Sebelius Ignores Church & Federal Law, too

Kathleen Sebelius, the pro-abortion Catholic head of the Department of Health and Human Services, not only ignores her Church--she ignores Federal law as well.

On September 12, the Daily Caller reported:

"President Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated the Hatch Act, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Wednesday.

Sebelius violated the law, the office said, when she publicly endorsed President Barack Obama’s re-election during a taxpayer-funded public event on Feb. 25, 2012.

Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner wrote to Obama that the OSC found Sebelius “violated the Hatch Act by making extemporaneous political remarks in a speech delivered in her official capacity” on Feb. 25."

The violation took place at a fundraiser for the "Human Rights Campaig" homosexual activist group. The comprehensive report sent to President Obama by Carolyn  Lerner of  his own Office of Special Counsel, notes that twice during her speech Sebelius violated section 5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(1).

"Secretary Sebelius appeared at the HRC gala in her official capacity as HHS Secretary. As explained above, twice during the speech, Secretary Sebelius diverged from her prepared remarks. First, she endorsed the gubernatorial campaign of North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton and stated that it is “hugely important” to elect a Democratic Governor in North Carolina. Although Secretary Sebelius testified that she “had not intended to endorse him,” her words had that effect. Because she made this endorsement in her official capacity as HHS Secretary, she violated the Hatch Act."

The report contained Sebelius response, in which she admitted violating the law,

Lerner's report concludes: 

"Congress has determined that violations of the Hatch Act by such officers be referred to the President “for appropriate action.”  See 5 U.S.C. § 1215(b).  Accordingly, OSC hereby submits this Report of Prohibited Political Activity, together with a response from Secretary Sebelius, to the President."

The New York Post reported:

"According to the OSC, the 'great majority' of Hatch Act violaters — about 100 a year — usually end up getting punished with a suspension."

As of this writing, President Obama has not disciplined Sebelius in any way.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Health Issues?

The Wall Street Journal has an article “The Church of Kathleen Sebelius” by William McGurun which should be read by all believers in life issues and the politics of Obama verus the Catholic Church.

In the church of Kathleen Sebelius, there is little room for dissent. "We are in a war," the Health and Human Services Secretary declared to cheers at a recent NARAL Pro-Choice America fund-raiser. Give the lady her due: Her actions mostly match her words.

Mrs. Sebelius's militancy explains the shock her allies are now feeling after last Wednesday's decision to overrule the Food and Drug Administration on Plan B, a morning-after pill. The FDA had proposed allowing over-the-counter sales, which would give girls as young as 11 or 12 access without either a prescription or a parent. Now the secretary's allies are howling about her "caving in" to the Catholic bishops.
Let’s hear it for Kathleen! But read on:

On this score they needn't worry. Notwithstanding the unexpected burst of common sense on Plan B, the great untold story remains the intolerance so beloved of self-styled progressives. In this Mrs. Sebelius has proved herself one of the administration's most faithful practitioners: here watering down conscience protections for nurses and doctors who don't want to participate in abortions; there yanking funding for a top-rated program for victims of sexual trafficking run by the Catholic bishops, because they will not sign on to the NARAL agenda; soon to impose a new HHS mandate that will require health-insurance plans to cover contraception, sterilization and drugs known to induce abortion.

Alas for her president, her zeal for this agenda has yielded two unintended consequences. Within her party, it is creating a rift between the Planned Parenthood wing and the president's Catholic and religious supporters. Outside her party, it is illuminating the danger of equating bigger government with a more just society.
Thus far, attention has mostly focused on the politics. One reason is that even Catholics who supported President Obama on his signature health bill recognize the contraceptive mandate as a bridge too far. These include the Catholic Health Association's Sr. Carol Keehan, whose well-publicized embrace of the Affordable Care Act gave the president critical cover when he needed it. Others simply question whether forcing Catholic hospitals to drop health insurance for their employees rather than submit to Madam Sebelius's bull is really the image the president wants during a tough re-election year.

Then there are the Catholic bishops. Just two years ago, many seemed to regard ObamaCare as a compassionate piece of legislation if only a few provisions (e.g., conscience rights and abortion funding) could be tweaked. Now they are learning the real problem is the whole thing is built on force—from the individual mandate and doctors' fees to the panels deciding what treatment grandma is entitled to. The awakening has led to a new bishops' committee on religious liberty, and tough, unprecedented criticism.

