A GOOD DISCOURSE CONFERENCE JANUARY 22, 23 and 24th

We began creating this conference as the result of a nag in the heart, over the loss of community that should be and for a multitude of reasons, isn't. Four women met virtually to discuss the ideas, and our goals with the conference. We needed a name and came upon the quote, "A Good Discourse is that from which nothing can be retrenched without cutting into the quick." It was attributed to Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of Writers and Doctor of the Church. We shortened it to "A Good Discourse," and thought how perfect and carried on. Seeking speakers to delve deeper into how we could forge a "good discourse" amongst the community of Catholic writers, one of our potential speakers researched and found, the quote to be misattributed to the saint. Saint Francis de Sales said plenty of things about governing one's words, and about writing and witnessing, but "a good discourse" wasn't one of them. Now we faced a decision. Change the name or own the error.

Thus the name stuck, but with proper attribution and thanks to Erin Arlinghaus for the research! What will our conference cover? 1) The Call to Universal Witness (there is no off time). 2) Fraternal Correction (what it is and isn't)

3) Gossip/Slander/Calumny 4) Strategies for Talking about Hard Stuff (panel). 5) Humility: How to be a light put on a pedestal and yet humble. 6) Humor 7) Community, remembering always our audience.

The Conference "A Good Discourse," isn't a traditional writers' conference. We won't be discussing pitches or formats or how to improve your writing as a craft or 1,000 writing prompts for when the well runs dry. We will be (hopefully), preparing writers' hearts for the ministry of writing itself.

Think of it as a retreat for writers who are Catholic about being Catholic first, last and always, with the written and spoken word. It means being couragous --when you say something that is hard, it means being willing to bear the cost, it means being humble, when you've said something wrong, it means being truthful, but always with charity. These are hard things, and all of us have memories of when we've done this poorly, and all of us know, when we've done well, it wasn't us, but the Holy Spirit that worked through us.

The goal of this conference, is to see faces, to help foster fellowship and prayer across the spectrum of Catholic writers in all things. Hoping you'll join us at the conference. (It's virtual and it's free). Here's where you can find out more: https://agooddiscourse.wixsite.com/mysite

A Letter to Every Shepherd after the Report of Wolves

 The report's been published.  It’s been a while, and nothing new seems to be happening, and that my dear beautiful Catholic Church, is the problem.  The synods, the meetings, the letters, the talks, the policy changes, the reports, the hand wringing, the sorrow expressed, does not seem to have made any difference in how the Church as a body is acting, or in how the Shepherds are leading.  

Good priests struggle to do what they can, because no one can know which priests focus only on the outside of the cups.  It is to our sorrow, that the trust afforded their office, is justifiably shaken, and it is to their sorrow and all of Heaven’s sorrow, that the trust is not being rebuilt at this moment, by visible actions of reparations on the part of the whole Church by those who know, the laity need to see that the Bishops and Priests, that all who even tangentially contributed to the wall of silence, the years of silence, the enabling of abuse, the paying off of therapies and tuitions and whatever else was done to hush the scandals over the decades, get it.   As a member of your flock, who loves being a sheep, I wish to let you know what we, your sheep would wish more than anything. 

Dear all Shepherds who turned out to be wolves, you wear a ponderous chain, you’ve made it link by link and yard by yard year by year.  It is a ponderous chain.   It is not too late for God’s mercy, but it time to come forward and recognize the great damage done by sins of omission and commission, in the name of protecting the idea of the church from the reality of her leaders.   The Church is bigger than our sins, it is the Bride of Christ.  The Church is owed your loyalty, your faithfulness, and your permanence as her servants, so begin today.  If you’ve messed up, even beyond what has become known, begin again. 

Dear Shepherds who didn’t do any of this, but must bear the burden of association, it is a hard cross Christ asks you to bear, but know you have been afforded the opportunity to really participate in Christ’s passion as a result of this grievous wound, to wear the scourges, to feel the agony in the garden, and to carry all the sins of those who sinned saying the same words, hiding under the collar, and the pains of your people, all of us, all of your flock wounded by the wolves.  You must be true shepherds now, and lay down your life for your flock, in full confidence, Christ will restore you if you do.  We need this, more than ever.  

