Where do we go from here..

This is a great article I received in my email on our parish prayer list.

Christians around the world need to unite. We have to surround all and help them understand that while the economy might be in the dumps, that it will recover. We cannot recover the almost 50 million lives that have been lost to abortion. We can help to educate our fellow brothers and sisters on the importance of what God gave us in life, family and love. We have been slowly watching the erosion of family as we know it. Love has been torn apart and lives destroyed because of the belief that we have a choice. While we have been given free will to make choices in life, we cannot accept that we can destroy these core values because it is our "right" If we can pull these values back together, we'll see that life can be so much better. Just think of the strains we have initiated on our own because of our own free choice to this economy.

I encourage you read the story below and stand, unite and help to start to turn this country around... Being a Christian isn't easy, we have to jump off the fence and start putting our faith in action...

God bless all!!!

Rick

-- "The future starts today, not tomorrow." -- John Paul II --

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By PAUL LIKOUDIS

BALTIMORE -- In an hour long discussion on how the U. S. Bishops should respond to Presi dent- elect Barack Obama's cam paign pledge to pass the Freedom of Choice Act ( FOCA) -- legisla tion introduced in the last Con gress by Sen. Barbara Boxer ( D., Calif.) that would erase all restric tions on abortion passed by both federal and state legislatures, such as waiting periods, informed con sent, partial- birth abortion -- the bishops agreed on a forceful oppo sition.

On the second day of their meet ing, the bishops agreed to take points Francis Cardinal George, OMI, made in his presidential ad dress and incorporate them into a message to President- elect Obama and Catholic politicians stating that they cannot compromise on their pro- life position and that they would oppose with all their strength any effort to remove hard fought pro- life gains over the past decades.

( On the same day the bishops were forging their statement to the president- elect and Catholic poli ticians, Catholic News Service, the bishops' news agency, reported that Barack Obama had telephoned the Holy Father to thank him for his letter congratulating him on his elec toral victory. CNS reported that the press office of the Holy See had con firmed the phone call, but neither the Holy See nor the Obama campaign team would discuss the details of a private conversation.) During discussion, Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paproc ki warned that if FOCA should be revived and passed in the next leg islative session, Catholic doctors, nurses, and other health-care work ers would lose their freedom of conscience privileges regarding abortion and other immoral and unethical procedures, and that the government would try to coerce Catholic hospitals into providing abortion services.

In such cases, he said, Catholic hospitals would have to close.

Paprocki said he sees " increas ingly militant and virulent threats to preborn life." If Obama carries through on his campaign pledges, he said, " it could mean discon tinuing obstetrics in our hospitals, and we may need to consider tak ing the drastic step of closing our Catholic hospitals entirely. It would not be sufficient to with draw our sponsorship or to sell them to someone who would per form abortions. That would be a morally unacceptable cooperation in evil," he said.

" I do not think I'm being alarm ist in considering such drastic steps. We need to respond in a morally appropriate, responsible fashion."

During the discussion, which ran more than an hour, several bishops complained that they had failed to convince the majority of Catholic voters that abortion had to be the preeminent issue of the 2008 election -- even more im portant than the imploding econ omy.

Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., lamented that the bishops' voters guide, ap proved last year, Faithful Citizen ship,

" is too quiet and not very clear." Rhode Island's Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R. I., said the document "didn't have the impact we wanted it to have."

Edward Cardinal Egan of New York said George's proposed let ter should be " aiming at one issue and I hope we don't lose that" with overly moderate language. " We have one important thing to say, and we should say it clearly and with punch, and not let it get lost." Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., said the letter must be " prophetic -- strong, uncompro mising in the best biblical tradi tion."

Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans suggested that the letter make some reference to the danger of Obama signing execu tive orders that would allow re­search on embryonic stem cells, abortions in military hospitals, and taxpayer- funded abortion campaigns worldwide.

