit of dissent in the air. This inspired document put the dissenters into yet a new orbit, even further from the center of Church teaching. Their lack of humility resulted in disobedience, ultimately resulting in moral death for them and countless others.

What has resulted from the rejection of the principles contained in this great document is a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. “Life begins at conception. Abortion begins at artificial contraception.” Pope Paul VI prophetically predicted that if artificial contraception were to become generally acceptable in society, then abortion would inevitably become just another means of artificial contraception. Today, not only have what is approaching one billion children been murdered in the name of “choice” worldwide, but a host of incredible evils have followed in the wake of the rejection of the Holy Father’s teaching on life....

Continued here.

"The Vindication of Humanae Vitae"...

As posted by Carl Olson at Ignatius Insight Scoop:

"The Vindication of Humanae Vitae"...by Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, is a great article in the August/September issue of First Things and is available online. I'll get you started:

That Humanae Vitae and related Catholic teachings about sexual morality are laughingstocks in all the best places is not exactly news. Even in the benighted precincts of believers, where information from the outside world is known to travel exceedingly slowly, everybody grasps that this is one doctrine the world loves to hate. During Benedict XVI’s April visit to the United States, hardly a story in the secular press failed to mention the teachings of Humanae Vitae, usually alongside adjectives like “divisive” and “controversial” and “outdated.” In fact, if there’s anything on earth that unites the Church’s adversaries—all of them except for the Muslims, anyway—the teaching against contraception is probably it....

More "Humanae Vitae" Dissent from Professed Catholics

‘Catholics for Choice’ to publish open letter to Pope criticizing Humanae Vitae

New York, Jul 18, 2008 / 02:50 pm (CNA).- A group of Catholic dissenters plans to publish an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI in a major U.S. and a major Italian newspaper criticizing Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae on the fortieth anniversary of its promulgation, July 25. The group Catholics for Choice (CFC) claims that the encyclical’s teaching against contraception has been an “utter failure” that endangers women’s lives and leaves millions at risk of HIV. However, a major pro-life leader said the group’s accusations were hard to take seriously.

According to the version of the open letter obtained by CNA, CFC argues that there is a “paradox” in Humanae Vitae because “most Catholics use modern contraceptives, believe it is a moral choice to do so, and consider themselves Catholics in good standing.” The letter asserts that the encyclical has been an “utter failure” in convincing Catholics to abandon contraceptive use....

The “utter failure” has been because of bishops' and priests' rebellion against this irreformable teaching of the Church and the lack of courage by ecclesiastical authority to discipline those rebels and traitors...now we are left with apostates and heretics who claim to be Catholic while embracing and promoting every immoral abomination known - infanticide, divorce, homosexuality, euthanasia, and on and on...

The fact that many "Catholics" use contraception cannot imply that it is right - it merely confirms that many are ignorant or willfully obstinate regarding the Church's teachings.

Death Wish-The Impending Suicide of a Once Great Nation

The latest article from Fr John Corapi:

"A large number of endangered, unwanted, and unborn children held a town hall meeting on the 4th of July--alarmed at the brutal and untimely killing of millions of their brothers and sisters in recent years. That the murderous war waged on them had the full force and respectability of the law made their plight all the more terrifying.

Their complaint was humble and it was simple. They were not distressed by rising gas prices, or the deteriorating economy in general. They were not even frightened by the exponential increase of natural disasters. The threat of global warming or global terrorism did not greatly disturb them.

They had become an endangered species, and little had been done to answer their terrified and silent screams from the womb... "

Click here to download the entire article in PDF format to print or electronically distribute as you like.

The Pledge of Assent to Humanae Vitae for Laity

We've heard and read about the "Pledge of Assent to Humanae Vitae for Priests" which was posted at Humanae Vitae Priests.

Now, John Mallon advises us that

"the day you’ve all been waiting for has arrived! The Pledge of Assent to Humanae Vitae for Laity has arrived and is featured this week on both the Spirit & Life website and Humanae Vite Priests.

Please pass this on to your friends and family and notify your pastors that a downloadable pdf version is available for use as a bulletin insert. Please help make this a great success!"

Spirit & Life

Humanae Vitae Priests

Of course, faithful Catholics will have already freely given their assent to this most important document from Pope Paul VI. However, if it be God's will, an outward act of pledging one's assent to Humanae Vitae might be the example and help from which others, not sufficiently open to God's graces, might be spared their difficulties, doubts, or hostility toward the Church's teaching.

Cardinal Ouellet Praises Humanae Vitae

Abortion the Consequence of the 'Culture of Contraception'
Says controversial encyclical "was not taught enough" and because "we have not followed it, we have seen the consequences."

at LifeSiteNews