'Catholic' Sebelius to lead HHS?

From the AP:

WASHINGTON – Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was near the top of President Barack Obama's list of candidates to head the Health and Human Services Department, a senior administration official said Saturday.

Back in May of 2008 we (and many faithful Catholics) commended Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, when he said that Governor Sebelius' positionon abortion "constitutes a scandal to the faithful." The good Archbishop further said the Governor should no longer receive communion.

As his brother Bishop, Bishop Martino said recently of Senator Robert Casey:

"I remind you that your responsibilities as a Catholic bound by the faith of the Church exceed even those of your office."

If in fact Sebelius is appointed head of the Department of Health and Human Services, it will be interesting to see Archbishop Naumann's response.

Bishop Naumann gets down to it!

Kansas: archbishop bars governor from Communion

Kansas, May. 9, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City has announced that Governor Kathleen Sebelius should not receive Communion because of her support for legal abortion.

In a column appearing on May 9 in the archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven, the archbishop said that Governor Sebelius has sent a "spiritually lethal message" by implying that she could remain a Catholic in good standing while supporting abortion on demand.

The archbishop's column cited in particular the governor's veto of the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, which would have required abortionists to inform women about the effects of the procedure and alternatives to abortion.

The governor's stand in favor of abortion is particularly painful, Archbishop Naumann wrote, because Sebelius is a Catholic. He reported that he had met with her "several times over many months to discuss with her the grave spiritual and moral consequences of her public actions." Because the governor has now rejected his pleas and her public stand constitutes a scandal to the faithful, the archbishop said that he has now directed her to refrain from receiving Communion. Archbishop Naumann reported that he has asked Governor Sebelius to accept this directive, so that she will "not require from me any additional pastoral actions."

The governor will be welcomed back to Communion, the archbishop wrote, if she acknowledges her error, goes to Confession, and makes "a public repudiation of her previous efforts and actions in support of laws and policies sanctioning abortion." I hope that my request of the governor, not to present herself for holy Communion, will provoke her to reconsider the serious spiritual and moral consequences of her past and present actions. At the same time, I pray this pastoral action on my part will help alert other Catholics to the moral gravity of participating in and/or cooperating with the performance of abortions.

The Archbishop's full statement is here.

Obama Picks Sebelius for HHS

The "Catholic" contingent of the Party of Death is getting more prominent everyday.

From the AP:

"WASHINGTON – Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is President Barack Obama's choice for secretary of health and human services, a White House source said Saturday.

The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said Obama will formally announce the nomination on Monday."

Her Archbishop, Joseph Naumann has already said that Sebelius' action on abortion "constitutes a scandal to the faithful," and he has requested she refrain from receiving communion.

UPDATE: Diane over at "Te Deum Laudamus" is calling this "a perfect storm."

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

"Given the choice between the Eucharist and abortion rights, she chose the latter."

Stephen White at CatholicVote.org comments on Kathleen Sebelius' commencement speeach at the (Jesuit) Georgetown University. We disagree with him about one thing. He writes:

"Last year, Sebelius delivered the keynote addressat a NARAL fundraiser in Chicago. 'We are in a war,' she told the abortion boosters in the crown....

If we are in a war, as Sebelius says, at least she is clear about which side she’s fighting for. Would that we could say the same for Georgetown."


There's no doubt at all about whose side Georgetown is fighting on.

Changes at USF: Fr. Donal Godfrey Out as Executive Director of University Ministry

The "Lane Center's" Julia Dowd to serve as Interim Director.

On September 15 we noted the apparent departure of Fr. Donal Godfrey, SJ from the position of Executive Director at University Ministry at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. His departure is now confirmed.

Godfrey’s departure comes on the heels of the revelation that his long-time associate Patrick Mulcahey, has, over a number of years, been teaching and moderating workshops on the Master/slave and sado-masochistic lifestyle. (See California Catholic Daily, September 3, 2010).

As recently as August 30, 2010, according to a cached webpage from the ministry’s site, Fr. Godfrey was still serving as Executive Director of the Ministry. Sometime between August 30 and September 15, 2010, (which obviously includes the date the California Catholic Daily story was published) Fr. Godfrey was replaced by Ms. Julia Dowd, a layperson. Fr. Godfrey will continue to serve as one of the ministry’s five “Associate Directors.”

