Quote of the Day - Nixon on Abortion

Just nasty:

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding, “Or a rape.”

The background:

On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence. (NYT)

I'm not sure if "ambivalence" is the first description that comes to my mind.

QOTD: Cardinal Bernardin on using his consistent ethic to support abortion

Cardinal Bernadin, on the front page of the National Catholic Register in 1988, said:

"I don't see how you can subscribe to the consistent ethic and then vote for someone who feels that abortion is a 'basic right' of the individual. I know that some people on the left, if I may use that label, have used the consistent ethic to give the impression that the abortion issue is not all that important anymore, that you should be against abortion in a general way but that there are more important issues, so don't hold anybody's feet to the fire just on abortion. That's a misuse of the consistent ethic, and I deplore it."

As quoted by Elizabeth Lev, daughter of Mary Ann Glendon, reflecting on Obama's choice to quote Cardinal Bernadin in the speech he delivered last month at Notre Dame's commencement. What an ironic choice.

Papist Quote of the Day (and video): Bishop Aquila

Appearing on FOX News:

“Certainly NARAL or Planned Parenthood would never invite Benedict XVI, much less extend an award to him.” - Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, ND

Bingo.

Video:

Abp. Burke: Catholics "could not have voted for [Obama] with a clear conscience"

Quote of the Day from Kathryn Jean Lopez's interview with Archbishop Raymond Burke. Pay close attention:

LOPEZ: You seemed to make very clear that Catholic voters collaborated with evil when they voted for Obama. If you’re Catholic and did, do you have to confess this now that Mexico City, embryo-destructive funding, among other things, have happened?
ARCHBISHOP BURKE: If a Catholic knowingly and deliberately votes for a person who is in favor of the most grievous violations of the natural moral law, then he has formally cooperated in a grave evil and must confess his serious sin. Since President Obama clearly announced, during the election campaign, his anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic who knew his agenda regarding, for example, procured abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage, could not have voted for him with a clear conscience.

Archbishop Burke minces no words: in his estimation, a Catholic who voted for Obama could not have done so with a clear conscience.

Note also how Archbishop Burke evaluates Obama as not only anti-life, but also anti-family because of his positions on same-sex marriage.

On a related note, Fr. James Schall, SJ unpacks Archbishop Burke's keynote address which he gave last Friday at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

Papist Quote of the Day

Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post, defending Mary Ann Glendon against the (predicatble) attacks she has received for refusing Notre Dame's Laetare Medal:

"Nevertheless, [Obama's] abortion stance is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching. And no place symbolizes Catholics in America quite the way Notre Dame does.

Offering this backdrop and extending the school's imprimatur to Obama constitutes a wink and a nod to abortion. Why not throw a pig roast in Mecca? That was Glendon's point. By her symbolic gesture of self-denial, she demonstrates that faith is an act, not a motto.

Obama might consider following Glendon's lead. Although he supports choice, the president also recognizes the moral complexity of those decisions. Out of respect for pro-life Catholics and their beloved institution, he should politely bow out."

For those keeping tabs, the AmP-sponsored Glendon support group has 2,500+ members.

Papist Quote of the Day

The U.S. Bishop's Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, in a twitter update:

"Spent the day workng on the new Roman Missal. It's like digital TV: It's coming, it will affect us all but no one knows exactly when."

Papist Quote of the Day

Bishop Robert Finn:

"We are at war. Harsh as this may sound it is true – but it is not new. This war to which I refer did not begin in just the last several months, although new battles are underway – and they bring an intensity and urgency to our efforts that may rival any time in the past."

Papist Quote of the Day

Bob Royal:

"Just to speak for myself, I’m Catholic first and American second. I don’t understand how any believer of any faith could think differently. If you are lucky, you spend eighty or so years in America. Dead is a long time."

Papist Quote of the Day: Bishop Doran on Notre Dame invitation

As the individual who sent it to me said, "Slams is a gentle word!":

"I would ask that you rescind this unfortunate decision and so avoid dishonoring the practicing Catholics of the United States, including those of this Diocese. Failing that, please have the decency to change the name of the University to something like, "The Fighting Irish College" or "Northwestern Indiana Humanist University." - The Most Reverend Thomas G. Doran, D.D., J.C.D., Bishop of Rockford [source.]

Papist Quote of the Day

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix, AZ:

"What President Obama is doing is forcing all American taxpayers to pay for this homicidal research," he said. - The Catholic Sun

Ph/t: LifeSiteNews.

Becket Fund President calls CT Bill "Doubly unconstitutional"

In response to the story I covered over the weekend about a breathtakingly anti-Catholic CT bill:

"This bill is doubly unconstitutional. It would be unconstitutional underthe First Amendment even if it applied to all churches. but the fact thatit applies to only one church - the Catholic Church - makes itunconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment besides. This is truly amonstrosity."

-- Kevin “Seamus” Hasson, President, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

Papist Quote of the Day

Rabbi David Rosen, on the Vatican-SSPX-holocaust controversy:

“Had all this been expressed at the outset,” he added, “we could have avoided the unnecessary damage and distress.”

Seriously, try holding a press conference next time. In other words: don't give the detractors of the Church a chance to spread lies when the truth is ultimately on our side. I don't care if you have to come in on a Saturday.

I blogged about this controversy in-depth yesterday.

Papist Quote of the Day

"Those who dissent should consider whether it is not really they who are being divisive. I fail to see why I should be portrayed as divisive when I step up in defence of the Church and align myself with the Pope. Something is not right there."

~ Bishop-elect Gerhard Wagner, Auxiliary of Linz Austria

Source: Fr. Z.

