Posted on 03/22/2011 8:10:34 AM PDT by johnqueuepublic
The U.S. Conference Of Catholic Bishops' Dereliction Of Duty On Pro Life Matters
REFUSAL TO TAKE AFFIRMATIVE STAND SUPPORTING DE-FUNDING OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD, A MAJOR BREACH OF FAITH
By WILLIAM MAYER
March 21, 2011 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - As should be painfully obvious at this late date, the Catholic Church is operating in a crisis mode, largely driven by twin scandals.
The first being the matter of priestly sexual abuse, with an estimated 4,692 priests [source, John Jay /Bishop's Accountability Report, pg. 26, http://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2004_02_27_JohnJay_revised/2004_02_27_John_Jay_Main_Report_Optimized.pdf the John Jay Report] having been accused of this horrific offense.
Of course allegations and convictions are entirely separate matters, but here too the Church has erred in dealing with the problem in such secrecy that the process can be characterized as at best, opaque. Again, estimates vary, but the consensus seems to be that approximately $500,000,000 in settlements have been paid out so far.
The second, most recent and continuing scandal has been the USCCB's substantial funding, through its "social justice" sub-directorate, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development [CCHD], of hard-left, sometimes neo-Marxist political organizations, under the guise of outreach to the poor and disadvantaged. Some of these are nothing more than front groups, created by Saul Alinsky 1. a communist fellow traveler.
Though some of the most obvious of these abuses have been addressed by USCCB/CCHD, it was only done grudgingly, its hand forced by public outrage rather than any process of internal review.
The negative impact caused by these matters has battered both the credibility of and most importantly, the moral teaching authority that the Church had only a few generations ago.
Despite Catholicism being in such a state of tumult and increasingly rent by schismatic sectarianism, the one remaining theological anchor that unified the majority of the Catholic world was respect for the sanctity of life, with about 60% of the laity opposed to abortion [see, 2009 Gallup Poll, http://www.gallup.com/poll/117154/catholics-similar-mainstream-abortion-stem-cells.aspx]. That approximately 4 out of 10 Catholics disagree with this basic faith proposition, is itself indicative of uncertainty about the authenticity of this supposedly foundational principle.
The Church's official written position on abortion is entirely unambiguous:
"At this particular time, abortion has become the fundamental human rights issue for all men and women of good will. .... For us abortion is of overriding concern because it negates two of our most fundamental moral imperatives: respect for innocent life, and preferential concern for the weak and defenseless...Among important issues involving the dignity of human life with which the Church is concerned, abortion necessarily plays a central role. Abortion, the direct killing of an innocent human being, is always gravely immoral (The Gospel of Life, no. 57); its victims are the most vulnerable and defenseless members of the human family. It is imperative that those who are called to serve the least among us give urgent attention and priority to this issue of justice."
[source, USCCB website, http://www.usccb.org/prolife/tdocs/priority.shtml]
Despite the USCCB making such an authoritative declaration on the matter, there now arise substantial grounds for questioning the degree to which the American Church is - at its core - genuinely pro-life and anti-abortion.
It's beyond argument that over the last few decades the Church has jumped headlong into secular political advocacy via grant-making, lobbying and other methodologies.
This was evident in the run-up to the thuggish manner in which Obamacare was rammed through Congress by a Democrat near super-majority.
Unbeknownst to many, one of the prime movers in this effort was the USCCB and its representatives.
"On Saturday, after Catholic lobbyists had finalized a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most prominent Catholic in the U.S. Government, the Politico reported that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had "delivered a critical endorsement" to Pelosi "by signing off on late-night agreement to grant a vote on an amendment barring insurance companies that participate in the exchange from covering abortions." The anti-abortion amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat, passed. Hence, the Bishops are now officially in favor of a bureaucratic plan that could spell the end to freedom of choice in health care and financially bankrupt the U.S."
[source, Cliff Kincaid, Catholic Bishops Help Pass Pelosicare, Accuracy in Media, November 8, 2009, http://www.aim.org/aim-column/catholic-bishops-help-pass-pelosicare/]
Of course the USCCB continues to maintain that its intervention was well intended, to make sure that the far-reaching legislation would never be used to fund abortion, but anyone familiar with the case law surrounding such matters knows that once in effect, abortion will be declared by judicial fiat, to be just another aspect of providing gender specific "women's healthcare" and will be funded...forever.
