Today on CMR — March 15, 2010

NY Times Caption Contest
—You've got to see this pic.

Did You Hear About Healthcare at Mass?
—Did you get a bulletin insert?

Death and The Catholic Health Association
—Disgraceful CHA opposes Bishops and endorses Obamacare.

Compassion = Sterilization?
—Don't let a pregnancy get in the way of your crack habit.

Cindy Sheehan Can't Speak at Church
—She in turns calls Church not really pro-life.

Patrick Kennedy As Chris Farley
—The congressman soon to be living in a van down by the river!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?
—Please say hello to a new friend.

Must Read of the Day
—Stupak says Dems want more abortions to keep healthcare costs down.

Creative Minority Reader

CNN on the Coffee Party and Tea Party
—CNN's love note to the Coffee Party.

Obama At The Bat
—Video - Will Obama save the day?

Assisted Suicide: Not Just for the Sick
—Now for the old too!!!!

An Unshocking Statistic
—Planned Parenthood's abortion to adoption ratio.

Heretically Correct
—Don't ever apologize for the truth!

NY Times Caption Contest

This picture with the halo and the superimposed cross around Obama actually appeared in the New York Times yesterday. Their caption read "As Health Vote Awaits, Future of Presidency waits Too." But you can do better than that. You guys always come up with great captions. Have a crack at it now because media only gets this bias about once a week or so.

For some intelligent commentary on this you can check out Ed Morrissey at Hot Air but for some spirited snarky silliness head to the combox.

Did You Hear About Healthcare at Mass?

I'm interested to know if any of you heard about healthcare at Mass. Please go over to the National Catholic Register and let us know.

The USCCB came out strongly against the current healthcare bill which is now being considered by the House of Representatives. You wouldn’t know this from the mainstream media coverage which has been too busy reporting (celebrating?) that the Catholic Health Association endorsed the healthcare plan.

The bishops did, however, put out a bulletin insert on March 11th asking Catholics to contact their elected representatives and urge them to protect life. The banner of the insert reads: “Stop Abortion Funding in Health Care Reform! Protect Conscience. Ensure Affordable Health Coverage. Allow Immigrants to Purchase Private Health Insurance.”

Did you get the bulletin insert? Or did your priest talk about healthcare at all. Go over to the National Catholic Register and let us know.

Death and The Catholic Health Association

SR. Carol Keehan, DC president and Chief Executive Officer gave us this disgraceful endorsement of Obamacare even though the Bishops have come out four square against it.

As I watched our president present his plan to pass the health reform legislation, it was clear this is an historic opportunity to make great improvements in the lives of so many Americans. Is it perfect? No. Does it cover everyone? No. But is it a major first step? Yes.

The insurance reforms will make the lives of millions more secure, and their coverage more affordable. The reforms will eventually make affordable health insurance available to 31 million of the 47 million Americans currently without coverage.

CHA has a major concern on life issues. We said there could not be any federal funding for abortions and there had to be strong funding for maternity care, especially for vulnerable women. The bill now being considered allows people buying insurance through an exchange to use federal dollars in the form of tax credits and their own dollars to buy a policy that covers their health care. If they choose a policy with abortion coverage, then they must write a separate personal check for the cost of that coverage.

There is a requirement that the insurance companies be audited annually to assure that the payment for abortion coverage fully covers the administrative and clinical costs, that the payment is held in a separate account from other premiums, and that there are no federal dollars used...

Everybody, and I mean everybody, knows that this is just an accounting gimmick and this bill funds abortion, period. Even some democrats, when speaking to pro-abortion types, have admitted that this gimmick means nothing.

Such willful blindness is sickening. The organization should be disbanded immediately. Sr. Keehan was courted by the Obama administration for some Catholic cover and she gave it to them.

Joseph Bottum at First Things is perplexed. Why? Why now?

Even if she thought the Senate version of the bill doesn’t actually fund abortions—a dubious proposition—she would have to admit that Stupak’s amendment is an improvement. For what possible reason would she undercut the bishops—who generally favor major health-care reform—and the efforts of Stupak at this point in the process?

One reason and one reason only, to attempt to offset the Bishops opposition in order to give the impression that Catholics are not united in opposition.

Sr. Keehan is no true daughter of charity, she is a daughter of death.

Update: Check out Archbishop Chaput's statement.

