Diary of a Parish Priest

Contact the President, Secretary of HHS and Congress over Conscience Protection Clause

I've assembled a collection of links which might be useful if you plan on contacting government officials to let them know of your displeasure with the recent decision of HHS Secretary Sebelius and President Obama to mandate medical insurance which covers morally objectionable medications and procedures for employees of Catholic institutions.

The USCCB has a link to Congress to advocate for legislation which more fully protects the rights of individuals and institutions from coercion of their consciences.

Support Respect for Rights of Conscience Act

Contact the White House

President Obama's email at the White House

Mailing address:

Contact Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at Health and Human Services

 

The USCCB has a good collection of links and articles about conscience protection at their webpage.

USCCB Conscience Protection Critical

Archbishop Dolan's OpEd in Wall Street Journal

Father Manning's Homily For Respect Life on Jan 21, 2012

Tomorrow is the National Prayer Vigil for Life And the Annual March for Life in Washington And boy do we need them.

Last week, President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius determined that money from the school tuition you pay to Holy Cross And some of the collection monies on Sunday which subsidize our school, be used to provide health care coverage for our employees which includes medications, procedures and counseling that flaunts 2000 years of church tradition.

The Washington double‐speak‐filled‐directive which should anger every person who holds a single religious conviction, conceded that the ruling which forces Church employers to fund the immoral procedures, drugs and counsel would respect our religious sensitivities by giving us one year to comply with the ruling. Only one day before the unprecedented and anti‐Catholic ruling by Obama/Sebelius, listen to the truth proclaimed boldly by Pope Benedict to a group of US Bishops meeting with the pope in the Vatican:

"Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. …it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life."

Swear allegiance to the Roman emperor Or we will cut off your head! Well, at least, close your hospitals, schools and adoption agencies and force you to violate your religious convictions! 

I don’t usually like slogans, but if they make you think…here’s one: The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

Just a slight dip into murky waters of secular media should focus our attention and energize us:

Again and again, we see free speech and open debate stifled whenever the subject of modern marriage comes up in civic discourse. Deviations from the current politically correct definitions are hate speech. (Wisconsin student essay on traditional marriage)

Piers Morgan in an interview with Rick Santorum Responded to Santorum’s traditional Catholic views on marriage and sexuality with the retort: But your views border on bigotry, don’t you think?

The Santorum’s reverent treatment of their deceased newborn’s body many years ago was aubject of mockery by liberal pundits on the Internet and in print.

Google, Coca‐Cola, Apple, The Simpsons - have been around longer than these new secular dogmas on marriage and adoption we are expected to embrace lockstep.

American bigotry toward Catholicism isn’t new or gone. I'm reading Gotham: On The History of New York City From Its Very Beginnings. From the earliest days there were European settlers in North America, Catholics were denied the rights accorded others. On Pope Day, effigies of the Pope and Satan were burned and thrown into the river. Local modern history even until very recently shows the anti-Catholic bias: several local golf and beach clubs were founded primarily for Catholics, who could not easily gain entry into establishment groups. The Knights of Columbus offered Catholic family men life insurance which they could otherwise not obtain. Where was the largest KKK march in the US in 1924? ?  Long Branch. Recall that the KKK not only hates blacks, but Jews and Catholics as well.

The news isn’t all bad though: Last week the US Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of religious groups to set their own qualifications for ministry. A Lutheran church had dismissed one of its religion teachers and the Justice Department brought suit for her reinstatement under the ADA act, alleging discrimination because of disability. The supreme court reaffirmed the right of the church to hire its ministers as it sees fit. 

Archbishop Dolan, president of the USCCB, has criticized the Administration's insurance mandate and will be studying the church’s options.  Pray for Archbishop Dolan. We need bishops with fire in the belly on this issue. 

Let us stay informed: you contribute the donations and pay the tuition and I endorse the checks which would pay for this immoral insurance. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and read, read, read: American History, Church history, regional history, the church teachings on life issues and the moral reasoning behind these teachings, discuss the issues.

Write Congress, Sibelius, Obama. Write the reporters, editors, media outlets when their anti-Catholic bias shows. Then we should vote as if our faith depended on it!

