in this issue:
hot button issues: CATHOLIC CRUSADE
graduation watch: MARIST / QUINCY
judiciary: JUDGES FAIL SCIENCE
morning-after abortion pill: OVER THE COUNTER
planned parenthood: CLOSED
practitioners: MASSACHUSETTS
repeating history: NEGRO PROJECT
thought police: CALIFORNIA / EUROPEAN UNION
zinger: DOMINO THEORY
postscript: CALL TO BISHOPS
reflection for prayer: ISAIAH 5:20-21
hot button issues
CATHOLIC CRUSADE: Rep. Loretta Sanchez volunteered to step down as graduation speaker at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles; but the college insisted that she and her sister, Rep. Linda Sanchez, deliver remarks at the school’s commencement. Both Sanchez sisters are pro-abortion. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said the school is not under Cardinal Roger Mahony’s control, but that the Sanchez sisters’ position on abortion is “troubling.” American Life League, the Cardinal Newman Society and several other groups held a peaceful protest outside the campus during the May 10 graduation.
(Reading: “Abortion foes protest over grad speakers,” Los Angeles Times, 5/11/03; “Abortion issue sets off dispute at LA college,” Los Angeles Times, 5/7/03)
graduation watch
MARIST: The Archdiocese of New York has formally acknowledged that Marist College is no longer a Catholic institution. The Cardinal Newman Society had asked for clarification after the school invited Eliot Spitzer, New York’s pro-abortion attorney general, to speak at graduation. The school was founded by the Marist brothers, but control was transferred to a secular board in 1969.
(Reading: “NY archdiocese says Marist College ‘no longer Catholic,'” Cardinal Newman Society news release, 5/9/03)
QUINCY: Broadcaster Paul Harvey has withdrawn as commencement speaker at Quincy University, a Catholic college in Illinois. Although the school described Harvey as “quite opposed to abortion,” his public statements have indicated the “choice should be left to a woman and her God and her doctor.”
(Reading: “Cardinal Newman Society protest causes pro-abortion Paul Harvey to cancel commencement address at Quincy University,” Cardinal Newman Society news release, 5/9/03)
judiciary
JUDGES FAIL SCIENCE: According to the Connecticut Supreme Court, a “fetus” is a body part. In a highly jumbled ruling, the court upheld the conviction of a man who drugged his pregnant girlfriend in order to induce abortion. That portion of the case led Connecticut NARAL director Elaine Werner to quip, “Any time I hear about giving rights to fetuses, I get concerned.” But identifying the baby as part of the mother’s body befuddled pro-lifers.
COMMENT: The father’s amateur abortion attempt failed. The former fetus is now a growing, healthy boy, and is presumably no longer considered a body part.
(Reading: “Conn. Supreme Court: Fetus is a body part,” Associated Press, 5/7/03)
morning-after abortion pill
OVER THE COUNTER: It’s not too late to let the US Food and Drug Administration know why pro-lifers oppose the morning-after abortion pill. Pro-abortion forces want pharmacists to be allowed to dispense these pills, which can cause an abortion in the first few days following fertilization, without a doctor’s prescription.
CONTACT: Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. You can also . Reference Docket 01P-0075 (“Switch Status of Emergency Contraceptives from Rx to OTC”).
BACKGROUND: See “What part of ’emergency contraception’ is not abortion,” American Life League.
planned parenthood
CLOSED: After nearly 20 years in business, the Planned Parenthood office in Daly City, Calif., is shutting its doors at the end of May. Planned Parenthood blames economics — a downturn in contributions and an upturn in clients who can’t pay. Planned Parenthood acknowledges a campaign seeking $1 million in donations to save the facility is considered a long shot.
(Reading: “Daly City to lose Planned Parenthood,” San Mateo County Times, 5/6/03)
practitioners
MASSACHUSETTS: The state medical board has suspended Jian Yu’s medical license for botching an abortion — twice — thus threatening the life of a 21-year-old patient. Police had shut down his small office in February. The “clinic” had no running water or sterilization equipment. When a reporter called Yu to get his side of the story, the doctor simply hung up.
