Posted on 09/04/2009 12:31:55 PM PDT by kingattax
(CNSNews.com) - Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, wrote on Thursday that he confronted President Barack Obama on the question of abortion in the health care reform plan now before Congress when he spoke to Obama in a Boston church at Sen. Ted Kennedy’s funeral.
O’Malley made the revelation in a long blog posting on his archdiocesan Web site responding to Catholics who were distressed that he had taken part in a very public funeral Mass celebrating the life of Sen. Kennedy.
Kennedy supported legalized abortion (including legalized partial-birth abortion), federal funding for research that kills human embryos and same-sex marriage—positions that were in open defiance of the explicit teachings of the church.
“President Obama and three former presidents attended Senator Kennedy’s funeral,” wrote O’Malley. “I had the opportunity to speak briefly with President Obama, to welcome him to the Basilica and to share with him that the bishops of the Catholic Church are anxious to support a plan for universal health care, but we will not support a plan that will include a provision for abortion or could open the way to abortions in the future. The President was gracious in the short time we spoke, he listened intently to what I was saying.”
On August 11, Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, wrote a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives stating that the House health care bill supported abortion and was unacceptable to Catholics.
“Because some federal funds are authorized and appropriated by this legislation without passing through the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, they are not covered by the Hyde amendment and other federal provisions that have long prevented federal funding of abortion and of health benefits packages that include abortion,” Rigali wrote.
“The committee rejected an amendment to extend this longstanding policy to the use of federal subsidies for health care premiums under this Act,” Rigali continued. “Instead the committee created a legal fiction, a paper separation between federal funding and abortion: Federal funds will subsidize the public plan, as well as private health plans that include abortion on demand; but anyone who purchases these plans is required to pay a premium out of his or her own pocket (specified in the Act to be at least $1.00 a month) to cover all abortions beyond those eligible for federal funds under the current Hyde amendment. Thus some will claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion under the Act. But this is an illusion. Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions. Furthermore, those constrained by economic necessity or other factors to purchase the ‘public plan’ will be forced by the federal government to pay directly and specifically for abortion coverage.”
While not mentioning Cardinal Rigali and the Catholic bishops, President Obama has said that those who say the health care bill funds abortion are lying.
In explaining his participation in Kennedy’s funeral mass, Cardinal O’Malley said it was “a great disappointment” to him that the senator supported the legalized killing of unborn children.
“Needless to say, the Senator’s wake and Catholic funeral were controversial because of the fact that he did not publically support Catholic teaching and advocacy on behalf of the unborn,” said O’Malley. “Given the profound effect of Catholic social teaching on so many of the programs and policies espoused by Senator Kennedy and the millions who benefitted from them, there is a tragic sense of lost opportunity in his lack of support for the unborn. To me and many Catholics it was a great disappointment because, had he placed the issue of life at the centerpiece of the Social Gospel where it belongs, he could have multiplied the immensely valuable work he accomplished.”
In an August 19 talk on BlogTalkRadio, President Obama said people who say that the health care bill involves government funding of abortion are liars.
“You’ve heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortion. Not true,” he said. “This is all--these are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation. And that is that we look out for one another. That I am my brother’s keeper and my sister’s keeper. And in the wealthiest nation on earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call.”
In his August 22 weekly address, President Obama again attacked the truthfulness of those who point out that the health care reform bill would funnel federal tax dollars to abortions.
“So today, I want to spend a few minutes debunking some of the more outrageous myths circulating on the internet, on cable TV, and repeated at some town halls across this country,” said Obama. “… Some are also saying that coverage for abortions would be mandated under reform. Also false. When it comes to the current ban on using tax dollars for abortions, nothing will change under reform.”
Cardinal O’Malley did not indicate that President Obama made any response to him in the church at Sen. Kennedy’s funeral when he brought up the issue of abortion in the health care bill. He only said the president was “gracious” and “listened intently.”
Obama also delivered a eulogy for Sen. Kennedy at the funeral, which was held at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston.
“Ted Kennedy's life work was not to champion the causes of those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard,” Obama said in that eulogy.