As long as we continue as an institution as an earthly organization, waiting for the trouble to blow over, for people to be distracted, for the news cycle to turn to something else, we will continue to fail in our only mission on this Earth, to win souls for Christ.  As long as we maintain the Church as a means of advancement, prestige, power and lucre, where people remain silent so as to get key assignments, we are treating the Bride of Christ like a corporation, and more sheep shall be devoured, scattered and lost. 

We need to deal with the unspeakable, the scandal not merely of the abuse of power by predators in the clergy of both fellow clergy and children, but also of the cover up, which continues.  The level of transparency rings hollow, because we are still only just finding out about countless incidents in countless dioceses.  We have to wonder, what don’t we know, not because we wish the Church to be torn down, but because we want the velvet curtain hiding all that’s been hidden, torn down.   People of good faith, deserve to know when the institution they’ve entrusted with their faith formation, with their children, with their time, their treasures and their talents, have acted poorly, whether recently or decades past.   As a matter of justice, the protocols which have protected the ranks of priests and bishops from this sort of fiscal and legal scrutiny, the deference to a person of a cloth, is something the laity can no longer grant carte blanche.     

So dear Shepherds, please get the reality, not that we want to constantly scream or cry or blame or shout about what should have been done, but that we need to see (because matter matters), some outward indication of an invisible reality, of your grief for what has been done to your fellow priests and by your fellow priests, to your flock, past and present.   We need it now, and we need it ongoing, so that we as a people and all as priests, never forget this darkness, this grievous wound of this past century done to the heart of Jesus. 

At the preaching of Jonah, the King and all the people of Nineveh donned sack cloths, proclaimed a fast and prayed.  We know the Church holds the Eucharist, so there is something greater than the preaching of Jonah here, for which we ought to as a body, be donning sack cloths and fasting.   This is the struggle you were called to the Priesthood to weather, and if you don’t, there will be many sheep who do not know the great joy of Christmas, of Christ present today and every day because they only see what has not been done and think you do not take this faith to be a reality but a means of living, and thus they will shake their heads and say “Bah, humbug.” They will wander and be lost because they hoped it was real and true, and the witness of both those who were the cause and those who felt the effect, did not register this is the way, the truth and the light and vital to your forever happiness.  

Wanting America to be Good

To be Catholic is to be a bat in the animal kingdom, neither fitting with the birds because you have hair, nor with the beasts because you fly.  Today is the March for Life.  Thousands have come together to march on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.  Our nation has for the past 47 years, been fighting a battle over the definition of ideas.

I worry and I know, to some, this worry seems crazy.  After all, the March is getting covered, the Vice President spoke, so theoretically it should be hopeful, and yet, I am not.  Why am I not?  Because I know, we have to judge a tree by it's fruit.  We cannot allow the zeal for justice for one group of people, to blind us to injustice done to any other group of people. It is an easy charge to lay at the feet of those of us who march for the unborn, because those who issue the charge, see the opportunity cost of the good we advance (that is, the child's life), being thrust on the mother and possibly, the mother alone.  

While I can cite countless organizations and people of good will, who minister to people in crisis pregnancies, to win this argument, we must not miss one, and there are many who are missed, who fall through the cracks.   So I worry, because I want this nation to not be great, but good, overwhelmingly good, overwhelmingly kind, overwhelmingly merciful, overwhelmingly generous and forgiving.  

The right to decide, is at odds with the discussion, what are we allowing to be decided.   The women and men who brave the elements (this year it's nice, last year, not so much), believe one's right to exist should not be threatened by geography.

All people of good will on some level, agree with this issue. It is why many on the liberal side of politics, fight for the refugees and the immigrants to not be prisoners of law by the arbitrary reality of their geography.  One should not receive the death penalty because a crime was committed in one state as versus another.  (I would argue, no death penalty).  Law is to serve humanity, not to make humanity servile.   Politics have made issues of serving the public good always an either or discussion, when faith, Catholic faith, demands we respond to all of life with a Both And. To be against the torture of even our enemies, is to think with the same sensibilities as one who argues for the innate dignity of the unborn.   It is not what we do, or can't do, or even if we are acting in a kind or unkind manner that determines our innate worth.  We are innately of infinite worth.

It is hard to speak on this matter, believing that every child deserves to be allowed to be born, without seeming to be insenitive to all the reasons a woman might opt to abort.  The presumption of our culture, is to hold that one should not do something (EVER), even if allowed by the law, is proof of a closed mind and closed heart.