Papist Quote of the Day

Bishop Robert Hermann, administrator of the Archdiocse of St. Louis, on recent elections and "lax Catholics":

"Until we are willing to be politically incorrect in order to be biblically correct, we will never convince anyone that our religion is worth living." {More.}

Ph/t: AmP reader John, via The Deacon's Bench.

"Holy See not in favor of death penalty for gays, Vatican spokesman clarifies"

As if the point needed clarification?!

Homosexual rights advocates in Italy harshly criticized the [Holy See's]remarks, labeling them “grotesque” and “anachronistic.”

The Director of Vatican Radio, Father Frederico Lombardi, defended the archbishop’s remarks, saying “no one wants the death penalty or jail or fines for homosexuals.” (CNA)

Oh that's right, if the Church even dares to do anything less than totally support an international right to homosexual marriage .... it gets accused of favoring the death penalty for homosexuals.

Now that sure sounds like a reasonable way to discuss the issue. (/sarcasm.)

Bishop on FOCA: "You can go take a Flying Leap"

Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, VA, when asked about FOCA and Catholic hospital closures:

Bishop Paul Loverde of the Roman Catholic diocese of Arlington, Va., said last week that if the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) should become law and a Catholic hospital in his diocese is forced to provide abortions, he would refuse to let the hospital comply, but he would also not close the institution.

Though there are no Catholic hospitals in his diocese, the bishop nevertheless was defiant: "I would say, 'Yeah, I'm not going to close the hospital, you're going to arrest me, go right ahead. You'll have to drag me out, go right ahead. I'm not closing this hospital, we will not perform abortions, and you can go take a flying leap." (CNS)

Ph/t: Margaret Cabaniss of Inside Catholic.

Quote of the Day: "Nimble Catholics"

From a Chicago Tribune piece on pro-Obama Catholics:

"Catholics have, historically, been nimble at finding loopholes in church doctrine, ways to deftly excuse themselves from the guilt of lesser sins skipping church, swearing, eating meat on Fridays. Abortion is a much steeper hill to climb."

This gives me a new phrase: "Nimble Catholics."

Papist Quote of the Day

From the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, when asked if the Roman Catholic Church would issue an apology to Darwin like the Anglicans have done:

"Maybe we need to abandon the habit of issuing apologies and treating history as if it were a court always in session," Ravasi said. (EarthTimes)

Here, here.

More:

[Ravasi] was speaking to journalists about a conference entitled Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories. A Critical Appraisal 150 years after The Origin of Species due to be held in Rome from March 3 to 7, 2009.

The congress has been organized by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States, and will include scientists, philosophers and theologians from around the world.

Ravasi stressed that, unlike many Protestant Christians, the Roman Catholic Church never condemned Darwin nor was his book, the Origin of the Species, placed on the church's list of banned books.

... "Science can purify religion of superstition, but religion can purify science from false absolutes," Ravasi said, quoting John Paul.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II publicly expressed regret on how the Catholic Church in the 17th century dealt with Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who was forced to retract his observation that the Earth and the other planets revolved around the Sun.

Papist Quote of the Day

I'm going to break a rule of quotation and excerpt the last lines of Ross Douthat's thought experiment:

Hence the weird anger emanating from social liberals at the religious right's failure to tar and feather the Palins and run them out of GOP politics on a rail: they're mad that religious conservatives aren't fitting neatly into the stereotypes that liberals have spent years cultivating.

Read this to see how he got here.

Papist Quote of the Day

Via the Curt Jester:

"Nancy Pelosi's bishop threatening her with a 'conversation.'" - Karen Hall

Papist Quote of the Day

From Joseph Sobran:

"Abortion is the single issue on which it's wrong to be a single issue voter."

Source.

PQOTD: "Getting divorced is easier than cancelling cell phone service"

Sad ... but so true!

"Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi of Piura called on officials last week to promote measures that help the family instead of weaken it, referring to recent passage of a law facilitating divorce, which he said, makes it “easier to get a divorce in Peru than to cancel your cell phone service.” (CNA)

I bet more people stay in their cell phone contract than marriage. But at least a phone contract is supposed to end.

Well, I guess this might be as good a time as any to officially announce that I'm getting ...

... a new cell phone plan. ;-)

I've long been considering a Blackberry, specifically the 8830 "World Edition" (pictured left) with Verizon Wireless.

Anything I should know before I "take the leap" into a two year contract? Could I do better for the money?

Papist Quote of the Day

I didn't even have to read past the first line of this article titled "Pastor Gets into Motorcycle Crash - During Service" before I was cracking a smile:

"A pastor brought out a dirt bike during a church service to demonstrate the concept of unity. Now he's demonstrating the concept of healing."

:-D!

Pope Benedict lauds St. Maximus for his lack of "tolerance"

Well, in effect:

Continuing his series of weekly talks on the early Church, Pope Benedict XVI devoted his public audience on June 25 to a discussion of St. Maximus the Confessor.

... Pope Benedict said that St. Maximus earned the title "Confessor" by the "dauntless courage" with which he proclaimed "the integral truth of Christ, without reduction or compromise."

The adamant stand taken by this heroic Christian teacher should be an example to contemporary Christians, the Pope said, suggesting in particular that the saint knew when to insist on truth and reject error. Christians cannot accept every thought put forward in the modern world, the Pope said. "Tolerance that does not know how to distinguish between good and evil would become chaotic and self-destructive," he said. "Dialogue that does not know what to dialogue about becomes mere empty chatter."

Like St. Maximus, believers should make Christ their fixed point of reference, and "thus we also learn how to position all other values because we discover their true significance," the Holy Father concluded. (CWNews)

Now there's marching orders. Just re-read those sentences I've underlined.