Gingrich: Obama Favors Islam Over Christianity… Obviously. MACON, Ga. — As Newt Gingrich campaigns through the state he used to represent in Congress, he continues to suggest President Barack Obama is more sympathetic to Islam than Christianity. The former House speaker uses the recent fights over whether Catholic institutions should pay for contraception and increased violence in Afghanistan to suggest the president does not place a priority on American interests. “President Obama is very quick to apologize for Islam while he attacks the Catholic Church,” Mr. Gingrich said here Thursday night. “You’ll notice he’s very sensitive about problems involving Islam, but he has a willingness…” Mr. Gingrich said before changing topics. “This is the most anti-religious administration in American history.”
Cardinal Dolan To All U.S. Bishops On Obama Mandate: “We Did Not Ask for This Fight, But We Will Not Run From It”… We have your back, Cardinal. (CNSNews.com) — Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter on Friday to all the Catholic bishops of the United States reasserting the conviction of the Catholic Church that it will not yield to the Obama administration’s command — issued in the form of a Health and Human Services regulation implementing the president’s health-care plan — that Catholics and Catholic institutions must violate the teachings of their faith by purchasing and providing health insurance plans that pay for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients. “We have made it clear in no uncertain terms to the government that we are not at peace with its invasive attempt to curtail the religious freedom we cherish as Catholics and Americans,” Cardinal Dolan wrote his brother bishops. “We did not ask for this fight, but we will not run from it,” he said. “Since January 20, when the final, restrictive HHS Rule was first announced,” Cardinal Dolan wrote, “we have become certain of two things: religious freedom is under attack, and we will not cease our struggle to protect it.”
Obama’s HHS mandate will destroy the Little Sisters of the Poor’s ministry to the elderly Obama’s HHS mandate will destroy the Little Sisters of the Poor’s ministry to the elderly This will make you angry. Via the Catholic News Agency: Baltimore, Md., Mar 8, 2012 / 12:34 am (CNA).- The Little Sisters of the Poor say the HHS contraception and sterilization mandate threatens their continued ministry to the impoverished elderly. They are “strongly objecting” to the federal rule and say it should be repealed as soon as possible. “Because the Little Sisters of the Poor cannot in conscience directly provide or collaborate in the provision of services that conflict with Church teaching, we find ourselves in the irreconcilable situation of being forced to either stop serving and employing people of all faiths in our ministry – so that we will fall under the narrow exemption – or to stop providing health care coverage to our employees,” the order said on March 1. “Either path threatens to end our service to the elderly in America. The Little Sisters are fervently praying that this issue will be resolved before we are forced to take concrete action in response to this unjust mandate.” Their order serves 13,000 needy elderly of all faiths in 31 countries around the world. In the U.S., it has 30 homes for the elderly, accommodating 2,500 low-income seniors.
<iframe src="http://videos.mediaite.com/embed/player/?content=PX4FYS3847J5YWH9&layout=&content_type=content_item&playlist_cid=&media_type=video&read_more=1&widget_type_cid=svp" width="420" height="421" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> Trace Gallagher is an asshat. “Both ads are bad?” Really? In what way are BOTH the ads bad? Explain why printing the absolute truth about Islam is bad. Is it because printing the absolute truth about Islam can lead to the savages rattling their scimitars? Because our ad will lead to murder? Ya, I guess that is bad. And since no Christians will murder anyone over an ad that sorta makes their ad kinda good, no? Also, Trace, the NY Times printed the first ad, and blocked the second one. So, isn’t equal time in order? Where do we go for that equal time? Certainly not Fox, right? You friggin cowards. This is a NEWS story. Show THE NEWS.
