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Re: your article in the Chicago Sun -- Loved your article
But you didn't go far enough. The heart of the matter is honest talk about sexuality. If you want to make sure that you don't have abortions, you don't have sex unless you are willing to have children. Especially, when you are using natural family planning methods advocated by the church. There is no modern contraceptive that is 100% certain. When you are talking about the effects of a few percentage points in a population that is in the 10's of millions of people that are sexually active (married or not) you are talking about 100,000's of people who are affected and will be having to make a decision about unexpected/unwanted children. The church's activities in limiting the commercial sale of contraception need to be publicized.
The bishops need to stand up and say ... "No Sex even in marriage unless you are ready to make the commitment to children". They need to be honest and say "No birth control" . Their actions in limiting the sale of birth control need to be well publicized. If you get married later in life, you are meant to be abstinent until age 30, 35, or 40. Think Susan Boyle. Think about girls putting a penny between their legs. Think about offering your sufferings up to the Virgin Mary in penitence for your sins. Think no contraception in marriage.
Look at the state of Mississippi where for all intents and purposes there is no abortion. There is only one abortion clinic in the state. Kids are taught abstinence. Access to birth control is limited in rural areas. As a result, Missisippi has very high rates of births out of wedlock, high rates of infant abandonment and infant mortality and poverty. Infants are abandoned in the woods and fetuses are flushed down toilets. Families with money go out of state for a nice clean abortion and come back in state to fund and vote for pro-life politiicans. This is the face of a prolife victory.
However, the bishops, not content with the current state of denying funding to poor women, are trying to deny the right of middle class women to use their own insurance for abortion. If health care reform is truly successful, more women will be on a public option that will not pay for abortion. Having insurance plans that permit opt-out will not work either. Many women get their insurance through their husband. At the end of the day, if their husband is prolife, they will be denied access to abortion. A women will need her husband's permission to get an abortion.
The bishops need to police their own congregation and make sure that they aren't having sex inappropriately. This is easier said than done. Even after all the abstinence education in the Catholic Schools, one Catholic high school in Philadelphia graduated 15-20 pregnant seniors. 30% of Catholics are living together before they get married. Most Catholics aren't virgins when they get married. What planet are these bishops living on? They can't get their own congregation to toe the line.
Frankly, I think we need to out the anti-abortion women who have abortion or premarital sex. There names need to be published and they need to be looked upon by their own community as brazen hussies. Who are they so darn afraid of that they want privacy? It's not the prochoice community. It's their own kind who will shun them and cast them out.
The bishops need to be honest with their parishioners and say that in order to ensure the lives of the unborn, it is better to do without health care reform that would save the lives of living Catholics. As a Catholic, we must sacrifice our loved ones' health for the unborn. We must be prepared to undergo pain and suffering so that this health care bill does not pass. We must be prepared to offer our lives for the sake of the unborn.
As a Catholic, I am absolutely livid with the bishops. Our tax dollars fund Catholic hospitals and the insurance policies that pay their bills (over 100 million Americans are now on government health care) who are practicing medicine in a form that many taxpayers do not agree with. Why should we fund institutions that violate OUR beliefs? There is more than one side to this issue.
The Church is trying to tell politicians that it can mobilize the Catholic vote against them.... But, who do you think supports socially liberal politics in the blue states, but Catholics? We, who dissent, are a key portion of the electorate. The Church can not deliver the Catholic vote without us. It can not fund or staff Catholic health care without us.
The Catholic church got political tolerance with JFK through a pledge not to follow the dictates of Rome. Do we want Catholic politicians to be in the position of Mitt Romney where his views are suspect because of the old tradition of Mormons voting as a block? I don't think we want to go back to the days of being effectively disenfranchised because of a suspicion of being beholden to a foreign ruler such as the Pope. This is a very real fear -- go look at the websites promulgated by prominent fundamentalists that call us Papists, instruments of Satan, and blind followers of a foreign ruler.
My suspicion is that this is a political hatchet job that was discussed in the last meeting between the Pope and George Bush that occured in the final days of his presidency. In the final hours of his presidency, why did Bush feel a need to go visit the Pope? All this hooting and hollering about sexual morality -- abortion, gays,etc. by the Catholic hierarchy did not reach this intensity during the Bush administration. My feeling is that this is a political weapon designed to wean Catholic support from the Democratic party.
Obama has to walk a tightrope in terms of trying to keep Catholic, health care reform and prochoice support. The bishops know darn well what they are doing. They want to keep our tax dollars flowing to Catholic institutions and literally draft pro-life legislation. It is time to call them out. Why are they abandoning their 30 year push for universal health care?
Honest to God, I don't know what to make of the church these days. When I read my church bulletin, there is mass and devotions. There is a measly effort at collecting our old cans from the back of our pantries and we can barely get it together to get a monthly meal for the needy in our community (did I mention, that 1/3 of Philadelphia is on food stamps?). There are the pro-life and anti-homosexual activities and activities for the kids. But outside of mass and devotion, there is not a heck of a lot for the rest of us who aren't interested in regulating other people's sex lives or are not into kids. Don't start me up on the efforts to persecute nuns (see the National Catholic Register for more details).
Well. I'll continue to click my rosary beads and pray for Vatican 3.
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