Cardinal George: Our "vaunted American liberties" are "all being traded off in favor of freedom of sexual expression"

Francis Cardinal George, in his most recent column in Catholic New World, reflects on the nature of religious freedom in the United States, and masterfully connects a number of important, related points in doing so:

In this country, we do not fear being killed for our faith. What, then, are we afraid of? We are afraid that the institutions that perform the works of mercy that have been integral to the church’s mission for centuries will be forced to become, effectively, government institutions, given permission to exist only if they do not act as Catholic. At stake are Catholic hospitals, Catholic universities and Catholic social services, precisely as Catholic. At stake also is a society that once permitted many different voices and faiths to contribute to the common good without compromising their collective conscience.

The issue has clustered around the HHS mandate that insists that any institution serving the public must treat women’s fertility as an enemy to be suppressed for the sake of women’s freedom. In fact, the government has made many exceptions to this rule, but has steadfastly refused to exempt Catholic institutions. The issue is therefore in the courts.

The imposition of a definition of marriage that destroys the natural meaning of marital union is becoming another test case for religious liberty. The law now holds that men and women are interchangeable in marriage, as if children did not need both a mother and a father to be born and raised with some security. These are laws that mark societies in decline, demographically as well as morally.

continue at Catholic World Report

HT Drew Mariani

Rosary Rally for religous freedom lead by Bp. Morlino June 20th, 7pm

Attention, brave and loving hearts! Fr Isaac Mary Relyea and Fr Rick Heilman invite you to kneel in prayer together every Thursday evening, at the State Street steps of the Capitol in Madison, WI. We continue to pray for the family, protection of all life, and religious liberty. We have been praying an unbroken chain of 15 decades of the rosary every week for a year! 

On Thursday, June 20, outdoor Rosary Rallies will resume on Thursdays at 7 p.m. on the State Street steps of the State Capitol and will continue throughout the summer. Bishop Morlino will lead the 15 Mysteries of the Rosary for Religious Freedom, Life, Family, and Conversion of the World on Thursday, June 20, on the State Street steps of the Capitol.  

 CapitalRosaryRally.com

Facebook: Rosary Rally

Cdl Burke on cooperating with HHS mandate: "There is no way to justify it. It is simply wrong."

Thomas McKenna: “It is beautiful to see how the faithful have rallied behind the Hierarchy….How does your Eminence comment on the union of solidarity of our bishops?”

Cardinal Burke: “Yes, I have received emails and other communications from lay faithful who say that they are supporting their bishops 100% and they have communicated to their bishops their gratitude and assured them that they want them to continue to be courageous and not to be deceived by any kind of false accommodations which in fact continue this same kind of agenda which sadly we have witnessed for too long in our country which is totally secular and therefore is anti-life and anti-family. I admire very much the courage of the bishops. At the same time I believe they would say it along with me that they are doing no more than their duty. A bishop has to protect his flock and when any individual or government attempts to force the flock to act against conscience in one of its most fundamental precepts then the bishops have to come to defend those who are entrusted to their pastoral care. So I am deeply grateful to all of the bishops who have spoken about this and who are encouraging the members of their flock to also speak up because our government needs to understand that what is being done with this mandate is contrary first of all to the fundamental human right, the right to the free exercise of one’s conscience and at the same time contrary to the very foundation of our nation.”

Thomas McKenna: “So a Catholic employer, really getting down to it, he does not, or she does not provide this because that way they would be, in a sense, cooperating with the sin…the sin of contraception or the sin of providing a contraceptive that would abort a child, is this correct?”

Cardinal Burke: “This is correct. It is not only a matter of what we call “material cooperation” in the sense that the employer by giving this insurance benefit is materially providing for the contraception but it is also “formal cooperation” because he is knowingly and deliberately doing this, making this available to people. There is no way to justify it. It is simply wrong.”

article at Renew America

Full interviewto air on EWTN Wednesday, April 11 at 2:30pm and Friday, April 13 at 9:00pm EST.