Carney To Catholic Bishops: Birth Control Decision Is Final, Now Piss Off… No way the Dems are giving up this “war on women” mantra, they’re convinced it’s working to win over voters (even though polls show otherwise). (Daily Caller) — White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday dismissed calls for a reconsideration of President Barack Obama’s controversial regulation of the health care policies offered by religious organizations, one day after Catholic leaders repeated their offer to hash out an agreement. “The solution that was reached here . . . has been reached, and we firmly believe that it achieves the goals that the president set,” Carney said at Thursday’s White House press conference. But “government has no place defining religion and religious ministry,” said the Mar. 14 statement by the top-level administrative committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “If this [regulatory] definition is allowed to stand, it will spread throughout federal law, weakening its healthy tradition of generous respect for religious freedom and diversity . . . [and] is unprecedented in federal law, which has long been generous in protecting the rights of individuals not to act against their religious beliefs or moral convictions,” said the statement.
Vatican Elevates Leading Obama Critic To Archbishop of Baltimore… As a Catholic all I can say is, well done! Leading Obama critic named archbishop of Baltimore — AP The leading voice of Roman Catholic bishops opposing a contraception mandate in the Obama administration’s health care law was named Tuesday as the 16th archbishop of Baltimore, the nation’s first diocese. Bishop William E. Lori, 60, comes from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., and has testified before Congress several times in the past few months on a proposed measure to make religious employers cover contraception for their employees. The White House later backed off the rule, making insurers pay for the coverage, though many critics are still not satisfied. In one instance in February, Lori drew an extended analogy between the mandate to cover contraception and a hypothetical mandate forcing all restaurants nationwide to serve pork, saying it is “absurd for someone to come into a kosher deli and demand a ham sandwich.” When asked whether the Vatican was trying to move him closer to Washington, Lori joked about his frequent appearances before Congress. “Yes, the Vatican decided that I was spending entirely too much time on the US Airways shuttle,” he said. “So, they moved me to Baltimore so I’m a train ride away.”
Pic of The Day… From today’s “Stand Up For Religious Freedom” rally in D.C. WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 23: Elaine Drapeau holds a crucifix while joining protesters participating in a “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally in front of the Department of Health and Human Services March 23, 2012 in Washington, DC. The rally was one of 129 rallies held in cities across the United States as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the Obama administration’s national health care legislation next week. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Cardinal Dolan: Obama’s Actions Are “Radical, Unprecedented And Dramatically Intrusive”… Fighting words. Via WSJ: The president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops is careful to show due respect for the president of the United States. “I was deeply honored that he would call me and discuss these things with me,” says the newly elevated Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York. But when Archbishop Dolan tells me his account of their discussions of the ObamaCare birth-control mandate, Barack Obama sounds imperious and deceitful to me. Mr. Obama knew that the mandate would pose difficulties for the Catholic Church, so he invited Archbishop Dolan to the Oval Office last November, shortly before the bishops’ General Assembly in Baltimore. At the end of their 45-minute discussion, the archbishop summed up what he understood as the president’s message: “I said, ‘I’ve heard you say, first of all, that you have immense regard for the work of the Catholic Church in the United States in health care, education and charity. . . . I have heard you say that you are not going to let the administration do anything to impede that work and . . . that you take the protection of the rights of conscience with the utmost seriousness. . . . Does that accurately sum up our conversation?’ [Mr. Obama] said, ‘You bet it does.’” The archbishop asked for permission to relay the message to the other bishops. “You don’t have my permission, you’ve got my request,” the president replied. “So you can imagine the chagrin,” Archbishop Dolan continues, “when he called me at the end of January to say that the mandates remain in place and that there would be no substantive change, and that the only thing that he could offer me was that we would have until August. . . . I said, ‘Mr. President, I appreciate the call. Are you saying now that we have until August to introduce to you continual concerns that might trigger a substantive mitigation in these mandates?’ He said, ‘No, the mandates remain. We’re more or less giving you this time to find out how you’re going to be able to comply.’ I said, ‘Well, sir, we don’t need the [extra time]. I can tell you now we’re unable to comply.’”
