I see it differently, George. I don't think they look foolish at all in filing the lawsuit. Yes, they deserved every bit of the criticism they received for inviting Obama to speak at graduation, and I understand that it's hard to let go of the bitterness over that, as Gip's and your posts above illustrate. However, like it or not, ND is, at the very least, one of the de facto leaders in Catholic education in the U.S. and is correctly exercising its leadership responsibilities with this action. Hopefully, with ND leading the charge, the movement will grow to where it will bring immense pressure on the administration to back down. It couldn't happen at a better time. My money's on Our Lady's representatives. On the contrary, another de facto leader in Catholic education, Georgetown University, has stirred up a hornet's nest that makes ND's invitation to Obama look like small potatoes. They invited Kathleen Sebelius to speak at graduation after the horse was out of the barn re: the contraceptive mandate. The ensuing fallout is a deluge of pressure from all sides, including being sued in Catholic court by the author of "The Exorcism," a GU alumnus. It's a Hoya of a mess for GU.
Here's how freedom of religion works under this administration http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-03-17/bald-eagle-tribe-killing/53588092/1 Even though it's against the law to kill our national symbol the administration bows to the religious principles of the Arapaho tribe and alows them to kill bald eagles. But when it comes to the religious principles of Catholics we're told to pound sand.
The list of entities that are participating in the lawsuit does not include a single Jesuit institution. What are we to take from that? I know some no longer consider Georgetown a Catholic School, they have removed crosses from their classrooms, covered up a crucifix so as to not offend people when an Administration offical gave a speech there a year or so ago, can't remember who it was, maybe even it was Obama.
It was when Obama spoke at Georgetown that they felt compelled to cover up the crucifix in the background with some kind of nondescript bunting. This was a couple of years ago. ND has the right and duty to sue over this; that's not what I was inferring. But I've seen three news stories on this now and in each one they showed clips of him receiving his diploma from a wide eyed Fr. Jenkins. You could say that ND, like the American voters and the Nobel prize committee, did not vet him out sufficiently.
No question, although who could have foreseen this blindside attack on religious freedom? I certainly didn't.
Leader of U.S. Catholics Cardinal Dolan Rips Obama For “Strangling” The Church… Have to applaud the Vatican for choosing Cardinal Dolan to lead the Bishops, Catholics like myself have been yearning for a leader who will stand up to the left. (CBS News) — The spat between Catholic leaders and the Obama administration over its contraception policies is heating up again, with one of the nation’s most prominent bishops charging that the White House is “strangling” the church over the matter. Archbishop Timothy Dolan told “CBS This Morning” Tuesday that the compromise reached earlier this year is not sufficient because the exemptions made for churches are too restrictive. “They tell us if you’re really going be considered a church, if you’re going to be really exempt from these demands of the government, well, you have to propagate your Catholic faith and everything you do, you can serve only Catholics and employ only Catholics,” Dolan said. “We’re like, wait a minute, when did the government get in the business of defining for us the extent of our ministry,” Dolan said. More than 40 Catholic organizations sued the Obama administration Monday over a government requirement that most employers provide birth control coverage as part of their employee health plans. Dolan also criticized Georgetown University’s decision to invited Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak to graduates of its school of public policy last week because of her role in formulating the policy. “Well, I do think that’s a problem. Georgetown is the oldest Catholic university in the country. Part of Catholic identity is to be in union with the bishops,” Dolan said. “When they would invite someone that is so dramatically at odds with one of the central tenets of the faith, that does bother us,” Dolan said.
Poll: Majority of Americans Oppose Obama HHS Mandate… But . . . but . . . but . . . war on women! Via LifeNews: A new poll conducted by Marist College and released by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, shows a majority of Americans oppose the controversial Obama HHS mandate that forces religious groups to pay for drugs that may cause abortions. “As America’s bishops and Catholic organizations around the country file lawsuits to protect their First Amendment rights from the government’s health care mandate, a new survey finds that a significant majority of Americans support the right to opt out of providing drugs, services and procedures for religious reasons,” the group said. According to the Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll, nearly three in four Americans (74 to 26 percent) say that freedom of religion should be protected, even if it conflicts with other laws. Majorities would also protect the First Amendment conscience rights of hospitals, health care workers and insurers. Strong majorities would let individual health care providers and organizations opt out of providing: abortion (58 to 38 percent), abortion-inducing drugs (51 to 44 percent), in vitro fertilization treatments that could result in the death of an embryo (52 to 41 percent), medication to speed the death of a terminally ill patient (55 to 41 percent) and birth control pills (51 to 46 percent).