As a state senator in Illinois, Obama was the leading opponent of legislation that called for treating a child that survived an induced labor abortion as a “person” under Illinois law. As a presidential candidate, he vowed to Planned Parenthood that he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would enshrine abortion on demand in a federal statute. As president, he has approved federal funding for research that requires the killing of human embryos
“The President was gracious in the short time we spoke, he listened intently to what I was saying.”
And then had a good laugh about it with his atheist Communist friends later...Catholics...how can they expect us to keep believing this horse shite that they really care about this? After they gave Ded Kennedy his annullment, they hold services for him in a church and then tut tut to the Commie in Chief...if they keep pursuing this belief with passion like this, the Catholic Church will be deader than Ted in a few more years...
IOW, no news at all.
I call BS. He “confronted” Obama, but permitted and particpated in a funeral mass for Senator Kennedy, an actual professing Roman Catholic - unlike Obama - yet one of the most tireless advocates of abortion on demand for decades.
The Cardinal should get his story straight.
When are these guys going to grow some cahones and start excommunicating pro-abortion Catholic politicians? What are they afraid of? They’re supposed to have God behind them.
Obviously he didn’t spend much time counseling Teddy Kennedy about abortion. That he presided at at Teddy’s funeral was a mockery of Church teaching on abortion.
~~PING!
Ted Kennedy’s *very* quiet Catholicism
###
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/teddy_kennedys_very_quiet_cath.html
Like a big lump of clay, Teddy Kennedy is being worked and reworked into an immortal. The mainstream media and other liberal apologists are seeing to the handiwork. They even want us to believe that Kennedy was squared with his Catholicism. But how could he be? He was unapologetically pro-abortion.
Time magazine gave it go, though. It published an article last week about Kennedy’s “quiet Catholic faith.” For a man so vocal about many things, he certainly did keep quiet about his faith. And with good reason.
Egregious apostasy was Teddy’s way.
On every major abortion vote, the late Senator walked lockstep with NARAL Pro-Choice America. Here’s the checklist:
* No on defining an unborn child as eligible for SCHIP;
* No on prohibiting minors to cross state lines for abortion;
* No on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions;
* No on criminal penalties for harming unborn fetus during other crime;
* No on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life;
* No on maintaining ban on military base abortions;
* No on banning human cloning;
* Yes on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines
((http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Ted_Kennedy_Abortion.htm))
The sanctity of innocent human life — the life of the unborn — is a bedrock principle of Roman Catholicism. It’s nonnegotiable. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reads, in part:
(2271) “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law...Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes. [Italics added]
Not misdemeanors but abominable crimes, reads the Catechism. Abortion is not a gray area that leaves room for discretion and choice.
Having grown up in the church, and raised by a devout mother (Rose), Kennedy was steeped in the teachings and strictures of Catholicism.
His embracing abortion was a deliberate, conscious decision to turn his back on church teachings.
But prior to Kennedy making a break with the church, he was public in his opposition to abortion. In 1971 he wrote:
“While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life.
Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.”
~~~
Rest at link
"bishops of the Catholic Church?" Two? Lots? All of them? Are there any bishops of the Catholic Church who aren't communists? Are there any that aren't stupid?
If there are any who aren't stupid, let's have them weigh in on this issue.
Cardinal 0’Malley should have washed his hands of this funeral. If anyone deserved a Catholic funeral, it was NOT Ted Kennedy.
Reminds me of a story our priest told in a homily:
Napolian told a Cardinal of France. I hate the Catholic Church and I’m going to destroy it.”
The Cardinal replied, “Don’t be silly, my arrogant friend. We, Cardinals and Arch-Bishops, have been trying to destroy the church for 2000 years. We haven’t succeeded, and you won’t either.”
If I was in such a position I would be far more fearful of what would be in store for me in the next life if I did not do my duty in that regard.
The only Catholics that Obama cares about are the Kennedy Kafeteria Katholics of Amerika.
Dear Cardinal O’Malley,
You are, I think, quite mistaken when you say that “the Senator’s wake and Catholic funeral were controversial because of the fact that he did not publically support Catholic teaching and advocacy on behalf of the unborn.”
