Catholic Pundit Watch

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Fr. Tad attempts to convert the Chancery

I recall once hearing a story about a philosopher who visited with a group of junior-high students at a private school in the Midwest. He had a discussion with them about ethics, and offered a few arguments to suggest that direct abortion was always unethical and unjust. A 14-year-old girl put up her hand and asked him if he would make an exception for rape in his position against abortion. He put the ball back into her court by asking her to carry out a kind of “thought experiment.”

He asked her to consider the hypothetical case that her own father became a rapist: “If your dad goes out and rapes somebody, and we convict him of that rape in a court of law, do you think it would be right for us to then say, ‘O.K., because your dad is guilty of that rape, we’re going to kill you, his 14-year-old daughter?’” The girl and her classmates unanimously replied, “No”. He pursued the same line of logic a bit further, asking if it would be acceptable if, instead of 14 years old, she were only 2 years old, or 2 months old. Again, they said, “No.” Finally, he asked, “So how could I say that I’m going to let abortion happen because of rape? If I permit abortion because of rape, I am killing a child in the womb for a crime committed by his or her dad. Is that right?”

His coherent and dispassionate approach helped the students appreciate the need to scrutinize their own assumptions and move beyond emotionalism when important ethical or bioethical issues are being debated.

Rape is always a grave and unconscionable crime, a tragedy of enormous proportions. If a woman becomes pregnant following sexual assault, abortion is sometimes offered as a path to fixing the rape. But the decision to encourage a second trauma after the first trauma of sexual assault represents, ultimately, a misguided response to a situation that needs to be handled with much greater sensitivity and compassion. A kind of unexamined emotionalism and anger can arise in these situations, directed towards the child, even though the child conceived in rape is an innocent bystander, and a victim of the same awful set of circumstances as the mother. He or she clearly ought not be treated as some kind of surrogate for the rapist.

Catholics must never be involved in advocating murder of any human being for any reason whatsoever.  Consequences happen to all of us because of the crimes committed against us.  Two wrongs don't make a right.

If the woman has ovulated - the duty of a Catholic Hospital, a Catholic physicain, a Catholic pharmacist, a Catholic nurse at a Catholic Hospital - is to advise and counsel the woman about the teachings of the Catholic Church and pray with her.

Why would a Cardinal comply with an edict from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in murder?

Nice story about a local prolifer

TAUNTON -- Six-month-old Geneva Smithson has never met Dr. Eric Keroack, but she’s alive in part because of his pioneering work in ultrasound technology.

Keroack is the pro-life gynecologist named Nov. 17 by President George W. Bush to oversee federal family planning and abstinence programs.

A Marblehead resident, Keroack had served on the Salem Hospital staff since 1993 and supervised much of the ultrasound work for A Woman’s Concern, a non-profit group of crisis pregnancy centers in eastern and southeastern Massachusetts.

At one of the centers last year, Geneva’s mother Angela Smithson of Taunton saw an ultrasound of her unborn daughter’s heart beating.

“Everyone in my life at the time was telling me to have an abortion,” she said in an interview. “I was really torn. I knew this was a baby, but it wasn’t until I saw the ultrasound that it really hit me -- she’s alive!”

Smithson, 31, credits the counselors and ultrasound technicians at A Woman’s Concern with giving her the support to continue her pregnancy.

“They were excited about the baby, but they never pressured me. I was able to make an informed decision,” she said. “Before, I believed in God on and off, but I thought that having this child would ruin my life. Instead, everything that she’s needed has been provided for, and she’s been the beginning of my life. I’m so glad I made that decision.”

Stories like Smithson’s don’t make national news, but they motivated Keroack to work for nominal pay the past six years with A Woman’s Concern. The faith-based group has offices in Boston, Brookline, Revere, Beverly, Fall River and Hyannis.

What did make national news was Keroack’s appointment as the new deputy assistant secretary of population affairs under U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

A storm of vitriolic criticism ensued from pro-abortion advocates because of the doctor’s pro-life background and his work in discouraging pre-marital sex.

A graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, Keroack also served on an advisory panel to define guidelines for federally funded abstinence education programs, according to Dr. John Agwunobi, DHH Assistant Secretary for Health. He noted that Keroack is nationally recognized for his work in preventing teen pregnancy and explaining sexual risk behaviors.

Twenty-one pro-abortion congressmen called for President Bush to rescind the appointment. They were joined by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a major recipient of family planning funds and the nation’s leading abortion provider.

“This is all over Dr. Keroack’s objection to contraception,” said Mark Conrad, president of A Woman’s Concern. “The irony is that more than half the women that come to us were using some form of birth control. We just try our best to ensure that women get the truth.”

Keroack’s appointment does not require Senate approval.