This election will test a lot of Catholics religious fervor because they also serve some of other "masters", ie. labor unions. A crisis of conscience.
Obama Twice In Two Days Mistakenly Mentions “My Sons” – Even With Aid Of His Beloved Teleprompter… Via CNS News: In two campaign speeches over the last two days, President Barack Obama has twice mistakenly mentioned “my sons” when defending his administration’s regulation requiring virtually all health-care plans in the United States to provide women, without any fees or co-pay, with sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions. Obama, of course, has two daughters–10-year-old Sasha and 13-year-old Malia–but no sons. On Monday, 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations across the country–including the archdioceses of New York and Washington, D.C. and the University of Notre Dame and Catholic University of America—filed 12 different lawsuits against the Obama administration arguing that because the sterilization-contraception-abortifacient mandate would force Catholics to act against the teachings of their faith it violates the First Amendment right to freedom of religion. [...] Both the transcript of the Iowa speech distributed by the White House and a video of it posted by the Des Moines Register indicated that Obama mistakenly said “my sons.” The video of the speech posted by the Des Moines Register also shows that despite his slip about “my sons,” the president was speaking with the help of a teleprompter. On Wednesday at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, Calif., Obama made the same mistaken reference to “my sons.”
The HHS mandate story that won’t go away Daily Caller Ken Blackwell is set to take the stage in about an hour at the 2012 National Religious Freedom Conference, being put on by the Ethics and Public Policy Center. We’ve received an advance copy of Blackwell’s speech — which looks to be stemwinder. Here are a few excerpts: If the federal government can force not only Catholic institutions, but those of many other faith communities, and small businesses, and family-owned firms to provide drugs that can cause abortions or chemical contraceptives that violate their beliefs, then the First Amendment to the Constitution has effectively been repealed. Late in the 19th Century, Germany’s Chancellor Bismarck waged an assault against Catholics. The Prime Minister intended to close down Catholic schools and hospitals, convents and monasteries throughout the country. We’re not there yet; but we must be vigilant. … This present danger notwithstanding, our experience suggests that most threats to religious freedom have come at the state and local levels. One of the most blatant examples was the case of Oregon in the 1920s. There, a popular referendum‚ strongly backed by the Ku Klux Klan‚ outlawed private education. Only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional in the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) was this threat blocked. It was in this case that the Court memorably said: “The child is not the mere creature of the state.” … Conscience Protection Laws are vitally needed. Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas recently signed a strong one. But many state laws are weak or unenforced. In Washington State, for example, Gov. Christine Gregoire pressured a pharmacy owned and operated by two sisters who refused to dispense the so-called morning after pill. This drug can cause abortions. The Governor personally joined in a boycott of this family-owned pharmacy. So much for the war on women.
JoCo.. studied this case in law shool at ND. In the opinion declaring these laws unconstitutional the court inter alia stated "The child is not the mere chattel of the state."
:idea: Vic...and yet here we are again, with the state attempting to bully churches into submission. Obama and his crowd are only the most obvious symptom of a political disease that's been infecting our country for decades. They've grown bold to the point of openly mocking the Constitution and using street thugs and stolen elections to get their way. The time to stop them is short......IMHO.
