Obama needs Catholics on board with health care plan

The Obama Adminstration knows what we know; in order to pass health care reform, Catholics must be on board.US News states,
"That antiabortion, pro-universal healthcare stance—and the fact that a full quarter of the U.S. population is Catholic—make the bishops and the wider Catholic community a key swing constituency in the escalating healthcare reform battle. If they can allay Catholic concerns on abortion, Obama and the Democrats stand to enlist the church as a powerful ally in the fight. But if the bishops and other Catholic institutions wind up opposing the Democrats' healthcare plan because of its abortion provisions, they can help bring down the whole effort. Says Doerflinger: "People on both sides of the issue want us to join their coalition."However, the problem is, there is a divide among Catholics, we are split nearly down the middle, between those who favor the Obama plan and those, like this group, who do not trust Obama to exclude abortion funding and death panels for the disabled and elderly in the legislation."

On Fox News today Fr Jonathan Morris made an important clarification. He corrected the host who said that the USCCB wants universal healthcare. He said the US bishops want universal access to health care, not necessarily this bill. There are many ways to improve access to health care, for example health care savings accounts, tax deductions for premiums, a group plan for the uninsured to buy into, etc.
Fr Morris assured the viewers of Fox News that the bishops are not sold on the current health care plan because of the threat of abortion funding. Obama will be working hard to seal the deal, and courting Catholics in various ways (Kennedy funeral, Notre Dame, Georgetown, visiting the Pope, etc). Don't be used by an administration who is expert at manipulation.Catholics are a necessary part of Obamacare. Let's remember that and use our power unilaterally instead of cancelling one another's votes!

Into the Mercy

Just fifteen minutes before the hour of mercy, 3PM, my mother, Eleanor Bonk Crafa, left this vale of tears to fly into the loving merciful arms of Jesus.

She was surrounded by her family and we prayed a Chaplet of Divine Mercy to send her off. She had been given an Apostolic Blessing, and received holy communion this morning.

It was a happy death.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon her.May her soul and the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen

Will Obama keep his promise to keep abortion funding out of health care?

Catholic League president Bill Donohue offered the following remarks today on the health care bill:

Last week, President Obama said he would not support any health care bill that provided for federal funding of abortion. On Sunday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius underscored his pledge. Now an amendment that would bar abortion funding from H.R. 3200 has been drafted by Congressmen Bart Stupak and Joe Pitts. On September 10, they sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Chairwoman of the Rules Committee, asking that they allow all members of the U.S. House of Representatives “the right to vote their conscience” on this amendment.

President Obama did not mince words on this subject, and neither did Secretary Sebelius. Accordingly, we look for the president to publicly endorse this amendment, urging Congresswomen Pelosi and Slaughter to facilitate a House vote. This is a critical juncture—the time for the president to deliver on what he pledged is now. The Catholic community, in particular, anxiously awaits his next move.

Health care for Gunner slideshow on Flickr

Click here to view slideshow.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjgrabosky/3923567324/in/set-72157622378320804/

Rep McMorris Rogers supports Health Care for Gunner

Rep Cathy McMorris Rogers is a champion for disabled children, as well as the proud mother of Cole, her son with Down syndrome. Here is a link to the YouTube video of her remarks at Healthcare for Gunner press conference yesterday.

Healthcare for Gunner speaks out for their disabled children

I was part of this group who spoke out about fears that our disabled children will be denied health care when resources dwindle, as they have in Canada.

Catholics against Obamacare on Renew America

Jean Heimann and I were featured in an article about Catholics Against Obamacare at Renew America.
Read the entire article on Renew America.

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/valois/090911

Rick Santorum is running for president

It was an interview I'll never forget; I drove down to DC to interview former Senator Rick Santorum for a piece on Catholic politicians for Canticle magazine.
It was an honor I'll never forget, spending an hour reliving his historic speech describing partial birth abortion on the Senate floor. He and his wife Karen were in the midst of mourning the loss of their pre-born son Gabriel, when he was called to speak on behalf of babies at the very same stage of gestation. He was thrust into the spotlight and rose to the occasion, voice pitching higher with the emotion, Santorum insisted that what was at stake was not a 'termination' but a baby. A BABY!
Just then, as the reverberations of his words were ringing in the chamber, the clear cry of an infant could be heard. Senators were silent, absorbing the providential timing of the cry. Was it the voice of Gabriel from heaven, reinforcing his father's pleading? Some think so.
Some of us think that a man like that should be in the White House. Read about a roomful of Catholics who agree.
Read the entire story on Life Site News. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09091202.html

Watch me on the "Healthcare for Gunner" press conference 9/15

I will be part of Students for Life program "Healthcare for Gunner" press conference on Tuesday, Sept 15 at 10AM on the major cable news outlets. I will be representing International Down Syndrome Coalition for Life, and showing Christina's photo. It is the feast of the Sorrowful Mother, may she intercede for our success to convince Congress to ditch the health care plan 3200 until it protects the lives of the vulnerable and the unborn.