 We should do everything in our power to facilitate life, providing shelter, (room in the inn), care (when I was sick), compassion (when I was lonely), and answering the call of the Holy Spirit, which is always to love, always to do more.  Since we are not saints, we have not always answered this call, we have not always made a gift of self, and thus the theory goes, because we are not perfect in being pro-life, we have no moral authority to insist upon this particular injustice.  

Politicians and those who follow law and policy can rightly say, the right is not pro-life because it allows for war, it seeks to repeal health care, it won't enact policies which curb the use of heavy firearms in our society.  The right can also rightly say, the left do not care about the little guy or the innocent, because no one is more innocent or little than the unborn and you demand we pretend they aren't human and don't count.  Both parties point to the planks in the other's eyes and say, "Yeah, but your plank is bigger," and so we go on being blind.  We will allow injustice to persist, and trumpet the goods we've championed, as though the ballance sheet works out when all our policies agree with us.  
The subsequent argument to the people marching for the unborn is, take care of everyone out here, or if you're not taking care of everyone out here, you've lost the moral authority to speak for these people who aren't people.  They're just cells. They're just blobs of tissue.  They don't have legal standing.  They're not human persons, ergo, they're not worth wasting your time marching for, you'll never change everyone's hearts, so stop already.  The call to act is correct, but the condemnation is not.   The counter could also be made, take care of the unborn, but the reality is, everyone, should be taking care of everyone.  

Yes, we've all failed on many occasions, but each day offers the opportunity to begin again, to be a light.  All it requires of us, is the courage to say yes.  The question is not, when is it licit to kill, or when is it legal to kill, or when is it licit and legitimate to hate, and when is it not.  The question is, do we want a society that can arbitrarily decide to be unjust to a whole class of people or not?  

If the answer is yes, then understand, one day, we will all wind up in that class which has been deemed unworthy.  We will grow old and feeble, and be less useful to the state.  Ergo, we will be told, it's a good, it's better this way, and ushered out.   We will hold an unpopular opinion.  The political wind will change.  At some point, we will be on the outside looking in.  We will have children who aren't all star athlete honor role musician scientists, and thus they can be ignored.   We will at some point become poor or homeless or ill, and not productive enough to merit protection.  If the answer is no, then it is our job to help shape that society with that particular ethic, all human life has infinite innate dignity as the inspiration and impetus of all policy and all action. Life may not be fair, but it is for us to make it as fair minded and good as possible, to value truth, kindness, forebearance and forgiveness, generosity and gentleness.  

To be fully pro-life, is to know and be energized by the reality that we can act, and that we were all created to do exactly this, to love our neighbors, in all the distressing disguises we encounter.   Every act of injustice poisons our society and makes it less just.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  It's true. To be pro-life is to march today for the unborn. Tomorrow, remind the government not to allow for the deportation of people fleeing war torn countries and religious persecution, to beg them to provide sanctuary. One day, the person who knows each person is of infinite value regardless of creed, race, capacity, nationality and ideology, will jam the phones at the legislature to make sure people aren't tortured, and the next that same person will say, "Today I am Muslim," if the government decides to register people based on their nationality and/or faith.  It will take incredible persistence to keep up with the world's ever increasing inventive ways of trying to make us choose death over life, but we're up to the task.

To stand against creating a register of people based on faith, go here.

To call your representative and stand against torture. Here's the link to contact your senator as well.

To provide aid or help to a place that provides healing for mothers and fathers post-abortion.

To get the facts from a woman who ran the largest Planned Parenthood in Texas before stopping and learn about the ministry she runs to help people leave the industry.

To deal with addressing a pro-life issue that tugs at your heart and there are as many as there are stars, here's a good starting point.

It's a lot of work and it's why we've been given a lifetime to do it.  Let's roll up our sleeves and get started.  

Faith Under Fire: Dramatic Stories of Christian Courage --A Review

When Matt Archbold announced he'd written a book called Faith Under Fire: Dramatic Stories of Christian Courage, I pre-ordered a copy.  
When the book arrived, I started it and wept after the first chapter.

These days, when the news gives us a near constant stream of how humanity fails to live out the beauty of God's plan for each of us, this profile of eighteen heroic men and women of all walks of life, is like a tall deeply iced glass of your favorite beverage on a summer evening. They are reminders that even in the midst of suffering, sin and death, God wants to reveal His mercy, His healing, His love, His generosity, His goodness through our lives.

