Catholics United to Bail Out Key Dems that Supported Pro-Abort Health Care Reform

LifeSiteNews.com ^ | July 23, 2010 | By Peter J. Smith

[topher]

Friday July 23, 2010

---

Catholics United to Bail Out Key Dems that Supported Pro-Abort Health Care Reform

By Peter J. Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 23, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The left-leaning group Catholics United is dedicating $500,000 to bailing out the campaigns of key congressional "pro-life" Democrats who voted for the national health care reform, which was decried by pro-life leaders as vastly expanding abortion.

Catholics United, which has many times conflicted with the U.S. Catholic Bishops over the primacy of pro-life teachings, intends to help defend the seats of Democrat Reps. John Boccieri (OH-16), Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03), Steve Driehaus (OH-01), and Tom Perriello (VA-05). The lawmakers face an all-out pro-life assault in the November elections, a contest which analysts predict may sweep Republicans into control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. 

The group says their efforts are a “direct response” to the campaigns mounted by the Susan B. Anthony List, the Family Research Council, the National Right to Life Committee, and the Republican National Campaign Committee to bring down those lawmakers. Of the four, only the fight for Dahlkemper’s seat was listed by Real Clear Politics as a genuine toss-up. The other three Democrats are listed in "lean/likely GOP" races.

However, Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United and a former organizer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is framing his “Set the Record Straight” campaign to bail out these four targeted Democrats as a religious struggle.

“Catholics and other people of faith are frustrated by the dishonesty of many political operatives who oppose reform of our nation's outdated economic and social policies,” said Korzen. “Instead of an open and honest dialogue about how best to meet the challenges of the 21st century, these groups are engaging in scare tactics and misusing the language of faith to score cheap political points and lead voters astray.”

“We are sick and tired of partisan front groups using religion for political gain,” added Catholics United member Beverly Mirmelstein in the CU press release.

Catholics United is an affiliate of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, an organization funded by atheist billionaire George Soros. Both organizations have been condemned by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput as front groups for the Democrat party that have “done a disservice to the Church.” 

Catholic League president Bill Donohue told LifeSiteNews.com that, as Planned Parenthood gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “well deserved” award “for her work championing abortion” on July 15, perhaps next year they would like to consider Korzen for the prize.

“Though Korzen may scream all day long about pro-life groups ‘misusing the language of faith to score cheap political points,’ every honest person knows he is a master of expedient politics,” said Donohue. “His latest gambit, funneling George Soros money to Pelosi shills, is just the latest example of his duplicity.” 

One of the major forces against the health care bill in the lead-up to its passage was the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which chiefly opposed the measure on the grounds of both short-term and long-term threats to the lives of unborn children. The USCCB emphasized that no legitimate social justice could be achieved while opening the floodgates of federal dollars to the abortion industry.

But Catholic groups supporting the bill, such as the Catholic Health Association and NETWORK, a left-leaning lobby of Catholic women religious, undercut the bishops' message and gave Catholic Democrats political cover to justify voting for the health care bill.

See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:

Catholic Doctors, More Bishops Insist: Catholic Teaching Incompatible with ObamaCare
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10031912.html 

Rep. Chris Smith to Introduce “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10072205.html 

Maryland Plan Indicates HHS Approved High Risk Pools With No Abortion Requirements 
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10071909.html

FactCheck.org Confirms: Obamacare Dollars Were Set to Fund Abortions before Controversy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10072302.html 

NARAL Enraged, USCCB Cautiously Pleased with HHS 'Clarification' on High-Risk Pool Abortion Funding 
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10071606.html

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10072310.html

---

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.

[topher]

Catholics United has often been in direct opposition of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops.

This is a very liberal group. It is also a CINO group by nature [CINO=Catholic-in-name-only].

