The pro-life movement was elated by the news yesterday that Komen for the Cure decided to suspend any further grants to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Media outlets reported that the decision was based in part on the fact that the abortion giant is currently under investigation by Congress concerning misuse of taxpayer funds, fraud and potentially violating state abortion laws. The Associated Press reported that, “Under the criteria, no further grants will be allowed unless the pending House inquiry is resolved in Planned Parenthood’s favor.”

Austin Ruse, the president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (CFAM) tells LifeNews that the AP report is wrong and that the Komen funding is not a temporarily decision based solely on the fact that Planned Parenthood is under investigation at the federal and state level.

He told LifeNews.com that the official Komen statement announcing the decision does not mention that it is conditioned based on the results of the Congressional investigation and that it’s not a temporary change based on a change in how grants are allocated — pointing to the sentence in the Komen statement saying, “We also implemented more stringent eligibility and performance criteria to support these strategies.

“What you take from the Komen statement is that it is about a change in funding criteria which does not rely on the success or failure of an investigation. You can infer from this that the decision is long-standing and not temporary,” Ruse says. “Pro-lifers should be happy today that Planned Parenthood gets yet another black-eye. Susan G. Komen Foundation should be congratulated for making this important decision.”

Good news, but much work still needs to be done epecially when you consider this story about the Denver affiliate of Komen.

On Wednesday, the Denver affiliate of Susan G. Koman for the Cure released a statement on Facebook that said it has been granted an exception.

The Denver affiliate said it plans to fund Planned Parenthood for the grant cycle of April 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013, pending the grant review committee and board of directors’ approval of their grant application.

So if it is true they were granted an exemption from the national headquarters it means Komen affiliates giving to Planned Parenthood will probably continue to do the same.

Another thing to remember is that Komen actively denies any connection between abortion and breast cancer. As per their site:

Although there has been some debate in the past about the link between abortion (also called induced abortion) and breast cancer risk, research clearly shows no link between the two [450]. Since 2003, the Board of Scientific Advisors and Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), as well as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have agreed the scientific evidence does not support a link between abortion and breast cancer [451-452]. The NCI routinely reviews the evidence on this topic and continues to agree the evidence does not support a link between the two [453].

So while we can applaud this step taken by the national organization, it is not time to let the heat off of them.

Update: Never mind, apparently they flipped back to donating to Planned Parenthood. The culture of death goes forth.

No doubt the following line form Gov. Mitt Romney will be coming to an Obama ad near you.

“I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.”

They will latch on to this as an example of an uncaring conservative. Really though this is an example of the liberal mindset. “The government has some program to take care of something so I can just ignore it.” It is a fact that liberals give less charity than conservative and the top states considering charitable donations are all so-called “red states”. Really Mitt is showing his liberal roots here.

Though this mindset is not confined to liberals as there are many who think along the same lines. Regardless who has this mindset it is quite despicable and another example of outsourcing charity.

The fictional Scrooge certainly had this mindset in Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”.

“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

I prefer the following:

In seeking to promote human dignity, the Church shows a preferential love of the poor and voiceless, because the Lord has identified himself with them in special way (cf. Mt 25:40). This love excludes no one, but simply embodies a priority of service to which the whole Christian tradition bears witness. This love of preference for the poor, and the decisions which it inspires in us, cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without medical care and, above all, those without hope of a better future. (Ecclesia in Asia, n. 34)

Unless of course they have a safety net I guess.

It is rather interesting the reaction, or really for the most part the lack of reaction to the Health and Human Services direct attack on the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

While many Catholics have been suitable upset about this including some who had even supported President Obama in the past, mostly the amount of outrage to this is quite muted.

Of course we can expect that the media will for the most part ignore this story.  GetReligion noticed the lack of reporting concerning so many bishops speaking out on this.  Thomas Peters has been doing good reporting on this in listing as of now 111 bishops who have spoken up in the United States which is over half of all bishops here.

In many cases letters from the bishops were read out at Mass.  This was done in my diocese and I was also very happy to hear not only the letter read at Mass but to hear some excellent commentary from the priest on the subject about how we need to fight this and that the adults must provide an example to children and grandchildren and that this must not stand.

Outside of Catholic circles though this has received much less coverage even from conservative circles.  That this is mostly a Catholic thing instead of something that everybody should be alarmed about.  It reminds me of  pastor Martin Niemöller  famous statement and could be rephrased “First they came for the Catholic’s conscience protection …”.  Maybe the issue will ramp up in people’s minds as the ramifications sink in.  This really should be something prominent during this campaign season as it really shows the Obama administration for what it is as abortion shrills who will tramp over consciences as they kowtow to the culture of death.

