Separation of Church and State

'Liberty and Tyranny' by Mark Levin Reviewed

"I learned from this book the bigoted reason that the constitutional misconception of separation of church and state became the law of the land through the Supreme Court's 1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision."I knew anti-Catholicism had supplied a unifying principle for a majority Protestant culture threatened by fragmentation and decline in the first half of the 20th century. And because Catholicism seemed to represent unification of church and state, many Protestants came to use the Jeffersonian language of "separation of church and state" in generally opposing Catholic participation in politics and education.

"What I learned in Mark's book (pages 30-31) is that former Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black -- who wrote the fateful, culturally damaging, precedent-breaking 5-4 decision -- was described by his own son as an avid reader of the vilest anti-Catholic hate literature. This fact contradicts the usual excuses for Black's former membership in the Ku Klux Klan (youthful indiscretions, socially required, etc.). So this American Civil Liberties Union-cherished provision was not the product of 18th-century enlightenment, but 20th-century rural anti-Catholic Protestant bigotry. Fascinating and useful. "
by Tony Blankley, [excerpt by Thomas Brown III)

"Totally Unnacceptable"

Good news on the Feastday of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher! Archbishop Nichols of Westminster steps up.

From the Daily Mail UK:

Gay rights law halts Catholic adoptions

The adoption agency headed by Britain's most senior Roman Catholic churchman declared yesterday that gay rights laws have forced it to stop trying to find potential homes for children.

The Catholic Children's Society, whose president is Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, announced that it will no longer assess individuals or couples as prospective adoptive or foster parents.

The charity has pulled out of its principal role because it cannot reconcile Church teaching on marriage and the family with the demands of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, Labour's gay rights laws that compel adoption agencies to assess same-sex couples as prospective parents as well as heterosexuals. 'We do this with deep regret but have been forced into this position,' said a spokesman.

The agency was founded in 1859 and the move brings to an end a service offered by one of the oldest adoption agencies in the country.

'The trustees are convinced that what is best for children is that they be brought up by married couples. This is shown by research but it is also consonant with the teaching of the Church.

'It would be totally unacceptable for our Catholic agency to act in a way that is at odds with the teaching of the Church.'

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

"Dialogue? No, thank you!"

So much for "dialogue"--and no wonder. A serious Council on Bioethics would be a standing rebuke to Obama's entire career. From the New York Times:

Obama Plans to Replace Bush’s Bioethics Panel

Members of the President’s Council on Bioethics were told by the White House last week that their services were no longer needed and were asked to cancel a planned meeting, a council staff member said Wednesday.

The council was disbanded because it was designed by the Bush administration to be “a philosophically leaning advisory group” that favored discussion over developing a shared consensus, said Reid Cherlin, a White House press officer.

President Obama will appoint a new bioethics commission, one with a new mandate and that “offers practical policy options,” Mr. Cherlin said.

Obama likes dialogue--on his opponent's territory. Less so on his own.

h/t American Papist

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

"Come for Pride, Stay for Dignity"

The June 21 Most Holy Redeemer parish bulletin published an announcement promoting DignityUSA’s 2009 National Convention. The convention will be held in San Francisco from July 2 through July 5. Because one of their stated aims is to “reform (the Catholic Church’s) teachings and practices regarding human sexuality”, Dignity is not allowed to meet in any Catholic Church or Catholic church property within the Archdiocese of San Francisco. But, no surprise, Most Holy Redeemer and the University of San Francisco will be represented at the convention. We ask: why would a Catholic Church promote such an event? Let’s look at the convention’s webpage:

One of the two Keynote speakers will be radio and television commentator Richard Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez is a parishioner of Most Holy Redeemer. Immediately, on the convention’s “Keynote” webpage, Mr. Rodriguez attempts to confuse issues:

“The institutional Roman Catholic Church promulgates its teaching and guidelines for pastoral ministry to homosexual persons admonishing Thou Shalt Not Love Same Gender Persons.”

That’s a gross misstatement of Catholic doctrine, and Mr. Rodriguez knows it. I can’t count the number of same gender persons that I love. Or hug, for that matter,-- a “physical expression” of love.

But back to our question: why would a Catholic Church promote such an event?

