Obamacare Website Misleads on Abortion-Inducing-Drug Mandate | CNS News

The following excerpts are from CNSNews.com:

• A website created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services--a division of the Department of Health and Human Services--provides misleading information about abortion-inducing drugs that, because of an Obamacare regulation, must be covered by almost all health-care plans in the United States. 
• On a page headlined “What are my birth control benefits?” healthcare.gov says that “Plans in the Health Insurance Marketplace must cover contraceptive methods” and that, “All Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods prescribed by a woman’s doctor are covered, including … Emergency contraception, like Plan B and ella.”
• But then it says: “Plans aren’t required to cover: Drugs to induce abortions.”
• However, as Plan B's package itself states: “This product works mainly by preventing ovulation (egg release). It may also prevent fertilization of a released egg (joining of sperm and egg) or attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus (implantation).”

Read more by clicking below:
Obamacare Website Misleads on Abortion-Inducing-Drug Mandate | CNS News

MESSAGE OF POPE BENEDICT XVI TO U.S. PRESIDENT OBAMA

Vatican City, 7 November 2012 (VIS) - Benedict XVI, through the apostolic nunciature in Washington, U.S.A., has sent a message to Barack Obama, congratulating him on his re-election as president of the United States of America.

In his message the Holy Father expresses his best wishes to the president on his new mandate, and gives assurances of his prayers to God to help him carry out his serious responsibilities, both in his own country and within the international community. The Pope also speaks of his hope that the ideals of freedom and justice, which guided the founding fathers of the Unites States of America, may continue to shine out as the nation progresses.

Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. also made a brief comment on the re-election of President Obama. "As we all know", he said, "the U.S. president has an immense responsibility, not only in his own country but also towards the rest of the world, given the role the U.S.A. plays at an international level".

"For this reason we hope that President Obama will respond to his fellow citizens' expectations, serving law and justice for the good and development of all people, and respecting essential human and spiritual values while promoting a culture of life and religious freedom".

You can find more information at: www.visnews.org

The news items contained in the Vatican Information Service may be used, in part or in their entirety, by quoting the source:

V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service.

Copyright © Vatican Information Service 00120 Vatican City

Vote!

Don't forget this Tuesday, November 6, is the time for Americans to go vote. If you don't vote, you are not part of the solution, but part of the problem!

VOTE!

Diocese of Charlotte religious freedom banner

Bishop Peter Jugis of the Diocese of Charlotte had a large sign posted on the property of St. Peter Catholic Church During the Democratic National Convention, Sept. 4- 6, 2012

Obey Mandate or Scripture | One More Soul

The following excerpt is from One More Soul:

• One More Soul is pleased to offer this “newspaper” response to the HHS mandate as a supplement to the resources already available from the USCCB and other sources. It is an educational piece that draws attention to several “concerns” prompted by the HHS mandate. 

Click below to read the entire article:

Obey Mandate or Scripture | One More Soul

On The News : USCCB statements on other political topics are harming the campaign for religious freedom - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture columnist Phil Lawler's article "USCCB statements on other political topics are harming the campaign for religious freedom". The emphases are mine:

• In March the US bishops’ conference (USCCB) announced that “we will not rest” until Congress ensures that religious freedom is protected in the federal health-care reform program. The USCCB followed up that clear and forceful message a few week later with a new, statement announcing a major offensive in defense of religious liberty. These powerful statements seemed to indicate clearly that religious freedom would be the focus—the focus—of the bishops’ political efforts this year.

• The USCCB issued a clarion call to the Catholic laity, asking for help with this campaign. Cardinal Dolan called out President Obama; Bishop Lori challenged Congress. The bishops signaled that they would not retreat. The battle lines were drawn. The troops were summoned.

• Unfortunately, since that time the bishops have lost their focus, and thus complicated things for the active Catholic laity. The USCCB has done what the USCCB always does: muddied the water, by issuing statements on a host of different political issues—including many of which good Catholics have differing opinions, and on which Catholic bishops have no special expertise.