HT LifeNews

Photo

Bp Swain of Sioux Falls, SD, condemns Catholic insurance agency for complying with HHS mandate

Bishop Swain, when he was still Monsignor Swain, was pastor of Madison’s Holy Redeemer Church at the time he was appointed bishop of Sioux Falls. That was only a short while after I returned to the practice of my Faith, so I never met him, though I did attend a talk he gave here to Madison’s Thomas More Society (a Catholic lawyers’ group) on religious liberty, last fall. He’s clearly more than just talk–back home in South Dakota, he’s recently had to take action.

SIOUX FALLS, SD, March 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has taken action against a Catholic insurance agency that has chosen to cover contraception with no co-pay in order to satisfy the legal requirements of the Obama administration’s health reform law.

Bishop Paul Swain said the action of Avera Health Plans has created “public scandal,” because its practices are “inconsistent with Church teaching.”

The decision hits close to home, as the diocese of Sioux Falls is an Avera customer, although the changes do not affect the diocese’s policy.

continue at Laetificat Madison

Photo

Will Romney continue the HHS persecution? Sounds like yes....

via Mark Shea

So by tomorrow, we will not be seeing GOPers flooding Romney with demands he grow a moral center. Instead, we will all be told to ignore Romney’s complete and utter betrayal on the HHS Mandate:

Romney: “I’d just note that I don’t believe that bureaucrats in Washington should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not. And I don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care or not. Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives.”

This is basically conceding the farm on the Mandate. It’s a line straight from the Obama playbook. According to the Administration, employers who don’t want to be forced to buy contraceptives are “telling women they cannot have contraception”. Romney is signaling he opposes employers who make that argument just as much as Obama does.

continue at Mark Shea 

I continue to struggle with how I can vote for Romney.  I know, anybody but Obama.  I despise the two party system, and we should all stop believing in it.  Yes, nobody wants to talk about this, or just figure as long as Obama is gone it will be okay.  I think I'd rather have Romney win, but I may watch this election from the sidelines.  How can I vote between two men who both support persecution of Catholic institutions?  How does Paul Ryan feel in private?  It's hard to say, but I'd like to know.  Maybe he could garner a broader exception to the mandate.  I think another good piece is by my favorite John Zmirak in the NC Register.  It would seem that one of the reasons that Romney chose Ryan over Rubio(say that three times fast) was he could deflect valid criticism from his campaign because he has the Catholic golden boy as his VP. 

As a side note, I plan to start the Christian Democrat Party of America.  Hmm, I see someone got started.  Fine, the Royalist Party of America - I think those poor souls gave up on that cause.  Vive le Roy!

And also, you have all of these supposed pro-life organizations like National Right to Life, Susan B Anthony, etc. who are "neutral" on contraception, which they de facto support the HHS mandate(since there's nothing wrong with contraception).  Contraception is the biggest issue holding back the pro-life movement today.  It is the best issue for abortion groups to attack, divide and conquer the pro-life movement. 

Owners of Chicago Bears hold meeting against HHS contraception edict

Virginia and Patrick McCaskey host Reclaiming Religious Liberty Leadership Summit

Patrick McCaskey, the Bears' senior director of special projects, also addressed the crowd, serenading them with a religious liberty-themed rendition of "Bear Down, Chicago Bears."

Concerns about the federal government's mandate that some religious institutions offer health insurance policies that cover their employees' contraceptives and its implications for religious freedom aren't new. Dozens of Catholic organizations have sued the federal government, arguing that the rule would force them to contradict the Vatican's teachings.

The mandate has two high-profile opponents in Patrick McCaskey and his mother, Virginia, who is the Bears' principal owner. But Patrick McCaskey said it would be "unfair to say the Bears, as an organization, agree" with everything that was said Sunday. His mother said it would be "inappropriate" for the team to take an official stand on the mandate.

"We're doing what we can by hosting this event and by our personal efforts," Virginia McCaskey said.

The three-hour conference featured more than a dozen speakers who expressed concern about perceived government hostility toward religion in general and Christianity in particular. About 100 people attended the event, held in the room where the Bears' special teams units meet.