On November 25, 2008 Salon online magazine interviewed Mr. Rodriguez on the subject "Why Churches Fear Gay Marriage.” In the interview Mr. Rodriguez described his church:

"I belong to a Catholic parish in San Francisco (Most Holy Redeemer), where my partner and I are acknowledged by the other people in the parish as a couple. We take communion together, the priests know who we are, they're supportive of who we are, and what we are, and they see us in various roles -- giving eulogies to dead friends but also helping to baptize little babies. We're very much a part of that community. That's why I'm not prepared to lose it because some archbishop in Colorado or cardinal in Los Angeles is behind Proposition 8. It is not my church that they're talking about, it's not even my experience of love."

In a July 21, 2006 interview with PBS host Bill Moyers, Mr. Rodriguez was equally clear:

“Well, the question is is my Catholic Church closer to Protestant Christianity, and I think it is.”

Why would a Catholic Church promote such an event? Convention “workshop” presenters include:

Rosemary Ananis: An “ordained bishop” of the American Catholic Church of New England. Lives with her partner of more than 20 years.

Bob Butts and Dick Young : Life partners since 1987. Young is a former National Board member of DignityUSA. Some years ago, Butts worked with DignityUSA’s then national president, Mark Matson, to establish the Ohio chapter of the “Defenders.” The “Defenders” are a group that "takes a stand for the sacredness of our leather sexuality and explores practical ways of integrating sexuality and spirituality." The Defenders have been frequent guests at MHR's parish hall.

Fr. Donal Godfrey, SJ, the executive director of Campus Ministry at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. ‘Nuff said.

Sr. Jeannine Gramick: Co-founded New Ways of Ministry, and a number of Dignity USA chapters. Two of her books were the subject of a Vatican investigation and were judged to be dangerous and erroneous. In a 1999 decree signed by Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prohibited her from pastoral work with lesbian and gay persons.

John McNeill: Jesuit priest expelled from the order in 1987 by the Vatican for publicly challenging the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on the issue of homosexuality. Co-founder of the New York City chapter of Dignity.

Victoria Rue: A “Roman Catholic ‘woman priest‘” who was ordained in July 2005 by three women “bishops." Lives with her partner of twenty years.

Nicole Sotelo: Former member Dignity San Francisco Board of Directiors. Coordinator at Call to Action/USA. Ms. Sotelo made news earlier this month with a column “Don’t Tell the Pope” in the National Catholic Reporter, in which she basically denied the existence of the priesthood.

___________________________________________________________

We asked: why would a Catholic Church promote such an event?

We answer: a Catholic Church wouldn’t. We answer: Most Holy Redeemer is no longer a Catholic Church. Back on August 28, 2007 we reviewed Fr. Donal Godfrey’s book “Gay and Grays: the Story of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish.” At that time we wrote:

“…the authentic community-forming experience at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco is not Catholicism, but homosexuality. Existentially, Most Holy Redeemer is not a Catholic parish. It is not a Christian parish. It is a gay parish.”

This can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. All one need do is to look at any occasion in which the teaching of the Catholic Church comes into conflict with the celebration of homosexuality. Having openly homosexual “married” persons serving on the altar as lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, or Acolytes at the Mass, is not seen as blasphemous, or even objectionable at MHR.

No, what is seen as blasphemous at MHR is anything that challenges the celebration of homosexuality. Our review of Fr. Godfrey’s book has some examples, which could be multiplied just about endlessly.

Or just look at the recent column by MHR Pastoral Council member Matt Dorsey attacking Archbishop Niederauer for his support of natural marriage and the family. Three times in that column, Mr Dorsey used the phrase “our community,” e.g. “We owe it to our community to Pink Brick Archbishop George Niederauer.” Not once does the phrase “our community” refer to the Catholic Church--he is always refering to same-sex attracted persons.

Why does our Archdiocese ignore this issue? I hope it is because they want to encourage same-sex attracted people to come into the Church, and they fear that asserting Church teaching on homosexuality would discourage them. But if that is indeed the approach, it must be termed a failure. After 25+ years we don’t have same-sex attracted persons coming into the Church, but rather an entire parish church that has come out as gay. But much worse than that, the victims are those scandalized same-sex attracted persons struggling to live a chaste life. A commentator to “A Shepherd’s Voice” has written:

"I was active in the gay community including co-habitating with "boyfriends" for almost a decade... The fatigue of watching friends die and one night stands, alcohol and recreational drugs... all the stereotypes - I did them.

One day I could not take it anymore and after hearing an MP3 of a sermon given by a pretty traditional priest, I found myself making a good confession for the first time in 8 or 9 years.

