Voices of the 2013 March for Life

Faithful from the Diocese of Charlotte stand up for life during the 2013 March for Life in Washington, D.C.

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

From The Dignitatis Humanae Institute: Investigation Announced into Notorious UK Death-Acceleration Programme

Note: The following is a press release from The Dignitatis Humanae Institute

Investigation Announced into Notorious UK Death-Acceleration Programme

London, 27 October 2012

After months of refusal and prevaricating, a probe has finally been announced into the conduct of Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP); a framework widely criticised by families whose relatives have unknowingly been placed on this 'pathway to death.'

 The Association of Palliative Medicine has ordered the review into the concerns. The National End of Life Care Programme, an NHS affiliate, will coordinate several organisations in the review.  While critics welcomed this initial step, the move falls short of the Government Inquiry recently called for by the Reverend Peter Smith, Archbishop of Southwark.

LCP is a framework used to dictate the withdrawal of palliative care from those who are seen as close to death.  This includes the withdrawal of nutrients and medicine from the patient, heavy doses of morphine and consequently dehydration.  Such a practice is questioned by the Medical Ethics Alliance, who asserts that any such decision is essentially a prediction, with no conclusive scientific evidence.  This is highlighted by the case of Andy Flanagan, whose family revived him, rescued him from LCP and brought him home to live for a further five weeks. 

The protestations of the Flanagan family added to the many complaints against LCP.  The Royal College of Physicians has uncovered that up to half of families are not informed their loved ones have been placed on LCP.  In particular, when Mr Cooper (pictured) discovered his wife had been condemned to LCP without his knowledge, medical staff refused to reverse the decision in spite of his wishes.  

It has also been noted that the number of patients placed on LCP has doubled in the past two years.  Critics have suggested hospitals are beginning to use LCP as a cost-cutting measure, against patients who are made to feel like a burden to society.

Speaking on behalf of the British Parliament's Cross-Party Working Group on Human Dignity, Jim Dobbin MP, its Vice-Chairman, asserted the necessity of this investigation: "We would do well to recall the words of Pope John Paul II - 'A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying.'  The practices of Liverpool Care Pathway are surely not the best we can do for the elderly and the dying of our society, there is no dignity in the deaths proscribed here.  Such decisions as to the best care must always be made by the loved ones and families of the patient; Liverpool Care Pathway has resoundingly failed on this account and should certainly be investigated for it."

The Dignitatis Humanae Institute aims to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.

Belmont Abbey College opens home for pregnant students :: EWTN News

The following excerpt is from EWTN News:

North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College has opened a residence to help pregnant, college-age women continue their education before and after they give birth.

The residence is run by Room at the Inn, a Catholic non-profit that serves pregnant mothers and their children.

“Many young women in college facing unexpected pregnancies believe they have to give up everything to keep their babies - but they don't,” Jeanine Wray, Room At The Inn’s executive director, said July 16.

“Room At The Inn can give these young women the opportunity to continue their educations, have their babies, make a positive impact on society and fulfill their hopes and dreams.”

Read more by clicking below:  

Belmont Abbey College opens home for pregnant students :: EWTN News

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

New Live Action exposé: abortion clinics in North Carolina offer help with sex-selection abortion : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

New Live Action exposé: abortion clinics in North Carolina offer help with sex-selection abortion : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Skewed Priorities?

I have noticed something that is repeated over and over again in our society. That something is, people get more upset and more outraged over harm done to an animal, than they do over harm done to another human being.

Let there be a news item in your local newspaper, a shared news story on Facebook or twitter about an animal...particularly dogs or cats...being injured or killed through abuse, wanton neglect, or callous indifference, and there will be tons of letters to the editor...hundreds of comments on Facebook ...hundreds of re-tweets on twitter...all expressing outrage over the harm done to an animal, and all accompanied by demands that the full extent of the law be applied in dealing with the perpetrators of these acts.

For example, a post on Facebook linked to a story about a Newark, New Jersey woman who is charged with second degree burglary and third degree animal cruelty for killing a small dog by throwing it into oncoming traffic. Out of the more than 70 comments condemning this woman, only one said that they get upset over someone hurting children or animals.

Only one...not two, three or more....just one! Sadly, that seems to be the mindset of people in today’s society. They either consider an animals life as equal to, or superior to the life of a human being.

A few years ago, there was a young lady... just weeks away from her high school graduation...who was killed in a car accident by being thrown from the car she was riding in when it struck a tree. She and her boyfriend who was driving, had been leaving a party where alcohol had been served to them by an off duty law enforcement officer, even though both were under the legal age to consume alcohol.

At the request of the young lady's family, no charges were brought against the off duty officer, or the young driver of the car.

There was not one single letter to the editor in protest of this decision. Yet just a few weeks later, there appeared a story about a dog (that somehow survived) being doused with a flammable liquid and then set on fire. The letters of protest and outrage over this act appeared on the letters to the editor page for almost 3 weeks.

