Naming names in the ongoing abortion-in-health-care debate

It should be a simple question - what is the status of abortion in the health care debate?

I work in DC politics, and even I'm confused. 

But I'll try to provide some clarity.

The committee scramble that took place last friday before the House of Representatives went into its August recess came down decidedly against the side of life, as the National Catholic Register points out:

Some pro-life Democrats joined with Republicans serving on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to amend the bill to prohibit funding for abortion services except in cases where a woman’s life is in danger or her pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

But that amendment was reversed later in the day, when the Democratic leadership successfully pressured a pair of Democrats on the committee to vote against the amendment during a second vote, sending it down to a 30-29 defeat.

The narrow margin in favor of the abortion mandate is an opportunity for Catholics and other pro-life Americans. They can lobby Congressional Democrats en masse, warning them that they are risking the defeat of the entire health care reform initiative if they insist on its inclusion in a bill that many Americans already have grave doubts about for other reasons.

... if the bishops are backed by their Catholic flocks as they continue to fight against the provision in the health care reform bill, that could change as the bill continues to progress through Congress.

I blogged about this committee back-and-forth the day it happened over at APP. The bad guy masterminds in this case were Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) and Chairmen Henry Waxman (D-CA, pictured above).

Here is how the declared catholic members of the committee split:

Catholics voting against the amendment (anti-life) were Representatives John Dingell (D) of Michigan, Edward Markey (D) of Massachusetts, Frank Pallone, Jr. (D) of New Jersey, Anna Eshoo (D) of California, Mike Doyle (D) of Pennsylvania, Charles Gonzalez (D) of Texas, Jerry McNerney (D) of California, and Peter Welch (D) of Vermont.

The Catholics who voted for the amendment (pro-life) were Bart Stupak (D) of Michigan, Charlie Melancon (D) of Louisiana, George Radanovich (R) of California, John Sullivan (R) of Oklahoma, Tim Murphy (R) of Pennsylvania, Phil Gingrey (R) of Georgia, and Steve Scalise (R) of Louisiana.

Catholics have a major say in who gets to be a member of congress. So it's good to get into the habit of having a pen and paper handy. This way we can make more informed decisions as the next election approaches.

Listed: Arch/Dioceses on Twitter

We're on a bit of a twitter kick here at AmP. Let's see how many arch/dioceses we can find on it:

• Archdioces of Atlanta, GA (actually their newspaper) - 86 followers
• Archdiocese of Cincinnati, OH (diocesan newspaper) - 135 followers
• Archdiocese of St. Louis, MO (very well executed) - 309 followers
• Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis (diocesan newspaper) - 1,316 followers
• Archdiocese of Washington, DC (not updated) - 3 followers
• Diocese of Allentown, PA - 60 followers
• Diocese of Arlington, VA + Arlington Catholic Herald - 92 followers, 259 followers
• Diocese of Brownsville, TX - 162 followers
• Diocese of Cleveland, OH (only 3 updates?) - 49 followers
• Diocese of Green Bay, WI + The Green Bay Compass - 90 followers, 153 followers
• Diocese of Hawaii, HI - 202 followers
• Diocese of Madison, WI (c'mon - not following anyone?) - 39 followers
• Diocese of Orlando, FL (really FL Catholic news) - 590 followers
• Diocese of Phoenix, AZ (diocesan newspaper) - 1,472 followers

If I've missed any - please drop me an email or comment. If you work for an arch/diocese, maybe bring it to the attention of your communications director? It's a great way of keeping your flock in the know!

Kmiec cites fictitious quotation from St. Thomas More

Pseudonymous blogger "Thomas More" doesn't appreciate it when posturing Catholic academics quote fictitiously from famous Catholic martyrs:

"I recently watched the Dr. Doug Kmiec and Dr. Hadley Arkes debate [video here] that happened a month ago at Villanova. One of the debaters, Dr. Kmiec, engaged in one of my most disliked pet peeves; quoting the fictional St. Thomas More."

This is a terrible injustice to the legacy of St. Thomas More, who was most upright in enforcing the law of men and God. You see, St. Thomas More informed by his Catholic conscience would know that abortion is murder. He would punish those guilty of abortion as committing a crime. Indeed, he took great pride in his defense of the faith, including punishing heretics with the force of law. Does this sound like a man who would just let the current administration's endorsement and funding of abortion as a good just slide? St. Thomas More stood against the King of England, a.k.a. the sovereign of England, and willingly lost his head for Christian Marriage and papal authority.