The problem on Ted Kennedy’s side was NOT one of mere omission: he did NOT simply “fail to support” Catholic teaching. He was an active, vocal, and deadly opponent of human rights: one who stripped an entire class of persons of their human rights, their human dignity, and even their human identity.
The problem on the Church’s side was not that Kennedy was given a “wake and a Catholic funeral,” inasmuch as almost every Catholic would willingly bow the head and pray for a merciful judgment and the respose of his soul. The problem was the specifically ~honorific~ nature of the funeral observances, which had the look, the sound, and the aroma of a splendid and sumptuous, if spurious, canonization.
The stunning nature of Kennedy’s activism can be only summarized by reporting the nature of the crimes. Ted Kennedy:
Voted NO on defining unborn child as eligible for the SCHIP healthcare program.
(Bill S.Amdt.4233 to S.Con.Res.70 ; 3/14/2008)
Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for procuring the abortion of their offspring.
(Bill S.Amdt.4335 to S.Con.Res.70 ; 3/13/2008)
Voted YES on expanding destructive human experimentation to more embryonic stem cell lines.
(Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act; Bill S.5 & H.R.3 ; 4/11/2007)
Voted NO on notifying — even notifying! — the parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.
(Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act; Bill S.403 7/25/2006)
Voted NO on criminal penalty for assaulting or slaying an unborn child during the commission of other crime.
(Unborn Victims of Violence Act; Bill S.1019/HR.1997 ; 3/25/2004)
Voted NO on banning the revoltingly cruel practice of partial birth abortion
(Bill S.3 ; 3/12/ 2003)
Voted NO on maintaining the ban on abortions at Military Bases
(Bill S 2549 ; 6/20/2000)
Voted NO (again!) on banning partial birth abortions.
(Partial Birth Abortion Ban; Bill S. 1692; 10/21/1999)
Voted NO on banning human cloning.
(Motion to invoke cloture on motion S. 1601; Bill S. 1601 ; 2/11/ 1998)
May I say something about the public impact of the extravagantly honorific funeral observances? In comparison with the much more modest funeral of his honorable and edifying sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Ted Kennedy’s glorified exitus was seen by millions, tens of millions as a crescendo of politicized Alleluias and as a calculated case of exalting the exalted and humbling the humble.
The funeral ought to have been private, small, solemn, and heartfelt; it ought to have centered upon a plea to the Lord for “those most in need of Thy mercy”; and the media ought to have been banned. Scandal? Kyrie eleison, a millionfold.
Thank you for alerting me to the two articles.
His embracing abortion was a deliberate, conscious decision to turn his back on church teachings.
Yes, it was deliberate and many thanks are due Fr. Drinan(deceased '07), the shameful, pro-abortion priest who served in the House '71-'81. A priest on Raymond Arroyo's program last Friday, talked about Drinan's meeting with Teddy that convinced Teddy to go against the Church in support of abortion rights.
The priest went on to say (paraphrasing) "just think what could have been, had Kennedy stayed true to the Church? No, Biden's Kerry's Leahy's and other pro-abortion RC's. Kennedy gave them the courage and leadership to go against the Church."
I hope Drinan and Kennedy are having another meeting as I type. Maybe a fireside chat of sorts.
And then laughed his ass off at you when your back was turned.
Hello Mrs. Don-o,
Thank you for pinging me to your letter to Cardinal O’Malley. It’s excellent and you highlighted my primary gripe: the public celebration of Kennedy.
It was a shameful display and a cause for confusion not only for Catholics but for non-Catholics as well. My sweet grandmother, who’s not one for suffering fools, fielded call after call asking if Kennedy was in Heaven by “her Church’s standards.”
Wow. Disappointed. Careful Cardinal, that's awfully strong language. If Kennedy was only a disappointment, kind of like the kid who fails French, he still deserves a good Catholic funeral. Wouldn't want to talk about the sin of promoting the killing of the unborn, when it can so easily be called a disappointment.
I agree .. missed that program. Whatever was
the justification that Drinan gave for such
despicable heresy ?
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