What frustrates me to no end is that in catering and cajoling these folks this opportunity this call to conversion may never come. It is also rather a slap in the face to those of us who seek to grow in chastity and holiness and have turned from this."

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

"An Abortion Absolutist"

The famous columnist Mark Steyn has a column today about President Obama's "even-handed" approach to both "sides" involved in the unrest in Iran--that is the side of the people, who are asserting their right to self-government, and the side of the government, which is asserting it's "right" to break peoples heads if they assert their right to self-government.

Mr. Steyn's says this is characteristic of Obama, and he applies this rather crisp takedown:

"...the president's preferred rhetorical tic is to stake out the two sides and present himself as a dispassionate, disinterested soul of moderation: 'There are those who would argue…' on the one hand, whereas 'there are those who insist…' on the other, whereas he is beyond such petty dogmatic positions. That was pretty much his shtick on abortion at Notre Dame. Of course, such studied moderation is usually a crock: Obama is an abortion absolutist, supporting partial-birth infanticide, and even laws that prevent any baby so inconsiderate as to survive the abortion from receiving medical treatment."

Emphasis added.

Mr. Steyn gets it. Father Z gets it. The editors of "America" get it, too--they just use "dialogue" as a cover.

Fr. Z eviscerates "America" Magazine

Go here to read good Father Z's shredding of a disingenuous and hypocritical editorial in the Jesuit America magazine.

He makes the quite correct comparison between today's liberal Catholic clergy who are "tolerant" on abortion and the Catholic Clergy of the 1950s and early 60s who were "tolerant" on segregation. That's a comparison our good friend Pastor Walter Hoye has made many a time.

Fr. Z closes with:

"Dear Editors of America,

For the umpteenth time, numbers too large to measure of American Catholics were disgusted by Notre Shame’s decision to award President Obama an honorary doctorate in law, ... in law ...because, as an Illinois law maker, he twice voted against a bill that would have criminalized the abandonment-to-death of babies who were born alive in spite of medical teams’ attempts to kill them.

That is, infanticide."

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

San Francisco Versus the Church (Update)

The June 18 San Francisco Bay Guardian's "Politics Blog" has an article on the June 16 hearing over the city of San Francisco's attempt to impose new taxes on the Archdiocese of San Francisco. We've covered this story here and here. The hearing adjourned with no decision, and according to the Bay Guardian, it will be continued next month.

We've argued that this is payback from the City of San Francisco for the Church's support of Proposition 8, and questioned whether the Archdiocese can get a fair shake.

We've pointed out that the City Assessor, Phil Ting, who brought the case, is a supporter of same-sex "marriage" and has has himself performed same-sex "weddings."

We've also pointed out that of the three members of the review board hearing the case, one, city treasurer Jose Cisneros, sits on the board of Equality California, and another, Amy L. Brown, head of the city's real estate division, coached other city employees on how to perform same-sex "marriages" and was herself a contributor to the "No on 8" campaign.

We've also pointed out that of the three counties served by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, only one, San Francisco county, (the one controlled by homosexual activists) has seen fit to attempt this maneuver.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Thoughts and Prayers

Our thoughts and prayers go out to our friend Diane over at the "Te Deum Laudamus" blog.

Her mother Rose has gone home to the Lord. As readers of Diane's blog know, her mother had been in critical condition for a number of days.

"At 6:20 pm this evening, my mother peacefully went to the Lord with her family surrounding her. It was nice for her to have a few hours of peace without all of the tubes and machines which were removed just after 2:00pm. She was kept comfortable and quickly fell into a deep sleep."

Most Holy Redeemer Pastoral Council Member Gets "Pink Brick" for Archbishop Niederauer

Well, we told you so. It seems like just yesterday (actually it was Monday) that we wrote:

"...the activists--in conjunction with likeminded persons both inside and outside the Church--will try to intimidate the Church from without and undermine it from within."

Today's Bay Area Reporter has an article about this year's "Pink Brick" awards. For those of you living in more sane places, the "Pink Brick" is an "award" bestowed annually by San Francisco's LGBT Pride Celebration Committee--they are the folks who put on the disgraceful Gay Pride parade. They give it to people they don't like. I'd say receiving one is something to be proud of.

This year the committee decided to award the thing to Carrie Prejean, whose conviction that marriage is between one man and one woman they found objectionable. But they also decided to give another one, to our Archbishop George Niederauer, for his defense of natural marriage and the family. From the article:

"The membership and board of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee voted at their June meeting to award a second Pink Brick, this time to Catholic San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer.

