You are currently browsing the daily archive for July 9, 2009.
Apologies for being late with this, but I did want to close the loop on a post I wrote on June 8, 2009, about the possibility that Caritas Christi in Massachusetts might have to cover the cost of abortions.
On June 26, 2009, American Life League (ALL) issued a statement from its president, Judie Brown, which says in part:
After months of tireless effort from American Life League and pro-life heroes in Boston and around the country to expose a potential scandal only days away from becoming a tragic betrayal of Catholicism’s unwavering commitment to the dignity of the human person, Cardinal Sean O’Malley has heard our voices and will end the joint venture with abortion-providing Centene Corp!
We profoundly thank Cardinal O’Malley for his courage, leadership and pastoral concern for the health and well-being of those youngest members of his archdiocese. He has set a beautiful example of dedication and charity for those poorest of the poor – the preborn.
Cardinal O’Malley has answered our call and beat the clock as the minutes ticked away until the July 1 launch of the new CeltiCare Health Plan and the Catholic Church’s participation in the intrinsic evil of abortion.
Together with the thousands of American Life League supporters whose voices cried out in horror to the Cardinal at the thought of the Archdiocese of Boston supporting and promoting abortion, we congratulate Cardinal O’Malley on his commitment to the Faith – even during this time of severe financial crisis…
What happened in Boston will ring out far beyond the potential scandal that could have involved Caritas Christi and thereby the Archdiocese. Cardinal O’Malley’s reaffirmation of the Faith, when it would have been all too easy to compromise, is a sign of the vitality of United States Catholics’ commitment to human life and personhood.
How sad that an organisation with the name Caritas Christi (Christ’s Love) might have been associated with the Cult of Death!
Kudos to Cardinal O’Malley and everyone who contacted his office.
A few months ago, Churchmouse Campanologist carried two posts (here and here) on LifeSiteNews‘s allegations that the Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace (CCODP) could be funding activities contrary to Catholic teachings on abortion and birth control.
On June 28, 2009, the CCODP released its report into an investigation of the matter, which involved five of its Mexican partners. LSN summarised the report on June 29. It reads in part:
The report was limited to evidence regarding the first five groups identified by LSN in Mexico. However, the CCCB formal investigation was undertaken in the context of dozens of other LSN reports finding incontrovertible evidence – photographic, direct interviews, website materials, and other – on groups involved in abortion and contraceptive advocacy funded by D&P all over Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Moreover, the report did not even address all the evidence provided in LSN’s reports on the first five groups. It took up only one piece of evidence, which was also the least significant of the pieces of evidence of pro-abortion activity on the part of the groups — the very same ‘straw-man’ tactic that D&P used in attempting to discredit our original reports.
The report focuses on a single pro-abortion UN document signed by three of the groups, a decision that the report admits was ‘imprudent’. Thankfully, the bishops do note that the UN document that the groups ‘endorsed contains several orientations not in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church…’
The CCCB report ignores the irrefutable evidence that one of the five groups, the ‘All Rights for Everyone Network’ (Todos los Derechos Para Todos y Todas) publicly supported Mexico City’s abortion-on-demand legislation, which mandates the provision of abortions in the city’s public hospitals. The All Rights for Everyone Network also states in its own ‘Agenda’ that one of its goals is the ‘putting into effect the right on women who are impregnated as a consequence of rape to interrupt their pregnancy.’
Whilst the LSN article is a summary, it is quite lengthy and there is more to it than the excerpt above. In short, LSN is ‘optimistic’ that the CCODP will rectify these funding issues.
However, prior to the report’s release, the President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg, gave a series of interviews to the media. LSN reports on what Archbishop Weisgerber said:
‘I can tell you that the bishops’ visit found no evidence that Development and Peace was in any way implicated in abortion services or abortion advocacy. [But] that really wasn’t the allegation being made. The allegation is that they are funding people who are involved in other ways, and we found no evidence of that, either.’
Then, the article states that the Archbishop had this to say about bloggers to The Catholic Register (emphasis mine):
‘The role of web sites in stirring controversy has become a challenge for bishops.’ Weisgerber told the Register: ‘These bloggers who claim to be more Catholic than anyone — I think first of all they’re not part of the church, they’re not Catholic in the sense that they have no mandate, they have no authority, they have no accountability. And they speak very, very definitively about what it means to be Catholic, and they’re followed by so many people.’
Interesting that he thinks bloggers have no place in helping keep the Catholic Church true to its teachings. If it weren’t for laypeople, to whom would he minister? This is one of my suspicions about clergy, and the Archbishop has confirmed it nicely: there is a real disconnect between clergy and congregations, regardless of denomination. The congregation want to be doctrinally true and the clergy like doing their own thing. Yet, we laypeople are the Church.
About the same time I read that quote, I happened onto the St John’s Valdosta blog home page. Have a look at the quote from the late Archbishop Fulton J Sheen in the sidebar:
Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops and your religious act like religious.
Churchmouse Campanologist 