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Posted on 02/27/2012 9:59:56 AM PST by marshmallow
Warning that the Church is being “despoiled of her institutions” as “freedom of conscience and of religion become a memory from a happier past,” Cardinal Francis George of Chicago observes that “the Catholic Church in the United States is being told she must ‘give up’ her health care institutions, her universities and many of her social service organizations.”
“So far in American history, our government has respected the freedom of individual conscience and of institutional integrity for all the many religious groups that shape our society,” he continues. “The government has not compelled them to perform or pay for what their faith tells them is immoral. That’s what we’ve meant by freedom of religion. That’s what we had believed was protected by the U.S. Constitution. Maybe we were foolish to believe so.”
Cardinal George adds:
What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the Church, her moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop. This is a form of theft. It means the Church will not be permitted to have an institutional voice in public life. 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down ...
Freedom of worship was guaranteed in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union. You could go to church, if you could find one. The church, however, could do nothing except conduct religious rites in places of worship-no schools, religious publications, health care institutions, organized charity, ministry for justice and the works..........
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicculture.org ...
The Church seemed OK with O’care at the time of passage. It forces me to do thing I don’t want to do. NOW the Church gets it? Better late than never.
Yes.
It is what I’ve been posting from day one.
The regulation is merely a cat’s paw to easy government takeover of a block of hospitals in order to undercut the rest with subsidies and take them all over for national healtcare.
****** If the Catholic Church is forced to close them, it must also demolish the buildings on the way out so they can’t be used by the government. *******
I recommend that the Catholic Bishops of America excommunicate a national politician every Wednesday and every weekend - our most religious days. The excommunications should be public and widely published. Included in the excommunication decree is a phrase that makes every catholic to supports the excommunicated politician eligible for excommunication.
Then after 60 days start excommunication those fallen followers. When this happens, another major church should start the excommunication process. Does anyone thing Obama et al will just stop with the Catholic church?
The current ruling class has declared war on all religious organizations in America and they, all the churches, must return the favor.
These baby butchering fiends aren't even trying to destroy the church over abortion per se but over them wanting everyone else to pay for their butchering. All of this isn't even over whether one can get an abortion or not but wanting abortion on demand AND not having to pay for it.
I believe that is what the 0bamorrhoids want.
Has anyone out there seen a US Flag atop a veteran's coffin during a Catholic funeral ceremony?
Catholics take that US flag off and replace it with a church flag before taking the coffin to the altar area.
I'd like to know that answer, and I hope and pray that the Church learned from any failures in that situation. We are facing pure evil, and we cannot waver.
Catholics take any national flag off of the coffin before taking it into the church. They replace it, not with a Vatican flag, but with a white pall. The purpose of the white pall is to recall the baptismal garments.
You may wish to consider Rev 3:4 and Rev 6:9-12 before casting aspersions on something you may not have full understanding of.
Just passing the word so that people know what to expect.
**The Bishop needs to go nuclear. Notify the public that if they are forced to close Catholic facilities, THEY WILL NOT BE SOLD.**
My thoughts, exactly!
Well Cardinal, lie down with dogs...I am honestly amazed at how blind some of our Bishops have been. At least it appears they seem to be waking up to the realities of tacitly and actively supporting a party that has supported virtually every anti-family and anti-Catholic agenda that has made its way the culture in the last 40 years.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
No, the US bishops opposed it on the same grounds.
Thanks for the correction, D-fendr. I thought their support was one of the last “major group” endorsements. I stand corrected.
No problem, it’s a common misconception. The regime also did the same thing then and trotted out “Catholic” groups as supporting it. It’s pernicious.
It's any secular symbol, not just the US flag. Any national flag, any emblem of a club or a secular honor, etc.
And not all Catholics do that. I can attest to that personally, since it wasn't done at my father's funeral.
Thank you for your observation and three cheers for the Pastor that allowed it. My negative experience happened at my mother’s funeral. She was a WW-I Army nurse ... on her way to a National Cemetery.
No ... we remove ANY secular symbol, and replace it with a white funeral pall (symbolizing the resurrection and recalling the white garment worn at our baptism). It is NOT a "church flag"; indeed there really is no such thing.
What should happen during a Catholic American military veteran's funeral is:
His casket is brought in to the church draped in the US Flag.
The US Flag is removed with appropriate ceremony and replaced with the white Funeral Pall.
The Requiem Mass / Mass of the Resurrection is offered on his behalf.
After the conclusion of the Mass, the white Funeral Pall is removed and replaced with the US Flag.
The casket is removed from the church and either transported directly to the cemetery for burial, or placed in storage awaiting burial at a later date. The latter may be necessitated by weather, or by scheduling concerns at national cemeteries.
This procedure is not intended to be offensive, and should not be taken as such. It is a right ordering of priorities. ANY Christian should see himself as a Christian first, above all else. Placing one's first loyalty to ANY created person, place, or thing rather than to God is idolatry.
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