Fr. Godfrey was appointed on August 1, 2007. His views on the Church’s position on homosexuality were already quite well known: In 2002 he was one of the panelists at the University’s "New Jewish & Christian Approaches to Homosexuality" symposium (where he quoted Mr. Mulcahey extensively). In 2006, he gave a homily at San Francisco’s predominantly homosexual Most Holy Redeemer Church on “Finding God in the Erotic.” The homily was published in the “Gay Catholic Forum.” In April 2007, he celebrated the famous “Gay Service” at Most Holy Redeemer, which was broadcast worldwide on "BBC Radio4." The photograph above is from San Francisco's 2003 Gay Freedom Day Parade. Photo credit: Most Holy Redeemer Church.

Immediately following his appointment, Lexington Books published "Gays and Grays: The Story of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish." Fr. Godfrey had been working on the book for much of the decade. On March 3, 2008, Godfrey plugged the book in an Australian publication called Eurekastreet.com/au in an article titled "Towards a church apology for gay prejudice." On March 9, 2008, Godfrey gave another homily at Most Holy Redeemer “The Call to Come Out.” The homily likens Jesus’s calling Lazarus to come out of the tomb to same-sex attracted persons coming out of “the closet.” That homily was also published in the “Gay Catholic Forum.”

On July 18, 2008 Godfrey visited World Youth Day in Australia. He attended an "Acceptance" forum. "Acceptance" --"gay, lesbian, bisexual, & transgender Catholics"--is the Australian version of "DignityUSA." The Australian Church did not allow Acceptance to attend the official World Youth Day events.
_____________________________________________

While Catholics will be heartened by the news that one of the world’s most famous homoactivist priests is no longer be in charge of ministry at a Catholic University, his replacement, Julia Dowd, does not give much reason for rejoicing. On October 20, 2007, Ms. Dowd, joined by members of USF’s LGBTQ Caucus, attended the "OutThere" conference at De Paul University. The conference’s program makes clear that the its purpose was to create more effective advocacy for positions opposed to the Catholic Church on Catholic Universities. The description of USF’s presentation reads:

“This roundtable describes a series of community conversations on LGBTQ issues and Catholicism held in 2006 at the University of San Francisco. Three public forums, two held at local parishes, invited open dialogue in the midst of a church-wide debate following statements by church officials about LGBTQ issues. Roundtable participants will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the series as a model to educate and create community debate.”

The “conversations” described include “Is it Ethical to Be Catholic? Queer Perspectives” held at Most Holy Redeemer Church on February 12, 2006.

In addition to her new position as Executive Director of University Ministry, she continues to serve as an associate director of USF’s Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought. Over the past few years, the Lane Center has hosted such speakers as Fr. James Keenan, SJ, who, on April 28, 2003 spoke before the Massachusetts legislature "as a Catholic moral theologian," opposing Massachusetts Bill H. 3190, which would define marriage as between one man and one woman; Professor and ex-priest Paul Lakeland, who is best known for his support of Connecticut's recent attempt to have lay persons take over the governance of the Catholic Church; renegade Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, (despite Archbishop George Niederauer's orders that he was not to speak at any Catholic institutions in the Archdiocese); professor and abortion advocate Sylvia Marcos, who believes in working to make abortion legal in countries where it is now illegal; and the Rev. Ignacio Castuera, President of the Clergy Network of Planned Parenthood and the Rev. Lisa Sargeant, Chaplain of (now defunct) Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. Ms. Dowd was also one of the signatories to a March 1, 2009 document supporting the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to the release of the document, Sebelius’ Archbishop, Joseph Naumann had already called Sebelius' actions on abortion "a scandal to the faithful," and had requested she refrain from receiving communion.