It's sad that Kmiec has to go to a movie adaptation of a saint's life to find agreement with his views.

What's next, words of wisdom from the Gospel according to Jesus Christ Superstar?!

Meanwhile, Robert George has answered Kmiec's latest prevarications in a brutally-complete way.

Info: So how does a bishop get chosen in the United States?

The USCCB has released a fascinating PDF document as a media backgrounder, explaining the step-by-step process that goes on behind the scenes before a new bishop is appointed to a US diocese:

The ultimate decision in appointing bishops rests with the Pope, and he is free to select anyone he chooses. But how does he know whom to select?

The process for selecting candidates for the episcopacy normally begins at the diocesan level andworks its way through a series of consultations until it reaches Rome. It is a process bound by strict confidentiality and involves a number of important players – the most influential being the apostolic nuncio, the Congregation for Bishops, and the pope. It can be a time consuming process, often taking eight months or more to complete. While there are distinctions between the first appointment of a priest as a bishop and a bishop's later transfer to another diocese or his promotion to archbishop, the basic outlines of the process remain the same.

Stage 1: Bishops' Recommendations
Stage 2: The Apostolic Nuncio
Stage 3: Congregation for Bishops
Stage 4: The Pope Decides

Each of the stages is explained with a short paragraph in the PDF document.

There you go, papists - your lunchtime reading! Don't say I never divulge trade secrets. ;-)

Did you know...?

From the General Instruction of the Roman Missal:

In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass “For Peace and Justice” (no. 22 of the “Masses for Various Needs”) should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.

It's true.

AP writes about big, scary "secret Vatican confession tribunal"

The AP decided to celebrate Halloween in January I guess with a story entitled "Vatican secret confession tribunal opens up". It begins:

"One of the Vatican's most secrecy shrouded tribunals, which handles confessions of sins so grave only the pope can grant absolution, is giving the faithful a peek into its workings for the first time in its 830-year history."

Shock! Horror!

"Confessions of even the most heinous of crimes and sins — such as genocide or mass murder — are handled at the local level by priests and their bishops and are not heard by the tribunal.

Its work involves those sins that are reserved for the pope — considered so serious that a local priest or bishop is not qualified to grant absolution, said Cardinal James Francis Stafford, an American who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary."

Eeek! Gasp!

"Taking up nearly an entire city block, it is just steps away from one of Rome's most profane piazzas — Campo dei Fiori, filled with bars catering to tourists and college-age Americans studying abroad."

Oh the humanity!

... so okay, the Vatican has a tribunal that deals with absolving very grave sins. It's called the Apostolic Penitentiary, but don't let the name fool you: sins are kept here (for a time), not sinners. And yes, because many of the crimes in question involve the sacrament of confession, it's not surprising that the subject matter is often kept, well, secret.

Oh yeah, and Italians don't go to confession much. That's a problem too, but it has nothing to do with the Apostolic Penitentiary. And it's pretty clear to me that the AP reporter (with visions of Dan Brown running through his head, no doubt) was just looking for material to fill-out his spook piece on the big, bad Vatican A.P., and chose the topic of promoting the sacrament of confession.

The ironic thing, of course, is that the Apostolic Penitentiary is actually a tribunal of mercy (not of punishment), that dispenses forgiveness from God for these horrible crimes according to the laws of the Church. The Apostolic Penitentiary is one of the few tribunals that keeps running even when the Pope is dead and a new one has not yet been elected - because the Church continues to dispense to mankind the means of salvation even when she is without a visible head.

"Expect Obama to sign FOCA in the first 100 days"

I often talk about the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), and how revealing it is that Obama has promised to sign it into law as "the first thing" he'd do as President. Fr. Thomas Berg explains FOCA:

Sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca) in the Senate (S. 1173), and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the House (HR 1964), FOCA is a piece of legislation designed “to prohibit, consistent with Roe v. Wade, the interference by the government with a woman's right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.”