All it took from them, was their fiat, their "yes" to God's will.

Owing to life, I put the book down and when I went back to my dresser, I couldn't find it.  After cleaning up my own room (and yes, my kids enjoyed me having to be more organized, they got in their digs), I found it and thought I would reward myself by reading the next chapter.  I'd thought I'd read some of it each night for a few days, but found myself racing through the chapters, enjoying each story like a chocolate truffle.  For me, good books, like good chocolates, can't be paced. That plan never happens (for chocolates or books).  I found I stayed up late and got up early to enjoy more of the stories.

I took it in the car and read while I waited for my daughter to come out from work, and read it all day in between tasks.  Finally, after dinner, I declared it was reading time and didn't stop until I ran through the final story.  I would recommend using these stories to buttress discussions in a catechism or prayer group, as the stories reveal courage, attentiveness to God's voice, obedience, forbearance, mercy and forgiveness.  

There are still six more weeks of summer, and this is a nice way to give yourself a little taste of luminous lives.  Matt's style of writing makes for an easy read without being simple in terms of content.  Every once in a while, Matthew gives you one of those gem moments in the telling of the story: "How could someone who calls themselves a Christian be more afraid of what other people think than what God thinks?" or "I've known  the Lord for thirty years," "I cannot deny the Lord." As a reader, you find yourself taking a deep breath, drawing back in awe as God's grace becomes tangible in the actions and words of these eighteen people. 

These men and women didn't set out to be steel, or to be heroes or to become martyrs or to become mothers. This is a book of luminous mysteries, lives made miraculous by the individuals recognizing, God called them to act, and their acting. These tangible examples from our own century, from our own lifetime refresh the spirit even as they reveal what Matthew said in his introduction, "The way of the cross is unavoidably uphill."  They also remind us, when we cooperate with God's will, we will become like gold, tested in fire.   All anyone will be able to see, is God's face.

Order, read and leave a review. These stories should be shared.    P.S. Thank you Matt.   Nice work!

At the Catholic Stand

Over the weekend, I had a piece at the Catholic Stand. Didn't get to link up to it, and then because I posted already on Tuesday, I thought I'd showcase the piece today, on Wednesday.  Enjoy.  It's on  a subject near and dear to my heart, the welcoming as opposed to wanting of children.

The World is So Disappointed in Us

Any day on the internet can be depressing.  Throw religion into the mix and you're almost guaranteed to come away from the screen wanting to despair.  On a writing board, a person posted this question.  If I portray Christians as the villains, will I get sued?   It's a silly question.  No.  But the responses included cheers for revealing how hateful, oppressive, vindictive, hypocritical, prejudiced, judgmental and worldly Christians are.

One pointed out that rape's okay in the bible.  It's not, it's conveyed, it's told, but it's definitely on the "You Shall Not" list.   Yes. I went into it.  I should know better but I'd just read Public Catholic's post on being willing to speak out, on being willing to wear one's faith publicly, so, I launched in, knowing it would probably fall on deaf ears.  

Me:  As a Christian, I will however sigh that we give ourselves enough black eyes in reality by how we fail to live authentic lives for Christ, that we don't need to pile on with fictional ones.

It was an honest response.  People demurred that portraying Christians badly was in these days profitable, no one would get upset if you did this because they could site example after example of Christians behaving badly.  The person who didn't care for the idea of anyone being upset at Christians being the villains brought up the obligatory Christians rape, Crusades card.
The conversation didn't progress so I left.  But I mulled over the responses and what they revealed.

These days, whole swaths of people have abandoned the faith of their families in part because of poor foundation, and the plethora of poor examples of Christianity that come from history and poor practice and an even poorer understanding of history.

The world is angry at the Church and at Christians in particular.  You can almost hear the accusation in their litany of all the sins committed by the Church, by Christians, by countries in the name of Christianity, and all the sins of omission, all the failures to fully live out faith,

"You were supposed to be different!"  "You were supposed to be salt and light." But because in one way or another, throughout all of history, the witness of the martyrs and the saints sometimes gets dwarfed by all those then and now have refused to live out their faith, shaving a little here or a little there, all of it is tainted, with all of the wrongs, both real and imagined.  The world does not want to forgive us for failing to bring about a better world because it is not yet peopled with saints.


