Pro-life

Katelyn Sills has updated her blog with information about her dismissal. She has released a series of emails between her mother and Sr. Helen. These are the emails as to which the charges for dismissal were based on that supposedly displayed "threats," "abuse," and other "malicious" behavior toward members of the Loretto community. I have read through the whole series of emails and it really becomes difficult to understand the schools decision as other than irrational.

Dear Mrs. Sills,
You threatened me in an email. You will not be permitted on this campus. No assistance is needed to arrive at Shadow Day.
Sr. Helen

She asked for clarification as to when she was threatened and refereed back to a previous email. It appears that this was suppose to be the threat.

For if Loretto and the Diocese deem it acceptable to employ an aggressive, openly, pro-abortion teacher, all families, including ours, deserve to know of your decision before subjecting our daughters to such an unsafe environment.

So after three weeks of the school stonewalling and not doing anything about the teacher and part time abortion-escort the mother "threatened" to tell other parents about this. This can only be perceived as a threat if you want to cover something up and do not want it to be exposed.

Some response from Sister Barbara were especially surreal.

"Just because a person volunteers at Planned Parenthood does not necessarily mean they support abortion,"

and

"Mrs. Sills, you would be very surprised if you knew the number of Catholics who receive services at Planned Parenthood"

Those replies must have been especially maddening and they are just bizarre. Last I knew contraceptives were also against Church teaching. Besides the job of a abortion escort is not to help old ladies across the street, but to act as cheerleaders for those women seeking abortions.

If these series of emails are truly what lead the administration to first ban her mother from the school grounds and then to dismiss her then I don’t see how they will have a leg to stand on if they go to court.

The school has treated Ms. Bain much nicer than they have treated the family of one of their students. The school said "Ms. Bain has graciously" agreed not to pursue legal action. Real gracious after receiving a bribe in a payout not to. Help mothers murder their children – get a payout. Complain about an abortion escort being employed at a Catholic school – why of course get dismissed and slandered.

Updated: Removed section on what I misconstrued as the being the schools initial good response which was actually what the mother expected the reaction to be.

Interesting article from a dad writing about his son’s school having a condom club where they are given free food and a condom 12-pack each week. Now no one will be surprised that this is Berkeley High School. What I found interesting was the father was kind of scandalized by this development, though it was a very low-level outrage. The fathers attitude drips with the very permissiveness that leads to condom clubs in the first place.

For example he was more surprised by the number of condoms given more than the fact that the school was supplying them in the first place.

Where did they come up with the number 12?

Twelve condoms a week! I don’t know sex workers who need that many condoms. Certainly none of my middle-age friends need 12 condoms a week. High school students do?

Well obviously the even dozen was to not hurt the precious self-esteem of students. This prevents the student from having to exaggerate the quantity he needs each week by requesting them individually or to admit that he still has leftovers from the previous week.

I was stewing over the Condom Club for a few weeks when I finally got the nerve to ask my son whether he joined. "No, dad, I didn’t." I wasn’t sure whether to be glad or sad, since I didn’t have the nerve to ask him whether he’s having sex.

I just told him that his teachers are right: When he does finally have sex, he must wear a condom.

When I tried to demonstrate how to use one, he stopped me and, shaking his head, said, "Dad, they taught us in sixth grade."

Oh. You never mentioned it.

Then I told him one other thing. I told him if he ever needs 12 condoms in a week, he’ll be a very happy young man.

Great advice for a high school freshman that you are to measure happiness by the number of condoms you use.

We don’t know how these women got pregnant.

The Loretto High School drama teacher fired last month for volunteering at a Planned Parenthood clinic has reached a settlement with the Catholic all-girls school, attorneys for the teacher and school said Friday.

Marie Bain of Sacramento, who alleged last week that her termination was a case of religious and sexual discrimination and a violation of free speech rights, will receive compensation from the school, but neither side would disclose how much.

Bain and Loretto administrators said they hoped the settlement would end a controversy that has ensnared the school since Bishop William K. Weigand ordered Bain’s firing in October. Weigand said Bain’s affiliation with the clinic set a poor example for students.

As part of the agreement, Bain said she would not file suit against Weigand, the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento or others involved in her dismissal. Bain had not actually filed any lawsuit, but in lodging complaints with state labor agencies had taken preliminary steps. [Source]

Well that is about par for the course. A women who who lead other women into an abortuary to have their child killed gets compensated for it by the school. I wonder if the insurance company is part of the payoff or whether this will be used from the tuition? Judging from a distance at how the school has treated the whole situation obviously there heart was not in any kind of battle – unless it is against a faithful Catholic mother and her daughter. “For Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Obviously it was more important to avoid a lawsuit then defending their right to fire somebody because of grave scandal. The whole thing about religious des crimination is ridiculous since this would mean that an individual’s religious beliefs can trump the schools religious belief. She would contend that she has the right to act on her religious beliefs, but that the diocese could not act on theirs.

I do wonder if the school had fired a Nazi concentration camp guard if they also would have received compensation?