The Virginia Sheister denies he's married

A priest suspected of stealing more than $600,000 from two churches denies accusations in court documents that he was living a double life as a family man in a neighboring county.

 

 

The Rev. Rodney L. Rodis, 50, acknowledged that there is a woman and three girls that live at the home, but denied he was married and declined to comment if the children were his daughters, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday. Rodis also said the woman he lives with knew he was a Catholic priest.

YOWZA.

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond was surprised to hear about Rodis' living arrangements, diocese lawyer William Etherington said, as were neighbors in the subdivision where the family had lived in a two-story brick home for at least eight years.

The diocese is shocked, shocked I tell you.

The Spotsylvania County real estate assessment Web site lists Joyce Sillador as owner of the house, and neighbors said Rodis' wife's name was Joyce.

 

 

No one answered the phone at a number listed for the address.

I'll bet.

Rodis, a Philippine citizen, was pastor at St. Jude Catholic Church in Mineral and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Bumpass, both in Louisa County, until May, when he retired due to health problems.

The poor man must have been exhausted.

Lech Walesa joins the frey

The church is resigned to fresh revelations of collaboration as the country's media have been pursuing claims that other senior clergymen were once collaborators. A book by the Rev Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, to be published soon, is expected to name 39 priests, including three bishops, for collaboration with the secret police between 1944 and 1989. Some estimates have suggested that up to 15 per cent of the clergy may have been informers.

Walesa faced similar accusations himself as President when he refused to open up secret archives from the communist era, but was cleared last year by a special vetting authority. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he said it was 'no coincidence the (Wielgus) scandal exploded at the last moment. The men of the secret service acted in a calculated way, perfectly aware of the fuss this case would create in Poland, abroad and in the Vatican. They are specialists in destabilisation.'

That would be a swell ending. However, the Bishop has admitted he was turning over people to be tortured and killed.

Archbishop Wielgus quit last Sunday at a special mass that was to have marked his appointment as Archbishop of Warsaw, after reluctantly admitting he was an informer.

I hasten to post this least we see bubbles in Boston...

HE new Bishop of Taunton was given a bubbly welcome by the Bath and Wells Diocese on Saturday.

The Rt Rev Peter Maurice's two passions - the ministry of the Church and West Ham football club - came together at a formal service in Wells Cathedral.

At the end of the event, a stream of soap bubbles suddenly appeared above the nave altar and the choirs and congregation burst into the Hammers' song I'm for ever blowing bubbles'.

Holy Family in Duxbury eat your heart out.

Interesting Coverage on Weiglus

If by ordering his resignation the pope finally decided to reverse his position of constant support for Wielgus as head of the most important diocese in Poland, it must be because he was convinced by very serious facts.

Very interesting development

Sex abuse victims can pursue damages from the Vatican in a negligence lawsuit alleging top church officials failed to report known or suspected cases of child abuse, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

I don't disagree.

I would like to see what they knew, when they knew it and what they did about it.  The problem is, Catholics do not get a fair presentation of facts and a fair trial, a fair jury, a fair judge - fair coverage in the press.

Trautman asks when should liturgists disobey Liturgical Rubrics

When they are self proclaimed prophets, of course!

he contended that the     new translations do not adequately meet the liturgical needs of the average     Catholic and expressed fears that the significant changes in the texts no     longer reflect understandable English usage.  Trautman argued that the     proposed changes of the people’s parts during the Mass will confuse the     faithful and predicted that the new texts will contribute to a greater     number of departures from the Catholic Church.

    The Bishop cited various problematic texts, criticizing their awkward     structure and arcane vocabulary that would be very difficult for the priest     to pray aloud and for the people to follow.  Just as problematic for     Trautman was the recent decision to change the words of consecration that     refer to Christ’s blood being shed “for all” to “for many.”  That     change could be easily misinterpreted as denying the faith of the Roman     Catholic Church that Christ died for all people.

All people have a chance.
Not all people take it.
Many don't.

    Bishop Trautman challenged Catholic liturgical scholars of North America to     assist the bishops in promoting a liturgy that is accessible and pastorally     aware.  He urged them, in a spirit of respect and love for the Church,     to be courageous in questioning those developments that would render the     liturgy incomprehensible and betray the intention of the Second Vatican     Council (1962-65).

He urged them to disobey.

Remind me again, why did the Bishop's Conference vote him as King of the Liturgy?

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

The question is whether Romney was doing everything he could do or just making a show of it considering that the Legislature would oppose him at every turn any way. In other words, there was little political cost in minimally satisfying the pro-life, pro-family crowd without truly going to the mat for them. (Although it doesn’t do the Brownback supporters any good to be even tangentially related to a certain Catholic blogger whose rantings have teetered on the edge of unhinged.)

This world all depends on who thinks whom is unhinged.

:)