Sen. Ron Johnson: Entire Wisconsin Legislature Received Death Threats Home - by Cardigan - May 26, 2012 - 22:00 America/New_York - 5 Comments The Lonely Conservative I don’t hear Democrats calling for the end of death threats to conservatives in the Wisconsin legislature, do you? National Democrats are pouring money into the Wisconsin recall election and invoking the Koch brothers as the boogeymen, but nobody’s said “boo” about these threats of violence. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) believes it’s important to spread the word, even if the media ignores the situation. Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday that every member of the state legislature in Wisconsin received an email that said “we’re going to put a bullet in your head. We know where you and your family live.” Johnson, speaking in Washington, D.C. at America’s Future Foundation’s annual gala, said that at the height of Gov. Scott Walker’s fight against the unions, every member of the state legislature was threatened. “The story really wasn’t told properly — we had every member of the state legislature get an email that said, ‘We’re going to put a bullet in your head. We know where you and your family lives.’ Now, that wasn’t reported very well because I guess that’s not newsworthy when it’s a union thug making a threat against a conservative.” Johnson told The Daily Caller that the high level of intimidation and political divisiveness in Wisconsin is due to Walker’s fight to reign in spending pushed by public sector unions. “Scott Walker did a hard thing — he actually solved a problem, and he did it in a way that recognized and addressed one of the growing problems here, and that is really the power of the public sector unions and, I would say, the unholy alliance between elected officials that get supported by those unions and the unions themselves,” Johnson told TheDC.
Archbishop: Networks 'missed the boat' on coverage of church's ObamaCare lawsuits Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/27/archbishop-washington-networks-missed-boat-on-lawsuit-coverage/#ixzz1w6IawXfE
U.S. Bishops Prepare Catholics For Civil Disobedience Over Obamacare: “We May Need To Witness To The Truth By Resisting The Law”… You think at that point the MSM would start covering this story? Yeah, me neither. (CNSNews.com) — Having organized 43 plaintiffs—including the archdioceses of New York and Washington and the University of Notre Dame — to file 12 different lawsuits against the Obama administration last Monday alleging the administration is violating the religious freedom of Catholics, the Catholic bishops of the United States are now preparing Catholics for what may be the most massive campaign of civil disobedience in this country since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and early 1960s. “Some unjust laws impose such injustices on individuals and organizations that disobeying the laws may be justified,” the bishops state in a document developed to be inserted into church bulletins in Catholic parishes around the country in June. “Every effort must be made to repeal them,” the bishops say in the document, which is already posted on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “When fundamental human goods, such as the right of conscience, are at stake, we may need to witness to the truth by resisting the law and incurring its penalties.” The bulletin insert reminds Catholic parishioners that the bishops have called for “A Fortnight of Freedom” — which they have described as “a special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action” — to take place from June 21 to July 4.
You know this has to be an emotional problem for many of the Bishops and Priests involved. I would wager that as a group they are liberal and supported Obama. I think back to Fr. Jenkins having Obama at the ND graduation, he was tickled pink and gave him a pass on Abortion since he was open to discussion, not sure what that meant since Obama isn't a Supreme Court Justice and you can bet he was/is never going to offer up a nominee who is anything but solidly pro abortion. I read something recently that Fr. Hesburgh supposedly said back in the late 70's regarding withholding support from Pro-abortion candidates that you agreed with them on everything else, that you end up with somebody who you only agree with on abortion. I would imagine Fr. Ted was a democrat and wouldn't be shocked to learn that he voted for a pro-abortion democrat as the lesser of two evils. A republican who was pro-life but did not support all sorts of entitlements and social programs or a democrat who did but was pro-abortion.
...and now for a very different view of the place and importance of private/religious institutions in the United States of America. Ronald Reagan at Notre Dame... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P0EDIQ5uEEo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Pelosi: “Bishops Suing HHS Don’t Speak For The Catholic Church”… Is she really claiming the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops does not speak for the Church? (CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said on Thursday that the 43 Catholic institutions—including the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Archdiocese of New York–that are suing the Obama administration over its regulation mandating that all health-care plans must cover sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients are not speaking for the Catholic Church. When the lawsuits were filed in a coordinated action on May 21, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis spoke at a press conference, giving a quite different impression. “The mandate set to take effect in August of this year requires us to violate our teaching on sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs,” Archbishop Carlson said in explaining the lawsuits that were filed simultaneously in 12 different federal court districts across the country by Catholic archdiocoeses, dioceses, universities, schools and charitable organizations. “The Catholic Church, led by the U.S.C.C.B. [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops], has pursued every imaginable avenue to correct this problem without litigation,” said the archbishop. “But in a few short months, the federal government will force Catholic institutions to choose between violating the law and violating our moral convictions. Right now, the future is unclear, and any scenario that forces us to violate our moral convictions is unacceptable.”