Saint Vincent College has teaching opportunity

George W. Bush will deliver the commencement address May 11th at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. School president, James Towey led the White House's office of faith-based and community initiatives from 2002 until last April.

St. Vincent is a coed Roman Catholic liberal arts college about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh. The school was founded in 1846.

Archabbot Nowicki, the College's chancellor, believes that Bush's address would help to burnish the schools reputation as one of the finest liberal arts schools in the country. We are thinking "tarnish" may be a better term here.

The Schools Web Site states it "seeks to provide an understanding of the positive contributions which the Catholic Church has made, and continues to make, to human progress, and to emphasize the application of Catholic social teaching to the problems of the world, particularly with respect to the poor, lonely, and marginalized."

We wonder then if the Archabbot and Towey are taking the opportunity to teach Bush about these very Catholic ideals. Ones that he and his administration have totally disregarded over the last 6 years, despite Bush's pandering to Catholics and their votes.

Bush’s War in Iraq is deeply at odds with Catholic teaching.

The Bush has seen government grow larger and more likely to intervene in the economy. The Bush doctrine means preferential option for the rich, not the poor. Their policies on wages, working conditions, unions, antipoverty assistance and Social Security all conflict with Catholic principles. His support for faith-based organizations in delivering social assistance has been token and narrow in focus.

Bush has made no real attempt to address the moral outrage of over 40 million Americans who lack health insurance. Instead policy is aimed to inflate drug company profits.

Issues that affect racial and ethnic minorities like wages, housing, public transportation, and health care and so on are at odds with Catholic social teaching. Bush has done little to change stingy refugee and asylum policies.

Bush has done nothing to address global warming and resource depletion. He has eroded existing standards in clear air, clean water and conservation. Instead policy is aimed at short-term interests of his corporate allies in oil, coal, timber and agribusiness.

All this is at odds with Catholic Teaching.

Bush's foreign policy is marked by an aggressive use of military power without regard for traditional just war principles. His administration has disregarded international treaties and institutions that the United States has worked for a half-century to build. They govern by the assertion that American interests trump those of any other country. Catholic teaching in this area emphasizes nonviolence, economic justice and the importance of multilateral treaties and institutions.

Bush does oppose abortion. He signed partial-birth abortion ban, but thinks the country isn’t ready to outlaw most abortions. He has supported some federal funding for stem cell research. He Opposes cloning and physician-assisted suicide, but neither was much of a priority in his first term. Bush is an enthusiastic supporter of the death penalty.

So with such a dismal record regarding issues important to Catholics - we do indeed look forward to the lesson plan that Towey and the Archabbot have in mind.

Abstinence

Abstinence is the foolproof way to avoid virus, neo conservatives often say. They also state that the only prevention method they know of for sexually transmitted diseases is abstinence.

Condoms, routine screening (preventing further spread), sex education and the new cervical cancer vaccine are all excellent methods for prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

Abstinence, when dutifully practiced, is also an excellent method. Unfortunately, numerous studies have shown that even teens who plan to abstain until marriage often fall short.

Adolescents who take virginity pledges show the same rate of sexually transmitted infection as those who do not.

Abstinence-only education in schools has been shown time and time again to not reduce teen sex, but to significantly reduce condom and other contraceptive use among those teens.

Education is the most powerful weapon we have against these diseases that are so easily prevented. Abstinence-only education merely prevents people from knowing how to protect themselves. When it comes to disease, ignorance is not bliss.

Absolutely, we should be promoting abstinence, but when it comes to preventing these serious, potentially fatal diseases, how can one justify not using every tool we have?

The Sin of Preventable Death

Abortion is an unspeakable sin. However it is not the only unspeakable sin. I am constantly amazed by the way some of my more conservative friends talk about Abortion and protecting the unborn. Yet when it comes to the born, especially innocent children who are just as innocent as unborn children, my friends are silent and turn the other way. Abortion does not touch their lives anymore than the war in Iraq does or a child with out water in Central America, yet onward they march on the abortion issue.

