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Catholic bishops plan to forcefully confront Obama (And Catholic hospitals could close under FOCA)
Chicagotribune.com ^ | November 11, 2008 | Manya Brachear

Posted on 11/18/2008 8:14:45 PM PST by Sun

"There are grave consequences," Paprocki said in an interview. "If Catholic hospitals were required by federal law to perform abortions, we'd have to close our hospitals."

"I don't think I'm being alarmist," Paprocki told the bishops.

George agreed that losing federal funds would put Catholic health care facilities, which make up a third of the nation's hospitals, out of business. Closing Catholic hospitals would put many patients seeking charitable care from those facilities at risk, he added.

In crafting the statement to Obama, the bishops urged the cardinal to indicate a desire to work with the administration in areas of economic justice, immigration reform, health care for the poor and religious freedom. But they stressed the church's "intent on opposing evil" and "defense of the unborn child."

They vowed to oppose any law or executive order that might loosen restrictions on abortion.

They emphasized that efforts to advance abortion rights would "permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans and would be interpreted by many Catholics as an attack on the Church." They also urged Catholics in public life to be committed to the teachings of the church.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Religion
KEYWORDS: catholicbishops; foca; obama; prolife

1 posted on 11/18/2008 8:14:45 PM PST by Sun
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To: Sun
I bet this is incentive for the Dems to pass the FOCA. If 1/3 of our hospitals start 'failing' due to lack of gov't funding, the gov't will just have to step in and take them over, "for the sake of the people".

This play may be the path to socialized medicine folks.

2 posted on 11/18/2008 8:22:45 PM PST by 5thGenTexan
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To: All

“How serious are they? So serious that they won’t bother to sell the hospitals. They’ll shut them down and take the losses in order to prevent their use as abortion clinics. To do otherwise, the bishops stated, would be to cooperate in the evil of abortions.

What kind of impact would that have? The Catholic Church is one of the nation’s biggest health-care providers. In 2007, they ran 557 hospitals that serviced over 83 million patients. The church also had 417 clinics that saw over seven million patients. If they shut down almost a thousand hospitals and clinics nationwide, the US would not just lose a significant portion of available health care, but the poor and working-class families that received the health care would have fewer options.

Also, the Catholic Church runs this on a non-profit basis, spending vast sums of its money to ensure access for those unable to pay. That’s the kind of model that many on the Left believe should exclusively provide health care — and FOCA would spell the end of the major provider already in that model.”

excerpt http://hotair.com/archives/2008/11/12/catholic-bishops-fight-foca/


3 posted on 11/18/2008 8:35:50 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Sun
What about the Catholic hospitals' 1st Amendment rights?

Our Catholic hospitals locally it appears were merged with formerly Protestant ones, taken over by parent corporations, and abortions are perfomed at a PP clinic. So really, why the need for Catholic hospitals to perform them anyway? Are they required to dispense birth control (apart from female problems which is permitted, may not be a hospital but a drugstore issue), perform tubal ligations, vasectomies? This could cut deeper than abortion.

4 posted on 11/18/2008 8:38:16 PM PST by Aliska
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To: 5thGenTexan

Yep, they could use this as a jumping board for universal healthcare, or they could use the financial problems of the Big 3 auto manufacturers as an excuse, because the healthcare they provided is part of the problem.

Libs will use any excuse to get their way and control us.


5 posted on 11/18/2008 8:40:02 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Aliska

With the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), pro-life nurses and doctors are REQUIRED to perfrom abortions, and Obama promised Planned Parenthood that he would sign FOCA.

They don’t care about our 1st Amendment rights.


6 posted on 11/18/2008 8:43:34 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Sun

Read the comments at the link.

Sounds like a lot of people would rather burn these Bishops and while they are at it conservatives at the stake!


7 posted on 11/18/2008 8:53:17 PM PST by ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton (To those who believe the world was safer with Saddam, get treatment for that!)
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To: Sun
They don’t care about our 1st Amendment rights.

No surprise there, and with the SC stacked with liberal, activist judges, I fear for mine. Don't expect any help from the ACLU.

8 posted on 11/18/2008 8:56:42 PM PST by Aliska
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To: ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton

I read a few of them. Obviously some stupid people with a lot of time on their hands.


9 posted on 11/18/2008 9:01:00 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Aliska

The aclu is actually against our free speech rights, unless you’re a radical Islamic, or liberal, that is.


10 posted on 11/18/2008 9:02:12 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Sun
The aclu is actually against our free speech rights, unless you’re a radical Islamic, or liberal, that is.