New England Journal of Medicine Hails Catholic Health Association and Leadership Council of Women Religious for Their "Pro-Life" Support of Obama's Health Care Reform

 Many have written about the damage done by the CHA and the Leadership Council of Women Religious because of their support for the recently passed Health Care reform bill.

Here's a bit more of the fallout: George Annas, JD, MPH a frequent contributor to NEJM, who has criticized restricting a woman's right to abortion, recently authored an article congratulating the CHA and Leadership Council of Women Religious for their support of the Health Care Reform Act without the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to explicitly exlude elective abortions as a health care benefit. Here's the concluding paragraph:

"Perhaps the most conspicuous winners are the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Catholic women's religious orders, whose members deliver health care in 1200 facilities and organizations nationwide. In mid-March, shortly before the final vote, both groups came out very strongly in favor of the Senate bill without the Stupak-Pitts amendment; the nuns noted that the bill "will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. It will uphold longstanding conscience protections, and it will make historic new investments...in support of pregnant women. This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it." Amen."

(The cynical co-opting of pro-life language is the responsibility of the nuns group. The cynical use of "Amen" to conclude the less than prayerful opinion piece, is George Annas'. A congratulations from the pro physician-assisted suicide NEJM is only a Catholic merit badge in certain circles. Since Annas does not use the nuns' formal title, I wonder if he is aware that there is another group representing "Catholic religious orders?")

The US Bishops, however, and their legal consultants, concluded that the bill did not adequately protect the individual consciences of those opposed to abortion, nor continue the ban on the use of federal funds for abortions. Here's their statement:

 Health care reform must protect life and conscience, not threaten them. The Senate bill extends abortion coverage, allows federal funds to pay for elective abortions (for example, through a new appropriation for services at Community Health Centers that bypasses the Hyde amendment), and denies adequate conscience protection to individuals and institutions.

The regulations to prevent clever channeling of federal funds to abortion coverage have not yet been written. The bill's provision to allocate federal funds to Community Health Centers (e.g. run by Planned Parenthood) also did not concern CHA or LCWR.

Since the media didn't cover the statement by the "other" nuns leadership council, the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, here is their statement:

In a March 15th statement, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, of Chicago, president

of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke on behalf of the United

States Bishops in opposition to the Senate’s version of the health care legislation

under consideration because of its expansion of abortion funding and its lack of

adequate provision for conscience protection. Recent statements from groups like

Network, the Catholic Health Association and the Leadership Conference of

Women Religious (LCWR) directly oppose the Catholic Church’s position on

critical issues of health care reform.

The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, the second conference of

Major Superiors of Women Religious in the United States, finds the provision of

the bill to include expansion of abortion funding and fails to include conscience

protection. We believe the bill needs to include the Hyde Amendment as passed by the House in November.

Protection of life and freedom of conscience are central to morally responsible

judgment. We join the bishops in seeking ethically sound legislation.

As Annas confides in his article, "There's no politics like abortion politics." How true. It is unfortunate that some Catholic groups are aligning themselves with those who have no interest whatsoever in limiting abortion or anything that the Church teaches, for a slice of the federal pie. At least Judas didn't keep the money.

The Real Pro-Life Stance - Health Care Reform and Abortion Funding, New England Journal of Medicine

US Bishops to House of Representatives: Fix Flaws or Vote No on Health Care Reform Statement from Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious

Statement from Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious

Statement from Leadership Conference of Women Religious 

The photo shows life-saving surgery on a baby within its mothers womb.

Archbishop Chaput on the New Health Care Legislation

 The archbishop has some sobering words for the not-so-Catholic Catholic Health Association.

But the actions of the Catholic Health Association (CHA) in providing a deliberate public counter-message to the bishops were both surprising and profoundly disappointing; and also genuinely damaging.  In the crucial final days of debate on health-care legislation, CHA lobbyists worked directly against the efforts of the American bishops in their approach to members of Congress.  The bad law we now likely face, we owe in part to the efforts of the Catholic Health Association and similar “Catholic” organizations. 

Read the Archbishop's entire column here.

Executive Order to Limit Abortion?