To claim otherwise doesn't pass the smell test.
Due to this sleight of hand, the Church suffered a further loss of credibility in traditional Catholic circles over its gleeful effort to work with extreme pro-abortionists in order to nationalize healthcare, because many of these more orthodox [and more conservative] Catholics knew exactly what was taking place, despite the attempts by the USCCB to defend its actions on the grounds that universal healthcare was a legitimate part of the Church's [utopian and entirely secular] "social justice," agenda.
Setting new dynamics in place, especially on this scale at the federal level always produce unanticipated consequences.
A significant part of this blowback was that Obamacare, though still not actually in effect, proved so distasteful to Americans that voters revolted, throwing the Democrat majority out of Congress and replacing it with a much more conservative GOP majority, with an eye to killing this massive federal intrusion.
The impact of this latest Catholic "social justice" escapade has been tremendously harmful, further tarnishing the reputation of a Church already under siege.
Funding pro-abortion entities, working with politicians who have supported infanticide [witness then Illinois Senator Obama's bottling up of SB 1082], heavily lobbying to impose a system of government healthcare which ultimately will forever fund abortion - these and similar, theologically questionable, matters are forcing the faithful to ask themselves whether their Church really is pro-life.
There is a way of arriving at an answer to this thorny question. One can form a hypothesis and then test the Church's dedication to its stated position. We therefore assume, for purposes of this testing process, that the Church is genuinely pro-life to its core.
An important aspect of the new conservative majority in Congress was its rededication to ending all federal funding for abortion, which manifestly is and has been taking place for many years, though in a stealthy manner.
With the knowledge of how this shell game is being played, conservatives, primarily GOP legislators led by Congressman Mike Pence [R, IN] voted to defund the nation's largest single provider of abortion, Planned Parenthood. The group has received hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money over the years to perform this odious procedure.
The organization itself is ideologically rooted in its founder, Margaret Sanger's, master race theories including eugenics [the science of "improving" the human population] made infamous by the Third Reich. Sanger's goal was to remove the "undesirables," from society, which of course included, ethnic minority groups, the chronically infirm and those with subpar IQs.
Sanger's solution was simple - abort them, so they can't reproduce.
According to PP's own records, in 2009 it aborted 332,278 unborn children. [source, Planned Parenthood Annual Report, http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/PP_Services.pdf].
During that same year the group received $363,200,000 in government funding [see, Penny Starr, Planned Parenthood's Federal Funding Rose to $363.2 Million in FY 2008-2009, CNS News, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/planned-parenthood-annual-report-shows-3]
The translation of this is chilling; the federal government was paying Planned Parenthood a bounty of about $1,000 for every life snuffed out.
With this sordid history and especially given all of the USCCB's rhetoric regarding life issues one would have presumed that they would have been in the forefront, leading the charge with Mr. Pence in order to save millions of unborns, from [an often gruesome] death.
But this was not the case. Given the opportunity to prove its true commitment to life, the U.S. Bishops ran for the hills, nowhere to be found. All that remained on the issue in the halls of the USSCB was the deafening roar of total silence - of complete abdication of responsibility.
Going through the USCCB website we were struck by the absence of any statements supporting the defunding of Planned Parenthood. This seemed very odd and we contacted the USCCB and its various ministries numerous times for comment.
At first stonewalled, we finally received the following inscrutable prose, well after deadline, from the Bishop's press office:
"The bishops have not issued a press release or formal statement re Congressional efforts to defund Planned Parenthood."
Mystified at the apparent incongruity of claiming to be pro-life but when given the opportunity, failing to lift a finger to end Planned Parenthood's abortion mill, they did nothing.
When we sought additional clarification, again, the sound of chirping crickets.
Additionally we made several inquiries to the press office of the Archdiocese of Galveston/Houston, presided over by Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, the Chairman of the USCCB's Life Committee, to see what reasoning might lie behind the Church's failure to carry out its pro-life mandate. These efforts also proved unfruitful.
Are we seeing a pattern developing here?
