HHS Mandate and Little Sisters of the Poor

Many us in the Archdiocese, know the Little Sisters of the Poor because of the Jeanne Jugen Residence fin Northwest DC.   In fact, I wrote about the famous visitor they had one year. 


We know that they do wonderful work, but are very quiet about it.  They are one of many shining examples of Pro-Life work!

So, what does the HHS mandate do to them?  They can either violate their faith or pay hefty fines.  And, you would be surprised by the vast amount of money they would have to shell out, just for one small residence.  

For the complete interview, go to the National Catholic Register.

H/T to the Curt Jester.

USCCB Responds to Vice President Biden

Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees:

"With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact."

This is not a fact. The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain "religious employers." That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to "Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital," or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served.

HHS has proposed an additional "accommodation" for religious organizations like these, which HHS itself describes as "non-exempt." That proposal does not even potentially relieve these organizations from the obligation "to pay for contraception" and "to be a vehicle to get contraception." They will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients.

They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations (and their employees) are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries.

USCCB continues to urge HHS, in the strongest possible terms, actually to eliminate the various infringements on religious freedom imposed by the mandate

For the full Statement, go here:  http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-163.cfm

Joe Biden, Mario the Pious and Social Justice

Well folks, after watching the debate last night, there are a couple of things..
 
1.  He talks about Social Justice and yet, a man with his means only donated a couple of hundred  dollars to charity.  I guess that Social Justice begins with YOUR money and not his.
 
2.  As expected, he used the Mario the Pious defense:  "I am opposed but..."  Either you are your faith, or not on right to life issues.  Let's be clear and frank about this (or his he going to laugh about it).  This was made famous by Mario Cuomo in the 1980s, as he looked to obtain a national office.   
 
And on a separate note, the catholycs for obama crowd are so SHAMELESS that they have a photo of Joe Biden with Mother Theresa, as if Mother Teresa would support him.   Remember what Mother Teresa said in regards to abortion: 
 
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
 
"Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants."
 
National Prayer Breakfast in Washington attended by the President and the First Lady. "What is taking place in America," she said, "is a war against the child. And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another."
 
"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters"
And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign."

VOTE NO ON MD BALLOT QUESTION 4 and QUESTION 6!

A Tsunami of Secularism - Is it Too Late to Stop?

The 2012 Synod of Bishops on evangelization began its second day with a call for the Catholic Church to roll back the “tsunami of secularism” that has swept over modern society in recent decades.

“It is almost as if this tsunami, this wave has washed across everything we lived by and simply took most of it away,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. told CNA on Oct 8.

For more, go her: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/evangelization-synod-aims-to-reverse-tsunami-of-secularism/

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Remember, Vote NO on Question 4 and Question 6 this Election Day.

Speaking as One Catholic to Another during this Election

BTW, I endorse this message.

Don't Redefine Marriage

http://www.marylandmarriagealliance.org