Some speakers cited evidence of religious persecution in abortion laws, gay marriage and efforts to characterize opponents of the contraception mandate as anti-women.

continue at Chicago Tribune

Awesome!

Oct 20 rallies across state to protest HHS abuses

Here's the full listing for Wisconsin.  I believe they all start at noon unless otherwise noted.  Send me your pictures and I will post out here to share. 

Eau Claire

Federal Courthouse

500 South Barstow Avenue (map)

Email the Eau Claire Rally Captain

Green Bay

NOTE: The start time for the Green Bay Rally will be announced soon

Brown County Courthouse Terrace

100 S. Jefferson Street (map)

Email the Green Bay Rally Captain

La Crosse

Band shell in Riverside Park

(map)

Email the La Crosse Rally Captain

Madison

Wisconsin State Capitol, State Street Steps

The Capitol Square corner of West Mifflin, Carroll, and State Street (map)

Email the Madison Rally Captain

Milwaukee

Federal Building

310 West Wisconsin Avenue (map)

Email the Milwaukee Rally Captain

Stevens Point

NOTE: The Stevens Point Rally will be held on the stage by Shopko and the city bus drop-off

Intersection of Strongs Avenue and Main Street

(map)

Email the Stevens Point Rally Captain

Heckling the Rosary or Renaming the Wisconsin State Journal

Don’t Diss My Church

One of the prime goals of this cultural values blog is to defend my religion, Catholicism, against the regrettably frequent and unjust attacks we suffer, particularly in Madison, WI.
One of this blog’s first blog categories was “Don’t Diss My Church.”
And in Madison, the Wisconsin State Journal has provided more than it’s fair share of imbalanced reporting on Catholics, frequently fueling my blog.

Why Pray the Rosary at Madison’s Capitol Square?

Now that the Obama administration has embarked on restricting the religious freedom of Catholics, Madison Catholics have begun praying the rosary on Thursday evenings on the Madison Capitol steps, to beg God’s help in the restoration of religious freedom to our nation. 
Madison’s Rosary Rally gatherings attract 150-300 quiet, polite people each week.  The crowd includes families with small children, young singles, and many grandparents as well.  The Catholics gather quietly after business hours, do not disrupt Capitol business, leave no litter behind, do no shouting, carry no vuvuzelas, whistles or drums, and don’t even carry signs.  They come, they pray for our nation, and they leave quietly, leaving no damage in their wake.

Who Heckles Children Praying the Rosary?

About 3 to 10 ne’er-do-wells have started showing up at these rosary events, attempting to disrupt them. Their tactics include shouting four letter words from across the street, mocking the rosary, carrying rude signs mentioning private body parts, and all the usual aggressive radical left tactics Wisconsin has witnessed at recent teacher union protests, and at Madison Pro-Life rallies (which radicals have routinely tried to disrupt in recent years, and where they have even been known to get up in pulpits at Library Mall and perform strip-tease dances in front of children with literally only God knows what motivation).

continue at Syte Reitz

A must read, check out the profile on these looneys. 

Paul Ryan: HHS mandate will be gone on ‘day 1’ of a Romney administration

ORLANDO, September 24, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan gave the HHS mandate its execution date if he is elected: “Day one.”

The Wisconsin congressman said if he and Mitt Romney win the election in November, the requirement that religious employers, including many religious employers, to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs, “will be gone, I can guarantee you that.”

Responding to a question from one of more than two thousand people at a rally at the University of Central Florida, Ryan said the regulation constitutes “an assault on religious liberty.”

The phrase echoes a press release the self-described “pro-life Catholic” put out in February. “The Obama administration failed to recognize this mandate is in violation of our First Amendment right of religious freedom,” he wrote. “His decision disrespects not only the religious community, but it also disrespects the Constitution.”