Perhaps the key point of this article is to undermine the efforts of Catholics United to guarantee the defeat of as many Democrats in the November elections -- especially those who voted for ObamaCare

[circlecity]

T"he left-leaning group Catholics United is dedicating $500,000 to bailing out the campaigns of key congressional "pro-life" Democrats"

Left leaning? Is that what we're calling hard core Marxists now?

[SumProVita]

A far more accurate name for this group = ANTI-CATHOLICS UNITED

[topher]

The Democratic CongressCritters in trouble are:

CongressCritters John Boccieri (OH-16), Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03), Steve Driehaus (OH-01), and Tom Perriello (VA-05).

[Ford4000]

Seriously, the Catholic church ought to copyright the term “Catholic” to keep groups like this from hijacking it.

[topher]

LifeSiteNews.com is just being polite in its reporting... I would not be so gracious.

[topher]

Agreed. There is one group called Catholics for a Free Choice. This group gets funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The views of this group are the direct opposite of the Catholic Church...

[timestax]

sick , Sick, SICK people !

[topher]

According to the article, all but Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03 are in trouble.

Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03 race is considered a toss-up.

The others are all leaning Republican...

Maybe Tea Party should target these folks as well -- just to nail the lid on the coffin...

[olezip]

The left-leaning group Catholics United is dedicating $500,000 to bailing out the campaigns of key congressional "pro-life" Democrats who voted for the national health care reform, which was decried by pro-life leaders as vastly expanding abortion.

Please stop calling these vile people Catholics. They are most certainly NOT. There is no such thing as a pro life Democrat. Watch what Stupak did; they say anything to get elected, then volunteer or are coerced into voting the evil Democrat line. Democrats are evil because they support the killing of the unborn.

[DarthVader]

God is enlarging hell to receive them.

[Psalm 144]

I am NOT trying to pick a fight or stir trouble - but as a non-Catholic looking in I have NO idea what “Catholic” does or does not mean anymore, in any cultural, doctrinal or philosophical sense.

[Buckeye McFrog]

this will become Exhibit #3,879 that NOBODY gets Excommunicated anymore

[Buckeye McFrog]

According to the article, all but Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03 are in trouble.

Her district takes in a lot of very rural Northwest PA.
I’m not so sure that she is not in trouble.

[BenKenobi]

Good intel is always useful.

[firebrand]

Catholics should trademark the work “Catholic.” It’s outrageous that people like Soros are using it.

[firebrand]

Oops you said it first.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"... as a non-Catholic looking in I have NO idea what “Catholic” does or does not mean anymore..."

I don't blame you at all. You've been tormented, as we all have, by two different "engines" running in opposite directions: the engine of "doctrine" and the engine of "discipline."

Catholic doctrines ( as taught, for instance, in the Catechism) are correct and wholesome and intellectually splendid and blessedly coherent; Catholic discipline has been, overall, and for the term of my entire lifetime, wretched.

That means that anybody can say anything, no matter how distorted or mistaken, and not face even a nominal rebuke from those who have the authority to do so: I'm talking about bishops, the principal "supervisors" of the Church.

As a result, well-meaning people both within and outside of the Church are baffled or disgusted.

The Bishops are not using the authority which is rightly theirs,as the New Testament says, "to bind and to loose," to "correct, rebuke and encourage," to communicate where they can, and excommunicate where they must.

And where we do have good shepherds --- my own bishop, Richard Stika of Knoxville, is a good one; Benedict XVI the Bishop of Rome is a very good one --- they face the incessant opposition of the wolves within the fold: you could well say, "wolves in shepherds' clothing."

I have hope, because I am convinced that God still wears the crown in this Church--- though it's a crown of thorns. It's an active battle, and it's going on right now, a battle with no neutrals: every person will ultimately have to go beyond "observing": every person will have to get in there and fight.

[sayuncledave]

I think Weasels United is perhaps a more appropriate and apt name. They are NOT Catholics.

[mo]

Call themselves anything they want...but they ain’t Catholic...