So I've resolved, if I see something that is deliberately ugly for ugliness sake, I will try to point up, rather than at, but I won't just "I'm going to pretend I didn't see that post" anymore because of Public Catholic's reminder and the reality of those souls who are posting angry thoughts.  They need our prayers and our witness more than anyone else.

The internet is something of a desert peopled with souls parched for love, for forgiveness, for gentleness, for kindness, mercy, belonging, joy, peace and laughter. They thirst, they are starving, the need something to eat.  Perhaps all we will do, by responding to such conversations, is shorten them, not allow the angry thoughts to go on being stroked and fueled and entertained.  Perhaps someone else will feel heartened because they are not alone, and perhaps until we spoke, they thought they were the only one who disagreed.

We won't know, and that's probably good for the ego, to not know until after death, if we touched a heart, moved a soul closer to God. But what a joyous discovery to anticipate, if only we stop being silent and unseen witnesses now.  

If You Can't March

Every day we have the opportunity to witness to the culture of life or death.   We forget that the culture of Life we want to build involves everyone.  So today, if you cannot be in the March for Life in Washington, DC for whatever reason, use this gift of 24 hours on January 25, 2013 to witness to the culture of life.  Here are some ways how:

50) Give food to the local pantry.
49) Visit the sick.
48) Hug your children
47) Call a friend you've lost touch with over time.
46) Write an op-ed to the newspaper on Pro-life issues.
45) Pray a family rosary
44) Say the Divine Mercy Chaplet
43) Enter a marathon to raise money for charities that support the mentally handicapped.
42) Volunteer at a school to serve at recess or in the library
41) Find out what your local pregnancy center needs, organize a drive.
40) Fast or abstain today
39) Go to an extra mass a week as a sacrifice for those who need the graces to say no to the easy out the world gives.
38) Read and meditate on today's gospel
37) Call your representative to let them know, you care about the pro-life issue.
36) Educate yourself about the HHS mandate and its effects on Catholic Health services, on religious liberty.
35) Pray at the sidewalk of a clinic
34) Go to adoration
33) Give up something for the year, as a sacrifice to the unborn.
32) Call a friend who is expecting, offer to watch their kids or cook a meal or just go visit.
31) Read to your children.
30) Write a letter to your family about why you are pro-life.
29) Study the Theology of the Body
28) Rent Juno or Bella
27) Volunteer to hold children in the NICU that suffer from addictions.
26) Go to a Special Olympics meet.
25) See if your Parish has a Pro-life committee, find out when they meet.  Put it on the schedule.
24) Take your children out to eat, sit at the restaurant.  Enjoy their presence.
23) Pick up the trash in your neighborhood.
22) Donate time/talent/service to a homeless shelter.
21) If the subject comes up, speak out.
20) Spend some time talking about abortion with your older children.
19) Go to reconciliation
18) Consider abandoning birth control or talking to someone about how it injures relationships
17) Turn off the television when it exploits women or sensationalizes violence and meaningless sex.
16) Bring flowers to the Church to lay at the feet of the Virgin Mary
15) Bake something to share with your family.
14) Invite people over to break bread.
13) Ask someone else what they want to do.  Then do it.
12) Contemplate the loss of memories, laughter and light that 54 million souls lost to this Earth could have brought.
11) Commit to a budget, have giving as part of the monthly expenses that are not negotiable.
10) Babysit for some couple so they can have a date night.
9) Visit a cemetery today.  Pray for the souls departed.
8) Call or visit a widow or widower, listen.
7) Talk to your spouse about adoption. 
6) Listen to the speeches/mass/events of the March for Life
5) Pray for those who travel to it.
4) Sell Cupcakes or pizza or what have you, to raise money for a pregnancy center
3) Create or join a prayer group.
2) Become informed about all the ways in which the Culture of Death is trying to advance, Wesley Smith of First Things, Jill Stanek and the Blog, When Mary Met Dolly are three excellent sources.
1) Feeling overwhelmed?  Recognize that this is a battle we are called to participate in, we are not required to win it.  We are mere foot soldiers.  Have some hot chocolate and remember, prayer is the most powerful thing we can do. 

Feel free to add some in the com box. 

Because I Can't Just Let it Go

Today I'm going to irritate everyone.  I'm going to talk about politics AND religion.