Cardinal Dolan Slams Obama For Making “Radical Intrusion” Into Church Life… Obama can’t help himself, it’s hardwired into his leftist DNA. Via Beltway Confidential: Cardinal Timothy Dolan faulted President Obama for making “a radical intrusion” into church life with “strangling HHS regulations” such as the contraception mandate. “The President told me . . . his conviction is that the government would do nothing to impede religion,” Dolan said during an Easter Sunday appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation. “It’s tough for me to see how the strangling HHS Regulations do anything but that.” Dolan described the contraception mandate as “a dramatic, radical intrusion of a government bureaucracy into the internal life of the church . . . the life of faith.”
Vatican: Leading Catholic Cardinal Says It’s A Sin To Cooperate With Obama Mandate… Nothing makes me happier than seeing the Catholic Church get politically active. Via LifeNews: A leading Catholic cardinal at the Vatican has essentially said that complying the with Obama birth control mandate would have Catholics and Catholic organizations participating in sin. The mandate compels religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions in health coverage for their employees and a revised mandate will compel them to refer employees for free coverage from their health insurance plans, which will eventually have the payment mandate. In an upcoming episode of Catholic Action Insight hosted by Thomas McKenna to air on EWTN on Wednesday, Cardinal Raymond Burke speaks out for the first time on the controversial mandate.
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U.S. Catholic Bishop: Obama Following Path of Hitler And Stalin… Via Washington Examiner: In a homily delivered Saturday, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois challenged President Obama’s HHS mandate, suggesting that the president was following the same path as Hitler and Stalin. “Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care,” Jenky said. “In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.” Jenky added. Another refreshingly non-PC statement made in the same sermon, Bishop Jenky noted how the Church survived “wave after wave of Jihads.” “For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire. The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism.”
U.S. Catholic Bishops Call For “Aggressive Attack” On Obama, Plan For Two Weeks of Protests… Game on. Via Newsmax: Roman Catholic leaders are calling for two weeks of public protests against President Barack Obama’s policies as they intensify their argument that the administration is engaged in a war on religion. Two weeks of protests, from July 21 to July 4 have been called by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which has sought to end the administrations’s contraception mandate, among other policies. The two weeks of planned protests against the Obama administration’s policies could be “the game-changer” in the presidential election, a leading lay churchman told Newsmax on Tuesday. The protests, dubbed “A Fortnight for Freedom” will be an “unprecedented, aggressive attack” against policies that church leaders see as an assault on religious freedom, said Catholic Advocate chairman Deal Hudson. “The bishops are seeing — rightly — a pattern of emerging of hostility towards the Catholic faith for upholding protection of the life of the unborn and because of its position on contraception,” said Hudson. The two weeks of protest, to run from June 21 to July 4, has been called by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “That is not the type of body that goes out of its way to pick a fight,” Hudson pointed out.
Notre Dame has filed suit against the government over the contraception mandate. Below is Fr. Jenkin's emailed letter to alumni explaining the rationale for the suit. It's long but IMO worth reading, especially the two paragraphs describing what the suit is and what it is not.
To quote Rev. Jeremiah Wright the Obama lovers in the ND administration are finding their chickens come home to roost. They knew all about his attitude towards abortion and "reproductive rights" when they chose to bestow an honorary degree on him. Now they put their religious principle before their liberal politics when it hits them in the pocketbook. They chose to lie with that dog, they can enjoy the fleas.
Received Fr. Jenkins e-mail re the law suit. I can't believe I just checked into this topic. Rarely check the back room. Serves me right. This has never been about contraception. Women and men, for that matter, can go to a drug store or planned parenthood and get all they want. It is about forcing employers to pay for them. Obama states that insurance companies will provide them free of charge. Oh, insurance companies will nor include expenses in their premiums?? Of course not. Their eleemosynary impulses will prevent that.
Sadly, Notre Dame has less moral ground to stand on than many other Catholic organizations after their head long fawning over this clown after his election. They chased him like a teenage girls chase rock stars. And now they look foolish.