The Catholic Spectator

  1. Cardinal O’Malley Pulls the Plug

    June 27, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From a press release by Judie Brown and the American Life League:

    “Praise God! After months of tireless effort from American Life League and pro-life heroes in Boston and around the country to expose a potential scandal only days away from becoming a tragic betrayal of Catholicism’s unwavering commitment to the dignity of the human person, Cardinal Sean O’Malley has heard our voices and will end the joint venture with abortion-providing Centene Corp!

    “Cardinal O’Malley has answered our call and beat the clock as the minutes ticked away until the July 1 launch of the new CeltiCare Health Plan and the Catholic Church’s participation in the intrinsic evil of abortion.

    (Read more…)

  2. They Will Shudder

    June 26, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    Virginian Judge Harvie Wilkinson on partial birth abortion (LifeNews):

    “The fact is that we-civilized people-are retreating to the haven of our Constitution to justify dismembering a partly born child and crushing its skull,” Wilkinson wrote. “Surely centuries hence, people will look back on this gruesome practice done in the name of fundamental law by a society of high achievement. And they will shudder.”

  3. Hate Crime of Censorship?

    June 26, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From Robert Knight on the proposed “hate crime” legislation (Human Events):

    The proposed federal hate crime law, like all hate crime laws, politicizes crime, leading to pressure on police and prosecutors to devote more of their limited resources to certain victims at the expense of others. For example, homosexual activist groups descended on Wyoming and created a media circus around the Matthew Shepard case, costing the state heavily for public relations. Meanwhile, the story of Kristin Lamb, an eight-year-old girl who a month before Shepard’s death was killed in Wyoming and her body thrown into a landfill, received virtually no news coverage or concerns about a possible “hate crime.”

    (Read more…)

  4. Catholic Abortion Referral Service?

    June 25, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From a press release by the American Life League:

    American Life League executive director Shaun Kenney announced a new campaign to investigate whether young mothers will be referred for abortions by Caritas Christi, the Boston Archdiocese-affiliated health-care provider, after its joint venture with CeltiCare goes into effect July 1.

    (Read more…)

  5. PETA Says Pro-lifers are Hypocritical

    June 24, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    The latest from PETA (LifesiteNews article):

    A spokesman for the organization(PETA) told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview that it is “loathsome” and “grotesquely hypocritical” that pro-lifers oppose abortion, but are unconcerned about the mistreatment of chickens and other animals used in the food industry.

    Saying it “loathsome” that pro-lifers have “zero consciousness” on the issue of “animal abuse” in factories, Freidrich went on to say that “I would say to the pro-life movement, remove the log from your own eye, and then come after the speck in the eye of the animal protection movement. But until the pro-life movement does that, they have zero credibility in my book.”

  6. Why not Joe Morelle?

    June 22, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From an article at Newsday.com:

    Bishop William Murphy has publicly confronted Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi for the Democratic politician’s recent declaration that he supports gay marriage.

    Suozzi, who is Catholic and attended Catholic schools, recently wrote in The New York Times that he has changed his views and now believes homosexuals should be permitted to legally marry. He previously supported civil unions between gays.

    In a column published this week in the newspaper of the Rockville Centre Diocese, Murphy criticized Suozzi, saying his stances on gay marriage and abortion go against church teachings.

    “There is a further consideration that, as his bishop, I have to raise to Mr. Suozzi because he publicly identifies himself as a practicing Catholic,” Murphy wrote. “By so doing, he certainly admits that he knows he is contradicting some basic moral teachings of his own faith.”

    “This is not the first time he has done this,” Murphy continued. “He has already placed himself publicly in the category of ‘pro-choice’ on abortion. While homosexual orientation is a neutral reality on a moral level, homosexual acts are not morally neutral. They are wrong, and they are sinful. Abortion is wrong, and it is sinful.”

    Locally, we have Catholic Assemblyman Joe Morelle who is a public proponent of abortion and gay marriage. He should be reprimanded in the same way that Suozzi was.

    Bishop Clark has signed the NY Catholic Conference’s position letter against gay marriage. Censuring Morelle would make that signature far more meaningful.

  7. Life is Precious

    June 22, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    Excerpt from Sarah Palin’s speech at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life banquet:

    Palin said the challenges she faced during her pregnancy with her son Trig, who was born with Down syndrome, gave her an opportunity to live out her anti-abortion beliefs. She said she prayed often during her pregnancy, especially after tests revealed that her son would be born with the condition.

    “The moment he was born, I knew that moment my prayers had been answered,” Palin said. “Trig is a miracle. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I want other women to have that opportunity.”

    She challenged the notion that children must be born perfect and that unplanned pregnancies are inconvenient and can be ended by abortion. “I know for sure my son is perfect just as he is, made in the image of God,” she said.

    She asked the crowd to keep working for the “culture of life” in America.

    “Life is ordained, life is precious,” she said.

    It is good to have at least one politician who is actually passionate and forthright about the right to life for the unborn. We need more like her.

  8. Confessions of a Lapsed Atheist

    June 21, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From Confessions of a Lapsed Atheist:

    But Atheists aren’t content to leave religion as a mere object of ridicule. They want it cleansed from public life. And enlightened as they are, they’ve come up with quite the pretense for justifying the righteousness of their bigotry: they are defending the vision of our Founding Fathers from a dominionist conspiracy to establish Christianity as the state religion.