Several bishops made reference to the slave issue. Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., said that he would like the message to retain the reference to the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision that Cardinal George made in his pres idential address. Justin Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia said he would like to see 12 lines from Pope John Paul's address to Amer icans in St. Louis, where he re ferred to Dred Scott. Bishop Daniel Conlon of Steubenville, Ohio, observed that slavery " was a matter of absolutes -- either you had slavery or you didn't have sla very. So it is with abortion."

Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., complained that abortion rights advocates, includ ing a group he derided as " Catho lics for Alliance for the so- called Common Good" have diluted Church teaching to such an extent that most Catholics now equate the Church's social doctrine on the common good as " a chicken in every pot and a car in every ga rage."

Martino also said the bishops have to deal with stridently pro abortion Catholic politicians such as Vice President- elect Joseph Biden, who grew up in Scranton.

" I cannot have the vice presi dent coming to Scranton and say ing he learned his values there when those values are utterly against those of the Catholic Church."

Have the bishops, at last, found their voice?

The Wanderer posed that ques tion to Mary Ann Kreitzer of Ar lington, Va., founder of the Cath olic Media Coalition, a group of orthodox Catholics active in the independent Catholic press. Her response: " Have the bishops finally found their voice? I am cautiously opti mistic. Cooperation with evil is immoral and, thank God, some of the bishops are dropping nuanced opposition to abortion and talk ing about ' absolutes.' I was partic ularly encouraged by Bishop Martino's call for his brother bish ops to be more punitive to ' stri dently anti- life' public officials and [ Kansas City, Kans.] Arch bishop [ Joseph] Naumann's state ment that Catholic politicians who ' violate . . . the dignity of the unborn . . . cannot call themselves Catholic.' " The question now is whether the bishops' actions will match their words. Which bishops will act like shepherds? Which ones will reflect episcopal politics as usual? The laity need to pray and fast for our bishops and continue to hold them accountable. The country resembles the U. S. before the Civil War; we could hardly be more polarized. Abortion and same- sex marriage are destroying the union as much as slavery did. I hate to think about the possible outcome."

The Five Points

The bishops' hour- plus discus sion was centered on the follow ing five points drawn from Car dinal George's presidential ad dress, which several bishops had suggested form the basis for a conference message to President elect Obama and Catholic poli ticians.

" 1) Essential elements of the ( cardinal's) presidential address can inform the statement.

" 2) The bishops desire to work with the administration, especial ly in the areas such as economic justice and opportunity: immigra tion reform; health care for the poor, especially for women and children; education; religious free dom; and working for peace. The Church is intent on doing good.

" 3) The Church is also intent on opposing evil. The bishops are completely united and resolute in our teaching and defense of the unborn child from the moment of conception. The bishops therefore express our concern for those left unprotected by law in our present situation: children in their moth er's womb.

" In the last Congress, a law that would make abortion a ' funda mental right' and remove any re strictions now in law would con sequently forbid the involvement of the parents of a minor child in a decision to abort, would permit partial- birth abortion, would ap parently reject freedom of con science for health care workers and place Catholic health care in jeopardy, would deregulate abor tion clinics, and use tax money to pay for abortions. Such a law would reduce religious freedom and the Church must work against its passage.

"4) The recent election was prin cipally decided out of concern for the collapse of the economy, the loss of jobs and economic securi ty for families, here and around the world. Even issues such as the Iraq War and universal health care, let alone abortion rights, were of secondary importance. If the elec tion is interpreted as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President- elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of cri sis will be impossible to achieve. The common good would be even more grievously wounded and our society would be more deeply di vided than it is now.

"The common good of our coun try is assured only when the life of every unborn child is legally protected. Aggressively pro- abor tion policies and legislation will permanently alienate tens of mil lions of Americans and would be interpreted by many Catholics as an attack on the Church.

" 5) We are grateful for the good will and good work of those Cath olics in political life who work to protect the lives of the most vul nerable among us by correcting unjust laws, sometimes at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves and their families. We again ex press our desire that all Catholics in public life be fully committed to the common good. The Church is a communion of persons united around Christ, and we pray that this communion may always be complete."