The Pope’s top aides may have already informed Benedict about a campaign promise Obama made on July 17, 2007, to Planned Parenthood, stating that his first act as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would undo legislation that put restrictions on access to abortions. Some Catholics have warned that such a decree, which would essentially codify Roe v. Wade into federal law, could force doctors in Catholic hospitals to perform abortions against their conscience. “There’s more fear here than wrath,” a senior Vatican official told TIME with regard to the Catholic hierarchy’s attitude toward Obama. However, if Obama signs the Freedom of Choice Act in his first months in office, “it would be the equivalent of a war,” says the same official. “It would be like saying, ‘We’ve heard the Catholic Church and we have no interest in their concerns.’ ” U.S. Catholic bishops at a meeting in Baltimore last week vowed to take on Obama for his support of abortion rights; they are also skeptical about his assurances to try to reduce the number of abortions while supporting the right to choose.
Even before the election, Democrats were warned not to risk becoming the “party of death,” according to former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke. It was Burke who famously pledged in 2004 to deny communion to the pro-choice Catholic presidential candidate John Kerry. The archbishop has since been promoted to Rome as head of the Holy See’s equivalent of a Supreme Court. Meanwhile, in response to a question last week on Obama’s pledge to reverse Washington’s policy on stem-cell research, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who heads the Vatican office for health, made it clear that the church will not shy away from the debate. “What builds up man is good, what destroys him is bad,” he told reporters, arguing that one human being should never become a material resource for the betterment of another.
Nevertheless, 54% of U.S. Catholic voters supported Obama, who is Protestant. That may give him the cover to move ahead with his pledges.
KEEP WATCHING
this is another example of the coming events in our culture.
At last, some at least in the Vatican are waking up.
[i]”It would be like saying, ‘We’ve heard the Catholic Church and we have no interest in their concerns.'”[/i] — Only 25 percent of Americans are Catholics, which suggests that 75 percent of us clearly have no interest in the concerns of the Catholic Church.
Ember, you may want to rethink that. If the Catholic Church’s hospitals and indigent health clinics are forced to perform abortions, they will close. If Catholic doctors are likewise forced to do so, they will quit the profession.
This will lead to a huge crisis in health care and contribute to the shortage of physicians in this country.
So gay activists may be shoved off stage as this matter of the slaughter of thousands of innocents takes center stage. The media-mongers won’t appreciate this.
The risk of closing Catholic hospitals is real. I have heard bishops talk about this for a number of years, and it was mentioned again at this lastest bishop’s meeting by one of the auxiliary bishops of Chicago. They are not kidding – if pushed against the wall on this they WILL start closing clinics and hospitals rather than be forced into providing abortions. This would cause many problems, not only for low-income folks who depend on these clinics for their health care, but also for communities who are only served by a Catholic hospital or clinic. I hope those that are pushing FOCA are so dedicated to their cause that they are willing to put their money and time into building the clinics and hospitals to replace those that will close from their efforts.
I know that there are large numbers of pro-life Catholics that voted for Obama because they liked him for other reasons. Now is the time for them to be heard that while they may have supported his candidacy, that they do not and will not support him on this issue.
It’s not just Catholic hospitals — Baptist hospitals abound where I live and I can’t see the Baptists agreeing to provide abortions. Quite the contrary. And the majority of Baptists likely didn’t vote for Obama.
Why the RC outcry now, AFTER the election? Did the Kool-Aid finally wear off?
#7, LOL! I take it you haven’t been keeping up with the comings and goings in the Catholic world during the election cycle.
It’s like Pope Benedict started shipping spines and installation instructions over to the US Bishops.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93T8BR80&show_article=1
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=29157
http://www.standardspeaker.com/articles/2008/10/22/news/hz_standspeak.20081022.a.pg5.hz22_ttmartino_s1.2032272_loc.txt
#6 – “I hope those that are pushing FOCA are so dedicated to their cause that they are willing to put their money and time into building the clinics and hospitals to replace those that will close from their efforts. ”
They won’t – they’ll just blame the Church. It will be all our fault, and that’s part of the attack. They’ll cast it as a bunch of old out of touch men who “don’t get it” putting their obscurantist religious beliefs ahead of peoples’ lives. They are either to clueless (most) or too evil (a few) to realize that they are asking us to our hospitals into murder factories. Then they’ll use this down the road as pretext to go after the Church on a legal basis.
FOCA is exactly why any pro-life people, especially Christians, who voted for Obama anyway should have seriously considered their choice. He is beholden to the Planned Parenthood/Abortion industry and after 8 years of what they see as “eroding of the right to choose” e.g making it harder to kill babies they are out turn back that tide and want it done [i]immediately[/i].
I am an admittedly issue voter on abortion and while I would not judge or question others who out of conscience voted for Obama, I do hope FOCA might help them question themselves.
How about this. Why doesn’t the Pope mind his own business and stop interfering in the political affairs of other countries and worry about the problems in his own church deleted
Vincent
Edited – please be careful how you express yourselves in this emotive thread – Elf
Comment deleted – Elf
Isn’t #11 an ad hominem attack that justifies deletion?
Elf agrees
Vincent, your comments aren’t helpful. You may notice that this isn’t the Pope that would be making local decisions about the status of Catholic hospitals and clinics, it would be the local bishops. The local bishops are citizens of this country, and like all citizens have the right to express their opinions about “political affairs.” They are also entrusted with making sure that Catholic apostolates, which would include the hospitals and clinics in their diocese, are operated in keeping with Catholic moral teaching. It is part of their job. Their institutions, their rules.
And while Catholic bishops may have lost some of their moral authority given the abuse/abuse of authority scandal of the past few years, it does not take away from the fact that if they decide that under FOCA they cannot run Catholic hospitals in keeping with Catholic moral teaching, they will shut them down. Which will result in there being large numbers of people (and many of them poor) who are not going to have access to health care.
#8 Chris,
No, I don’t pay particular attention to what the RC hierarchy say. I point to the fact that the majority of Catholics voted for Obama and the liberal RC parish priests were Obama supporters. The only issue I recall BEFORE the election was the one involving Pelosi and a cardinal, and I read/heard comments from RCs in the MSM who made apologies for the cardinal’s remarks.
Surely you’re not going to claim that the church that proudly points to the Kennedys as members and excuses/enables their notorious behavior is proactive when it comes to pushing real change on the bleeding heart politicians who trot out their RC identity to gain the important Catholic vote, are you?
From the diocese I belonged to when I was an RC:
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/raymundo_91706___article.html/bishop_catholic.html
Notice how they downplay the abortion issue and make amnesty for illegal aliens their main rallying point.
Bishops with spines is what the Catholic Church needs. According to a recent survey (by Pew, I believe) of the past election Obama did worse than Kerry among Catholics in most places where bishops strongly spoke out on life issues and The Faith while Obama did better than Kerry among Catholics in places where the bishops aped jellyfish on life issues.
[blockquote]No, I don’t pay particular attention to what the RC hierarchy say. I point to the fact that the majority of Catholics voted for Obama and the liberal RC parish priests were Obama supporters.[/blockquote]
well, then I suppose you’ll expect the same treatment for Episcopalians. Only fair.
IIRC the 54% were self identified Catholics. Which meant that we’re talking about CINOs, Twice a year Catholics, Cafeteria Catholics AND actual Mass going Catholics. I’m actually surprised the number wasn’t HIGHER for Obama.