Friday, December 11th, 2009
Daily Archive
US Bishops Express Regret Over Senate Health Care Bill
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 11 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Miscellaneous
The USCCB released the following statement on Wednesday, December 9.
Bishops Deeply Disappointed by Senate Vote to Table Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment
WASHINGTON—“The Senate vote to table the Nelson-Hatch-Casey amendment is a grave mistake and a serious blow to genuine health care reform,” said Cardinal Francis George, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The Senate is ignoring the promise made by President Obama and the will of the American people in failing to incorporate longstanding prohibitions on federal funding for abortion and plans that include abortion.”
Bishop William Murphy, Chair of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said: “Congress needs to retain existing abortion funding restrictions and safeguard conscience protections because the nation urgently needs health care reform that protects the life, dignity, conscience and health of all. We will continue to work with Senators, Representatives and the Administration to achieve reform which meets these criteria. We hope the Senate will address the legislation’s fundamental flaw on abortion and remedy its serious problems related to conscience rights, affordability and treatment of immigrants.”
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Chair of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said: “Congress needs to separate facts and truth from political rhetoric on abortion funding. Even our opponents claim they do not support federal funding for elective abortions and they want current restrictions to apply. The way to settle this often misleading debate is simply, clearly and explicitly to apply Hyde restrictions to all the federal funds in the legislation. That is what the House did and what the final bill must do. The Senate should not approve this bill in its current form.”
Bishop John Wester, Chair of the bishops’ Committee on Migration, pointed out: “For many years the bishops have strongly supported accessible and affordable health care for all. Health care must protect, not threaten, human life and dignity; respect, not violate, consciences of providers, taxpayers, and others. We believe universal coverage should be truly universal, not deny health care to those in need because of where they come from or when they arrive here. The Senate proposal falls short in these areas. Immigrants deserve access to health care for their benefit and the common good of all of society. We urge Senators to resist amendments that would leave immigrants and their families behind as the nation reforms health care. We urge Senators to support amendments that improve health-care access for immigrants and their families and to oppose efforts that deny them access.”
Cardinal George concluded: “While we deplore the Senate’s refusal to adopt the Nelson-Hatch-Casey amendment, we remain hopeful that the protections overwhelmingly passed by the House will be incorporated into needed reform legislation. Failure to exclude abortion funding will turn allies into adversaries and require us and others to oppose this bill because it abandons both principle and precedent.”
“Word to Life” – December 11, 2009
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 11 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Word to Life
Click below to hear this week’s edition of “Word to Life.
Joining me on the program today to discuss the readings for Gaudete Sunday were Curtis Mitch, a trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and co-author of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, and Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P., a parochial vicar at the University Parish of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village.
“Word to Life” airs live every Friday at 1:00 PM EST on The Catholic Channel, Sirius 159 and XM 117.
“A City Singing at Christmas” – December 17
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 11 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Music, Parish News
Pope St. Damasus I (304-384)
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 11 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Liturgical Feasts
O Christ, Good Shepherd, I thank you for leading me to glory;
I pray that the flock you have entrusted to my care
will share with me in our glory forever.
Pope Damasus’ life spanned one of the more exciting centuries in Christian history—the fourth. He was born in 304 during the Diocletian persecution, the last and greatest of the Empire’s attempts to extinguish the faith. He died in 384, just a few years shy of Christianity’s establishment as the imperial state religion. These two events couldn’t lie further apart politically, and yet they are separated by a mere eight decades. Between these two events, Damasus served 20 years as Bishop of Rome.
The following biography indicates just a few of the momentous events he helped to shape. From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
His father, Antonius, was probably a Spaniard; the name of his mother, Laurentia, was not known until quite recently. Damasus seems to have been born at Rome; it is certain that he grew up there in the service of the church of the martyr St. Laurence. He was elected pope in October, 366, by a large majority, but a number of over-zealous adherents of the deceased Liberius rejected him, chose the deacon Ursinus (or Ursicinus), had the latter irregularly consecrated, and resorted to much violence and bloodshed in order to seat him in the Chair of Peter. Many details of this scandalous conflict are related in the highly prejudiced “Libellus Precum” (P.L., XIII, 83-107), a petition to the civil authority on the part of Faustinus and Marcellinus, two anti-Damasan presbyters (cf. also Ammianus Marcellinus, Rer. Gest., XXVII, c. iii). Valentinian recognized Damasus and banished (367) Ursinus to Cologne, whence he was later allowed to return to Milan, but was forbidden to come to Rome or its vicinity. The party of the antipope (later at Milan an adherent of the Arians and to the end a contentious pretender) did not cease to persecute Damasus. An accusation of adultery was laid against him (378) in the imperial court, but he was exonerated by Emperor Gratian himself (Mansi, Coll. Conc., III, 628) and soon after by a Roman synod of forty-four bishops (Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, s.v.; Mansi, op. cit., III, 419) which also excommunicated his accusers.