Ironic that our president has promised to sign an executive order limiting the scope of the legislation he twisted so many arms, and dangled so many carrots to pass. In viritually the first act of his taking office, he rescinded a previous executive order which forbade the use of federal funds for non-governmental organizations which offered or promoted abortion as a means of population control. President Obama's administration has also made the "morning after" pill available at all US military bases around the world. Many believe that despite its name, it may work not only as a contraceptive, but as an abortifacient as well.

Executive orders come and executive orders go. The US Bishops have issued a statement asking us to remain vigilant that the legislation already passed protects individual consciences and refrains from funding abortions as federal policy.

Archbishop Chaput on the Vocation of Christians in American Public Life

Vocations of Christians in American Public Life

  Archbishop Chaput's most recent speech on the role of Catholic faith in American public life traces the unhealthy division between a politician's private moral beliefs and their public voting records to the speech President Kennedy made about his own Catholic faith during his run for the presidency.

In erroneously viewing the history of our republic as purely secular, and reassuring the public that if elected he would not be a Catholic president, (or perhaps even as a president who was truly Catholic,) Kennedy established the principle that politicians should divorce their private moral and religious beliefs from their public advocacy. 

The Archbishop calls Kennedy's landmark speech "sincere, compelling, articulate – and wrong.  Not wrong about the patriotism of Catholics, but wrong about American history and very wrong about the role of religious faith in our nation’s ."

In this far reaching and thoughtful speech, Chaput emphasizes the importance of Catholic witness in public life decrying ecumenism based on polite behavior instead of truth as empty, and a lie.

Look at the short list of issues the Archbishop identified that confront us, and notice how many depend precisely on our beliefs as Catholics:

abortion; immigration; our obligations to the poor, the elderly and the disabled; questions of war and peace; our national confusion about sexual identity and human nature, and the attacks on marriage and family life that flow from this confusion; the growing disconnection of our science and technology from real moral reflection; the erosion of freedom of conscience in our national health-care debates; the content and quality of the schools that form our children.

Read the entire text of the Archbishop's speech on their diocese's webpage by following the link at the top of this post.

New Study Shows Some Patients in Vegetative State Actually Aware

 Ever since Pope John Paul II and later the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued guidelines which encouraged, then presumed the use of feeding tubes for persons in the vegetative state to be measures of “ordinary care,” neuroscientists have been learning more about impaired states of awareness.

News media coverage of Terri Schiavo’s medical condition was not particularly helpful, especially since many reports confused “coma” with “vegetative state (VS).” It was clear from several videotapes of Terri that she was not in a coma, and that she was awake, but that wasn’t the medical problem. Was she ”awake but not aware,” – that is the true definition of vegetative state.

Medical researchers wondered if some patients who are now classified as being in a vegetative state might actually be conscious (that is aware, not simply awake) but unable to express themselves (due to paralysis, for example).

Dynamic MRI studies measured patterns of brain activity of persons diagnosed as being in the vegetative state after they were asked questions and to imagine specific scenarios. In a way, the scans read minds, even when the person couldn’t respond with externally visible signals. These scans detected willful and predictable brain activity in some patients who were thought incapable of it. Re-examination of some of these patients at the bedside revealed detectable signs of responsiveness to questions – responses which had been missed despite careful examination by experts. Physicians could find no signs of clinical responsiveness in one patient whose scan showed awareness. The only patients in the study who showed any signs of brain scan awareness had suffered traumatic brain injury, not stroke or oxygen deprivation.

The study supports the idea that a small percentage of patients thought to be in VS are actually aware and might be able to communicate if given the means to do so. Awareness may be present with subtle and missed clinical responses, or present without any detectable clinical signs.  Researchers hope that further studies will enable such patients to report whether they are in pain, and perhaps to express their thoughts and influence their environment.

Recent church teaching that even persons in vegetative states should ordinarily receive tube feedings has been controversial. This study supports the idea that a significant number of persons diagnosed as being in the vegetative state are actually minimally conscious. Routine clinical examination fails to detect some of these patients.

It will be interesting to see whether ethicists and clinicians respond to this study with skepticism, indifference, or heightened concern that we are starving some patients who are aware by failing to feed them. On the other hand, I am sure it will occur to someone to ask such persons if they wish the feedings stopped. More information doesn't guarantee more wisdom.

The article from the New England Journal of Medicine is here.