The media would have us believe there are no women opposed to the HHS policy. It's a harder lie to sell than usual because most of us actually KNOW someone who is opposed to the HHS policy and some of those people we know are female.   But they keep stumping it.

So I'm putting up today some links to good reads which 1) lay out what the HHS policy is and 2) lay out what the Church's position is not (a religious attempt to impose a theocracy). As far as I know, even the day before the HHS policy was imposed, artificial birth control was cheap, legal and available.  To hear the screechings of those in favor of this gross overreach of the government, you'ld think a tsunami of babies was threatening to flood the streets and drown all the women if the Federal Health and Human Services hadn't stepped in to save the day.  

Michael Novak lays it out nicely here.
Archbishop Chaput as usual is speaking strong truth with charity.
and Deacon Bickerstaff outlines a good course of action here.

The power to by executive/bureaucratic mandate determine the extent to which we MAY practice our beliefs (where they stop binding us), is a direct threat to our religious liberty and anyone who thinks this is the limit, is wilfully blind, deliberately obtuse, wants this curbing of religious expression to assuage their own unwillingness to live out their faith life or is just a partisan hack.

Yes. I'm angry today. 

Why?

Because I do see the assaults on all sides.  When Komen decided simply not to continue to award grants to Planned Parenthood because it was under Federal investigation for not reporting sex trafficking, statutory rapes and having unsafe conditions for medical procedures (which go unpoliced and unchecked as a benefit of being protected by one political party that sees abortion so necessary and so noble as to warrant no scrutiny whatsoever), Planned Parenthood squealed like a stuck pig.

 I'd say a stuck fetus but they wouldn't acknowledge the reality of such pain. 

They were going to loose  a whopping .058 % of their budget --and they went postal.  Komen jumped back into line.  Message to other corporations received.  Don't cut our funding or we will destroy you online.  All the good you've done for 30 years doesn't count for squat. 

The same was done to Catholic Charities.  You've helped with adoptions for years. You've done loads of good, feeding the poor, helping the homeless, you've been a living breathing outreach of the beatitudes, faith in action in all the communities.  Drop your opposition to gay adoptions or you're gone.  Some of the Catholic Charities --Massachusetts and Illinois, were gone.  Other places weighed what they do, and bowed their heads and said, "By your command." I know they still do good, but the state forcing an organization to surrender one tenet they hold dear, can force another.  Catholic Health Association is only too happy to dispense birth control, sterilization and abortion drugs, now that it's mandatory. 

At some point, when you keep surrendering values, you cease to have them. 
And that I suspect is the point, to swap faith for politics and make our Government our God. All knowing, all encompassing, all reaching...infinite in appetite and control...but it does not love us.

To the "Oh, you're overreacting." crowd.  I present the following link: Humanae Vitae Prophetic.
Also the Guttenmacher Institute's helpful memo: (Emphasis mine).

"The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, drawing on these recommendations, requires new private health plans written on or after August 1, 2012 to cover contraceptive counseling and services and all FDA-approved methods without out-of-pocket costs to patients. However, existing plans are exempt from the requirement so long as no significant negative changes, such as cutting benefits or raising cost-sharing, are made to them; DHHS has said that most of these plans will likely lose this protected status within a few years. "

And then, there is the little noted (we must not speak of it) process of Same Sex marriage becoming the default new unspeakable of other than as good. Like Planned Parenthood, thuggery of thought abounds.  (If you do not hail it for the benefactor it is to all of humanity, you are a close minded dope who hates poor people).  So also, if you oppose same sex marriages for any reason, you are a bigot. Pure and simple. 

Yesterday, Maryland legislature passed by the narrowest of margins,  the "Civil Marriage Protection Act."  Barring a change of conscience by the Governor himself, (O'Malley proposed it) Maryland will become the 8th state to decide marriage is a contract between two people regardless of gender, but with restrictions on inbreeding.  I read the bill.

(No aunt/uncle/cousin/brother/mother/father/sister/son/daughter stuff is specified so we have some standards).

 http://mlis.state.md.us/mgaweb/mail32.aspx

Given that there are already lawsuits and established precedents for the suing of businesses that refused service for gay couples seeking marriage, how long before the Church is hit on this front or simply Christians or Catholics who don't want to promote a sinful act via providing a venue?  So far, the answer is the photographer gets sued, the B&B gets sued, anyone who speaks or even simply says "No." gets sued. Saying anything other than "Great, here's the contract." will get you sued.  Saying anything other than "Why didn't we create this law sooner?" will be tantamount to hate speech.  