Read more by clicking the link below:

On The News : USCCB statements on other political topics are harming the campaign for religious freedom - Catholic Culture

Georgetown Scandal

This is very important! Please read and share!

It seems that Georgetown University is losing it's Catholic identity more and more. Now U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will be speaking at their commencement ceremony on May 18.

The Cardinal Newman Society has an online petition asking Georgetown to withdraw the invitation for her to speak.

Apparently, Georgetown fails to grasp, or perhaps willfully ignores, that this is a slap in the face to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic faithful, and all persons of conscience who oppose the Obama administrations effort to restrict and ignore the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Please click the link below and sign the petition at the web site of The Cardinal Newman Society:

Georgetown Scandal

Cardinal Burke sees 'no excuse' for employers covering contraceptive costs : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpt is from Catholic World News at Catholic Culture:

Cardinal Raymond Burke has stated that employers who provide contraceptive coverage for their workers are guilty of both formal and material cooperation in contraception.

The cardinal--who is now one of the top-ranking Americans at the Vatican, where he serves as head of the Apostolic Signatura—said that there is “no way to justify” a health-care program that includes contraceptive coverage. He urged resistance against the Obama administration’s drive to make such coverage mandatory.

Click the link below to read the entire article:

Cardinal Burke sees 'no excuse' for employers covering contraceptive costs : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

US bishops decry ‘illegal and unjust’ HHS mandate, call for prayer and penance : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's New Headlines:

• Decrying the Department of Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate as “a mandate to act against our teachings” and “a violation of personal civil rights,” the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement calling upon “the Catholic faithful, and all people of faith, throughout our country to join us in prayer and penance for our leaders and for the complete protection of our First Freedom--religious liberty.”
  
  
• we wish to clarify what this debate is—and is not—about. This is not about access to contraception, which is ubiquitous and inexpensive, even when it is not provided by the Church's hand and with the Church's funds. This is not about the religious freedom of Catholics only, but also of those who recognize that their cherished beliefs may be next on the block. This is not about the Bishops' somehow "banning contraception," when the US Supreme Court took that issue off the table two generations ago. Indeed, this is not about the Church wanting to force anybody to do anything; it is instead about the federal government forcing the Church—consisting of its faithful and all but a few of its institutions—to act against Church teachings. This is not a matter of opposition to universal health care, which has been a concern of the Bishops' Conference since 1919, virtually at its founding. This is not a fight we want or asked for, but one forced upon us by government on its own timing. Finally, this is not a Republican or Democratic, a conservative or liberal issue; it is an American issue.

Click the link below to read the entire article:

US bishops decry ‘illegal and unjust’ HHS mandate, call for prayer and penance : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

It's About the First Amendment

Do you recall a 1997 movie called "Wag the Dog"? The Internet Movie Database describes it as:

"Before elections, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to "fabricate" a war in order to cover-up a presidential sex scandal."

According to UsingEnglish.com the expression "wag the dog" is an idiom (which is a fixed expression with a nonliteral meaning) defined as:

To 'wag the dog' means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance. By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue.

Why am I bring this movie up? Because that is exactly what is happening right before our eyes with the HHS Mandate on contraception.

The Obama administration, with a complicit main stream media, complicit liberal talk shows, and with the frantic caterwauling of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Sandra Fluke, Planned Parenthood, and the rest of that crowd that shares an IQ, has deemed the attack on the First Amendment to actually be a "war against women" and their "right" to "free" contraception.

They are counting on the Obama base, and the pro-death crowd (you can call them pro-choice if you want to, I call them what they are) not paying attention to what is actually going on, which is a blatant attack on religious freedom and conscience. They are counting on them to be convinced of the fallacious idea that there is an underlying attack on women, and that they want women to suffer and to die.

That my friends, is just a truck load of bull hockey.