The vice presidential nominee has increasingly attacked President Obama for his single-minded focus on abortion, which the president has made the centerpiece of his re-election campaign.

continue at LifeSite

Laetificat: Capitol Rosary Rally featured in Wis. State Journal

The Wisconsin State Journal ran two articles by religion reporter Doug Erickson in yesterday’s Sunday edition, one on the Capitol Rosary Rally and one on Bishop Morlino’s defense of Paul Ryan as someone with a faithful understanding of Catholic social teaching. I was interviewed August 29th and my photo accompanies the Paul Ryan article in the print version. Doug Erickson approached me (and a few others) asking about Paul Ryan, and I said the rosary rally is not political and I will not talk about Ryan in connection with that, he said he was just looking for local Catholics, I agreed and we spoke off to the side. I’m quoted briefly in the article on Paul Ryan, for which Erickson also interviewed Bishop Morlino, and I’m happy to see Bishop Morlino’s teaching in the paper.

The Paul Ryan article is titled “Madison diocese defends Ryan’s faith” in the print version, and “Catholics find fault and blessing with Ryan’s politics” in the online version. The Rosary Rally article appears under the headline “Organizers say events not meant to be partisan” in the print version; online it is titled “‘Rosary rallies’ at Capitol thinly disguised GOP pep fests, critics say”. My impression of the articles was not very positive, especially under their online titles (the titles are not written by the reporter). But other rosary rally participants I’ve spoken with all basically liked the articles, or thought “they could have been much worse.” The consensus seemed to be they are fair and honest articles.

continue at Laetificat Madison

Very good read.  The only major locally owned paper in this state is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel(to my knowledge) so many times they have to "sell" a story more than just report on it.  I don't think that's anything new to American journalism though.  And obviously just being locally owned doesn't mean that the paper is necessarily fair(but JS did endorse Walker). 

The Catholic Spirit: Religious freedom and the equality of women

There is an untruth circulating rather widely in the public square these days — and gaining speed. We need to derail it. The falsehood that is spreading is that somehow, because the church refuses to conform to the default position of practically everyone in contemporary society — that sexual promiscuity is the only authentic sign-post of human freedom — that she, the church, is waging a war on women.

The evidence of such a “war,” it is said, is found in the fact that the church refuses to waver in her teaching that human fertility is not a disease state, that the use of birth control and abortifacients compromises the sacred nature of the sexual act, and that abortion — portrayed since 1973 as the linchpin of a woman’s right to choose the kind of life she wants for herself — takes the life of an actual human person and is therefore akin to murder.

And so, the argument goes, the church’s insistence that the HHS mandate poses a serious threat to religious freedom is a position in direct conflict with the hard won right of women to use any means necessary to avoid unwanted pregnancies, the signature freedom of the so-called women’s movement.

From the ‘women’s movement’ to today

Over the last 50 years, this distorted view of what constitutes human freedom has spread everywhere in our society. It has infiltrated our families, our schools and the media. It has become an unspoken assumption in public discourse and a premise of our legal system.

In the meantime, our children are being told they are constitutionally unable to govern themselves, that they are at the mercy of bodily desires that cannot be refused and that therefore the only “choice” they have is to use artificial means — often the cause of disease states themselves — in order to avoid the natural consequences of an act undertaken without thinking about it.

Only animals have sex without thinking about it.

continue at The Catholic Spirit

great article, and a great paper!

HT BBach

Photo

America's official faith

"The challenge facing you, dear friends, is to increase people's awareness of the importance of religious freedom for society; to defend that freedom against those who would take religion out of the public domain and establish secularism as America's official faith."

- Blessed John Paul II, Baltimore, Oct. 8, 1995

Photo

WI State Senator introduces Anti-HHS Mandate Tax Opt-Out Bill

Capital Rosary Rally

Transcript of Congressman Sensenbrenner’s Remarks at Today’s Press Conference

“We will be introducing the Religious Freedom Tax Repeal Act of 2012. What this legislation will do is repeal the taxes that will be levied upon those religious institutions and those who have moral or religious objections in the private sector from having to pay for insurance under the Affordable Health Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that violate their religious or moral views.