At least there is some good news today.

 U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today introduced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012, a bill to repeal a new ObamaCare mandate that violates the religious liberties and conscience rights of faith-based institutions by forcing them to offer employees insurance coverage for contraceptives.

(4) that narrow exemption, unprecedented Federal law, excludes thousands of religiously-affilated hospitals, schools, charities, and businesses; and

(5) despite receiving thousands of comments  protesting the absurdly narrow exemption, the Department of Health and Human Services nonetheless announced on January 20, 2012, that it would not  broaden the exemption but would instead give religious institutions an additional year to ‘‘adapt’’ their  consciences to the mandate.

“‘adapt’’ their  consciences” indeed.

I also find it interesting how “Obama Catholics” found this to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.  They could scruple a man who voted for infanticide, revoked the Mexico City policy, spent $23 million dollars to back a Kenyan constitution change to support abortion, appointed multiple people from Emily’s List on his staff along with zero pro-life staff.  signed an executive order forcing taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research, and on and on and on.  Yet this was the final straw. I guess the camels of “Obama Catholics” have backs of steel if they could pile on so much evil before finally breaking under the weight of the HHS ruling.  I guess instead of being snarky I should welcome them back to reality.

Three years ago I received the first novel by David Athey, Danny Gospel a novel I thoroughly enjoyed.  His new novel Christopher
explores some similar themes, but not a repeat in any way.

The story follows Christopher starting at the age of eleven.  Christopher is a lover of nature and does more than to stop to smell the roses, but to really look at a rose.  His parents are a sort of hold out from the sixties with his mother being into alternative therapies and vegetarianism.  Christopher comes to meet a young girl from a Catholic family whose Catholicism is quite fervent.

This basic plot sounds like  a setup of sort with a critique of the sixties and what will obviously happen with Christopher contact with this Catholic family.  Though this is not how this story really plays out at all and transcends a setup plot to be something much more fulfilling.  The story really kept me guessing and invested into it. Christopher is sort of haunted by contact with a series of Catholic girls in his young adult life and struggles between seeing the theological reality of something and seeing himself in that theological reality himself.  His introduction to stories on Grail Knights spark his imagination, and while the novel refers to him as a young knight, he is not a young knight without struggles or temptations.  The novel is very frank about these struggles which go beyond silly teenage angst but speak more of the human condition and specifically the struggle towards manhood.

I enjoyed the characters throughout the novel and Christopher’s parents are not simple stereotypes, but fully fleshed characters that contribute to the story.  A well told novel that while having a good amount of Catholic red meat in it is enjoyable on several levels.

This is the eight volume of The Weekly Benedict ebook which is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I pull from Jimmy Akin’s The Weekly Benedict.

This volume covers the last week with material from Jan 18th to Jan 22th.

As Jimmy notes:

Not much this week, despite a lot of recent activity from the pope. There’s some really good Benedict-ions waiting to be translated into English (I am particularly waiting for translations of his annual January addresses to the Roman Rota and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, both of which are up in Italian). I wish the Vatican translation squad would get moving and get them done and posted.

The Weekly Benedict – Volume 8 – ePub (supports most readers)

The Weekly Benedict – Volume 8 – Kindle

In the aftermath of the decision by Health and “Inhuman” Services regarding mandatory contraception coverage with an ideologically narrow exemption I thought I had seen some rather strong statements from various bishops.

“The present secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, a bitter fallen-away Catholic, now requires that all insurance, even when issued privately, must carry coverage for evil and grave sin,” Bruskewitz wrote in the letter, which he instructed parish priests to read aloud to their congregations at Mass this weekend. [Source]

Runner up for muscular episcopate statements is:

Bishop David Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh wrote, “It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with you!” There is no other way to put it.”

I would even give an honorable mention to Cardinal Mahoney:

“I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on the freedom of conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic Community can muster.”

None of this is surprising since from the start this has been the message from the Obama administration to Catholics. The very appointment of Kathleen Sebelius, the former governor restricted from receiving Communion from her bishop, was a slap in the face to Catholics. The latest ruling is totally consistent with the whole thrust of this administration – the abortion-at-all-costs administration.