Obama alienates Catholics

Catholics make up about a quarter of the American electorate and have backed the popular-vote winner in every presidential election since 1972.
That track record continued through 2008: While weekly churchgoing Catholics slightly favored Sen. John McCain, Catholics as a whole backed President Barack Obama by a margin of 54 to 45 percent.
Given the role Catholics played in Obama's 2008 victory and their habit of picking presidential winners, you might think that an embattled president with a 40-percent approval rating would be working overtime to solidify his support among this crucial voting bloc. Instead, Obama seems intent on convincing Catholics that their faith in him was unwarranted.
While other voters have been disappointed by Obama's economic failures and arrogant, ham-handed approach to everything from health care reform to the Solyndra scandal, swing-voting Catholics have special reason to feel betrayed. A candidate who won their support by pledging to respect the religiously grounded views of those with whom he disagrees has morphed into a president whose administration relentlessly attacks religious liberty.
In the past year, Obama's Justice Department has argued in court that defenders of traditional marriage – the most visible segment of which are observant Catholics and bishops – should be regarded in law as the equivalent of racists. His National Labor Relations Board has issued rulings against two Catholic schools, St. Xavier University in Chicago and Manhattan College in New York, saying that they are not sufficiently Catholic to warrant religious exemptions from federal labor law – a stunning breach of the precedent in which religious bodies, not government officials, decide who qualifies as a member of a particular church. Those rulings followed on the heels of a highly publicized crusade by Obama's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to punish North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College for removing contraception coverage from its employee health plans, a move the Catholic school made to conform to church doctrine.
And just last week, Obama's Justice Department argued before the Supreme Court for the effective gutting of the longstanding "ministerial exception" that allows religious bodies to hire and fire employees without government interference. The administration's extreme position has drawn criticism from nearly every major religious organization in the country, from the liberal National Council of Churches to the conservative National Association of Evangelicals, all of whom fear that their churches could be the next targets of an overzealous, First-Amendment-trampling Uncle Sam.
Among Catholics, the most egregious example of Obama's broken promise of religious tolerance is the one dominating diocesan headlines now: His administration's push for a mandate that would require Catholic institutions to violate the teachings of their church by covering contraceptives in their health care plans – including sterilization and drugs that induce abortions.
The mandate would be controversial even if accompanied by the standard religious exemption that allows faith-based organizations to opt out of government regulations that violate their religious beliefs. But the Obama administration has gone a step further, by crafting a religious exemption for the mandate so narrow that it excludes nearly all Catholic hospitals, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities and charitable organizations – virtually everyone, it seems, except Catholic parishes and religious orders. The upshot: Catholic colleges that teach abortion is evil must pay for abortifacient drugs for their students and Catholic hospitals that refuse to sterilize patients must subsidize sterilization for their employees.
The mandate and its lack of conscience protection is a blatant attack on religious freedom and a far cry from the promise Obama made at the University of Notre Dame in 2009. Back then, when the president was peddling his health care plan and pledging to seek "common ground" with pro-life Catholics, he vowed to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause." Now that Obamacare has passed, the president and his surrogates are singing a different tune. "We are in a war," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a NARAL Pro-Choice America crowd in Chicago last week.
Sebelius followed her martial rhetoric with a sarcastic swipe at pro-lifers who fail to see church-funded contraception as a cure-all for America's astronomical abortion rates. Apparently, the secretary has not read the 2011 Guttmacher Institute report that found a majority of women who abort their babies were using contraception the month they conceived.
Obama displays a similarly dismissive attitude toward his pro-life and Catholic critics. At a fundraiser here in St. Louis last week, he offered a flippant "darn tooting" rejoinder to an audience member who called out support for his unyielding enforcement of the contraceptive mandate. He answered a recent invitation to dialogue from U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops President and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan with stony silence. And he has ignored pleas for compromise from the likes of Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins and Catholic Health Association President Sr. Carol Keehan, two former Obama cheerleaders who now look like Obama's dupes.
The president's hard-line, anti-freedom stance threatens to alienate millions of Catholics, including many who disagree with their church's teachings but resent the prospect of government officials dictating which doctrines Catholic institutions may follow and which ones they must violate. For these voters and millions of their fellow travelers of other faiths, Obama's election in 2008 is looking more and more like a mistake – one they do not intend to repeat in 2012.
Catholic Education Resouce Center: COLLEEN CARROLL CAMPBELL

Archbishop Nauman teaches it!

From the Archbishop's column in the "The Leaven", the paper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City:

Q. What is meant when it is said that Gov. Sebelius’ actions were scandalous?

A. To answer this question, I again refer to “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper,” which references the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “To give scandal means more than to cause other people to be shocked or upset by what one does. Rather, one’s action leads someone else to sin. Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. To lead others into sin is indeed a very serious matter. Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged” (no. 4). Governor Sebelius’ public support for legalized abortion, as a Catholic, naturally leads others to question the moral gravity of abortion. In effect, her actions and advocacy for legalized abortion, coupled with her reception of holy Communion, have said to other Catholics: “I am a good Catholic and I support legalized abortion. You can be a good Catholic and support legalized abortion.”