We’ve had an awful lot of debate on this subject since Obamacare was passed and since Secretary Sebelius announced her mandates sometime in the fall of last year.

What has not been discussed is the tax that is imposed upon those that fail to comply with that mandate, either through religious objections or moral grounds. Those taxes are severe, they are confiscatory. It is $100 per employee per day. So, a religious institution that, say, has a church and an elementary school beside it that employs fifty employees total, which include the administrative and maintenance personnel, ends up being taxed $36,500 per employee per year. Or the fifty-employee institution would have to pay a tax of $1,825,000 per year, every year.

This is a part of the Internal Revenue Code that was passed as a part of Obamacare, and for those who are interested in citing the section, it is Internal Revenue Code Section 4980D. Obviously, if these taxes are levied and they are enforced, there will be no religious-affiliated institutions left in this country. Religious-affiliated institutions, I think, have been one of the ways that there has been diversity provided in education, in healthcare, and in various types of social services in-relief services. I don’t think they should be taxed out of business, and neither do my co-sponsors.”

Here's the bill 

Will the Wisconsin Bishops support this bill????

Pray hard and be ready to fight

Auxiliary Bishop at Archdiocese of Milwaukee Donald Hying joins a prayer during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' biannual meeting Wednesday, June 13, 2012, in Atlanta. The national gathering is the bishops' first since dioceses filed a dozen lawsuits against an Obama administration mandate that most employers provide health insurance covering birth control.

Source

You may have seen that the bishops are up against some very well funded and influential enemies.

A few photos from last night's Capitol Rosary Rally

7PM every Thursday until the election.  Get there if you are able!

Count Barackula

via James T Harris

Sen Grothman headlines speakers at the Madison HHS rally

The eeeeevil Catholics oppressing their employees!

Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman: HHS Mandate, what it means to religious liberty, and the threat it poses
Wisconsin Rep. Evan Wynn, MC
Julaine Appling, President, Wisconsin Family Action: Cultural war against religious freedom,
WFA’s role in fighting for religious liberty, WFA legislative goals
Joseph Leone, attorney addressing confusion about separation of church and state myths
Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin: exhortation to businesses, organizations, schools,
state agencies and dioceses to join lawsuits against HHS concerning mandate
Fr. Rick Heilmann, spiritual warfare invitation to prayer at the Capitol, Fortnight of Freedom,
recognize clergy/ministers present).
Sr. Marie Christi, hope and perseverance in the fight

Updated Flyer 

Photo

NFL all-pro center Matt Birk headlines MN Religious Freedom Rally

Bishop John LaVoir of New Ulm and All Pro Center Matt Birk (of the Baltimore Ravens, Cretin-Derham Hall and Harvard Grad and former Minnesota Viking) are confirmed as speakers at the "Stand Up For Religious Liberties" rally at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis on Friday, June 8 at 12:00 noon.

This is one of the events of the Fortnight For Freedom that the U.S. Bishops have called to express displeasure with provisions of the Obama-care bill requiring Catholic agencies, both religious and those owned by Catholics to provide contraception and abortions in their health plans for their employees.


June8 Religious Freedom Rally

Rally for Religious Freedom - this Friday June 8th

From Laetificat Madison

There will be a Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally at Madison’s Federal District Courthouse 120 N Henry St, Friday June 8 at Noon.

A new Religious Freedom Group is meeting each Monday until June 18th, 7-8:30 pm at St Paul’s University Catholic Center, 723 State Street, downstairs in Newman Hall.

Stay tuned for news about Fr Isaac Mary Relyea and Fr Rick Heilman’s weekly Rosary Rally for Life, Family and the Conversion of the World on the State Street Steps of the Capitol 7pm Thursday evenings starting June 21st, a St John the Baptist Bonfire June 23rd, and more.