Compassion = Sterilization?

Have you heard about an organization called "Project Prevention" that offers $300 to drug addicts to sterilize themselves.

The BBC reports that the organization has been busy as it has paid money out to 3,242 addicts (mostly women) and 1,226 were permanently sterilised. They've operated in 39 states.

The Star Bulletin reports one disturbing story:

Mona Rodarte watched state authorities take away her third baby a few months ago, and the trauma was enough to motivate her to consider Project Prevention's offer to pay her $300 to get sterilized or start using long-term birth control.

Each child has a different father; two are in jail and all three are drug dealers. The 28-year-old Rodarte, who lives on Maui, had just graduated from a rehabilitation program. She had been clean and sober for six months. Determined to do things differently, she was looking forward to the birth of her baby.

But the change in environment, lack of structure and a return to what she described as a "dysfunctional" home sparked a relapse into her habitual crystal methamphetamine and alcohol abuse — two weeks before her baby was due.

That is when she lost her privilege to be a mother. Rodarte's older sister is now raising the child, and brought Rodarte to Oahu to encourage her to obtain some form of long-term birth control.

"How does it feel that I'm on my third baby and I don't have none of them, and I'm still doing the same thing?" Rodarte said. "It feels (frustrating)."

Though she was initially offended when approached with the sterilization/birth control offer, she gradually accepted its practicality.

"It was hard because I didn't want them to take my baby away. But if I'm not done running around, I cannot bring any more lives into the world. I need to stop having kids that I'm not going to take care of."

After talking with Barbara Harris, founder and director of the national nonprofit Project Prevention, and debating the issue for a time, Rodarte called a Maui clinic for Implanon, a long-term birth control device that is inserted under the skin and remains effective for years or until it is removed.

Surely this is a desperate situation but instead of pointing this woman to where she can find help she gives her money for long term birth control. Doesn't she realize that this money will make her spiral deeper into drugs and make it less likely that she'll ever be a mother to her children?

The organization goes around passing out flyers where they know drug use is high. Barbara Harris, the founder of the organization, has said she's aware that many will spend the money she gives them on drugs.

This is what passes for love and compassion nowadays? In the past, Harris has passed out flyers saying: "DON'T Let a Pregnancy get in the way of your crack habit".

"When I founded this organization, I never believed how big it would be," she said in recent news reports. "Every day I feel like we're making a difference."

A difference?

Cindy Sheehan Can't Speak at Church

You remember Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist. Well, she was scheduled to appear April 9 at St. John the Evangelist Church hall in Scranton to speak with Pax Christi of Northeastern Pennsylvania. That is, until the Diocese of Scranton got wind of it. Then...not so much.

Never one to shy away from publicity, Sheehan, a former Catholic, now has plenty to say about the Church because of it. And as you can imagine, she's not being so nice. According to published reports she's calling the Church not truly pro-life and hypocritical.


The Diocese of Scranton issued this statement:

The March 11 issue of The Catholic Light contained a notice about an upcoming appearance by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who was scheduled to speak at St. John Hall in Scranton on April 9.

This notice was published in error. Neither Cardinal Justin Rigali, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Scranton, nor Bishop-elect Joseph C. Bambera had authorized the use of a Diocesan or parish facility to host this speaker. Although Mrs. Sheehan is well known for her anti-war stance against the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq , she also supports positions that are contrary to Church teaching regarding life and marriage issues.

Therefore, her appearance at St. John Hall has been cancelled and she will not be allowed to speak at any other Diocesan or parish facility.

And now it's like the diocese lit the Sheehan fuse because now she's attacking the Church calling it not really pro-life, hypocritical and not caring about people who have already been born.

The Standard Speaker reports:

She said this is the first time a diocese has banned her from speaking at a Catholic venue.

She has received awards from a Catholic organization because of her anti-war views and spoke inside a Catholic church in Columbus, Ohio, and at a Catholic church hall in Cleveland, Ohio, she said.

"Those bishops didn't make a big deal about it," she said.

Sheehan, a former Catholic parish youth minister, said she left the church years ago because of its willingness to cover up sexual abuse by priests.

"Every time the church does something like this, it enrages me because first of all I feel I've dedicated my life to peace," she said. "I don't go to my events and say, 'I'm for a woman's right to choose' or 'I'm for marriage equality.' That's not what I speak about. I speak about ending these unjust wars that killed my son."