Read the whole thing here.

Will Obama Destroy Franciscan University of Steubenville?

Daniel Webster was the most famous lawyer of his day. In 1819, the "Godlike Daniel" stood before the U.S. Supreme Court and argued passionately for the right of Dartmouth College to govern itself, and not to be brought under the rule of the New Hampshire legislature. Webster appealed to the Constitution, arguing that New Hampshire's actions would violate that provision that forbade states to "impair the obligations of contract." But the emotional power of his argument caught the attention of Chief Justice John Marshall, Justice Joseph Story, and in truth, captured the hearts of the country.

Richard N. Current gives us a gripping description of Daniel Webster's defense of Dartmouth College in a 1963 American Heritage article.
"Sir, you may destroy this little institution. It is weak. It is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of the country. You may put it out. But if you do so, you must carry through your work. You must extinguish, one after another, all those great lights of science which, for more than a century, have thrown their radiance over our land. It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet, there are those who love it. ..."

The Dartmouth College case became one of the pillars of American jurisprudence. And Webster's powerful appeal propelled him to a brilliant career in the U.S. Senate.
The Supreme Court that year ruled in favor of Dartmouth College. It recognized not only the supremacy of the Constitution, but it showed that it valued the signal role played by colleges and universities in American life.

The Obama administration is showing it values that role not at all. It is attempting to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Mr. Obama's HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, is trying to force Steubenville to dispense abortion-producing drugs and pay for sterilizations. This is a Roman Catholic institution. Such things are strictly proscribed by the Catholic faith.
Sec. Sebelius may be aware that Catholic institutions are required by faith and fidelity to their mission to uphold these principles. It is an indispensable part of their mission and their reason for being. To force a Catholic institution to violate the consciences of its faculty, students and alumni in this fashion is like forcing a Yeshiva to serve pork to Orthodox Jewish students.
This attempt to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville is, tragically, not an isolated example. From the first days of the Obama administration, there has been a kulturkampf (culture clash) against Catholic institutions not seen since the days of the Iron Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck. It was Bismarck who attempted to put all churches and universities in Prussia under his hobnailed boot.

Writer Charlotte Allen wrote of the "Persecution of Belmont Abbey" by the Obama administration in 2009. There, too, liberal zealots were demanding that the Catholic school, founded in 1876, provide contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations or face federal sanctions. This, according to the institution's president, could lead to closing down the historic little college.

Chai Feldblum is a tenured professor at Georgetown University Law School. This is the oldest Catholic university in the country. Ironically, Feldblum, is also a homosexual legal activist. She was Barack Obama's choice for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She told a panel at Family Research Council that if it came to a clash between what she calls gay rights and religious liberty, religious liberty must give way. In other words: "Be Amish, or be quiet."
We have already seen this as the most anti-Israel administration in U.S. history. Never before has an American president and secretary of state stooped to counting Jews in Jerusalem.
The Obama administration is also the most anti-Catholic administration in American history. Never before have tens of millions of Catholic Americans been forced to subsidize the killing of unborn children with their taxes -- as they are under ObamaCare. But now they are also forcing Catholic institutions to take part in the destruction of innocent human lives and the maiming of others by paying for abortifacients and sterilizations. As Americans, we must defend our religious liberties -- while we still have them. Steubenville is a little college, but there are those who love it!
By Ken Blackwell (Archive) · The Patriot Post

House Urged to Repeal Contraception Regulations

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 1, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Bishop Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut, chair of the US bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, spoke about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Forcing employers to pay for sterilization and contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs, has “absurd consequences,” he said.

The February 10 changes to the original plan announced by President Barack Obama “would not change the scope of the mandate and its exemption,” he said.

“For present purposes, the ‘accommodation’ is just a legally unenforceable promise to alter the way the mandate would still apply to those who are still not exempt from it,” he said. He added that “the promised alteration appears logically impossible.”

The fundamental issue at stake, Bishop Lori explained, “is a matter of whether religious people and institutions may be forced by the government to provide coverage for contraception or sterilization, even if that violates their religious beliefs.”