(Reading: “Board suspends Malden doctor,” Boston Globe, 5/8/03)
repeating history
NEGRO PROJECT: During the 1930s, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger launched the Negro Project to bring her population control agenda to the black community. African-American pro-lifers now fear a slicker, 21st century version of the same idea is lurking in the Black Church Initiative, a project of the rabidly pro-abortion Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
(Reading: e-mail exchange from LEARN, the Life Education and Resource Network; “Black Church Initiative,” Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice)
thought police
CALIFORNIA: A new legislative proposal would label interfering with an abortion mill patient or employee a hate crime. The bill has cleared an assembly insurance committee. The text does not refer to abortion, but to “reproductive health services.”
(Reading: “Abortion interference penalties debated,” KRON-TV, 5/8/03; AB996, California State Assembly, 4/10/03)
EUROPEAN UNION: A new unit has reportedly been set up to monitor pro-life organizations. The order is said to have come from European Union aid commissioner Poul Nielson, who has spoken of US pro-life organizations as having extreme views. Nielson has also reportedly earmarked millions for organizations that promote abortion in developing nations. Pro-life members of the European Parliament are demanding answers.
(Reading: News, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 5/8/03)
zinger
DOMINO THEORY: Attorneys for the state of Oregon say US Attorney General John Ashcroft has no business interfering with the state’s assisted suicide law, because, according to an Associated Press account, “states have historically regulated the practice of medicine.”
COMMENT: Killing persons by abortion has been redefined as a “medical procedure.” Now, the act of helping to kill the elderly and infirm is falling under the same mantle of respectability. What next?
(Reading: “Oregon defends assisted suicide law,” Associated Press, 5/7/03)
postscript
CALL TO BISHOPS: Last week, Communique noted that Bishop James Timlin refused to attend commencement ceremonies at the Jesuit-run University of Scranton because MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who is pro-abortion, was addressing graduates. That item brings the following response from attorney Richard F. Collier, Jr.:
Not attending the ceremonies is not enough! The bishop has a “personal obligation” to ensure that Catholic institutions within his diocese remain faithful to Catholic teaching and do not become vehicles for scandalous activity which will corrupt his flock. Section 116 of Veritatis Splendor makes this point clearly:
A particular responsibility is incumbent upon Bishops with regard to Catholic institutions. Whether these are agencies for the pastoral care of the family or for social work, or institutions dedicated to teaching or health care, Bishops can canonically erect and recognize these structures and delegate certain responsibilities to them. Nevertheless, Bishops are never relieved of their own personal obligations. It falls to them, in communion with the Holy See, both to grant the title “Catholic” to Church-related schools, universities, health-care facilities and counseling services, and, in cases of a serious failure to live up to that title, to take it away.
More to the point, Scripture makes it clear that bishops have an obligation to rebuke and then expel the members of their flock who are recalcitrant and persist in evil. For example, Titus 1:10-13 (“rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith”) and 1 Corinthians 5 (especially the last verse: “Put away the evil one from among yourselves”). And Matthew 18:15-17, which comes right out of the mouth of Our Lord Himself. It is ludicrous — and cowardly — to hide behind the “pastoral” excuse for not doing what they are required to do. Indeed, it is hypocritical to suggest that being “pastoral” is a virtuous thing for them to do, and somehow puts them on a higher moral plane than those of us who would like to see a couple of rebukes here and there. Where would we be if Our Lord and His Apostles were so “pastoral”? They did not hesitate to rebuke and expel for the sake of their flocks — what makes their successors think that they know better and indeed have a higher, more refined morality?
Moreover, it is abundantly clear after 30 years that the “pastoral” approach does not work. I think it was Albert Einstein who said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” We know from 30 years of the same results that being “pastoral” does not cause Catholic institutions and celebrities to repent and reform their lives. True pastoralism would rebuke and expel them, so that the “shock and awe” of such formal excommunication would cause them to reconsider, and in the meantime would send the right message to the other sheep. Right now, there is no downside for being an open and notorious public sinner — which is why the sinners continue to wallow in their sin and why others are led by their example to do the same.
reflection for prayer
ISAIAH 5:20-21: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet, and sweet into bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own sight, and prudent in their own esteem!