Chief

Let me make it perfectly clear that I love all of God's creatures. We had both dogs and cats growing up, and I have owned dogs in my adult life as well. My last dog was a German Shepherd Dog named “Chief” and he was the best dog I ever owned. So I am against animal abuse. Period.

In absolutely no circumstances however, would I place an animals life above that of any human for any reason.

I would just like to see the same outrage over the life of a human being, and particularly, that same level of outrage over children killed through abuse, wanton neglect, callous indifference, or murdered through the heinous act of abortion.

Where is that outrage and why is it not being expressed? Are we keeping it to ourselves out of fear of being ostracized? Are we afraid we will offend someone? Do we not care for the unborn as much as we do for Fido or Muffin? I am beginning to believe Fido and Muffin are more important to far too many of us than are Jack and Jill or that unnamed child in the womb, who's chance at life ended today.

Here are some quotations from the famous and not so famous to ponder:

“You shall not kill.”

-- Exodus 20: 13

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life . . .”

-- Deuteronomy 30:19

“Yet thou art he who took me from the womb; thou didst keep me safe upon my mother's breasts. Upon thee was I cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me thou hast been my God.”

-- Psalms 22: 9-10

“Know that the LORD is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

-- Psalms 100: 3

“For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me right well; my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

-- Psalm 139: 13-16

“God’s love does not distinguish between the infant in the mother’s womb or the child or the youth or the adult or the older person. In each one God sees His image and likeness. Human life is a manifestation of God and His glory.”

-- Pope Benedict XVI

“That is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition of her survival, yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weak and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.”

– Pope Blessed John Paul II

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

-- Blessed Mother Teresa

“Nothing we do to defend the human person, no matter how small, is ever unfruitful or forgotten. Our actions touch other lives and move other hearts in ways we can never fully understand in this world. Don’t ever underestimate the beauty and power of the witness you give in your pro-life work.”

-- Archbishop Charles Chaput

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

-- Albert Einstein

“I notice that all of the people who support abortion are already born.”

-- Ronald Reagan

“The Church has never changed its teaching on the sanctity of human life - it didn't make up a rule for the convenience of a particular time like a rule at a country club as the Governor would have us believe.”

-- Wellington Mara

“That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.”

-- William J. H. Boetcker

“The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”

--Robert Louis Stevenson

Doctors Feed Aborted Girls to Dogs to Hide Sex-Selection Abortions | LifeNews.com

The following excerpt is from LifeNews.com:

• In a news story that sounds like it is more out of a bad science fiction movie than reality, a newspaper in India reports doctors in one city are so desperate to hide evidence that they are doing sex-selection abortions that they are feeding the remains of aborted girl babies to dogs.

Click below to read more:
Doctors Feed Aborted Girls to Dogs to Hide Sex-Selection Abortions | LifeNews.com

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 Martino and Lord Alton Unite in "Compassion" Plea for Blind Lawyer Chen

Note: The following is a press release in it's entirety from Dignitatis Humanae Institute

Rome, 30th April 2012

Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, Honorary President of the Rome-based Dignitatis Humanae Institute and Lord Alton, Chairman of the British Parliament's Cross-Party Working Group on Human Dignity, today met to discuss the situation of blind Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng.

The self-taught lawyer, who sought sanctuary in the US Embassy in Beijing over the weekend after escaping six years of house imprisonment, remains separated from his family, members of whom have been taken into custody.

As talks between Chinese and US officials continue, Lord Alton urged China to show compassion on humanitarian grounds for Chen and his family, and asked for them all to be allowed to leave for the United States, to receive medical treatment (as previously happened with the case of Fang Lizhi):

Lord Alton said: "Chen Guangcheng and his family have a number of well-known medical issues that would reasonably justify a decision, on humanitarian grounds, to allow them to travel to the United States or Europe for medical treatment."

Despite losing his sight at an early age, Chen Guangcheng managed to teach himself law and has become an international icon in his native China, and around the world. After a period in prison ended in 2010, Chen remained under house arrest until he fled to the US Embassy for sanctuary on 22 April.

Cardinal Martino added: "With a decision on Chen's future likely to be decided in the next week, the Dignitatis Humanae Institute appeals for compassion and mercy for Chen and his family."

Republicans Nullifying Conservatives - Steve Deace - Townhall Conservative Columnists

The following excerpt is from TownHall.com columnist Steve Deace:

• “It seems the Oklahoma GOP leadership is trying to fill the Romney Republican mold, which is a lot of pro-life speech but no pro-life action,” Personhood USA’s Keith Mason said. “What’s happening in Oklahoma begs a question pro-lifers must ask themselves: if the Republican leadership won’t vote pro-life why should we vote for them?”

Click the link below for the entire article:

Republicans Nullifying Conservatives - Steve Deace - Townhall Conservative Columnists

Bishop Bruskewitz Reflects on His Work for the Church and Calls on Laity to Boldly Evangelize | Daily News | NCRegister.com

The following excerpts are from the National Catholic Register. The emphases are mine:

As he nears retirement, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., reflected on the importance of the laity in modern culture, observing that well-formed men and women can bring Christ into the workplace and other areas where clergy cannot.

“We have to face seeing people where they are and bringing Christ to people where they are,” the bishop told CNA in Rome March 14.

During a recent ad limina visit with Pope Benedict, the 76-year-old bishop noted in an interview that Catholic laity have an irreplaceable duty in sanctifying the world.

He also had pointed remarks for those who identify as Catholics in the U.S. but work to advance policies that harm the Church and morality. “They have to realize that what they are doing is very serious, and very seriously wrong.”

Click the link below to read the entire article:

Bishop Bruskewitz Reflects on His Work for the Church and Calls on Laity to Boldly Evangelize | Daily News | NCRegister.com

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.

On the Culture : Are Babies Not Persons? Seeing Patterns - Catholic Culture

From Catholic Culture there is an article well worth reading, "Are Babies Not Persons? Seeing Patterns" by Dr. Jeff Mirus. The following excerpts are from that article:

• A recent article in The Journal of Medical Ethics argued that infanticide is morally equivalent to abortion, and therefore perfectly justifiable. This might have been surprising, except that a month earlier the same journal had published an article arguing that it is morally permissible for doctors to kill patients if their organs might be used for effective transplants in others. So let us recognize the pattern and realize that The Journal of Medical Ethics has an agenda.
• We must first acknowledge the human capacity to discern the nature of things before we can see the folly of the opinion of these authors in The Journal of Medical Ethics. They claim that, while a human being is present from the moment of conception until natural death, only a person has a right to life, and a person cannot be said to exist until a human being develops to the point of reflecting on the worth of his own life. Only then does it become an injury to have life taken away.

Click the link below to read the entire article:

On the Culture : Are Babies Not Persons? Seeing Patterns - Catholic Culture

Santorum and The Vote

Watch this video from Michael Voris and RealCatholic TV:

UK MEP: We Should be Given Monthly Audit of All Taxpayer-Funded Abortions

For Immediate Release   Rome, 28th February 2012   A senior Member of the European Parliament has called on the UK government to carry out a monthly audit of all abortions that receive funding from the British taxpayer, after a newspaper exposed terminations being illegally carried out on the basis of gender. Nirj Deva MEP, President of the International Committee on Human Dignity, said such an audit would ensure that the British people "can finally begin an informed debate on how much public money funds abortions on the basis of nothing but gender." Following news of the practice reported in London's Daily Telegraph on February 23rd, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley pledged to carry out an urgent and thorough investigation, and handed the matter over to the police. He called illegal abortion "morally repugnant". The head of the Care Quality Commission - the body tasked with regulating such practices - resigned after the story broke. Deva, who recently came second in the elections for the European Parliament's Speaker, congratulated the government for its "prompt response" and praised Lansley for "his brave, principled stance".   The MEP said he knew from experience the kind of hostility the minister could now expect. "Several years ago I introduced an amendment to the EU's Development Budget, demanding a gender audit on every overseas abortion that is paid for by EU taxpayers - this was before people were talking much about the issue of gendercide," Deva said. "Sadly, the socialists and liberals joined together to defeat my amendment, saying explicitly that a woman's right to choose an abortion must remain sacrosanct, including the right to choose not to have a girl." Deva added that these latest revelations, which the newspaper exposed through undercover reporting, regrettably came as no surprise: "For me it was a bit like the famous scene in Casablanca when Claude Rains exclaims to Humphrey Bogart: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that there's gambling going on in here" while simultaneously pocketing in one smooth action his evening's winnings." "If you talk to people in the abortion industry, they all know that this is happening, but it's obviously not in their commercial interests to talk about it, so they just impose a culture of silence, and then intimidate anyone who dares to challenge them. My own modest proposal for an analysis of abortions was roundly defeated by those whose vested interests keep the abortion trade out of the public domain, away from clear legal parameters and solely within their own power," he said. "I remember observing with sadness that the ideological fanaticism of some of the UK's MEPs from the political Left who were advocating a so-called liberty for mothers abroad that is illegal at home." "The very people claiming that their support of abortion derives from 'gender equality' are in fact actively promoting a life-killing practice of gender inequality." Deva said statistics from around the world clearly prove that gender-selected abortions heavily discriminate against the female gender. "It is the duty of all who genuinely believe in gender equality to open their eyes to the most grievous injustice dealt to women globally, the very denial of their basic right to life," he said. "I would like, therefore, on behalf of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, to offer a helpful contribution to the debate and ask that every single abortion that is funded by the British taxpayer, either wholly or in part, has the gender recorded of each baby being terminated, and for these results to be compiled and made public on a monthly basis," he said. Deva, who is also the Vice President of the European Parliament's Development Committee, also invited politicians in other parliaments around the world to contact him for advice on how to table similar amendments in their own national assemblies by emailing him at nirj.deva@dignitatishumanae.com. "The time has come for full disclosure," Deva concluded.

The Dignitatis Humanae Institute aims to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.

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.