In fact, FOCA, if it became law, would go well beyond Roe, sweeping away all limits on abortion -- state and federal -- including restrictions on government funding of abortion and conscience protections for healthcare providers. We have no reason to believe Obama would hesitate to sign FOCA into law as soon as it were to passed by the 111th Congress -- a probable outcome in early 2009 if Democrats gain enough new seats in November.

... And I alert my readers that you can find an extremely useful FOCA fact sheet here and many other useful FOCA-related articles and materials here, courtesy of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life activities.

Fr. Berg also conducted an informative interview with Susan Wills of the USCCB's pro-life committee.

Today is the feast of Guardian Angels

Learn about the feast as celebrated by the Church, and about guardian angels in Church teaching.

And for an extended reflection upon the role guardian angels play in our lives, read Fr. Joseph Ventura:

"One of the most consoling doctrines of Scripture is that of the guardianship of angels; the doctrine which teaches that man in this world is guided and protected by invisible beings called angels."

Updated: 12 (14) bishops have responded to Sen. Joe Biden

Here is the updated list of bishops who have responded to Sen. Joe Biden (in somewhat chronological order):

1. (Bishop Joseph Martino) of Scranton (Biden's hometown) in a local newspaper interview, before Biden made his Meet the Press comments, re-stating his earlier-held position
2. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, CO
3. Bishop James Conley, his auxiliary, joined him
4. Bishop Robeert Morlino of Madison devoted his Sunday homily to it (mp3 here)
5. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC
6. Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa, OK
7. Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, PA
8. Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, CT
9. Bishop Fran Malooly of Wilmington, DL (Biden's diocese)
10. Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, ND
11. (Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin, TX linked to the USCCB in his Friday E-pistle)
12. Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City, IA
13. Bishop Paul Coakley of Salina, KS in his newsletter
14. Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, MA on his blog

{Last updated - September 14th. Please send me tips & corrections! Try checking your diocesan website.}

The number of bishops who have responded to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comments is currently at 26.

Graphic: Map of NYC Popemobile route

On Saturday, April 19th at 1:15pm Pope Benedict will exit St. Patrick's Cathedral and undertake a one-mile trip up 5th Avenue in the Popemobile to 72nd Street, for the public to see him and receive his blessing.

{Here} is a Google map with the path shown, as well as areas closed to the public.

You can also see my Google map of his Washington DC routes {Here}.

I will add more details to the map when they are made available. Security will be tight.

Pope trip: Arch of NY has 5,000 tickets to see Pope on 5th Ave.

update: how typical - barely had the news gone out, and all the tickets are gone. popular pope!

Associated Press:

The Archdiocese of New York says it has 5,000 tickets available to see Pope Benedict XVI on Fifth Avenue before he enters St. Patrick's Cathedral to celebrate Mass later this month.

The tickets are good only for the pope's welcome rally on April 19 outside the landmark cathedral.

Tickets can be obtained by filling out a form online at www.archny.org/papalvisit. They will be mailed out on Monday.

On the day of the event, those with tickets will have to enter at Sixth Avenue and 49th Street through security checkpoints, from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. The pope is scheduled to arrive around 9 a.m.

The Mass will be televised on a huge screen in front of the cathedral.

I think the archdiocese's website is getting heavy traffic right now. Popular Pope.

Graphic: Map of the DC Popemobile Routes

The USA Today talks about the popemobile routes:

Pope Benedict XVI will make public appearances in a bulletproof "Popemobile" on two days during his first U.S. visit next week, the Roman Catholic archdioceses of New York and Washington, D.C., announced Tuesday.

Details of the public excursions in New York City and Washington, the only two stops on his six-day visit, took elaborate consultations with the Secret Service and local police. The Popemobile events will likely be the only opportunity for the general public to catch a glimpse of the pope, outside of scheduled ticketed events.

Here is my updated super Google Map for the DC portion of his trip (NYC to come next):

{View Map}

I've marked out the routes (with times), the areas closed to the public, and my suggested prime viewing locations.

My tip: the trip near Catholic University of America will be very congested, and short. If you want to see the pope - your best bet is around 12pm on April 16th when he goes from the White House back to the Nunciature. Come early, look for a good spot, and wait it out. Good luck!

See yesterday's post on the USCCB's press release of this information here.

update: I've removed the embedded map. It was very cool, but caused some browsers to freeze. Sorry for that inconvenience, this should fix the issue.