In further research, checking with knowledgeable sources on the Hill, we had to conclude that the USCCB isn't interested - and indeed may be hostile - to defunding Planned Parenthood, which nonetheless passed the first hurdle, the February vote in the House of Representatives with 11 Democrats joining in the lopsided 240-185 vote, to pull Planned Parenthood off Uncle Sam's teat.
We must assume that they can be counted on to bravely provide this same level of non-assistance now that the matter has moved over to the Senate.
Unfortunately the aforementioned hypothesis - is the USCCB genuinely pro-life? - must be answered in the negative. Our research seems to prove that on this core element in Catholic theology - the sanctity of life - the distressing truth is that the USCCB talks a really good game, but when the chips are down, heads for the exits, jealous of preserving its incestuous relationship with the pro-abortion Democrat party.
In a colloquialism possibly familiar to Galveston's Cardinal DiNardo, on the life issue, the official governing body of the American Catholic Church, the USCCB is all hat and no cattle.
In a major expose, just published, this writer exhaustively investigated the hard-left/progressive/neo-Marxist drift of the Catholic Church. Developing over the last century, it has greatly accelerated since the 60s and Vatican II.
From the piece:
By a variety of theological twists, revisions and maneuvers since Rerum Novarum, a system has been established that indulges the personal political ideology of very liberal Church elders who have succeeded in pushing the limits of faith far outside the traditional boundaries of Catholicism. This change has produced a Church that is far more worldly and materialistic, one preoccupied with pushing an extremist legislative agenda, all the while disingenuously claiming that its activities are faith justified, much to the detriment of the Church's traditional role as guardian of Christ's spiritual message...""...In short, the American Catholic Church has been taken over by the left. It has been systematically conquered from within...This institutionalized leftism is strewn across nearly all of the American Church's social justice positions, with the single exception being the issue of abortion and we see in that matter the CCHD has consistently funded dozens of activist groups, many of which support the pro-abortion agenda, that goes with this ideological territory. The fact is that the USCCB/CCHD has failed to at the most basic level to defend the Church's pro-life position...
[source, William Mayer, Bitter Harvest: How Marxist "Progressives" Have Infiltrated the American Catholic Church, The Religious Left Exposed]
We believe this current writing serves somewhat as a coda, providing important additional perspective in support of the larger thesis [already being characterized as an "explosive investigation"] which concludes that Catholicism is on the verge, if it has not already crossed the threshold, of becoming so thoroughly secularized along socialist ideological lines that it might as well be a political appendage of the DNC.
When Church elders ask why their pews are becoming increasingly bereft of parishioners, they now have the answer. This Church left Catholicism a long time ago and will not return without a major reformation.
End Notes:
1. Saul Alinsky started his work in Chicago, Ill, allying himself with idealistic Catholic priests. This provided him entre into the Church and its eventual support. One of the seminal Alinsky groups, the Industrial Areas Foundation [IAF] was created in 1940 and was partially funded by the Diocese of Chicago. Today IAF works primarily in a stealth mode, using fraudulent faith based dissimulation to convince the public into believing that the organization has an authentic religious foundation. There are approximately 50 of these groups operating around the country, often in alliance with church affiliates.One of the Alinskyite spin-off's, which received massive funding from the CCHD was ACORN, the now defunct, corrupt creation of Wade Rathke, a former member of the Marxist, Student's for a Democratic Society [SDS]. It is admitted by Church spokesmen that ACORN was given in excess of $7,300,000 in support. [see, Dennis Sadowski, CCHD ends funding to ACORN over financial irregularities, Catholic News Service, http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0805268.htm].
ACORN functioned as a voter registration machine for the Democrat party and was involved in numerous prosecutions for voter fraud.
©2011 PipeLineNews.org LLC, William Mayer. All rights reserved. Excerpts from Bitter Harvest: How Marxist "Progressives" Have Infiltrated the American Catholic Church ©2011 The Religious Left Exposed, published with permission.
This is sort of an introductory piece to help introduce the linked to major study, detailing the leftward march of the Catholic Church.
Please feel free to disseminate this as you see fit. PipeLineNews.org would of course appreciate attribution and a link back to the main site - www.pipelinenews.org
Thanks!
Some members of the Church (including some clergy) have marched leftward. The Church has not.