I understand how hard it is to address, because really, rallying around "status quo" of over 2000 years seems goofy.  Also, the forces in support of this proposition are well organized and have the media and the existing government power structures on their side.  Just as abortion was rewritten by Roe vs. Wade by Judicial fiat, when state regulations made up a patchwork quilt of contradictory policies, so also a patchwork currently exists for Same sex marriages and those contradictions will inevitably be presented to the nine judges in DC. 

The Full Faith and Credit of contracts across state lines will demand resolution at the Supreme Court.  We can't avoid discussing it forever just to avoid being called names. By not thinking about this or addressing it, we're sputtering to come up with arguments because we haven't wanted to think about this. That constitutes a poor defense. We lose. 

Even voting against such things in a referendum has been insufficient.  Look at California. The law as expressed by the people's will was irrelevant to the state supreme court. Also Federal Government has refused to support the "In Defense of Marriage Act" that is on the books. 

Everywhere, secular tyranny is on the march. It goes unacknowledged as such by those who agree with its policies or at the very least, think it won't affect them.  But our capacity to live out or even acknowledge the tenets of our faith is being slowly boiled to death. 

So consider writing a letter or contacting the Governor. He's Catholic and as such, might be moved by good apologetics or reasoned defense.  At the very least, he'll have to knowingly decide to ignore his own faith to sign it.

 An example from a new blogger on the block: The Paladin's Best Friend.  Yes he sent it to the Governor. Yes he signed his real name. Go over. Say Hi.  He's just starting up.

The thing is, I note a touch of discouragement and despair in the tone and tenor of the world right now.  Those that voted for our current administration are frustrated and I think feel slightly shocked and betrayed that the promise held out, isn't.  Those that are voting differently, aren't so enthused either. We've created this Leviathan of a government.  We've created this Leviathan of debt. We've got all these intractable seemingly impossible problems and there doesn't seem to be an answer, or at least not an easy answer.  Like stepping on the scale and knowing you must diet or opening a bill and knowing you must cut back expenses, everything seems earth shatteringly beyond our will, beyond our capacity, just beyond.   We are struggling to summon the will.

There is not one institution of government that still holds our trust.  There is too much money, too much bloat, too many back room smoke filled deals, too much favoritism, too much politics, too little truth, too many partisan hacks, too many moments of hurt and broken promises, personal failures, corruption and cover up for us to easily allow ourselves to hope that someone, anyone can par back the weeds, the mess, the massive piles of regulations and laws.  Too many free fall shouting voices to be able to sift through the facts.  We have all of the earth at our finger tips and it overwhelms.  We cannot take in everything and thus long for a touch of peace, a touch of genuine quiet of the soul and that is the one thing not available via MasterCard, the government, the Internet or the world.

So we aren't hoping for much, we certainly aren't expecting or demanding much, because we don't think much can be done.

Still Gandalf himself knows, we shouldn't despair. "For even the wise cannot see all ends."
So the object is to press on. To do right. To speak bravely. To speak true. To speak from the heart. To pray for everyone and....if I may close with a different but equally favorite movie,

Inigo.....What?  I hope we win!

A Catholic Cassandra Call Out

Kathleen Sebelius declares that her policy mandating that all institutions and organizations provide for coverage of birth control and sterilization and abortifacient medications respects religion.  It respects her religion. Kathleen is a practicing faithful Democrat. 

I've been reading the defense of this policy that drew a swift and sure response from a body of people that normally don't agree on anything, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  This policy declares that the government shall decide which tenets of your faith you may follow and which you must abandon.  This policy declares that the government shall tell you the limits of how you shall practice your faith --i.e. you may decide for yourself it is morally wrong, but you must purchase it for your neighbor.  If it is morally wrong in my eyes, then it is morally wrong for me to aid and albeit you in an action.   This policy declares that it shall deem what is tolerated by the state.  Nothing else is permitted.   Think I overstate? 

Does anyone believe if this is allowed to pass that we shall not be made to provide additional services we deem morally wrong after the election?  Like actual abortion?  We'll get the same smarmy worthy of a 6th grader line, Don't like an abortion, don't have one.  But pay for someone else.  That's like saying, don't like drunk drivers? Don't drive drunk.  But pay for that chronic alcoholic's next round and hand him the keys.