Report: "Fertility Treatment is Hugely Successful but Largely Ignored by Medicine"

Yes, there are ethic alternatives to in vitro fertilization, and people should know about them:

NaProTECHNOLOGY (Natural Procreative Technology or NPT) is a dramatically successful, but not well known or practiced method of diagnosing and treating gynecological diseases and infertility in women. It is a morally acceptable and very cost effective method of restoring fertility, using a fertility-care based medical approach, rather than a fertility-control approach.

...

When used to treat infertility alone, NaProTechnology has a success rate of 76% in assisting couples to achieve pregnancy - remarkably superior to the 10-15% success rate of in vitro fertilization, and without the enormous financial cost and adverse emotional and other psychological effects of in vitro fertilization.

[Read more.]

Take a look at those numbers again. And yet proponents of IVF will go around claiming that it's practically the only way for couples to get pregnant who are experiencing difficulty. Think again.

Guess what percentage of Catholics will abstain from meat today.

Georgetown's Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate (CARA) says:

60% of Catholics abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent.

Actually, that's higher than I would have guessed.

The percentage jumps far higher if you also regularly attend Mass on Sundays - 89%.

44% of Catholics try to "undertake some special spiritual effort" during Lent. Sunday-goers? 85%.

Standing in line at one of Catholic University's cafeterias today, and watching all the kids order chicken, I wondered how many Catholics under 30 abstain from meat. I'd like to see the CARA findings by age.

Pew Forum presents picture of fluid U.S. religious affiliation

Allright, back to things more properly AmericanPapist.

This article is quickly making the rounds (Time Mag's version here, AssociatedPress here):

More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

Infographic:

Our numbers:

The percentage of Catholics in the American population has held steady for decades at about 25 percent. But that masks a precipitous decline in native-born Catholics. The proportion has been bolstered by the large influx of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, the survey found.

The Catholic Church has lost more adherents than any other group: about one-third of respondents raised Catholic said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, “this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.”

... which means we have plenty of work to do.

Get the original report here at the Pew Forum. They have a summary with links here.

To add a little context, the UK Times reports that "Over half of Britons claim no religion."

I'll save my comments until I have some time to wade through the data.

update: In the meantime, see what Amy has to say, CNA, and BettNet.

video: "Pew Forum Director Luis Lugo gives an overview of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey and talks about some of its key findings" (source):

American bishops survey U.S. Catholics' views on marriage

"Although nearly three-quarters of American Catholics say they are somewhat or very familiar with church teachings on marriage, many mistakenly believe that a non-Catholic spouse must promise to raise the couple's children as Catholic and that church teaching accepts divorce in cases of marital infidelity.

... Archbishop [Kurtz of Louisville] also expressed concern that 41 percent of younger Catholics were choosing to marry outside the church and that "more than half of unmarried young Catholic adults do not consider it important to be married in the church." - CNS

Clearly, there's much work to be done. Luckily, my father has already done some of the heavy lifting.

Papist tip: Catholics *cannot* eat chicken on Fridays during Lent

For the 43 people who have visited AmP in the past couple days through web searches asking the question "Can I eat Chicken during Lent?" (don't ask how I know this), let's be clear:

1. Chicken = Meat.

2. Observant Catholics are only required to give up meat during Fridays in Lent.

3. Therefore, no chickens on Fridays during Lent.

There you go. If you've already had chicken today, don't next week. It's not worth it!

And honestly, with images like this floating around the internet, I can see why there's been some confusion.

What are some likely reasons why people are looking to AmP for Lenten culinary guidelines?

• 2/22/2007: "KFC offers new fish sandwich to Vatican for B16's blessing" (a fine post, I might add)
• 3/6/2006: "Eat chicken during Lent!" says French bishop (note, during Lent, not Fridays)

Now if only I could dig up a YouTube video of that Bless Me Father episode where Fr. Duddleswell tells a poor penitent woman in the confessional that "the Pope has declared infallibily that chicken is meat." Classic.

Call for Submissions: World's First Pro-Life Film Festival, Cinema Vita

This news should be of special interest to some readers. Marjorie gives us the goods:

"The Cinema Vita Film Festival has been established to encourage young, emerging filmmakers and to showcase movies about contemporary issues concerning the meaning and value of life. Coordinated by the San Francisco Archdiocesan Office of Public Policy, the Oakland Diocesan Respect Life Ministry, Marriage for Life, and Ignatius Press, the festival is based on the recognition that art, especially the medium of film, shapes the popular imagination and has a tremendous influence on culture."

