Monday, March 23, 2009

The fight has not been kept far from the walls. The fight is inside the house.

This is an article written by Mrs. Leila Lawler appearing at Catholic Culture, a lady as intelligent as she is beautiful and as uncompromising as she is orthodox. No one could have said it better.

There are those who refuse to acknowledge
what is really going on. Probably because they are on the payroll of the Archdiocese.

Lest there be any doubt- we are talking about nothing but blood money.


The article from Catholic Culture:

Let’s take a moment to try to understand what’s going on in Boston, shall we?

To recap:

Caritas Christi, the health-care agency administered by the Archdiocese of Boston, has joined in a successful bid for a government contract to provide health services for low-income clients. The program requires coverage for abortion, sterilization, and contraception.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley says:

"While I appreciate the opportunity given to Caritas Christi to serve the poor through this agreement, I wish to reaffirm that this agreement can only be realized if the moral obligations for Catholic hospitals as articulated in the Ethical and Religious Directives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are fulfilled at all times and in all cases. In order to assure me that this agreement will provide for the integrity of the Catholic identity and practices of Caritas Christi Health Care System, I have asked the National Catholic Bioethics Center to review the agreement and to assure me that it is faithful to Catholic principles." [This is the cardinal's statement in its entirety, made on March 12, 2009.]

First, about serving the poor.

Caritas Christi is a failing business, the mission of which, in this bid, is to shore up an eroding bottom line. Serving the poor isn’t the issue. Winning a large government contract is.

One doesn’t serve the poor by providing them with abortions at the taxpayer’s expense. Even before the present debacle, the archdiocese should have been at the forefront of the (nonexistent) fight to prevent a situation in which the state (meaning its citizens) would be funding abortions.

Now, although the meanest intellect can tell you that by contracting for abortions (and other immoral acts such as sterilizations), Caritas will violate Catholic principles, not only will Cardinal Sean, a bishop, refer the problem to the National Catholic Bioethics Center, he sits on the Board of Directors of that institution.

So he is going to ask himself what he thinks?

If only.

Who are the NCBC? As a friend of John Haas, the president, I regret to say the NCBC compromises and equivocates on the issue of vaccines developed using cells from aborted fetuses, and they refuse to acknowledge any ambiguity on organ donation.

More importantly, the NCBC is not the bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston.

What is the teaching authority of the NCBC?

None.

They have one function in this case, and may God forbid they use it: to provide safe cover under language of “remote proximity” and “lack of material cooperation.”

The faithful need to be clear. Even lacking advanced degrees in bioethics, an ordinary person can figure these things out.

And any person without even a passing knowledge of Directives, Ethical and otherwise, knows that if so-called Catholic hospitals engage in referring for abortions, sterilizations, in vitro fertilizations, etc., then Catholic doctors, nurses, other health care workers, and patients of good conscience will have nowhere to go.

Further, any attempt to safeguard conscientious objection will be rendered moot, sterile, useless, and futile. Such attempts on a national level, going on right now, would have no standing if Catholics in Massachusetts were in the business of providing “reproductive services.”

All the while, we will be able to accuse ourselves of removing the absolute last resort of Christian conduct, since retreat – which is what conscientious objection is – should be recognized as the final refuge of the battle, not its first stage.

The battle has indeed breached the walls of Catholic sanity, ethics, and right conduct. May Cardinal Sean wake up in time.

10 comments:

TTC said...

Dom Bettinelli's quote is disgusting.

Thomas Coolberth said...

What else is new?

mom v many said...

How Funny!! Dom won't let any comments go through on his post about this! I know because I tried to post the other day after I read your blog and today he has the block on it.
It's funny because the only one he HAS let through is from someone who is sad the facility may close.
As my kids tell me
LOSER!!!!

M. Alexander said...

Hi Mom v many,

I was banned from that blog a long time ago, as I think Thomas Shawn also was!

We'll have to form our own cool club!
Mary

Dymphna said...

I don't understand. Are you saying that the cardinal is lying?

Thomas Coolberth said...

Yes, I have that proud distinction.

I have also been banned from Angelqueen (for suggesting that we support Israel not Palestine) and Freerepublic (for suggesting that Iraq was a mere civil war and we should get out).

M. Alexander said...

Dear Dymphna,

Either the insurance company who assures us that all "confidential family planning" options will be availabe or the Cardinal who says that nothing will be done to violate Catholic principles is either lying or misinformed.

I'll leave it to you to decide which? Time will tell.
Mary.

Dymphna said...

I don't know what to make of Cardinal O'Malley. The whole thing is heartbreaking.

M. Alexander said...

And adding to this tragedy is the fact that Cardinal Sean has refused to participate in the 40 days for Life because of "John Salvi", it's frustrating to see a lack of leadership on life issues in Boston.

Anonymous said...

I am not in the Archdiocese of Boston, but my take on the Archbishop's response it is a firm stand that Catholic agencies will not violate Catholic teaching under any circumstances and that he wants a definitive second opinion as to the wording of the agreement to make sure of that.