Madison Rally June 8

The full listing of Wisconsin:

Eau Claire

Federal Courthouse

500 South Barstow Street (map)

Email the Eau Claire Rally Captain

Green Bay

Brown County Courthouse Plaza

100 S. Jefferson Street (map)

Email the Green Bay Rally Captain

La Crosse

US Post Office

State Street and 4th Street (map)

Email the La Crosse Rally Captain

Madison

Kastenmeier Federal Courthouse

120 N. Henry Street (map)

Email the Madison Rally Captain

Milwaukee

NOTE: Milwaukee Rally will consist of Mass and Rosary at noon, followed by a rally outside the church

St. Anthony of Padua Church

1711 S. 9th Street (map)

Email the Milwaukee Rally Captain

Stevens Point

US Post Office

1320 Main Street (map)

Email the Stevens Point Rally Captain

The Bishops are being played. Like cheap fiddles.

I keep thinking of the Cristeros war in Mexico... Vivo Cristo Rey! Read Patrick Madrid's bio of Blessed Miguel Pro if you have time.

From the Sancte Pater blog:
I do not understand how it is that this isn't glaringly, beat-you-over-the-head obvious, but whatever. I'll explain it. Listen up. Especially if you have a hat shaped like the blade of a posthole digger in your wardrobe, and people actually call you "Excellency."

Withdrawing health insurance (like Franciscan University at Steubenville, Ohio), shutting down schools, closing adoption agencies, soup kitchens or ANYTHING ELSE in "protest" of ObamaCare and the HHS "mandates" is EXACTLY, PRECISELY, TOTALLY and COMPLETELY what the Obama regime wants.

Further, the reason why the "press" has OBVIOUSLY been given the order to keep all of this quiet and to not report in any way on the lawsuits filed by the dozens of various Catholic organizations this week against the Obama regime - the largest religious legal action ever taken against the U.S. government by a long shot - is obvious.

The Obama regime is sitting back and watching all of you cowardly fools fold your own tents. None of the stupid bread-and-circus addicted crowd knows anything about any of this. You have to break out of your narcissistic little world and understand that even though these things are earth-shattering to you, uh, most people in this country don't even know that their "government" has declared war on the Church.

So, in a few months, after you all have played right into their hands and shut down your facilities, hospitals, schools and services, congratulating yourselves on your "brave protest", the Obama regime is going to make a ginormous propaganda offensive telling all of the stupid TV-addled idiots that the Catholic Church doesn't give a crap about "the people" because they have shut down their hospitals, schools, their soup kitchens, their adoption agencies and won't even provide health insurance plans to the poor, poor youths attending their universities. The Catholic Church hates "the people", hates charity, hates sick people, hates women, hates children, hates poor people and is hoarding all of its money.

Oh, but the Obama regime LOVES you. The Obama regime will provide you and anyone else who joins their Free Shit Army with all of the "free healthcare", "free education", "free food" and free unicorn farts they could ever want or need.

Listen, you fools. YOU DON'T SHUT ANYTHING DOWN. You keep going exactly as you have been, and you force those dirty rotten SOBs to literally storm your hospitals and shut YOU down at gunpoint. And I'm not kidding. Make them physically shut down your hospital by dragging you out at gunpoint. Make them physically shut down your schools. Make them shut down your university by force because you won't cover abortions in your student health plan. Make them physically shut down your soup kitchens. Make them shut down your adoption agencies because you won't hand a baby boy over to two men who like to jam various and sundry body parts up each others' rectums.

In other words, STAND AND FIGHT.

The only proper course of action is total non-compliance with these totalitarian edicts of the regime, and FORCING THEIR HAND.

Anything less than that, and you LOSE. MEN fight wars. If you refuse to do your duty and act like MEN, then the war is already lost. And make no mistake, cowardice is a grave sin, and you will answer for it.

Every bishop is given a crosier upon his ordination to the episcopacy. A crosier is a shepherd's staff. It is a six to seven foot long staff that a shepherd uses to beat the crap out of wolves. That's your job. Beating the crap out of the wolves - not killing all of the sheep yourself so that there is nothing left for the wolves to eat.

MAN UP!!!! FIGHT, YOU FOOLS!!!