    (Read more…)

  9. Baby Steps

    June 20, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    The American Life League has produced a very effective pro-life video called Baby Steps. This video has been an especially useful tool for crisis pregnancy centers. Here is one testimonial from The Pregnancy Resource Center in Rosenberg, Texas:

    “Mary Doe came to our center and she had made up her mind about having an abortion done since she was going through a situation with her baby’s father who is 30 years older than Mary. He was pushing her so hard to have an abortion. After Mary came and she had the chance to watch the DVD, she realized that what was inside of her was an angel sent by God. I am happy to say that her baby boy, now five months old, is the joy of her life! She tells me that she can’t picture her life without him.”

    This DVD may be purchased from the American Life League through their Baby Steps website.

  10. Black Genocide

    June 19, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From Matt Abbott’s RenewAmerica column:

    ‘Since 1973, legal abortion has killed more African-Americans than AIDS, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and violent crime combined. Every week, more blacks die in American abortion clinics than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. And the largest chain of abortion clinics in the United States is operated by Planned Parenthood.’

    Funny how the mainstream press keeps ignoring this story about black genocide. Be sure to read Matt Abbott’s entire post about this shameful practice of eugenics in the United States.

  11. Stop Worrying About Immigration Reform

    June 19, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From LifesiteNews:

    Catholic couples who undergo marriage preparation based on the teachings of the Church are drastically more likely to agree to abstain until marriage and use Natural Family Planning (NFP), suggests a survey of Catholic couples participating in an online preparation course.

    While 90-95% of engaged Catholic couples are believed to be sexually active before marriage, 76% of couples who took the Catholic Marriage Prep Online course signed a pledge card to remain abstinent until marriage. 22% said they “want to discuss the matter further,” while only 2% said they would not abstain.

    Also, 72% of couples said they would practice NFP, a natural method of spacing births, with 5% refusing outright. About 80% of all Catholic couples use artificial contraception, which is opposed to Church teaching.

    The statistics cited above serve as a very strong indictment against the Catholic Church in the United States. Other than Colorado Springs, how many dioceses take the sexual revolution seriously? The estimate of 95% of engaged couples being sexually active should be setting of alarm bells for all our bishops.

  12. Bishop O’Donoghue: Challenge the Dissenters

    June 17, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    The Most Reverend Patrick O’Donoghue had this to say about dissent within the Church (from Lifesite News):

    “It’s now up to us to fully embrace the ‘true’ teaching and decisions of the Council,” he said, “and abandon the ‘fictions’ foisted on us by some clergy, religious and laity who are disobedient and arrogant in their will-to-power. So, I am calling for an enquiring fidelity to the teaching of the Council”.

    The bishop called on the students to challenge the false teachers within the Church, no matter their stature. “If you hear any Catholic say or teach something that goes against the teaching and discipline of the Church, as safe-guarded by the Pope,” he said, “politely, but firmly, challenge them, be they a lay catechist, teacher, deacon, priest or even a bishop”.

    Many lay people are under the false impression that we must blindly follow our clerical leaders. I’m happy to see that this good bishop has seen fit to set the record straight on dissenters, both clerical and lay.

  13. The Truth Will Set You Free

    June 17, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From Zenit.org:

    A foundation that promotes interreligious dialogue announced that it has more than 2,300 pages of original documents illustrating Pope Pius XII’s efforts to help Jews in the face of Nazism.

    The president, himself a Jew, reported that these papers, found through the organization’s private research, give “strong support to the argument that Pope Pius XII — Eugenio Pacelli — worked diligently to save Jews from Nazi tyranny.”

    (Read more…)

  14. Archbishop Burke on Notre Dame

    June 16, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    Selected excerpts from an interview with Archbishop Burke that appeared in Inside the Vatican:

    We all have witnessed the compromise and, indeed, betrayal of the Catholic identity of Notre Dame University.

    That the premiere Catholic university in the United States would give an honorary doctorate of law to one of the most aggressive pro-abortion politicians in our history is profoundly shocking.

    Thank you, Archbishop.

  15. Protecting the Unborn from the Church?

    June 16, 2009 by Eugene Michael

    From Judie Brown’s latest column in RenewAmerica.com:

    What is disconcerting is that Cardinal O’Malley and the Boston archdiocese have thus far failed to clearly explain how abortion and “family planning services” will not occur in Catholic healthcare facilities. The terms of CeltiCare’s contract with the state government specifically require coverage for abortions and other “reproductive health” services. How then could Caritas Christi – which owns 49 percent of the for-profit CeltiCare – justify its involvement and direct connection with this business while adhering to the Catholic Church’s unequivocal teachings on abortion, contraception and sterilization?

    Incrementally separating the Boston archdiocese from committing an abortion or from the provision of contraception, sterilization and other such ’services’ does not negate the fact that, through this agreement, Catholic hospitals will ultimately be referring mothers to abortion and/or contraception facilities such as Planned Parenthood, if the deal between Caritas Christi and CeltiCare remains as it is now written.