A balanced interpretation of the Papal teachings and those of the CDF by the Catholic ethicist Daniel Sulmasy, MD, OFM is here.

Oppose Same Sex "Marriage" in New Jersey

   
We just received this from the New Jersey Catholic Conference (the Catholic bishops of New Jersey) via the Office of Life and Justice.

 

Please forward as widely and as quickly as possible!

 

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

 

Issue:   On Thursday, January 7^th, the New Jersey State Senate will vote on whether or not to establish same sex marriage in New Jersey. 

Action is needed NOW to protect marriage as we have always known it – a union of one man and one woman.

 

ACTION:    Call and/or email your State Senators and tell them that you support preserving marriage as only a union of one man and one woman.  Their support for marriage is critical. 

 

    Ask our Senators to vote NO on the same sex marriage Bill.  Tell the Senators that persons of same sex orientation have the right to live as they choose but they do not have the right to redefine marriage for everyone by altering the civil law.

 

For your convenience, the Capwiz link is provided as

a simplified way to express your message of opposition for S-1967

 

http://capwiz.com/njcathconf/home/

 

 

 

Anne

Anne Conte

NJ Catholic Conference  

149 N. Warren Street

Trenton, NJ 08608

609-989-1120 ext. 20

609-989-1152 (fax)

Hardball, The Factor, The Congressman, The Bishop, The Eucharist

Bishop Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island has been making the rounds of television and media outlets explaining why he asked Representative Kennedy  to refrain from receiving Holy Communion. It seems many in the media have sided with Kennedy and are calling the bishop's position inconsisent with other teachings of the church, or an interference with the separation between Church and state.

Mr. O'Reilly, for example, wondered as a "confused" Catholic, why, if the Church is against abortion and capital punishment, the church does not sanction those politicians who are in favor of capital punishment. The bishop explained the intrinsically evil nature of abortion, which can never be right compared to the theoretical necessity for the state to protect itself by the use of capital punishment, which can be permitted in exceptional cases. (John Paul II's strong condemnation of capital punishment in Evangelium vitae is coupled with the reservation of its right by the state in rare, "practically non-existent" cases.) Ths is surely a difficult concept to explain during the typical sound bite, confrontational news program.

 

Mr.  Matthews seems intent on browbeating Bishop Tobin, first by accusing him of transgressing into politics by his public correction of Congressman Kennedy, and then by being unwilling to define what penalty (presumably legal one) a woman should incur who procures an abortion.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Meaning of Scandal

Several of the interviews and discussions conflate the everyday use of the word "scandal," with its technical use in Church law. Scandalous behavior these days would seem to be in the eye of the beholder: Adam Lambert's behavior at the American Music Awards was scandalous enough to get him disinvited from ABC, but made him a hot property for CBS. Scandalous in canon law does not mean something which generates shock or surprise.

According to Archbishop Raymond Burke, "The theological meaning of scandal is to do or omit something which leads others into error or sin. The second meaning is to do or omit something which causes wonderment (admiratio) in others. Denying Holy Communion publicly to the occult sinner involves scandal in the second sense. Giving Holy Communion to the obstinately serious and public sinner involves scandal in the first sense."

Separation Between Church and State 

Whatever the constitutional "separation between church and state" means, it clearly does not mean that politicians ought to have a wall of separation between their moral beliefs and their voting behavior or public advocacy. This theoretical comparmentalization was first announced by John Kennedy, refined by Mario Cuomo and used by politicians ever since to justify voting for intrinsically wrong acts like abortion or destructive human embryonic stem cell research. The latest generation Kennedy has moved beyond privately holding that abortion is wrong, but voting for it anyway; he avows, as a Catholic, the right to have an abortion belongs to every woman. And then implies that the prohibition against abortion is just one among many rules, with which Catholics are free to disagree, even publicly.

Private morals vs. Public votes

What does this supposed separation betweeen moral beliefs and public policy mean? Does it mean my moral beliefs are private, and I will act against them whenever it's politically expedient? Does it mean my moral beliefs are private, and I will suspend them and advocate whatever the majority wants? Which moral beliefs do not have a hold on public voting or advocacy? The moral belief against murder? The moral belief that telling the truth is a virtue? The moral belief that stealing is wrong? The moral belief that each human person is created with equal dignity by God?