The church has failed to "take a lead role in demanding the U.S. end its military misadventures around the world," which would be a pro-life position, she said.

"Whenever they do something like this, they just call more attention to the hypocrisy of their positions," she said. "To me, it's more like they want to protect the unborn than they want to protect the people who are already born."

So let me get this straight. She's telling a newspaper that she's for a woman's right to choose and gay marriage to explain that she never talks about a woman's right to choose and her support of gay marriage. That make sense to anyone?

I'm sure we'll hear more about this from Ms. Sheehan. I'm sure that if she thinks there's publicity to be had she'll show up at Cardinal Rigali's office like she did near Dick Cheney's house a few months ago.

Patrick Kennedy As Chris Farley

The mashup that needed mashing up! The congressman soon to be living in a van down by the river!



Ht Hotair!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Matt & I consider the Catholic blogosphere to be our neighborhood. Part of being a good neighbor is welcoming new friends to the neighborhood. We would like to introduce you to a new friend. Please say hello to Josie at "Upholding Purity in the Catholic Classroom." She is really just getting started and we want to encourage her. So be a good neighbor and please go say hello! Pie is optional.

"Upholding Purity in the Catholic Classroom"

Must Read of the Day

Read this sickening piece about Bart Stupak and then go read the rest of this piece at The Corner. Democrats have argued to Stupak that abortion is good and necessary because real live kids cost money:

Stupak notes that his negotiations with House Democratic leaders in recent days have been revealing. “I really believe that the Democratic leadership is simply unwilling to change its stance,” he says. “Their position says that women, especially those without means available, should have their abortions covered.” The arguments they have made to him in recent deliberations, he adds, “are a pretty sad commentary on the state of the Democratic party.”

What are Democratic leaders saying? “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing,” Stupak says. “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.”

Read the whole thing at The Corner.

We've all known this was true but to hear it from a Democrat is still pretty shocking. Sooooo...now that we're all clear life has a pricetag, who wants to deny that Obamacare includes death panels now?

CNN on the Coffee Party and Tea Party

Check out CNN's love letter to the left leaning "Coffee Party":

(CNN) -- In one chair sits a rural retiree, his financial security shot in the slump, a humble Southerner who's never thought much about politics. In another seat is a born Northerner, an inner-city native, a relative of a civil rights giant. And nearby, circling a table, are an economist, an artist, a onetime John McCain supporter and a long-haired guy who's rich in Woodstock memories.

Meet these members of the Coffee Party Movement, an organically grown, freshly brewed push that's marking its official kickoff Saturday. Across the country, even around the globe, they and other Americans in at least several hundred communities are expected to gather in coffeehouses to raise their mugs of java to something new.

They're professionals, musicians and housewives. They're frustrated liberal activists, disheartened conservatives and political newborns. They're young and old, rich and poor, black, white and all shades of other.

Born on Facebook just six weeks ago, the group today boasts more than 110,000 fans. The Coffee Party is billed by many as an answer to the Tea Party (more than 1,000 fewer fans), a year-old protest movement that's steeped in fiscal conservatism and boiling-hot, anti-tax rhetoric.

This new group calls for civility, objects to obstructionism and demands that politicians be held accountable to the people who put them in office.

Ha! They're really comparing the "Coffee Party" which barely exists on anything other than Facebook to a nationwide movement with hundreds of thousands participants. Now just for kicks. Let's compare that loving little piece to how CNN has treated the Tea Party.

After CNN’s senior political analyst David Gergen remarked that Republicans were “searching for their voice” after two electoral losses, Anderson Cooper lovingly remarked, “It’s hard to talk when you’re tea-bagging.”



HT Newsbusters

And then you've got to remember this classic CNN story about the Tea Party:

And how about this recent entry into subjective journalism by CNN labeling Tea Partiers "recession raging conservatives":

You know, I'm not a brilliant man. But if I were giving advice to the lowest rated cable news network I'd tell them to stop cozying up to made up pretend groups that don't have any real members and stop mocking and ridiculing millions of real Americans. Just an idea.

Obama At The Bat

Wait 'til next year, Obama.

Assisted Suicide: Not Just for the Sick

You remember all that talk that it was ridiculous for us to fret that legalizing assisting in the suicide of the terminally ill would lead to even greater calamities.