Having read Sebelius's article in USAToday and others on Real Clear Politics, I wanted to do a bit of fact checking.

From Sebelius: "The religious exemption in the administration's rule is the same as the exemption in Oregon, New York and California. Of the 28 states that currently require contraception to be covered by insurance, eight have no religious exemption at all."

Note: That means 22 states don't require contraception to be covered by insurance and of the 28 that do, 20 have religious exemptions.  42 States don't demand religious organizations violate their core beliefs by purchasing products they deem immoral.  That's a fairly solid majority of State policies you're overriding Kathleen via bureaucratic fiat. This is an argument for a sweeping new policy? 

I started by wondering, what do the Church institutions in those 8 states do. Do they already violate their stated purpose and the Church's teachings? In some cases, regrettably, yes.  And that was the nose of the camel. I began with New York, one of the three states mentioned by Sebelius. 

Guess what? 

"Indeed, New York passed the Women’s Health and Wellness Act in 2002, requiring health plans to cover contraception and other services aimed at women, including mammography, cervical cancer screenings and bone density exams.

The New York law, which has its own religious exemption, was upheld after several court challenges. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. At the time, church-related institutions were considering whether to drop prescription drug benefits as a way to circumvent the law."

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/bishop_takes_up_catholics_chur.html

What a surprise. 

There IS a religious exemption in New York. How inconvenient a truth. But it's limited.  The Diocese of Syracuse schools uses self insurance to get around the prescription benefit issue and is exempt from the law itself.   

On to California: Back in 2004, Catholic Charities lost a court case that went to the Supreme Court of California, where they were told they had to provide birth control to their employees in the state.  The words of Mark Chopko, counsel to the USCCB at the time proved prophetic.

"This case has very, very long arms," said Mark Chopko, counsel to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which filed a court brief in support of Catholic Charities. It raises the question, he said, of "who gets to say what's a religious organization: the religious organization or the government?"

Here, is where the HHS draws its inspiration.  California operates under the Don't Ask, Just Sell mandate of it's court, that Catholicism needn't worry itself about the taint of buying immoral things because the state has decided, they're necessary. 

Sin corrodes. 

California Catholic West Healthcare complied and thus eventually as a result allowed itself to erode its moral thinking to allow for abortions and award grants to abortion businesses and then because of the flack it got from Bishops and the faithful and the like, eliminated the name Catholic, changing their name to Dignity Health care.   So they did not turn their hearts.  And when they did not turn their hearts, they turned their name, so we'll know them by their limping.

I did a brief search of the Internet for the other six states and found this disturbingly accurate and well thought out Guttenmacher chart that lays the whole thing out on a state by state basis.  I recommend reading it all.  What bothers me is the timely execution of this clean chart that dovetails nicely with Sebelius's speech. 

The states which have no religious exemptions simply have limited religious exemptions that are extremely narrow, and which in most cases require hospitals to provide prescriptions. 

In most cases, the Catholic institutions affected opt to self insure to "get around" but that is now deemed wrong under the EEOC.  We are going to be squeezed into compliance becoming like Dignity Health Care, or forced to fight outright. 

That is the end goal.

The initial paragraph mentions how the DHHS indicates those existing exemptions that exist with respect to contraception probably will be faded out in the coming years. Why does the Guttenmacher Institute think this? How does it know?

I haven't discovered why, but I have a pretty good guess.

The alternative, to drop coverage entirely shall inflate the rolls of uninsured. The increases shall eventually require that Healthcare be a single provider coverage (for the good of all) from the government.  Welcome to check and mate, coming in 2013 when the time to live by one's moral compass in this country officially expires.

So I'm mad. I'm mad at this administration. I'm mad at the way we've allowed ourselves to believe that we could have just a bit of the apple and it wouldn't corrupt us all the way.  All it took was a bite.  It was the intent itself, it was the willingness to entertain sin, the willingness to encourage it in others, the willingness to put something between ourselves and our Creator, to put limits on our love and declare limits on our willingness to live out our Faith. 

And if the lions come, I'm going to roar back at them.

If you'ld like to roar too: http://catholic-advocate.rallycongress.com/

or http://www.catholicvote.org/index.php?/site/actions_details/oppose_contraception_coverage/