He also questioned why sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients are requirements of the health care act while decisions on prescription drugs and hospitalization that are supposed to be “essential” are “handed off to each state.”

Ardent opposition
Jeanne Monohan, director of the Family Research Council's (FRC) Center for Human Dignity, also gave testimony on Tuesday.

"In a letter to the President and members of Congress recently signed by thousands of women of 18 different faiths and representing doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, mothers, community care workers, business owners, scholars and more women voiced their ardent opposition to the mandate,” she told the committee.
“We call on President Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and our representatives in Congress to respect religious voices, to respect religious liberty, and to allow religious institutions and individuals to continue to provide witness to their faiths in all their fullness,” the letter stated.
"The contraceptive mandate is an unprecedented directive which deeply conflicts with religious and conscience freedom protections the American people currently receive," said Monohan.
“In our democratic society governed by the U.S. Constitution, it is not the role of this Administration to dictate what does or does not violate another person's conscience on matters as critical as life and death,” she added.

“We urge you not to allow this President to discriminate against those with moral or religious objections to this mandate coverage of contraceptives, sterilization services, and abortifacients," she said.
--- --- ---

Time to Speak Up

At least 142 U.S. Catholic bishops, representing almost 80% of America’s dioceses, have strongly denounced the religious persecution expressed in the rules promulgated January 20, 2012 by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HSS), in connection with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly dubbed “Obamacare.”
How about joining the Bishops and demand freedom of conscience?
Obama's office will take calls.

Holy Father Calls Out Catholic Universities at Ad Limina Visit

As USF hosts the atrocious anti-Catholics Goodwin Liu and Lynn Woolsey, as Georgetown hosts the atrocious anti-Catholic Kathleen Sebelius, the Holy Father tells Catholic Universities what they should be doing, what their mandate is:


"On the level of higher education, many of you have pointed to a growing recognition on the part of Catholic colleges and universities of the need to reaffirm their distinctive identity in fidelity to their founding ideals and the Church’s mission in service of the Gospel. Yet much remains to be done, especially in such basic areas as compliance with the mandate laid down in Canon 812 for those who teach theological disciplines. The importance of this canonical norm as a tangible expression of ecclesial communion and solidarity in the Church’s educational apostolate becomes all the more evident when we consider the confusion created by instances of apparent dissidence between some representatives of Catholic institutions and the Church’s pastoral leadership: such discord harms the Church’s witness and, as experience has shown, can easily be exploited to compromise her authority and her freedom....


During my Pastoral Visit to the United States, I spoke of the need for the Church in America to cultivate "a mindset, an intellectual culture which is genuinely Catholic" (cf. Homily at Nationals Stadium, Washington, 17 April 2008). Taking up this task certainly involves a renewal of apologetics and an emphasis on Catholic distinctiveness; ultimately however it must be aimed at proclaiming the liberating truth of Christ and stimulating greater dialogue and cooperation in building a society ever more solidly grounded in an authentic humanism inspired by the Gospel and faithful to the highest values of America’s civic and cultural heritage. At the present moment of your nation’s history, this is the challenge and opportunity awaiting the entire Catholic community, and it is one which the Church’s educational institutions should be the first to acknowledge and embrace."


USF, Georgetown, and other institutions have become the enemies of the Church, rather than her defenders.

More Health Care Bill Insanity: Government to Define Gender

Are you a man or a woman? Don't worry. . . the government will tell you.

From CNSNews:

"The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s health care legislation will give the Health and Human Services secretary the authority to develop “standards of measuring gender” -- as opposed to using the traditional "male" and "female" categories -- in a database of all who apply or participate in government-run or government-supported health care plans."

Here's the text in question, from the Senate's bill, with our emphasis:

‘‘(2) COLLECTION STANDARDS.—In collecting data described in paragraph (1), the Secretary or designee shall—
‘‘(A) use Office of Management and Budget standards, at a minimum, for race and ethnicity measures;
‘‘(B) develop standards for the measurement of gender, geographic location, socioeconomic status, primary language and disbility measures;...

This reminded me of a passage from the recent (July 15) essay by Anglican Bishop Tom Wright, of Durham, England:

"It is a very recent innovation to consider sexual preferences as a marker of “identity” parallel to, say, being male or female, English or African, rich or poor. Within the “gay community” much postmodern reflection has turned away from “identity” as a modernist fiction. We simply “construct” ourselves from day to day."