It would seem so. Sometimes they do well for some, but seem to definitely have an anti-Christian agenda.

This could all come to a head very soon, sooner than I had thought.

11 posted on 11/18/2008 9:23:05 PM PST by Aliska
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To: 5thGenTexan
If 1/3 of our hospitals start 'failing' due to lack of gov't funding, the gov't will just have to step in and take them over, "for the sake of the people".

Yup. For the sake of "the children".

Socialist wages for medical personnel are not far behind.

12 posted on 11/18/2008 9:25:11 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (All hail the Obamasiah! Kneel before Obamohammad!)
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To: Sun

I’m behind them all the way.


13 posted on 11/18/2008 9:40:02 PM PST by mockingbyrd (Sarah 2012!)
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To: Sun
No law Obama pushes supersedes the Constitution, and nothing supersedes the right of good people to protect innocent human life from being killed.

Christian hospitals, doctors, nurses, churches, organizations, pharmacists, et cetera need to do the right thing and ensure the right thing is done.

If the fascist Obama wants to try to force his culture of death on good people and the organizations they run, he can try.

But for Christians, resistance to his culture of death must be complete and completely unyielding, for there is a much higher authority than Barack Obama.

14 posted on 11/18/2008 10:33:12 PM PST by TheFourthMagi
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To: Sun

I think there are some Catholic hospitals that closed their maternity and ob-gyn wards years ago in order to continue receiving Medicaid/Medicare funding. Ironic for a Roman Catholic hospital not to deliver babies.


15 posted on 11/18/2008 10:47:33 PM PST by informavoracious (It's after midnight, I'm FReepwalking...)
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To: Sun

bm


16 posted on 11/18/2008 10:59:55 PM PST by Global2010 (God Will see us through. Blessings.)
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To: Aliska

The ACLU has an extremely antilife agenda, including abortion and euthanasia, even forced euthanasia.

And they are antifree speech when it comes to displaying the Ten Commandments, etc..

Here’s an example of whose side the ACLU is on:

‘Jailed Terror Suspect Helped ACLU Draft Schools’ Anti-Christian Rules

Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004

WASHINGTON – Abdurahman Alamoudi, an alleged senior terrorist operative, is behind bars on an 18-count indictment. But he can take satisfaction in the fact that a court in California has just given the green light to schools following ACLU’s religion-in-the-classroom guidelines, which he helped to formulate.

A federal judge judge has now upheld the constitutionality of an intensive three-week course in California government schools that requires children to choose a Muslim name, wear Islamic garb, memorize verses from the Koraan, pray to Allah, play “jihad games, and simulate worship activities related to the Five Pillars of Islam.”

The next step: likely an appeal to the notoriously left-wing 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which deems the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional.

But hasn’t American Civil Liberties Union lectured us that religious instruction in school violates what it describes as “separation of church and state” (a phrase that appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution)? Read on. That injunction seems to depend on which religion is involved.

The guidelines in ACLU’s document is in effect a warning (some would say an implied threat) to schools as to how they can avoid legal challenges from the same ACLU on church/state issues in the classroom.’

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/1/13/172143.shtml


17 posted on 11/19/2008 5:39:55 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: TheFourthMagi

“But for Christians, resistance to his culture of death must be complete and completely unyielding, for there is a much higher authority than Barack Obama.”

No matter what, we must continue to fight, and will WILL!


18 posted on 11/19/2008 5:42:31 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: informavoracious

“I think there are some Catholic hospitals that closed their maternity and ob-gyn wards years ago in order to continue receiving Medicaid/Medicare funding. Ironic for a Roman Catholic hospital not to deliver babies.”

Maybe that’s what Catholic hospitals will have to do, close maternity wards, in order to stay in existence. How very sad.

Plus, some smaller Catholic hospitals might not be able to make it, without the maternity ward, so some probably would have to close.

Keep praying, and keep fighting.


19 posted on 11/19/2008 5:46:11 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: All

“Catholics Who Vote for Freedom of Choice Act Could Face Automatic Excommunication

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

By Matt Hadro

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago (Photo from Archdiocese of Chicago Web site)(CNSNews.com) - Catholic members of Congress who vote for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) could face “automatic excommunication” if the act is determined to be “formal cooperation” in the evil of abortion.”

excerpt http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=39553

Automatic Excommunication would depend on what ends up being in the FOCA bill, but the last proposal I saw on FOCA was very wicked, including forcing pro-life doctors and nurses to perform abortions.


20 posted on 11/19/2008 6:07:21 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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