The so-called runner-up Pink Brick was apparently decided on following the committee's first selection last month of now-dethroned Miss California USA Carrie Prejean.

Pride board President Mikayla Connell said that the committee received 'thoughtful feedback' from community members following the decision that pointed to Niederauer's actions in support of Proposition 8 last year...."

It's no surprise that His Excellency's work in defense of natural marriage and the family would earn the wrath of the homosexual activists. It's more newsworthy that the homosexual activist leading the charge should be a member of a Catholic church's pastoral council. More from the article:

"In a May 28 Guest Opinion column for the Bay Area Reporter, Matt Dorsey, a gay man who's on the parish council of San Francisco's Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, argued that the Pink Brick should have gone to Niederauer, rather than Prejean.

In his column, Dorsey wrote that the San Francisco Archdiocese had produced and distributed campaign fliers to local parishes and schools, acknowledged as having been "Paid for by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco," misleading people that supporting Prop 8 would secure parental rights to teach children about marriage.

Dorsey also noted that Niederauer had voiced opposition to same-sex marriage in a video that appeared on the Web site http://www.marriagematterstokids.org/. Dorsey told the B.A.R. this week that he was grateful for the decision to award the Pink Brick to Niederauer 'and for being open to community feedback.'"

Mr. Dorsey is an employee of the City of San Francisco--the communications director for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera. His bio on the Most Holy Redeemer Pastoral Council page can be found here. His May 28 guest column in the Bay Area Reporter can be found here.

Here we have a member of the Most Holy Redeemer Pastoral Council publicly attacking the Archbishop for his adherence to Church teaching and the natural law. Is Mr. Dorsey's action unusual for the MHR Pastoral Council? Not at all. He is representative of the council. Five current and past members of MHR's Pastoral Council donated to the "No on Proposition 8" campaign--at the exact time when all the Catholic Bishops in California asked Catholics to vote for, volunteer for, and contribute financially to its passing.

But that pales in comparison to the infiltration of the Liturgical Ministries at Most Holy Redeemer. By our count there are at least seven persons serving in liturgical functions (lectors, acolytes, eucharistic ministers) at MHR who have "married" persons of the same sex. These are the people serving at Mass. Documentation can be found here, here, here, and here.

As we wrote on December 29, 2008:

"How (and why) can our Archdiocese continue to remain passive with MHR? This is no longer about gay people who are sinners like the rest of us. As I've argued before, this is about the establishment of a new religion, a religion using the
trappings of Catholicism but that is actually something else."

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

A Reminder

Our President is a powerful speaker and has most of the country in the palm of his hand. But words and change should not be lightly accepted without some basic premises to keep in mind.

Let me remind you once again of the "five non-negotiables." As you know, the majority of American Catholics have traditionally voted for political candidates who take the WRONG positions on the key moral issues of our day:1. Abortion2. Euthanasia3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research4. Human Cloning

5. Homosexual "Marriage" Why?Why do Catholics vote for the very things they're bound in conscience to oppose?The answer is simple . . . They aren't really aware of what they're doing!And the #1 reason for that is the bias, misinformation, and lack of information that comes from the mainstream news media.

Think about it . . .* When was the last time the news media showed the truth about abortion? They never show the American people what abortion does to babies. They'll show graphic pictures of all kinds of other violence, but they never show the truth about abortion.* When Terri Schiavo was being put to death by starvation and dehydration, the news media went out of their way to convince the American people that she "deserved" to die because she was a "vegetable." The majority of American people were thus in favor of Terri suffering a horrible death-even while her family wanted to take care of her.

* When stem cell research comes up, the news media never tell people about adult stem cells-and the tremendous progress being made with them. The media want the American people to think that we have to kill innocent human life in order to reap the benefits of science.

* When the topic turns to human cloning, the same thing is true. The news media never address the issue of the morality involved in creating cloned human life-and where our society will end up if we try to play God.

* And woe to you if you say one word against homosexuals wanting to get "married." The news media immediately brand you as a "homophobe" and "extremist"-but they never explain the arguments against homosexual "marriage." They act as if it's a foregone conclusion that men should be allowed to marry men, and women should be allowed to marry women, and transgender people should be allowed to marry . . . who knows what.