Yep. Poor Secretary Sebelius is way behind the postmodern curve. Who is she, or her successors, to develop "standards" for the measurement of "gender"? Won't that be just one more mode of oppression?

Perhaps it would be more sensible for us to just stay men and women.

“Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”

God bless Fr. Z.

He remembers Mary McCarthy's quote about Commie sympathizer Lillian Hellman, the title of our post. Father applies it to the gruesome Kathleen Sebelius.

God bless LifeSiteNews, too, the best Catholic news site on the web. They have crashed again, for the second time in a few days, because the Drudge Report is linking to their coverage of the Obama/HHS mandate, and the enormous traffic is too much for their servers to accomodate. When they are up again, donate to them so they can buy more & better servers!

Betrayed

We put him in office--promises broken.
Here's part of a brilliant article from the St Louis Dispatch.

...Among Catholics, the most egregious example of Obama's broken promise of religious tolerance is the one dominating diocesan headlines now: His administration's push for a mandate that would require Catholic institutions to violate the teachings of their church by covering contraceptives in their health care plans – including sterilization and drugs that induce abortions.

The mandate would be controversial even if accompanied by the standard religious exemption that allows faith-based organizations to opt out of government regulations that violate their religious beliefs. But the Obama administration has gone a step further, by crafting a religious exemption for the mandate so narrow that it excludes nearly all Catholic hospitals, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities and charitable organizations – virtually everyone, it seems, except Catholic parishes and religious orders. The upshot: Catholic colleges that teach abortion is evil must pay for abortifacient drugs for their students and Catholic hospitals that refuse to sterilize patients must subsidize sterilization for their employees.

The mandate and its lack of conscience protection is a blatant attack on religious freedom and a far cry from the promise Obama made at the University of Notre Dame in 2009. Back then, when the president was peddling his health care plan and pledging to seek "common ground" with pro-life Catholics, he vowed to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause." Now that Obamacare has passed, the president and his surrogates are singing a different tune.

Sebelius followed her martial rhetoric with a sarcastic swipe at pro-lifers who fail to see church-funded contraception as a cure-all for America's astronomical abortion rates. Apparently, the secretary has not read the 2011 Guttmacher Institute report that found a majority of women who abort their babies were using contraception the month they conceived.

Obama displays a similarly dismissive attitude toward his pro-life and Catholic critics. At a fundraiser here in St. Louis last week, he offered a flippant "darn tooting" rejoinder to an audience member who called out support for his unyielding enforcement of the contraceptive mandate. He answered a recent invitation to dialogue from U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops President and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan with stony silence. And he has ignored pleas for compromise from the likes of Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins and Catholic Health Association President Sr. Carol Keehan, two former Obama cheerleaders who now look like Obama's dupes.

The president's hard-line, anti-freedom stance threatens to alienate millions of Catholics, including many who disagree with their church's teachings but resent the prospect of government officials dictating which doctrines Catholic institutions may follow and which ones they must violate. For these voters and millions of their fellow travelers of other faiths, Obama's election in 2008 is looking more and more like a mistake – one they do not intend to repeat in 2012.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Colleen Carroll Campbell. "Obama is alienating Catholic voters." St. Louis Post-Dispatch (October 13, 2011).

Phil Kline's Case Moves Forward

Steve Ertelt, writing today at Life News, on the attempted railroading of Kansas prosecutor Phil Kline. While this is tough for Mr. Kline, there is reason to believe the charges may blow up in the face of those who brought them. Here's part of Mr. Ertelt's article:

Kansas: Kline Says Grand Jury Killed Case Against Abortion Biz

"Former Kansas prosecutor Phill Kline is back for the second part of hearings on politically-motivated charges that he acted improperly during his investigations of abortion clinics.
The hearings are taking place even though recently released documents show that investigators for the Disciplinary Administrator cleared Kline of any wrong-doing in 2008. In a Disciplinary Report filed with the Disciplinary Administrator on May 22, 2008, a team of investigators carefully looked into the trumped-up ethics charges against Kline. Their determination left no question that Kline did nothing improper to warrant further action.

'After reviewing the substantial documentation in this case, it is the opinion of these investigators that there is not probable cause to prove that Phill Kline violated any of the rules of ethics,' they wrote....