What I have come to learn is that this issue is a more often a vanity issue for them. It makes them feel good. More often than not, it is also a political issue for them. They can easily hide behind the abortion issue and support so called pro-life candidates while turning a blind eye to all the other injustices of the world. At then end of the day, I find these types of people to simply be selfish and uncaring. The world is centered on them and they believe that once born, a person must make their own way in the world.

With the unborn - they do not have to put a face or a personality to the victim. It is a convenient way for them to feel morally superior and at the same time maintain their selfish way of existence.

Narrowly focused on the single issue of abortion, they do not have to concern themselves with the children of Iraq who are suffering from the horrors of war. They do not have to be worried about a child in this world dying every 7 minutes of dehydration. The fact that mothers living in poverty are more often than not forced in the choice of abortion simply because they lack the basic needs to care for their children. Needs like healthcare, childcare and jobs.

I tire of the sanctimonious conservatives obsessed with abortion, when they offer no alternatives or solution. I have no tolerance for them turning a blind eye to death and destruction in this world while they live comfortable lives detached from suffering.

If the day ever comes that these Pharisees ever care about born children dying, or preventable death in this world at any age as much as they care about the unborn - I will be the first in line at the next anti-abortion march. Until then my friends - do not call yourself "pro-life". You are simply "anti-abortion".

Every seven minutes a child dies of dehydration

If so called "pro-lifers" want to show they care about innocent life - then start speaking out on preventable outrages such as this. Or once born, are these children supposed to "pull themselves up by their boot straps" and go find a bottle of water?

Dehydration and poor sanitation throughout the Asia Pacific region is killing a child every seven minutes according to a new report released by World Vision Australia.
READ MORE...

Bush Administration Marks World Water Day by Shirking Responsibility to Fund Clean and Safe Water for America

Thirst Relief International

Once born - you are on your own.

Why are so called "pro-lifers" not speaking out regarding this? Are these children not innocent? Or is there a difference in born and unborn children?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Mustafa Karim, a fourth-grader, now lives with family members in a squalid camp in eastern Baghdad where displaced Shias go after fleeing their homes, often after relatives have been killed. The young boy's eyes fill with tears when he recalls the circumstances that led to his exile. "They killed my father and uncle in front of my eyes," he says. He then breaks down sobbing. He can no longer speak. The anguish is unbearable. Such stories are not uncommon in Iraq four years after the U.S.-led invasion. Health officials say the daily hardships -- bomb blasts, gunfire, killings of family members and sectarian violence -- are taking an increasing toll on Iraq's children.
READ MORE...

IRAQ - 4 years of WAR - "This war is ... an offense against God."

This past Saturday thousands of Christians prayed for peace at an anti-war service Friday night at the Washington National Cathedral, kicking off a weekend of protests around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. "This war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong - and was from the beginning," the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, said. "This war is ... an offense against God."
Read more...

For Catholics - we remember our Holy Father - Pope John Paul II - who in Janary 2003 condemmed the coming war in Iraq.

Pope John Paul II in January of 2003 expressed renewed opposition to the possibility of war in Iraq, saying the use of military force had to be the "very last option".

In a New Year address to Vatican diplomats, the Pope said war was "always a defeat for humanity", and called instead for more diplomacy and dialogue.

"War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations," he said.

The Vatican clearly did not consider that America's planned offensive to topple Saddam Hussein meets the conditions of a "just war" laid down by the Roman Catholic Church.

"War cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions," Pope John Paul said.

He spoke of the Iraqis as a people already sorely tried by 12 years of international embargoes - and he described Iraq as the land of the prophets, because it is believed to be the birthplace of the biblical prophet Abraham.

Those behind a war in Iraq would have to consider "the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military operations," he said.

The Church teaches that for a war to be "just", the use of military force should meet rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy.

It also says that all other means must first be exhausted, and that the type of force used must be proportionate to the wrong it tries to rectify.

"Everything can change. It depends on each of us. Everyone can develop within himself his potential for faith, for honesty, for respect of others and for commitment to the service of others," he said.