Well Holland is treating the slippery slope argument like its own slip-and-slide because they just got a running start by considering expanding the legalization of assisted suicide to the old.

You've gotta' love the Hollish for morphing their homeland into a testing ground of bad ideas.

Daily Mail:

Assisted suicide for anyone over 70 who has simply had enough of life is being considered in Holland.

Non-doctors would be trained to administer a lethal potion to elderly people who 'consider their lives complete'.

The radical move would be a world first and push the boundaries even further in the country that first legalised euthanasia.

The Dutch parliament is to debate the measure after campaigners for assisted suicide collected 112,500 signatures in a month.

Euthanasia has been available for the terminally ill in Holland since 2002 in cases of 'hopeless and unbearable suffering' certified by two doctors, but this would be a far bigger step.

Supporters say it would offer a dignified way to die for those over 70 who just want to give up living, without having to resort to difficult or unreliable solitary suicide methods.

The assistants who administered the deadly cocktail of sedatives would need to be certified, campaigners said.

And they would have to make sure that patients were not acting on a whim or due to a temporary depression, but from a heartfelt and enduring desire to die.

So Holland is considering "certifying" killers. This is essentially granting "Double O" status to sickos. But while 007 only takes out sexed-up members of evil syndicates with bad puns for names, these "certified" agents will be taking out old people for the crime of being old.

So instead of certifying...I don't know...Hollish folks to help other elderly Hollandites they're just certifying killers.

Will these Hollanders be paid by the suicide? A commission? In which case, you could imagine they'll be hanging out in bars and hospitals asking folks if they've had a bad day. They'll be advertising late night infomercials in the hope of catching some poor old guy who's having trouble sleeping. Maybe they should get a percentage of the money the government would have spent on the old person had they lived a longer life? Maybe they could collect scalps like cereal box tops and send them in to be paid.

So many possibilities. Gotta' love the Hollanders for giving us directions on the road to Hell.

An Unshocking Statistic

Cassy Fiano has more on this unsurprising but deplorable statistic.

Heretically Correct

The culturally corrosive effects of political correctness manifest themselves in many ways. Perhaps one of the more deleterious effects of this social tyranny is self-imposed silence when it comes to the truth. Many know the truth but seek to avoid confrontation in a world that abhors enlightening argument. Rather, certain opinions are deemed offensive by those who are the designated deemers of such things. End of story.

Most of us have learned to shrug off such things, we cannot single-handedly change our culture and there is life to be lived, so we move on. But the time for shrugging may be over. When political correctness does not just demand silence for the truth, but the active promotion of heresy, this is something no Christian should abide. This is never more true than for those who are charged with preaching God's truth.

Reverend Frank Wainwright, 48, a Deacon at St Gregory's Church in Cheltenham, Glos. UK, during a sermon on marriage, made the remark in a humorous aside that "Marriage is between Adam and Eve - not Adam and Steve." For this the Deacon has been accused of 'homophobia' after....Continue Reading @ National Catholic Register

Artist Leonard Porter Commissioned to Create a Set of Stations of the Cross

Just in time for Lent, noted traditional painter Leonard Porter has completed a set of *sketches* for a full set of 14 stations of the cross. CMR readers may remember our post on his St. Therese of Lisieux, or his recent Christian paintings.
Some months ago, Porter started work on a set of stations for Christ the King Church in New Vernon, New Jersey. While most people simply buy stock sets of stations from catalogs for their churches, there are a few new commissions out there, including one by liturgical artist Davis D'Ambly. Porter's stations, however, like his other works, are loaded with complex and intelligent symbolism which works on many layers. The images shown here are simply his ink wash sketches--the final product will be in the vibrant color he has become known for.
Station One, for instance, Jesus Condemned to Death, shows the statue-like Pilate raised in pagan power with his feet on a stool, the very image of worldly authority, condemning the God of the universe. The single column in the rear not only signifies the place of Pilate, but prefigures the Scourging at the Pillar.
Porter's sophistication comes through also in the Nailing of Christ to the Cross, where the soldiers stand like statues, both in honor and like men devoid of divine life in a desolate, windy landscape. The Taking from the Cross shows a graceful composition of S-curves where the Crown of Thorns glows with a spiritual radiance.
Porter will spend the next year painting the final set in color, and I'll be adding updates as they come along.

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