They are looking for submissions spanning 3-5 minutes in 3 categories: high school, college and open. For each there is a cash prize of $250 and a Canon HG10 High Definition Camcorder (value $1100).

Read the submission criteria here. Entries must be postmarked by February 14, early entries encouraged.

Here, again, is the official website.

More details:

The winning films will be shown at the festival on March 7, 2008 at the Delancy Street Theater in downtown San Francisco, along with the award-winning feature film After the Truth, a provocative look at a fictional trial of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious Angel of Death at Auschwitz.

Ignatius Insight has an extensive article explaining the motivation and goal of the festival.

Any questions? Marjorie, blogging at Deal W Hudson is point-lady for blog outreach and news.

This is exactly the sort of innitiative I love prompoting at AmP. Get to it, you young media-savvy papists!

A weekend double dose of CanonLawBloggery

First up, that story of the uppity St. Louis Coach that is trying to play hardball with Archbishop Burke:

I'm not making this up.

Jesuit-run St. Louis University's basketball coach Rick Majerus (yes, a basketball coach) is telling St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke (yes, the canonist archbishop), to mind his own business regarding Majerus' outspoken support for (get ready for it) abortion and experimentation on embryonic humans! If it weren't that expressing support for such deeply offensive conduct is so deadly serious, I'd be laughing. Read more about it at here.

Next, the Code of Canon Law for the Roman Catholic Church turns 25 today. Many happy returns!

The psalmist sings "Happy is the man . . . whose delight is the law of the Lord; on his law he meditates day and night." (I: 1,3). The Psalmist is right.

Twenty-five years ago today, Pope John Paul II promulgated the apostolic constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges and with it the revised Code of Canon Law for the Roman Catholic Church. It is a marvelous achievement, all the more so, I suggest, because it was developed during one of the most intense periods of antinomianism the Church ever suffered. Read more about it here.

Updated: Laicization in Phoenix provides opportunity for precision in language

But sadly, that opportunity was missed by the diocesan spokesman, says Ed Peters:

The Diocese of Phoenix is dealing with an unfortunate situation brought on by one Msgr. Dale Fushek. I know nothing about the case beyond what I've seen on-line, but the steps taken by the bishop seem reasonable to me. Still, a comment by diocesan spokesman Jim Dwyer concerning an associate of Flushek, one Fr. Mark Dippre, who abandoned ministry and married civilly a few years ago, caught my eye: "Dippre has never been formally laicized, Dwyer said, but the diocese considers him 'functionally laicized' because he has not been in ministry and has had no ties to the diocese for several years."

I think that kind of description is going to confuse people. Describing AWOL priests as "functionally laicized" or as "permanently inactive" or as "resigned from ministry", and so on, might seem more palatable to the public, but it masks a serious problem: none of those categories exist canonically, and easy resort to such labels, in my opinion, just puts off dealing with the problems.

[Learn more about Laicization here.]

update: And - *wow* - as if on cue, this story breaks today:

Archbishop Burke seeks laicization for renegade Polish priest

Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, Missouri, has begun formal proceedings to defrock a priest connected with a schismatic Polish Catholic community.

The archbishop is seeking the laicization of Father Marek Bozek, a Polish native with a checkered history. In 2005, Archbishop Burke had excommunicated Bozek, a priest of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese, for his involvement in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, a congregation in St. Louis that has rejected the archbishop's authority. - CWNews

Why *wow*, you ask?

Because Ed Peters called it back in December of 2006:

"Fr. Bozek should stop and think"

Fr. Bozek needs to know something here: contumacy for an excommunication imposed for an act of schism is itself punishable, this time, by penal dismissal from the clerical state (1983 CIC 1364 § 2). Moreover, once imposed, penal dismissal from the clergy--not being a censure (1983 CIC 1336 § 1, 5°)--is not reversible by what amounts to offering a sincere apology. Indeed, reinstatement of a "defrocked" priest is reserved to Rome (1983 CIC 293) and is so rare as to be non-existent. - In the Light of the Law

And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons why it pays to read blogs....