“...leftward march of the Catholic Church...”
****************
I agree! We have 3 young boys in a Catholic school and are very involved in the school and our parish. As a “true” conservative Catholic, I see leftism from the school leaders, currciulum, parents, parishioners, priests, diocese, bishops, and USCCB.
True Catholic doctrine and Christianity seem to be entirely “conservative”, as I understand that ideology.
We are struggling with finding any benefits to continuing to send our kids there. I’d rather them not be faced with hypocrisy from their own faith. If they are in the public school, we can simply blame secularism and the government.
I am sick of fighting this never-ending battle against Leftism on so many fronts!
Dear Bishop,
I have sent you many emails pleading for you to enter the cultural fray visibly and authoritatively in your diocese. As noted by St Ignatius of Antioch, you are our shepherd by the authority of Christ... we should have no other. Unfortunately, like so many in our modern Catholic Church in America, you continue to defer to the USCCB--a noncanonical organization--to speak for you on grave and controversial matters. EWTN (through Raymond Arroyo) has pointed out many recent controversial positions taken by the USCCB and the linked article below is another very good summation of why so many are so dismayed at your approach. I remain at your disposal to discuss these issues with you.
May God bless you.
The U.S. Conference Of Catholic Bishops' Dereliction Of-by PipeLineNews.org
- pgyanke
Who is William Mayer, the author of “Bitter Harvest...”?
And who really is Clint Kincaid? And what exactly IS the USCCB if not a cannonically approved organization? How old is this Bitter Harvest book?
The whole presentation is inflammatory and prejudicial, sewing more seeds of disappointment, outrage and distrust, dividing Catholics and confusing every issue that touches Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium.
I believe we know who the real author of this confusion and destruction is, don’t we?
Our part as laity is to follow Paul’s teaching to “hold fast to Tradition”. The Holy Father is all but begging faithful Catholics to get to their Bibles! We answer by
reading everything else BUT, instead.
“There is nothing new under the sun”, so says Scripture. There are no surprises here. There will always be a falling away and a true harvest. We don’t know how to deal with it because we are not in our Bibles and to be “ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of Christ”.
We have recourse! The name of JESUS is our strong arm, our deliverance. We must “run the RACE and keep the FAITH” because we are the remnant of Scripture. If....we can stand as Ephesians 6 exhorts. Mary is our model. She STOOD under the cross, she did not faint.
The Catholic Church is the one and only church that has stood staunchly against abortion, against, contraception, against euthanasia, against same-sex marriage and homosexuality
and
for families, for life from the womb to the tomb, for natural family planning, for marriage between a man and a woman, for dedicated priests through celibacy.
So what is your problem here? Are you not aware of how the Catholic Bishops warned and warned and warned people not to vote for Obama because of his pro-death stances?
I’ll post some history for you in a bit.
You are talking about CINOs like Pelosi and Biden and Kennedy.
Not REAL Catholics!
If you aren’t on this ping list NOW and would like to be on it, please Freepmail me.
| Over 100 Bishops Have Spoken Out on Priority of Life Issues Posted on October 28, 2008, 11:59 AM | Deal W. Hudson |
What exactly do you have AGAIST the Catholic Church?
Or are you just voicing your disgust with the CINOs.
We are disgusted with the CINOs too.
Pray for their conversion.
Sorry, will have to disagree with you.
I suggest you read the entire study which conclusively proves that the leftists are not outliers in the Catholic hierarchy, but the current iteration of orthodoxy.
You must be aware that the USCCB is the face of Catholicism in the U.S., every single one of their “social justice,” positions are straight out of the leftist playbook.
Was funding ACORN just a leetle mistake?
Was working directly and funding Saul Alinsky just an oversight?
Is liberation theology a debatable theological proposition in Catholicism?
Don’t think so.
They really don’t care about abortion at all, if they did they would be battering down the doors of the Senate to make sure Planned Parenthood’s funding was pulled.
You can relate all the anectodal references, read the Church’s official documents.
We have a serious problem Houston...
It was the Catholic Church that started 40 Days for Life!
40 Days for Life launches record-shattering campaign. March 9 to April 17
Where is your action?