No one argues that laws should be passed which specifically protect the Catholic church, or that Catholic politicians should vote to outlaw the consumption of meat on Fridays during Lent. No one argues that a Catholic politician must do whatever his/her bishop or the pope instructs them to do. (This was a fear raised by modern day Know Nothings, if John F. Kennedy was elected. There is no small measure of anti-Catholicism in the conspiracy theories which picture Catholic bishops huddled in Washington writing our nation's laws.) But there can't be a disconnect between the moral beliefs of our politicians and their public actions. And if you choose to call yourself Catholic, there is a presumption that the beliefs of Catholicism infuse your thoughts and inform your moral behavior, even and especially your voting.

Representative Kennedy and Bishop Tobin (continued)

It's hard to know what Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island needs most, a press agent or a catechist. His puzzling public statement yesterday that his bishop banned him from receiving Holy Communion gave the clear impression that the bishop's action was recent and probably in response to Kennedy's position on the Health Care Reform bill now in the Senate.

Kennedy will soon learn he cannot make public statements which misrepresent Church teachings or his bishop's actions without swift and accurate correction. Bishop Tobin confirmed that in a private, written communication in 2007 (!), he asked Kennedy to refrain from taking communion due to his advocacy for abortion rights.

Knowing that the bishop had already privately rebuked Kennedy for his public advocacy of abortion rights, Kennedy's interview of Oct. 22, 2009 is even more off base than it appears on its own:

“I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we’re caring and giving health care to the human person--that right now we have 50 million people who are uninsured. You mean to tell me the Catholic Church is going to be denying those people life saving health care? I thought they were pro-life?” said Kennedy. “If the church is pro-life, then they ought to be for health care reform because it’s going to provide health care that are going to keep people alive. So this is an absolute red herring and I don’t think that it does anything but to fan the flames of dissent and discord and I don’t think it’s productive at all."  Watch the interview

The "Catholic Church" denying health care? In New Jersey in 2003, Catholic hospitals provided over 22 million dollars in unreimbursed Medicaid costs, and 23% of New Jersey's documented charity care ($33 million unreimbursed care). The bishops have spoken out clearly in favor of health care reform, just not health care reform that kills unborn babies. ^{Budget Committee Hearings 2005}

By speaking publicly and distorting the US bishops' views, while at the same time not even addressing their chief concern, Kennedy creates a public record that needs correction. It is certain that bishops have had private communication with Catholic politicians in their dioceses regarding the reception of Holy Communion whenever that would give scandal. That Mr. Kennedy has chosen to make Bishop Tobin's communication public was his own choice. That his facts were inaccurate became Bishop Tobin's responsibility to correct. Bishop Tobin and Representative Kennedy had been scheduled to meet privately but this meeting has been postponed. Bishop Tobin has made it clear that his door is always open. It would be good if that meeting took place.

 

 

 

Life-Giving Love In An Age Of Technology

The US Bishops approved a pastoral statement Life Giving Love in An Age of Technology at their November meeting.

The document acknowledges the prevalence (one in six couples are estimated to experience infertility) and suffering brought on by infertility in marriage. It addresses the various technological methods at hand to correct or promote conception and endorses

hormonal treatments and other medications, conventional or laser surgery to repair damaged or blocked fallopian tubes, means for alleviating male infertility factors and other restorative treatments are available. The techniques of natural family planning (NFP) can aalso be used to locate the most fertile time of a woman's cycle in order to maximize the chances of conceiving. These and other methods do not substitute for the married couple's act of loving union; rather, they assist this act in reaching its potential to conceive a new human life.

The bishops articulate no new teaching in the document, but take the opportunity to comment on many of the developing reproductive technologies in an up to date and pastoral document.  They emphasize the importance of the Catholic church's teaching that the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage must not be separated. Because of this stringent and instrinsic moral principle, the bishops reject in-vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogate mothering, human cloning and related procedures.

The pastoral tone of the document is welcome, but footnotes would be helpful for several assertions it makes about scientific facts. Perhaps the final published version will provide them.

Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

At their November meeting the US Bishops approved a 5th edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. One of the primary reasons for revising the document was to make the use of artificial nutrition and hydration more explicit, especially for patients in the "persistent vegetative state" (PVS) for whom such feeding had been listed as controversial in the previous edition.

While medically assisted nutrition and hydration are not morally obligatory in certain cases, these forms of basic care should in principle be provided to all patients who need them, including patients diagnosed as being in a "persistent vegetative state" (PVS), because even the most severely debilitated and helpless patient retains the full dignity of a human person and must receive ordinary and proportionate care.

 

 

The Bond Of Love

Patrick Madrid's Grandson

Killian Patrick, born 3 months premature, is struggling for his life in neo-natal intensive care. In this poignant picture, his parents' wedding rings put everything into perspective.

In today's bulletin is an educational insert from the USCCB concerning the importance of keeping federal tax dollars from funding elective abortions as part of health care. At this time it looks as though an amendment to do just that has been attached to the Health Care Reform bill which passed the House of Representatives last night. Please stay alert and in touch with Congresspersons and Senators about your opposition to the inclusion of federal tax dollars for elective abortions.

What  a strange time in which we live: Killian  Patrick fights for his life, while other babies his age are freely aborted. Today say a prayer for Killian and all babies like him.

 

US Bishops to Discuss Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services

This month the bishops of the United States will vote whether to clarify when artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) are morally obligatory.

 

Can food and drink ever be considered a medical treatment, and if so, are they equivalent to  other medical therapies such as chemotherapy, surgery, etc.?  Do artificial nutrition and hydration ever become “extraordinary” treatments?

 

If artificial nutrition and hydration are considered medical treatments, many argue they can be stopped or not started with the same moral and practical evaluation given to other medical treatments. They may be refused along with any or all medical measures if they offer little hope of benefit, or if the burdens outweigh the benefits.

If, however, nutrition and hydration can never be considered a medical treatment, they cannot be denied to the sick and dying if the technology is available to share. Even in extremis, instructions loosely spoken of as “do nothing,” do not mean eliminating the comforts owed someone who is sick: pain relief, clothing, warmth, human contact, prayer, cleanliness, etc.  Those who believe ANH never can be considered a medical treatment, include ANH among the never-to-be-denied components of compassionate care we owe each other.

What exactly are the benefits of ANH? What is the purpose for which ANH are begun? If the underlying disease for which they may be necessary is incurable, does that make ANH useless or irrelevant?  The Church has answered:  No, ANH are only useless when medically contraindicated or when death is imminent. Keeping someone alive with reasonably inexpensive, non-painful and easily managed care is not extraordinary and never useless, just as the life it supports cannot be seen as useless because it may not be productive.

Can nutrition and hydration be a compassionate comfort we owe each other under normal circumstances and become a medical treatment if and when it is provided with a tube? This is one of the sticking points.

Can  the meaning of food change depending on how it is delivered? Why is food special? Why don’t we have this difficulty with air and respirators? Just as Catholic teaching allows for discontinuing or not starting artificial ventilation under certain circumstances, why can’t the same rules apply to nutrition and hydration? I remember being challenged by an ethicist to explain the difference between food delivered by a feeding tube from air delivered by a respirator. He really didn’t wait for an answer, his point was that there is none.

It’s a great question - what is the difference between food and air? It got me thinking and praying and I think the answer has a lot to do with Eucharist.

We don’t gather at our family dining tables and pass around oxygen. We lavish care and attention on food preparation and its serving and we all know how important food becomes as a extension of care and love. We Catholics especially, gather each week to share a meal and a sacrifice, bread and wine which becomes the Body and Blood of Christ and though we worship and adore it at a distance, we also consume it. The Eucharist isn’t a symbol, it is the Body and Blood of Christ. We take seriously those who cannot join in the meal; we take communion to their homes, hospitals and nursing homes. And though while it is true we don’t as a matter of practice give Eucharist through feeding tubes or to the unconscious, we surely take seriously the physical and spiritual dimensions of food as an expression of God’s love and the community’s concern. It is I think, because we are a sacramental people that we puzzle over the meaning of food and water by tubes and fret about whether it can be discontinued.

Sacramental theology, medicine and moral theology can each contribute to an understanding of the pastoral care, including feeding of the sick, though not necessarily dying patient. Let us pray for our bishops and the guidance of the Holy Spirit as they discern God’s path for the church.

 

No Write-Offs Allowed When It Comes to People

Today's Lectionary Readings

Not a penny, not a single sheep is dispensable we hear in this morning's gospel, and surely neither is a person! Most of us under certain circumstances cut our losses; pursuit or retrieval of whatever it is we're after just turns out not to be worth it.

But we can never do that with a person, because Jesus never does that with us. This morning I  preached that Benedict XVI had recently given a speech defending the lives of those in the womb with Down's Syndrome. I was mistaken, I knew I read that one of my heroes had given the speech, but it wasn't the pope, it was Archbishop Chaput of Denver.

 Eighty percent of unborn babies with Down's Syndrome are now terminated in the womb, even though the non-invasive tests are not 100% accurate and amniocentesis, which is often done to clarify a falsely positive test, carries a risk of spontaneous abortion. I can't possibly do justice to Archbishop Chaput's article with a brief summary,so read it in First Things, here.  Do you know a "sniffer of souls?"

The US Bishops will vote this month whether to amend the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services to more strictly interpret the mandate to provide nutrition and hydration even using artificial means to those who cannot eat or drink on their own. Many ethicists have argued feeding should not be mandatory for those in a persistent vegetative state or other chronic conditions. Some have argued that if the prospects for recovery are dim or none, that artificial feeding merely prolongs a uselesss life - though they are careful not to use those words. The bishops may decide that nutrition and hydration are morally required nonetheless, since their purpose is not necessarily the recovery of the person's neurological or physical health, but prevention of starvation. The final document will no doubt be worded very carefully as the issue is complex and emotionally tender.

 

 

 

Catholic Bishops in the Public Square

Read Archbishop Dolan's thought provoking article about anti-Catholicism in the American news media. The archbishop originally submitted his article which explicity criticizes The New York Times to The New York Times as an op-ed piece. Is anyone surprised it was rejected? You won't be after you read his article.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

In a separate matter, Rhode Island Representative Patrick Kennedy has agreed to meet with Bishop Thomas Tobin on health care after Kennedy's remarks some days ago which Bishop Tobin called "irresponsible" and for which he demanded an apology. Bishop Tobin's remarks are found on the Diocese of Providence's webpage. Kennedy had criticized Catholic opposition to health care coverage which does not include a ban on abortion funding as fanning "the flames of dissent and discord." Bishop Tobin remarked that Kennedy "contines to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the State of Rhode Island."

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I hope you follow Archbishop Chaput of Denver's remarks at least from time to time. From the Archdiocesan webpage his recent remarks :

If we stand up to evil, we may lose.  But if we don’t stand up we will lose.  Our God is a God of justice; a God who does not abandon his people and who rewards courage in the face of evil.  So have courage, serve the truth, love the Church, take confidence in the Lord, and stand up to witness for your faith.  We’ve got nothing to lose.  We have everything to gain. [Oct 8]

Catholic public officials who take God seriously cannot support laws that attack human dignity without lying to themselves, misleading others and abusing the faith of their fellow Catholics.  God will demand an accounting.  Catholic doctors who take God seriously cannot do procedures, prescribe drugs or support health policies that attack the sanctity of unborn children or the elderly; or that undermine the dignity of human sexuality and the family.  God will demand an accounting.  And Catholic citizens who take God seriously cannot claim to love their Church, and then ignore her counsel on vital public issues that shape our nation’s life.  God will demand an accounting.  As individuals, we can claim to be or believe whatever we want.  We can posture, and rationalize our choices, and make alibis with each other all day long -- but no excuse for our lack of honesty and zeal will work with the God who made us.  God knows our hearts better than we do.  If we don’t conform our hearts and actions to the faith we claim to believe, we’re only fooling ourselves. [Oct 16]

 

Stem Cell Research

 

The eight graders have asked to discuss stem cell research during my time with them this week. I will be distributing a copy of the brochure I wrote for the Diocese a few years ago and revised recently. It occured to me that others may find it useful as it contains a brief summary of the Catholic Church's teachings on stem cell research and several good references for further reading.

PDF file available:  Download StemCellBrochure2009