According to the pro-life group Operation Rescue and a report at the Kansas Watchdog blog, grand jury foreman Stephanie Hensel testified that she filed the ethics complaint against Kline because she believed he had misled the grand jury as to the true application of the mandatory child abuse reporting law and did not tell them of the outcome of a federal case, Aid for Women v. Foulston, where a judge determined that abortion clinics must report suspected sexual activity in minors only if they believe that the activity has caused harm to the child.

Kline insists he explained the law to the grand jurors reflecting the AFW v. Foulston findings almost word for word. The AFW decision has since been rendered “moot” because the reporting law was changed by the Kansas legislature.

Kline also said that a secret agreement entered into by four grand jury members with Planned Parenthood to obtain only records Planned Parenthood wanted them to see “killed the process.” While Hensel testified that she believed at first the grand jury would issue a “true bill” recommending criminal charges against Planned Parenthood, the grand jury in the end failed to indict due to the secret agreement."

The article immediatly reminded us of a post our friend Jack Smith at "The Catholic Key"wrote on February 24, 2011, "Carrie Nation, Kathleen Sebelius, and Hating Phil Kline," offering his analysis of why there is such a vendetta against Kline. Jack wrote:

"There are any number of anti-abortion politicians in Kansas and none of them are hated with the vehemence directed at Phill Kline. He didn’t propose pro-life legislation or prosecute a doctor without a license. There would have been no vendetta for that. I even suspect that if he’d somehow shut down Tiller’s Wichita practice, there would be less hatred toward him than for what he actually did."

To find out what Kline did, and why they are going after him, make sure to read read Jack's post.

Abortion Executive Order: Congressman Boehner Stays on the Case

The transparent fig leaf of an Executive Order used by Congressman Stupak et al to justify their support for Obamacare, with its public funding for abortion, has apparently been put back in the closet for another day. But House Republican leader John Boehner is not forgetting:

"House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), in a meeting with President Obama and Congressional leaders at the White House today, asked President Obama to provide the American people with a progress report on the implementation of his Executive Order which purports to ban taxpayer-funding of abortions. Leader Boehner noted that in her recent “progress report” to Congress on the implementation of ObamaCare, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius did not make any mention of efforts by the administration to implement the president’s Executive Order (EO).

Abortion opponents widely viewed the EO as a disingenuous maneuver made by the Administration in the final hours of the health care fight to buy off 'pro-life' Democrats instead of passing the anti-abortion Stupak amendment, which would have prevented federal subsidies for abortion under ObamaCare. A recent analysis by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops confirms that under the new law, 'federal subsidies will be used to help expand access nationwide to abortion coverage” and that all Americans, regardless of one’s personal convictions, will be forced to “pay a nominal fee for full access to elective abortions - not to be estimated at less than ‘$1 per enrollee, per month.’"

h/t The Corner

Archbishop Naumann Teaches...

From Catholic News Agency:

"While he was in Quebec City, Canada for the Knights of Columbus’ annual conference, Archbishop Naumann took time to explain to CNA the intricacies of his decision to ask the Kansas governor (Kathleen Sebelius) to refrain from receiving Communion.

'One of the things that I said when I met with the governor at one point, is that some day she’s going to have to stand before God and account for her public service. And I hope that she’s going to have something better to say than what she does to this point on the protection of the innocent unborn. But I said if you go to God and you say, ‘Well, I didn’t understand how important this was’ or ‘I didn’t understand that this was such a crucial issue’ then as your bishop I’m the one responsible because I didn’t do enough to try and make sure of that. I told her I wasn’t comfortable with that and so I wanted to make sure that she understood what a serious matter this was.'”

Read the whole thing

Obama Picks Ambassador to Vatican

He's a professor named Miguel H. Díaz.

According to his page on the "Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good" website, he is "an expert on the Catholic Church," whatever that means.

A little more concretely, he is one of :

"26 Catholic activists, scholars and theologians who signed a statement publicly supporting President Barack Obama’s selection of pro-abortion Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services ."

On August 14, 2008 Professor Diaz characterized "Senator Obama's example" as a "building a policy of inclusion." For Diaz, a legislator's making it legal to simply allow injured infants to die does not violate "a politics of inclusion."

No wonder he is Obama's choice.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney