News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Pope Francis has called for the redistribution of wealth.
At leas that’s what the AP is reporting so there is a better than even chance his comments are being seriously distoted.
Still, there is a point. The environs of Washington D.C. are the richest places in the nation. The wealth really must be distributed from there back to the rest of us.
W. A. Criswell, in The Offense of the Cross, points out,
“The Roman Empire was the most tolerant, the most liberal, the most wise, and the most accurate in its handling of the many provinces and religions of its empire of any kingdom that ever existed. Men could worship, have temples, and do as they pleased. And yet the Roman Empire and the Caesars persecuted the Christians. Why? For one simple reason: the Christian refused to compromise his faith with any other religion whatsoever.”
That refusal to compromise is seen in the response of the apostles themselves to the command not to teach in the name of Jesus: “We will obey God rather than men!” As it was in the beginning, so it is now. Christians in America face another one of those key moments – seen frequently in Scripture and Christian history – of conflict between the commands of civil authority and the demands of their faith. And believers of other traditions are standing with them as well.
The Obama Administration, implementing one of the provisions of “Obamacare,” has declared its intent and goal to increase access to various “preventive services” that include contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. This is an open, publicly-announced plan. Numerous Americans, and the religious traditions they embrace, teach that such “drugs and services” are immoral to use. Therefore, they oppose this plan.
But the conflict goes deeper than that. If those believers are also employers who offer their employees health insurance, the Obama Administration is requiring them to cooperate in the plan by making coverage for those drugs and services an essential part of those health insurance plans.
And that’s where we say “No!” If the government wants to expand access to these immoral – and in some cases lethal – activities, it’s going to need to do it without us. We do not want to be involved.
And that is the argument regarding the HHS mandate, and the theme of the multiple lawsuits that have been introduced against it. We at Priests for Life filed the fourth of what are now dozens of such lawsuits launched both by religious groups and for-profit businesses.
On March 25, the Supreme Court heard two consolidated cases on behalf of two of those businesses, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods, run by believers who refuse to cooperate with the mandate. The Court considered, among other things, whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies to for-profit corporations to protect them from this mandate.
In a separate action, the Supreme Court is also being asked to take up the matter of the non-profit and religious entities who object to the mandate, and whose rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act are not in doubt. We at Priests for Life have petitioned the Supreme Court to hear our case, and it should be learned in the next few days as to whether it will happen.
The claim that the government is making is that it is in fact exempting the religious groups like Priests for Life from following the mandate. In fact, President Obama himself addressed this in his February 2 interview with Bill O’Reilly. The President said, “Here’s the way this thing works. All they have to do is sign a form saying they don’t — they are a religious institution —And — and they get what they want.”
In other words, the form we are being asked to sign states that we object to the mandate because of our institutional religious convictions. Then, our insurance policy will not have to include coverage of the objectionable drugs and services.
At first glance, that sounds quite reasonable to sign. But what the government says further is that upon us signing the form, and receiving the names of our employees on the plan, they will make separate provision to cover the objectionable drugs and services. In other words, by signing the form, we are still part of implementing the plan to provide access to those drugs and services. The form is an authorization; our employees are covered precisely because they are our employees. It’s not a matter of who pays for it; it’s a matter of being the gateway to the immoral activities.
President Obama, in his O’Reilly interview, seems to indicate that he understands this. He said, “The problem is they don’t want to sign the form — Because they think that that somehow makes them complicit.” Exactly right. And Mr. President, that’s not only what we and the other religious plaintiffs think; that’s precisely what our religion teaches. And the freedom to follow that teaching is precisely what you and the law need to respect.
All this may seem like a big deal to be making over the signing of a form. But to go back to W.A. Criswell, he points out, “When the Christians were invited just to bow down before the Roman image, their lives could be spared if they would merely take a pinch of incense and put it on the fire that burned in the presence of the image of the Roman Caesar. The Christian died rather than compromise with a pinch of incense.”
Whether it’s about government incense or a government form, we will obey God rather than men.
Father Pavone is national director of Priests for Life.
Due to the continued hard economic conditions, Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church, 100 S. Penn St., Clifton Height, Pa. 19018 hold a “Special Spring Food Collection” for the needy through Sunday, April 13.
Anyone wishing to donate any canned or boxed, non-perishable food items should bring them to the church on any Sunday before or after the 11 a.m.. Divine Liturgy.
Given the harsh economic conditions currently being experienced, everyone’s help is appreciated. The Church aims to match or exceed its last collection. Please help.
P.S. All are welcome at the Liturgy. It’s Byzantine Rite but it’s Catholic.
Saints Peter and Paul Byzaninte Rite Catholic Church will again be selling traditional Slavic foods for Easter.
Kielbasa will be sold for $11 per ring or four links for $8.
Homemade, mouth-watering, flavorful, potato-cheese pierogies will be sold for $8 per dozen.
Traditonal Paska bread (homemade) will be sold for $10 per loaf.
Orders can be placed via email at SSPeterandPaul@verizon.net or by calling Kathy at 610-328-4731.
Pickups will be noon Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13 at the church at 100 S. Penn St., Clifton Heights, PA.
Our nation again approaches the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, and I will again be with Dr. King’s family on that day.
Many people understand the connection between the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement thanks to the work of Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. Her father, Rev. A.D. Williams King, was Martin’s brother. She began working with me full time at Priests for Life as our Director of African-American Outreach in 2004.
She and I have been together with her family at many events both happy and sad, including the annual observances of the national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and the 50th anniversary celebration of the “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. On these occasions, we have been privileged to enjoy some of the most soaring oratory of our day, and some of the most articulate speeches about civil rights, justice, equality and freedom that one can ever hear. Time and time again, I have been energized and inspired by these speeches, and moved to recommit myself to the pursuit of justice and equality for every human being.
But therein also comes the pain and a glaring disconnect. The deepest human emotion and commitment to justice is evoked as speaker after speaker decries violence in the streets, senseless shootings, vast numbers of young people in prison, social inequities and economic injustices, and the horrors of war — to mention a few. But what is never mentioned is the violence of abortion, and the need to secure justice and equality for the child in the womb. Alveda and I have both felt the disconnect so intensely at these gatherings that, amidst the loud applause, we sometimes say out loud, “And the children too! Don’t forget the children in the womb!” We were indeed gratified when, on a single occasion (the MLK Holiday observance at Ebenezer in January of 2013), the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, in his keynote address, mentioned the need to protect all life, including the womb.
That is the kind of consistency that then gives credibility to the cry for justice and equality in all the other contexts that are mentioned.
At that recent 50th Anniversary celebration, we heard the assertions, “There are still too many lives taken by violence… I dream of a world that does not hold anyone back…We can’t move ahead while some people are falling behind…We must protect the most fundamental rights we have…” No reference was made to the right to life of the youngest children.
And hence the pro-life movement declares today, “There are indeed too many lives taken by the violence of abortion… We dream of the world that does not hold the unborn back…We can’t move ahead while children in the womb are falling behind…We must protect the most fundamental right we have, the right to life.”
On Christmas of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. preached the following words: “The next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God…Man is more than …whirling electrons or a wisp of smoke …. Man is a child of God, made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such….And when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won’t exploit people, we won’t trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won’t kill anybody.”
Indeed, we won’t kill anybody, including the children in the womb.
Father Pavone’s website can be found here.
A Novena in Reparation for Roe vs. Wade is being held through Jan. 22. The prayer is:
God and Father of Life,
You have created every human person,
And have opened the way for each to have eternal
life.
We live in the shadow of death.
Tens of millions of your children have been
killed
because of the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing
abortion.
Father, have mercy on us.
Heal our land
And accept our offering of prayer and penance.
In your love for us,
Turn back the scourge of abortion.
May each of us exult in hearts full of hope
And hands full of mercy
And work together to build a culture of life.
We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Pope Francis, who has just been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year spoke yesterday, Dec. 12, on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe when the mother of Jesus appeared to a Mexican
peasant, Juan Diego, in Guadalupe in 1531.