Do the majority of people in California have children? If they do then I would wonder why they defeated Proposition 73 a proposed constitutional amendment that would require doctors to notify parents or guardians when a minor seeks an abortion. "What did you do today? Oh and if you had an abortion and had our grandchild killed don’t tell me about it." Or do they just think this might happen only with other people’s children? If they are so permissive on abortion then why would they have a problem with their daughter telling them first?

Now you might make the argument that they are for the autonomy of the individual and that the individual gets to decide. You could make that argument if they hadn’t also voted against a proposition that would have allowed union members not to have their dues go towards political contributions without their permission.

Though maybe the silver lining is that Proposition 73 was only narrowly defeated. The amendment though also "Defines abortion as causing "death of the unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born."" Maybe that was what killed it off. While the wording isn’t very strong, it might have been an uncomfortable truth. "The emperor has clothes on I tell you and don’t dare make me think otherwise." How insensitive the writers of the amendment were using child instead of fetus and daring to associate the word death with child. "We totally support abortion, but please don’t words that more accurately describe what happens. Ignorance is bliss. Bliss me father for we have not sinned."

SecretAgentMan writes another brilliant essay. This time on the euthanasia bill in Canada.

I’m with David at Catholics in the Public Square – the more I read about Virginia governor candidate Tim Kaine and Catholic the more troublesome it is. Generally I want to support truly pro-life Democrats. Though too often their pro-life views will nod towards Catholic teaching on the death penalty, but it does not seem to penetrate to other areas. Previously David reported:

I have a faith-based opposition to abortion. As governor, I will work in good faith to reduce abortions by:

1. Enforcing the current Virginia restrictions on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother;
2. Fighting teen pregnancy through abstinence-focused education;
3. Ensuring women’s access to health care (including legal contraception) and economic opportunity; and
4. Promoting adoption as an alternative for women facing unwanted pregnancies.

We should reduce abortion in this manner, rather than by criminalizing women and doctors. Too often politicians are interested in scoring political points, rather than in reducing the number of abortions. Many of the legislative proposals introduced in the General Assembly, like the ones to require unnecessary building standards for doctor’s offices that perform abortions, are just political grandstanding. They encourage division and lawsuits rather than contributing to the goal of reducing abortions.

Okay, yes, because of Roe and Casey the right to kill an unborn child is legal. Mr Kaine wants to work, it seems, within that reality. Great. Except for the promotion of contraception I have no problem with this plan. Yet, his stance of not wanting to "criminalize" abortion is a problem. This is important to Catholics because of what John Paul II taught us in Evangelium vitae:

When it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects". (Evangelium vitae n. 73)

My own comment was that one abortion clinic in another state recently closed due to increasing standards. These are much more than grandstanding, but real ways to reduce abortion. When abortion clinics have to face the same regulations everybody else does, they scurry away afraid of the light.

I also deeply distrust statements like "on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother;" This is absolute garbage since there is never a medical situation where PBA would save the life of the mother. How in the world can killing the child at the last seconds before birth ever be any medical necessity?

This sounds more like safe, legal, and rare than a truly faith filled pro-life response.

Now David is posting about Michael Schiavo’s endorsement of Tim Kaine.

"I don’t think governors should use their PR grandstanding to intervene in these cases," Kaine replied, according to an AP report. He said he supports the courts ending disputes like the one involving Terri.

So I guess he is for the death penalty after all – if your disabled.

A reader passed me a link to this story.

A Catholic school in Waukesha County is the first non-profit group in the nation to cancel a coveted American Girl Fashion Show amid concerns that the Wisconsin-based doll company behind the show gives money to a national girls organization that presents abortion, contraception and a lesbian sexual orientation as acceptable.

News of the decision by parent volunteers and the pastor at St. Luke School in Brookfield is being reported in bulletins at Masses this weekend.

"It seemed like a match made in heaven; a motivated Catholic school and an all-American icon," Father Frank Malloy, the pastor, says in his printed explanation. "We seemed poised to raise enough funds for a new playground and a remake of the school library."

But, he concludes, "As for us, it’s a bargain we’ll just have to pass up. The cost is too high. Our integrity isn’t for sale."

Only 60 to 65 American Girl Fashion Shows are held nationwide each year, and no other groups have canceled because of this issue, according to Julie Parks, spokeswoman of the Middleton-based company.

The fashion shows include the firm’s popular historic dolls being carried by girls who resemble the dolls and dress in the same outfits.

The parish had scheduled five showings May 19 to 21 at the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha.

Organizers had planned to mail invitations to more than 20,000 American Girl doll owners in a wide region. They had hoped to raise at least $10,000 – and perhaps $30,000 or more – through ticket and raffle sales, business sponsorships, and a percentage of sales of American Girl’s dolls, books, clothes and other products, said the event’s co-chairwomen, Marisa Beffel of Brookfield and Catherine Valentyn of the town of Brookfield.

Beffel, who had originally proposed the fashion show, searched the Internet for details last weekend after word of the company’s donations spread. Valentyn, who did the same, said it was a clear, but not easy, decision.

"It wasn’t just the money," said Valentyn, president of the home and school association. "It was hard to give up the thought of a really great day for mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and the really great products that American Girl has, these dolls with the historic texts that come with them. But it just felt wrong. We know what the Catholic Church stands for, and we, in essence, represent them."

The parish decision to forgo that and to put a $1,000 deposit with American Girl at risk is one of the latest results of a protest that two national groups – the Pro-Life Action League in Chicago and the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. – mounted this month against American Girl and its parent company, Mattel Inc. The league is threatening to call for a boycott of American Girl products if it does not halt the donations by Tuesday.

The spark that set them off was an "I Can" program the doll and clothing company launched Sept. 19 to encourage girls to follow their dreams and to raise money for Girls Inc.

You just have to like "Our integrity isn’t for sale."

Rick Lugari posts that Wynette Sills the woman who blew the whistle on the abortion clinic escort and Catholic high school drama teacher has been banned from campus. It certainly sounds like a reprisal for embarrassing them. Maybe if she volunteers as an abortion clinic escort she will be allowed back on campus – though that is overly cynical they certainly need to publicly explain their rational for doing this. Rick also listed the email addresses up for the schools president and principal

The president is Sr. Helen Timothy, htimothy@loretto.net, and the principal is Sr. Barbara Nelson, bnelson@loretto.net. It’s the weekend now, so I am unsure if they would get their mail before Monday, nevertheless if more than a few people write, they should feel compelled to respond in some fashion.

This news was broken by Wynette Sills daughter whose blog has gotten much attention recently especially by those pro-abortion zealots upset by the firing.

One thing I have noticed about any story about a teacher being fired from a Catholic school for some act or position contrary to the faith that they are always reported as "well liked." Do reporters take a poll of students for every story like this? If so then why do we never see stories about teachers who are disliked or evoked neutral reactions from students. If it is indeed true that only "well liked" teachers are being fired than we must work for equal opportunity to ensure other teachers also get the benefit of being fired. Stop the discrimination!

There is what appears to be a trial balloon bill in Canada to legalize both euthanasia and assisted suicide scheduled appropriately for a Halloween vote.Fr. Dowd and Kristina have been posting on this. Looking at the bill I saw exactly the word I expected to see within the first paragraph.

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to allow any person, under certain conditions, to aid a person close to death or suffering from a debilitating illness to die with dignity if the person has expressed the free and informed wish to die.

Yes dignity the word that has been hijacked by so many groups to subvert so many things. From homosexual activists to euthanasia supporters you will often find some form of this word in either one of organizations pamphlets or directly used in their title. That somehow checking out early is suppose to be more worthy of of esteem or respect. If you are dying or suffering from the ravages of disease well we are really enlightened now and will put you down like a horse with a broken leg. Now isn’t that progress? We don’t have to worry about palative care and easing someone’s suffering; which more often needs true human compassion and communication and not a higher dosage of pain reducing drugs (though this is a usually a necessary component). Yep progress. In my mind most of what is called progress is like Michael Jackson’s moonwalk which only gives the appearance of moving forward while actually going backwards. Thus most who hide behind the term progress are truly moonwalkers. So progress in the care of the sick means directly killing them; so unlike say barbarian tribes killing off their elderly or leaving them behind to die. What you can’t see the difference between barbarism and progress in this regard? How backwards of you.

But back to the word dignity and especially the phrase "Death with Dignity." In this months This Rock magazine an article by the always enjoyable and very clear thinker Alice von Hildebrand writes about right and wrongs ways to influence people. One of the wrong ways is slogans.

Slogans –especially those designed to mask or distort the reality of what they convey–are rampant. "Death with Dignity" "pro-choice," "homophobia," "elitism", and "sexism" are examples. Once largely the province of politics, today they are epidemic in all domains of human life and win assent from people who fail to recognize that they are being manipulated and are reacting to irrational feelings, unfounded sympathies, or antipathies. The replace arguments and proofs, skirting man’s reason. In colleges and universities they foster academic deterioration, degrade learning, and anesthetize logic–all enemies of wisdom and truth. By acting on man’s emotions, they promote intellectual inertial. Some Catholics employ slogans to win assent to their agendas. Cleverly chosen words–Dark Ages, ghetto mentality, triumphalisim, and paternalism, for example –can trigger wild though unfounded enthusiasm or vicious hatred.

Exactly reducing intellectual arguments to vapid phrases that slice right through the intellect aiming for an emotional response. Death with dignity – what can be wrong with that? It is no surprise they don’t call it "Death by massive injection of organ eating toxic chemicals" or some other method.

This bill allows an eighteen year old who has mental pain without prospect of relief to request death. "has, while appearing to be lucid, made to a medical practitioner." To have the state kill you you only have to appear to be lucid. Missing from this bill is even any attempt to check for coercion. Those suffering can often see even a duty to die so as to prevent worry and stress for those close to them. While I am against any form of assisted-suicide this law is so vague that you can drive a bus load of depressed young people through it and into euthanasia chambers. The elderly and infirm in Western society are already being treated as inconvenient outcasts and it doesn’t take much to "want to help them out" to the other side especially since it is just so much more convenient for us.

So if you are Canadian do what you can to defeat bill C-407. Though all of us can pray to stop the inroads of the culture of death and to show real compassion by suffering with those who are at the end of life or are severely depressed.