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Nancy Pelosi’s New Catholic Archbishop: US may be moving toward despotism

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Photo credit: Leader Nancy Pelosi

Recent government attacks on religious liberty have made him fear the United States might be headed toward “despotism,” the newly appointed archbishop of San Francisco—a city represented by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi—warned in a recent speech.

“When I saw what was happening and my eyes were opened, it made me fear that we could be starting to move in the direction of license and despotism,” the Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone said at a May 24 conference on religious liberty at the Ethics in Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

In the same speech, Cordileone also said church leaders “cannot get political in the sense of being partisan,” while noting that protecting religious liberty was not a political issue but an issue of “first principles.”

Cordileone, who holds a doctorate in canon law, currently serves as bishop of Oakland, Calif., and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on the Defense and Promotion of Marriage. He has been a leading spokesman for Catholic teachings on marriage and sexual morality and an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cordileone archbishop of San Francisco on Friday. Cordileone will formally take up that position on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis, the patron saint of San Francisco.

Read more from this story HERE.

August 1, 2012: The Day Freedom of Conscience Died in America

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Photo credit: majunznk

As of July 31, 2012, a business owner who objects to abortion had the freedom of conscience to make sure that her company’s insurance policies did not pay to facilitate the practice. But as of yesterday, August 1, she no longer has that freedom. The ObamaCare contraceptive and abortifacient mandates took effect August 1, hailed by the Obama regime as a great and wonderful thing.

According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “President Obama is moving our country forward by giving women control over their health care. This law puts women and their doctors, not insurance companies or the government, in charge of health care decisions.”

What about pro-life women? Do they not exist?

In reality, what this law does is force millions of Americans to abide by the radical edge of the sexual revolution. It forces millions of Americans to violate their own consciences, and it prohibits the free exercise of their religion. It is a revolutionary act that puts government in charge of what business owners can do and think. It’s un-American. If Rep. Nancy Pelosi gets her wish, the mandate will eventually even force churches to subsidize Planned Parenthood by forcing them to live under the abortifacient mandate. Pelosi said as much in February 2012:

At a press conference, Leader Pelosi was asked by THE WEEKLY STANDARD: ”The Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., is a self-insured institution. Should the Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., be required to pay for these morning-after pills and birth control if they find that morally objectionable?”

Pelosi talked about the importance of women’s health, and then said, “Yes, I think that all institutions who cover, who give, health insurance should cover the full range of health insurance issues for women.”

Concerned Women for America opposes the abortifacient mandate, which means they do not exist in the eyes of Obama, Sebelius and the other radicals who dominate the current regime. Despite the lack of media attention paid to CWA, it boasts 500,000 members, making it the largest public policy women’s organization in the US. They are fighting the mandate, according to a press release quoting CWA President Penny Nance.

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Federal Judge blocks Obama from forcing Catholic businesses to provide birth control

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Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

A Colorado business owned by a Catholic family does not have to comply with President Barack Obama’s new healthcare mandate that private employers provide employees with insurance coverage of birth control, a Colorado federal judge ruled on Friday.

District Judge John Kane in Denver temporarily blocked the government from the enforcing the contraception requirement against the religious owners of Hercules Industries Inc, a private manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment.

The ruling only affects this plaintiff but opens the door for any company to seek relief on religious grounds. Lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services argued that a temporary exemption for Hercules would interfere with the government’s ability to implement the law. But Kane was not persuaded.

“This harm pales in comparison to the possible infringement upon (the Newland family’s) constitutional and statutory rights,” the judge wrote. He noted that the government had already created numerous exceptions for religious employers, exempting over 190 million health plan participants.

The law posed an imminent harm to the company’s owners by forcing them to support contraception, sterilization and abortion in violation of their religious beliefs or face steep fines, Kane said.

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US Catholic bishop conference helped fund Alinsky training for young Barack Obama

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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Campaign for Human Development” paid a young Barack Obama’s airfaire to a training program on community organizing given by the Industrial Areas Foundation, an organization founded by leftist radical Saul Alinsky, according a book to be released tomorrow on the subject.

No Higher Power, by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly and journalist George Neumayr, reports that “In the 1980s, the Catholic archdiocese of Chicago contributed to the training of Obama in the very Alinskyite radicalism that would culminate in such anti-religious measures as the HHS mandate,” according to an article on the book published by the Blaze.

“In fact, in the course of writing this book, we met a source who once had access to copies of documents from the archives of the Chicago archdiocese. This source supplied us with never-before-published copies of invoices, checks, and letters that confirm the Church’s support for the man who would one day seek to destroy its religious freedom,” they add.

The documents, which have been published on the Blaze’s website and are displayed below, purportedly show correspondence between Obama, writing as a member of the Calumet Community Religious Conference, and the US bishops’ Campaign for Human Development, which is today known as the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD)

The letter purported to be from Obama is for the purpose of submitting proof of his “requisition order for the ticket purchased for my trip to the IAF Training in Los Angeles, ” and is dated May 20, 1986. A copy of what appears to be the ticket or the requisition order for the ticket is included.

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Pro-life Democrat congressional candidate barred from forum, forced to leave building

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Democrats in Michigan are facing criticism from pro-life advocates for silencing a pro-life candidate wanting to participate in a candidate event.

On July 16, Right to Life of Michigan PAC-endorsed candidate Bob Costello was prevented from speaking at a forum for congressional candidates in the 14th Congressional District and was forced to leave the forum after attempting to speak. The forum was supposed to be an open forum for the Democratic congressional candidates of the 14th District but Costello (who is one of the five Democratic candidates on the ballot) wasn’t invited.

As RLM indicates, “Costello, a prolife Democrat, was one of four congressional candidates who attended the event even though he was threatened with arrest if he attempted to speak at this event by the president of the Grosse Pointe Democratic Club. Costello believes his pro-life beliefs were the reason he wasn’t invited to the event and was prevented from speaking.”

“The main focus of Costello’s campaign is the protection of religious freedom which Obamacare’s HHS mandate violates by forcing religious institutions which operate schools and hospitals to violate their beliefs by providing coverage for services they object to,” RLM said. “The other candidates who attended the forum (Gary Peters, Mary Waters and Brenda Lawrence) remained shamelessly silent as their co-candidate was prevented from speaking.”

Costello has been very public with his opposition to the Obama HHS mandate: “As an attorney, a Catholic, and an American, I am stunned, angered, and worried by the federal government ordering Catholics and the Catholic Church to violate our long held religious and moral values . . .”

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Photo credit: Steve Rhodes

‘Catholic’ Pelosi calls GOP bill to cut off Planned Parenthood funding ‘an immorality’

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Leave it to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to get it backwards. The “Catholic” Democrat is upset House Republicans this week approved a bill that includes language cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood unless it stops doing abortions.

Instead of lamenting the immorality of abortion, she calls the bill an “immorality,” according to a CNS News report. The bill also withdraws funding for the Obamacare law that includes abortion funding and potential rationing.

Pelosi said, “The defunding of Planned Parenthood, which is part of what their mark-up was about, was it yesterday that they officially marked up? Yesterday, that was, I know was in the mix, I didn’t know if they were finished with it, that mark up.”

“The bill is — what they marked up is really, in my view, an immorality,” Pelosi said. “An immorality to ignore scientific opportunity to make the American people healthier. Things like that I think are an immorality. However, it doesn’t happen to be a priority for the Republicans.”

The Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee approved their FY13 spending bill. During consideration, pro-life Republicans on the panel turned back two pro-abortion amendments from Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: edalisse