Here are some of his remarks:
“When Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego, her face was that of a woman of mixed blood, a mestiza, and her garments bore many symbols of the native culture. Like Jesus, Mary is close to all her sons and daughters; as a concerned mother, she accompanies them on their way through life.
“She shares all the joys and hopes, the sorrows and troubles of God’s people, which is made up of men and women of every race and nation. When the image of the Virgin appeared on the tilma [woven poncho] of Juan Diego, it was the prophecy of an embrace: Mary’s embrace of all the peoples of the vast expanses of America – the peoples who already lived there, and those who were yet to come. “Mary’s embrace showed what America – North and South – is called to be: a land where different peoples come together; a land prepared to accept human life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age; a land which welcomes immigrants, and the poor and the marginalized, in every age. A land of generosity. “That is the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and it is also my message, the message of the Church. I ask all the people of the Americas to open wide their arms, like the Virgin, with love and tenderness.”
It’s Christmas time again, and the Church focuses on the Incarnation, a word coming from the Latin “in carne,” which means, “in the flesh.” Christmas is God in the flesh: no longer only an eternal Spirit who fills the universe, but our brother, whom we can hear, see, and touch.
One of the reasons he did this was to empower us to love him, and to love our neighbor.
The first Christians learned how to love, because the source of love, the Christ who sacrificed himself, was personally known to them. They saw and touched him.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it…” (1 John:1:1-2).
And when commanded not to speak about Jesus, they replied, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’” (Acts 4:20).
This contact with the humanity of Christ speaks to us of what we are to do now for the unborn. It is the contact with the human reality of their lives, and the human tragedy of their deaths, that is to impel us in our self-sacrificing love for them.
It is not the “nuance” of the super-sophisticated that impels self-sacrificing, life-giving action. It is contact with the humanity we serve. It is facing the injustice that oppresses human lives, and then making a human response to it that springs from the depths of our own humanity, grounded in the God who gave that humanity to us.
That is why we need to look at the pictures of the victims of abortion — Not simply at the pictures of the living baby in the womb, but the pictures of what abortion does to that baby (see both at Unborn.info).
The last thing supporters of abortion want to talk about is abortion. You will not hear them describe the procedure, much less show people what it looks like.
In his homily on July 3, Pope Francis said,
“We find Jesus’ wounds in carrying out works of mercy, giving to our body – the body – the soul too, but – I stress – the body of your wounded brother, because he is hungry, because he is thirsty, because he is naked, because he is humiliated, because he is a slave, because he’s in jail because he is in the hospital…Those are the wounds of Jesus today. …We need to touch the wounds of Jesus, we must caress the wounds of Jesus, we need to bind the wounds of Jesus with tenderness, we have to kiss the wounds of Jesus, and this literally. Just think of what happened to St. Francis, when he embraced the leper? The same thing that happened to Thomas: his life changed. ”
Let us touch the sufferings of the baby who is in danger of abortion, and be changed into fearless warriors for them.
Read and listen to this column online at Priestsforlife.org/columns/4824-our-physical-god
Comments on this column? Go to Askfrfrank.com
Fr. Frank’s columns are podcast. See Priestsforlife.org/podcast
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Today’s link is The Framing of Hitler’s Pope by Susan L.M. Goldberg at PJMedia.com
This prayer was given to Sister Lúcia of Fátima and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto by an angel in 1916: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I ask pardon for
those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love
you.”
Sister Lucia, it should be noted, was a registered voter at the time of her death in 2005.
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 100 S. Penn St., Clifton Heights, Pa., 19018, will have its traditional Slavic Christmas Luncheon, noon, Sunday, Dec. 8.
Featured will be traditional Slavic culinary delights such as kielbasa. pierogies (homemade), sauerkraut and other traditional foods including a table full of homemade desserts.
As has become the custom, expect a large variety of door prizes.
Cost is $15 for adults; and $8 for children 7 to 12. Those under seven eat free.
The event is popular and seating is limited. To make a reservation call Kathy at 610-328-4731 before Dec. 2 or email SsPeterandPaul@verizon.net
The church asks that each person attending bring a non-perishable food item for its annual food drive.