Well, the five non-negotiables (as it turns out) are among the key moral issues in our day. True to form, the mainstream news media did their best to obscure these issues in the minds of the American people.What's more, the media aren't telling us exactly where our political leaders stand on the five non-negotiables.As a result, many Catholics are still confused, bewildered, and befuddled when these issues are proposed as laws.History shows us that most of the bad candidates who have been elected never would have gotten into office were it not for the Catholic vote. Besides abortion, there undoubtedly will be other key moral issues that will come up for review by the Supreme Court in the coming years: euthanasia, human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and homosexual "marriage." . As you know, many candidates outspokenly support abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, human cloning, and homosexual "marriage."Sadly, this is true even for many of the Catholic politicians, including Joe Biden, Wesley Clark, Christopher Dodd, Rudy Giuliani, Dennis Kucinich, and Bill Richardson, Nancy Pelosi…..Keep an eye on legislation regarding these basic life issues and don’t be fooled by words which obscure the truth.

Nigeria, East Timor Stand Against Culture of Death

From Catholic World News:

Nigerians reject abortion bill pushed by American group

Imo, Nigeria, Jun 15, 2009 / 06:08 pm (CNA).- By a vote of 13-1, the legislature in the small state of Imo, Nigeria rejected the Reproductive Rights Bill last week, marking a pro-life victory in a state whose rich heritage, culture and religious traditions welcome life and respect the lives of unborn children.

It was a decision that the national Nigerian newspaper This Day described as a “victory of the superior Imo cultural values over the new global Western Cultural
Revolution” and “yet another triumph of reason… a triumph of democracy and the popular will.”

and from LifeSiteNews:

Feisty Timor Leste Bucks Abortion Lobby, Upholds Right to Life:
More on New East Timor Abortion Law

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D.

NEW YORK, NY, June 11, 200 (C-FAM) - The parliament of East Timor – a small, Catholic nation in South East Asia recognized as an independent state in 2002 – has resisted concerted pressure from United Nations agencies and pro-abortion non-governmental organizations (NGOs) by enacting a revised penal law that continues to criminalize abortion in virtually all cases.

With last week's 45 to 0 vote with only 7 abstentions on the main operative paragraph, parliament retained penal sanctions on abortion, except in instances where abortion is the "only way" to prevent death to the mother as attested to by three independent physicians. A preambular paragraph states that life "from the moment of conception" is entitled to protection. Abortionists are subject to up to eight years imprisonment, depending on the circumstances. The law also recognizes the conscience rights of doctors to refuse to perform abortions....

East Timor has been in the crosshairs of the international pro-abortion movement. The Alola Foundation, an NGO backed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and headed by East Timor's Australian-born First Lady, intervened repeatedly in the ongoing Timorese debate by seeking abortion liberalization.

In contrast, grassroots NGOs with on-the-ground membership such as Organização das Mulheres Timorenses, whose bona fides were established during the resistance to Indonesian rule, reportedly opposed liberalization, reflecting popular Timorese sentiment.

One international NGO supported by the Australian government and the United States Agency for International Development, the Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP), claimed that "International treaty law specifically supports the right of women to have access to safe abortion methods," including in cases of pregnancy due to rape and incest or where the fetus is abnormal. Echoing arguments made elsewhere by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, JSMP citied treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is no support for such assertions in the language of either treaty, however, nor in any other treaty to which Timor Leste is a signatory.

Meanwhile, back in the good old USA:

Hillary Clinton Swears In Melanne Verveer to Lead Obama's Intl Abortion Agenda
by Steven Ertelt, June 15, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a late Friday ceremony, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swore in the new head of the Office of Women's Issues who will promote President Barack Obama's international abortion agenda. Melanne Verveer becomes a new ambassador whose mission is to promote abortion as part of a focus on women.

The founding document of our country justified the creation of the United States of America by referencing unalienable rights, the first of which was the Right to Life. Our current leadership has abandoned that moral norm. But the self-evident unalienable rights still exist, and third world countries recognize this.

‘We cannot forget what has happened at Notre Dame’

From Catholic World News:

"In an interview with Inside the Vatican, Archbishop Raymond
Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, said that 'we cannot forget what has
happened at Notre Dame. We need to take the measures that are necessary so that
this is not repeated in other places.'

Archbishop Burke added: 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 … "

Defender of infanticide welcomed at Notre Dame:

Opponent of infanticide arrested at Notre Dame:

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney