Faith of the Fathers

Monday, October 15, 2012

Why the Little Sisters of the Poor Oppose the HHS Mandate | Daily News | NCRegister.com

The following excerpts are from National Catholic Register:

As more lawsuits over the Department of Health and Human Services’ contraception mandate are filed, many religious groups still remain temporarily exempt from the rule as they wait for answers.
Sister Constance Veit directs the publications office for the Little Sisters of the Poor, one of these groups waiting and hoping for relief from the HHS mandate. Between their 30 homes in the United States, the Little Sisters serve 2,500 elderly residents — enough to keep more than 300 sisters joyfully busy. The order is putting much effort into opposing this federal rule, and Sister Constance explains why.
How will the Little Sisters of the Poor be affected by the HHS mandate?
For the time being, we are not directly affected by the mandate. We have until the end of this year to provide certification that we meet the criteria for the one-year exemption currently in place. So, most likely, if nothing changes in the law, we will have to face this concretely Jan. 1, 2014.
Cardinal [Timothy] Dolan blogged about the HHS mandate and its impact on Catholic organizations and services. He is very clear about the costs of the mandate. For example, if we were to stop offering health insurance rather than comply with the mandate, we would have to pay a $2,000 penalty per employee. This penalty aside, it just does not seem right to us to stop providing health insurance to our employees.
If we chose to offer insurance without the objectionable services, we would honor our consciences, but we’d have to pay $100 per day per employee. As the cardinal figures it, for an organization with 50 employees, that would mean almost $2 million per year.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Takes Aim at the Separation of Church and State | Daily News | NCRegister.com

The following excerpts are from National Catholic Register:

WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia looks around the packed room in the Catholic Information Center (CIC) as if to estimate its temper.
He begins his address quoting a Frenchman: “‘France is a country …’” A faint anticipatory chuckle ripples over the crowd, spilling out into the doorway where the late-comers stand.
The justice corrects himself and adopts the appropriate accent. “‘Frahhhnce eez a cohhntry with two religions and three hondred cheeses. The United States eez a country with three hondred religions and two cheeses.’” He pauses for a moment and resumes his native inflection. “I always have trouble remembering the second cheese.”
The crowd laughs — neither for the first nor for the last time that evening.
Justice Scalia knows how to amuse his audience, even from behind the intimidating height of the Supreme Court bench. The atmosphere at the CIC on a Wednesday night in October is more relaxed and intimate than that of the court (despite the wire-eared security terriers present for Scalia’s protection), but the subject is as serious as any the court rules on: the separation of church and state.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF FATIMA

O Most Holy Virgin Mary,

Queen of the most holy Rosary,

you were pleased to appear to the children of Fatima

and reveal a glorious message.

We implore you,

inspire in our hearts a fervent love

for the recitation of the Rosary.

By meditating on the mysteries of the redemption

that are recalled therein

may we obtain the graces and virtues that we ask,

through the merits of Jesus Christ,

our Lord and Redeemer.

Amen

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Youcef’s Lawyer Thrown into Prison | Iran, American Center for Law and Justice ACLJ

The following excerpt is from ACLJ:

The Iranian lawyer who successfully represented Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani in court, leading to his eventual release and acquittal of apostasy, has been detained and ordered to serve a lengthy prison sentence in one of Iran’s most dangerous prisons.