When President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued the contraception mandate, they blatantly issued an "in your face" attack on the United States Constitution, and in particular, an attack on the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

The First Amendment states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

With the issuance of the HHS Mandate, the Obama administration has once again thumbed it's nose at the United States Constitution, and is in fact prohibiting the free exercise of the religious beliefs and tenets of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church my friends, is not just a large, religious institution headquartered in Rome. The Catholic Church is me, you, your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, your co-workers, your local parish, a local high school, the hospital across town, countless universities and colleges, the food kitchen, the homeless shelter, the medical clinic, the adoption agency and more.

Yes, the Church encompasses far more than people realize, and what they fail to realize is, that with forcing this mandate upon the Catholic Church, many if not all of those services provided by the Church will be gone, because the Church will be forced to end those services before we will deny our religious conscience.

To demand that the Catholic Church deny it's religious conscience is to demand that the Catholic Church deny Christ. To demand that we deny Our Lord and Our Savior is something that will never happen to satisfy any mandate from President Obama or any other government official.

California Catholic Daily - A Lie is a Lie

Read the following opinion piece on the HHS mandate by Father Juan Vélez, a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei, who resides in San Francisco. He is author of Passion for Truth, the Life of John Henry Newman.

Click the link below to read the entire article:

California Catholic Daily - A Lie is a Lie

Liberal nuns file brief in support of Obama health-care plan : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following is from Catholic Culture:

• "A group of liberal Catholic nuns has filed in amicus brief with the US Supreme Court in defense of the Obama administration’s health-care program."

This is when someone needs to step up to the plate and discipline these dissident, disobedient daughters of the Church.

Click the link below to read more:

Liberal nuns file brief in support of Obama health-care plan : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Mr. President, Leave Our Church Alone!

From the time of his first campaign for President of the United States in 2008, it should have been glaringly apparent of Barack Obama's disdain for religion, and religious people. In April of 2008 he said, "and it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

No, Mr. Obama. We do not cling to our religion because we are bitter or frustrated. We cling to our religion because it gives us hope. It gives us inspiration. It gives us strength that we can not find anywhere else or from any other source. We believe in and trust Our Savior, Jesus Christ, because He gives us what no man, no government, no earthly king or leader could ever hope to give us. No one or any one thing can ever, or could ever take the place of Our King and His Church.

We can quote from the Declaration of Independence, the truth which is “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Yet Mr. Obama, on at least two different occasions, you could not bring yourself to say “endowed by their Creator”, which was another glaring example of your disdain for religion. We, who “cling to our religion”, know that our lives, our liberty, and our rights all come from the Creator of all that is seen, and all that is unseen. You may find it hard to believe, but we know that these come from Him, and have never come from any earthly government, king, or leader.

Yet, we have seen many, many examples of earthly governments, kings, and leaders do all within their power to try to eliminate and destroy those God given rights and freedoms, which were never theirs to bestow or to deny.

When those governments and those leaders denied those God given rights to the people, they didn't merely deny those rights to the people, they were also denying God.

When you ask... when you demand... that the Catholic Church, and Catholic institutions around this country, deny their conscience, deny their beliefs, deny their morality, and discard over 2,000 years of teaching, then you are asking us... you are demanding that we deny our God and His Church.

That is something that we can not do, and that we will not do... not today... not tomorrow... not ever. We will not deny Jesus Christ, and His Church for you or for anyone. But rest assured Mr. Obama, that come this November, I... and many more like me... fully intend to deny you at the ballot box.

White House kept CHA informed on 'compromise,' with bishops in the dark : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from the Catholic Culture article, “White House kept CHA informed on 'compromise,' with bishops in the dark”. The emphases are mine:

• Did Sister Carol Keehan, the head of the Catholic Health Association, help the White House prepare for its “compromise” proposal for the HHS mandate? The National Catholic Register examines the evidence in a probing analysis.
• Sister Keehan—who had become an ally of the White House with her stalwart support for the Obama health-care program even after the US bishops turned against it—apparently consulted with officials of the Obama administration before the “compromise” was announced. Her public statement in support of the revised plan was available even before President Obama announced it.

Click the link below to read the entire article:

White House kept CHA informed on 'compromise,' with bishops in the dark : News Headlines - Catholic Culture