Father Rutler in part writes:

…For a while, various Catholic leaders had hoped that they might reach an understanding with the Administration, and some even felt more at peace with the president’s assurances. But “peace for our time” only lasts until Poland is invaded.
…

At the time of the last presidential election, some may have thought that I overstated things in finding parallels with the dystopian world described in Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World, in which Julian Felsenburgh makes eugenics “a sacred duty.”

Since our Lord did not humiliate the frightened apostles by saying “I told you so” when he rose from the dead, I shall not say “I told you so” to any who underestimated the plottings of social engineers whose audacity is only an audacity of despair. [Source]

As noted by Fr. Rutler this was an “interim final rule”. If that isn’t a perfect example of bureaucratic relativism I don’t know what is.

In the meantime of course defenders of this ruling love to point out the high rate of contraceptive usage among Catholics themselves. This is certainly scandalous, but directing doctrine by practice is “nonsensus” fidelium. It is very nice to see the public outrage by bishops over this ruling and you can certainly wish there was even a greater outrage over the scandal of contraceptive use by Catholics. But we can’t go back in time to properly catechize the past and have had bishops and priests willing to speak out against the culture of contraception and the self-centered view of children as resource hogs that must be kept in check.

The real question is how can we catechize the present and upcoming generations in regards to the truth of human sexuality. It has often been noted, especially by Catholics, the symphonic nature of truth. The teaching of the Church in regards to marriage is interlinked with contraception, abortion, divorce, homosexual acts, etc. But what happens when you start leaving out instruments in a symphony? It is rather compatible to what has happened to marriage when “instruments” such as the teaching on contraception, abortion, divorce, homosexual acts have been removed or to extend the comparison – muted.

In the meantime regarding this rule of unjust law we can follow Bishop Olmsted’s recommendation. [PDF]

Therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Pray the rosary asking Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of our Nation to intercede for us. Without God, we can do nothing: with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration’s decision.

Patrick Deneen,Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University,  had some stinging criticism of the Jesuit university, saying that Georgetown “increasingly and inevitably remakes itself in the image of its secular peers, ones that have no internal standard of what a university is for other than the aspiration of prestige for the sake of prestige, its ranking rather than its commitment to Truth.”

He has been hired by Notre Dame to teach there. I guess he is working his way up to a fully Catholic university.

Deneen said he’s not going to Notre Dame with blinders on. ”I don’t doubt that there will be many battles at Our Lady’s University,” he wrote. ”But, there are at least some comrades-in-arms to share in the effort.”

Ah good to see he is going there with no false assumptions and the right attitude and he will certainly find comrades-in-arms there. Though it is too bad that there will be one less authentically Catholic voice at Georgetown.

Deneen said Notre Dame hired him because they regard him as “someone who can be a significant contributor to its mission and identity, particularly the Catholic identity of the institution.” He said such considerations are not typically a criterion for hiring at Georgetown.

Now that is an understatement.

[Source]

Not exactly Martin Luther King, but President Obama says:

“And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.”

Well I guess some dreams are nightmares.

Surely it must be a nightmare since the President in his infamous Notre Dame speech said abortion “this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.”    How many Constitutional rights came you named with “heart-wrenching” decisions in the moral and spiritual sphere?

This is the seventh volume of The Weekly Benedict ebook which is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I pull from Jimmy Akin’s The Weekly Benedict.

This volume covers the last week with material from Jan 11th to Jan 19th.

The Weekly Benedict – Volume 7 – ePub (supports most readers)

The Weekly Benedict – Volume 7 – Kindle

Last year I read Fr. Jordan Aumann’s theology which I absolutely loved.  I recently finished another book he wrote Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition which is sort of a companion book to Spiritual Theology.  While Spiritual Theology provided an excellent guide to the Church’s ascetical and mystical teaching on prayer this book looks at the history of Christian spirituality from the start of the Church to more modern times.

A quite fascinating and detailed book as it looks at the various movements of Catholic spirituality and how they developed and led to other movements.  I was aware of bits and pieces and various sections of this spiritual history, but Fr. Aumann really puts them all in contexts and pins down the developments.  The book also introduced me to many saints and others I was hardly aware of.  It is also quite interesting in how this history of spirituality shows that the more things change that they remain the same.  This history shows all the ebb and flow of Christianity and how each age much repent and reform.  While they have and will continue to be movements of reform, there are also many false starts and dead ends into false spiritualities.  Fr Aumann as a theologian and capable historian of the spiritual life puts it all together into a book well worth reading.

This book is available online at DomCentral.org or retailers such as Amazon.