40 Days for Life launches record-shattering campaign. March 9 to April 17
Give me a break, talk is cheap.
The Soviets said they wanted peace, did you believe them?
I’m surprised that some here prefer to circle the wagons instead of fixing the problem.
The USCCB are simply playing a very nasty game, they are in bed with the Pelosi/Obama Democrats because they entirely support the Progressive utopian model.
Question: Were are all of these supposedly pro life Bishops, why arent they in DC pounding on the doors of the U.S. Senate?
The sorry answer is that they are company men and they really don’t give a crap.
An email from Shawn Carney of 40 Days for Life:
It’s always great to start your Monday with good news,
so here it is:
So far, we are aware of at least ...
... 101 lives saved from abortion during this 40 Days for
Life campaign — that we know of!
Here are just a few of the blessings that God has
provided in answer to your prayers!
A tall man and a visibly pregnant woman walked up to
the abortion center, only to find the door was locked.
“It’s closed,” said a 40 Days for Life vigil participant,
“but I have information on free pregnancy help.”
The woman took information on fetal development, but
the couple walked around to the back of the building to
try another door. It, too, was locked. So they sat on
the steps and looked through the brochure they were given.
Eventually, the building opened, and the couple went in.
Two hours later, they came out — to get more information.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” the volunteer said to
the woman. “Were you thinking about getting an abortion?”
“Yes, I was thinking about it. But now I’m not going to
get one,” she answered.
What changed her mind?
“That booklet,” she said. “I didn’t know the baby
looked like that and was that size.”
A woman walked out of the abortion center, saying she
needed a bite to eat. “But it was obvious she was
reconsidering,” said Kathy, one of the 40 Days for Life
prayer volunteers.
It turns out that the woman decided not to go through
with her abortion — and she phoned her boyfriend to
come pick her up.
“This is the second time she has made an appointment to
abort this child and not followed through,” said Kathy.
“She really needs our prayer support in particular for
the financial problems facing the family. But at least
she will not have to deal with the guilt.”
As she left, she expressed her gratitude — and so did
her boyfriend. Said Kathy, “God is good and merciful.”
There are many, many situations where your prayers are
still needed.
40 Days for Life volunteers were able to speak to a
woman who had arrived for an RU-486 abortion.
“She sat in her car quite a while, counting money,”
said Betty in Manchester, “but it was obvious she was
reluctant to go in.”
After speaking to her for a while, Betty invited her
to visit a pregnancy resource center for an ultrasound.
This woman is eight weeks pregnant and she has two
children. Her husband is insisting on an abortion that
she does not want.
“She cried all night and begged God to give her a sign,”
Betty said. “When she saw pro-lifers praying, she knew
that was His reply. Please pray that her husband has a
change of heart.”
Outside the abortion center, 40 Days for Life vigil
participants were able to talk with a couple — but
couldn’t convince them to turn away. As they walked
in, the volunteers resumed their prayers.
A short time later, they came out of the building.
The young woman raised her hands in the air and said,
“I didn’t do it!”
“They were so happy,” said one of the volunteers, “and
they begged us to pray for them.
“Prayers — and the vigil — work,” she said. “Amen!”
U.S. Bishops Cut All Funding to ACORN, Activities Funded Hard to Determine
Bishop discusses reasons behind cutoff of ACORN funding
Catholic Church drops ACORN funding
I wasn’t just talking talk, I was asking you if you had gone to pray in front of a Planned Parenthood Clinic?
That’s action.
Some of these bishops have done that.
You really need to do a better job of checking out the facts.
When you get around to actually reading before criticizing, you may get your answer.
There is no doubt the laity is pro life and that many prelates are also of that dispostion.
That isnt the problem.
The USCCB and CCHD run the show and they don’t care what devout Catholics such as yourself think.
I’ve read the applicable Encyclicals. Instead of simply activng defensively you should probably reacquaint yourself with the state of Catholic orthodoxy.
You can talk all you want, the facts are entirely supported in the document. My guess is you havent read it. You couldnt possibly have given the short time its been up here.
Praying for women outside a PP abortion mill?
That’s action?
Give me a break...work to defund them so Planned Parenthood no longer exists, you would be saving over 300k lives every year.
I suggest you pray for enlightenment.
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