Marjorie Campbell thinks of Nancy while recieving the Body of Christ

The cry towels are out again over at Dirty Deal Hudson's blog. (The Real Deal) This time it is the Canon Lawyer wannabe Majorie. Leading us to believe she is a daily communicate, she states she almost chokes on the body of Christ when she thinks about Nancy Pelosi following her in line. We doubt the Speaker attends the same parish as Marjorie, but who knows. I am not sure where Marjorie's mind is, but when I approach the Priest for the Eucharist, I am not thinking of Speaker Pelosi or any politician for that matter. I think how wonderful it is that I am celebrating the body of Christ, just like Catholics have done for thousands of years. I try to be peaceful and think about what I am about to receive. If people like Marjorie or Dirty Deal are thinking of politics in the Communion line, then maybe they need return to RCIA class again. Even more amazing is the fact that Marjorie and Dirty Deal support an evil thug like George W. Bush. A man who has wrought war and destruction upon this world. Under Bush we have seen a rise in abortion, violent crime, poverty, job loss, decline in values and a decline in US credibility in the world - yet these two are obsessed with a single issue while ignoring so much death and dispair. We won't even get into their buddy Craig Richardson’s ongoing support for his master Tom Delay. All we can do is shake our head and pray for them.

We really hope that the gang over at Dirty Deal Hudson's blog get it together and understand what it really means to be Catholic and receive the Eucharist at mass.

Jesuit magazine says church leaders obligated to comment on politics

By Cindy Wooden, March 15, 2007
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- When the pope, cardinals or bishops publicly comment on issues being debated by legislators they are not interfering in politics, but exercising their obligation as pastors and their rights as citizens, said an influential Jesuit magazine.

'When churchmen intervene in the public debate, they do so in ways and with instruments similar to those used by any other citizen,' said La Civilta Cattolica (Catholic Civilization) in an editorial reviewed by the Vatican Secretariat of State before publication.

The mid-March editorial used as its starting point the heated public debate in Italy over comments made by church leaders on proposed legislation recognizing unions formed by cohabiting couples, including homosexuals.

Church leaders have been accused of trying to impose the church's moral teaching on the laws of the nation.

The editorial said the church's critics complain 'habitually and only about those churchmen who publicly intervene in the debate and the merits of those questions which secularists consider to be the exclusive terrain of politics and administration.'

However, it said, the same people do not complain about public church campaigns to promote government policies and spending aimed at guaranteeing greater justice, charity and freedom.

'That which the secularists call interference the church calls 'the right to speak about the moral problems that today trouble the consciences of all human beings, particularly legislators and jurists,'' the editorial said, quoting Pope Benedict XVI.

While direct partisan political involvement is the competence of laypeople, the priests and bishops have an obligation to help them know and understand the relevant moral teachings of the church, the editorial said.

'Some say that in any case, the church and its agencies must abstain from addressing Catholic legislators,' the editorial said.

'But the church hierarchy cannot renounce making a statement, giving in to blackmail,' it said.

Particularly on themes such as the sacredness of human life and the value of the family founded on the marriage of a man and a woman, the editorial said, if the church did not speak it would not be fulfilling 'its obligation to give light and strength to the Catholic laity as the Second Vatican Council taught.'

Eucharistic Consistency

We recieved this Press Release a few days ago - we think it is worth sharing.

News stories on the recent apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist (SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS) are causing some confusion with regards to communion and Catholic politicians. The document does not say anything about denying communion to Catholic politicians. While it tells bishops they are “bound to reaffirm constantly these values,” it does not tell them to deny communion to prochoice politicians.

What it does say is that politicians must make decisions based on fundamental values. These values include “respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms.” It goes on to say “These values are not negotiable.” While the exhortation is obviously referring to abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, it also includes “the promotion of the common good in all its forms” among the values that are “not negotiable.” As a result, the exhortation can be seen as endorsing the consistent ethic of life as proposed by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. If communion is going to be denied to politicians based on this document, it would have to be denied to those who do not support “the promotion of the common good in all its forms.”

There follows the complete text of paragraph 83.

83. Here it is important to consider what the Synod Fathers described as Eucharistic consistency, a quality which our lives are objectively called to embody. Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms (230). These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature (231).

There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29). Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them (232).

Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
http://woodstock.georgetown.edu