More on Rep Courtney's Town Hall

Fellow blogger over at Exultet, who goes by Mike in CT has written a more detailed post than mine on the Town Hall Meeting of our Congressman Joe Courtney on September 2.
Go on over and get a different yet fair take on what he calls the shell game the Dems are playing with the health care plan.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration with the Knights of Columbus

Three of the Friars of the Immaculate and I drove to New Haven to St Mary's Church for the Guadalupe Celebration. Supreme Knight Carl Andersen and Monsignor Eduardo Chavez, the postulator for the Cause for Beatification for St Juan Diego and rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City were celebrating the launch of their new book, "Our Lady of Guadalupe" which is already on the bestseller lists.

The evening began with Holy Mass at St Mary's the Church where Fr Michael McGivney began the Knights, over a hundred years ago. The crowd overflowed to the basement where we watched on TV monitors as Msgr Chavez gave a talk after Mass. He explained the origin of the relic, a 1/2 inch sqare of the 500 year old cactus fiber cloth (such cloth normally dissolves after 15 years, but the tilma has survived bomb and acid attacks and the handling of the faithful for half a millenium. The relic was given to the bishop of Los Angeles by the rector of the Basilica for his support of the Mexican Church during the Mexican government's persecution of Catholics in the 1920's. Many Knights of Columbus gave their lives for the Faith in those dark days, offering themselves up to the firing squads with their arms in the form of the Cross, crying, "Que Vivo Cristo Rey" (Long life Christ the King) For this they were named "Cristeros".

The crowd, a multi-cultural mixture of old and young Catholics, then processed through the campus of Yale University, and the streets of New Haven to the Knights of Columbus Museum. Led by the statue with a small square of the actual tilma of St Juan Diego, the procession was enlivened by a mariachi band and dozens of Latin Americans in their brilliantly colored folk dance costumes, followed by young families with strollers, religious in long habits, and stately greying businessmen with their Knights lapel pins on their blue jackets. They were met with curious gaze of college professors and students, who asked us "What is this?". When we answered "a procession" one young scholar looking confused asked, "What's a procession?" Sometimes the simple confound the wise!
A true cross section of the Church arrived at the museum to a fiesta with free Mexican food and entertainment. Upstairs, a velvet rope guided rosary-praying pilgrims to a dark panelled room where they knelt to reverence the relic of Our Lady. In the lobby of the museum, Msgr Chavez and Carl Andersen were busy signing copies of their book. Of course, when I have read the book, I'll be reviewing it here.

Read the entire story on the Knights of Columbus website.

Bill Donohue says Obama is deceitful about abortion in health care plan

From the Catholic League
OBAMA DENIES HEALTH PLAN COVERS ABORTION

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on President Obama’s speech last night on health care reform:

Yesterday, I said the president would not mention abortion in his speech. I was wrong about that. But I was right to say, “The rational thing to do would be to drop abortion from the health care bills and support conscience rights for health care workers.” Obama did nothing of the sort. Indeed, his one sentence denial that his health care proposals would result in federal funding of abortion is simply not true.

Even the New York Times, which issued a strong editorial endorsing his speech, said in a news analysis that his claim that there is no federal funding for abortion “is not so clear-cut.” In practice, the Times said, “the public and private money would all go into the same pot, and the source of money for any single procedure is largely a technicality.”

More pointedly, if there is no federal funding for abortion in these plans, then why have there been several attempts to bar such funding? Tell that to Rep. Bart Stupak, Rep. Joe Pitts, Rep. Eric Cantor, Rep. Sam Johnson, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Sen. Mike Enzi. Why would they seek to ban something that doesn’t exist? Just as revealing, why did Obama’s friends defeat every one of these amendments?

President Obama is playing a shell game. He defended the public option plan last night, and under that plan, the person in charge of deciding whether abortion coverage will be mandated is his Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. This is the same woman who befriended George Tiller, the infamous abortionist who specialized in killing babies 80-percent born. Is there anyone who doubts what her decision will be? If President Bush appointed a secretary of education who was pro-school vouchers, and an education plan allowed the secretary to decide whether to fund them, would anyone conclude that federal dollars for vouchers were not in the plan?

Being wrong is one thing. Being deceitful is quite another.

Denying health care to the disabled

Sarah Palin has made her fears known about whether Obamacare will cover her son Trig in her Wall Street Journal piece. Deacon Fournier has a piece in Catholic Online about another Sarah whose child was denied health care and died under the British Health System.
"She is not the only woman named Sarah whose words fed my serious reservations today. The other woman is named Sarah Capewell. Her tragic story of the loss of her little son made me even more cautious over where some of the alleged “Health Care Reform” plans may be headed. I read an article in the “UK Daily Mail”, entitled 'Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby'. It was written by Vanessa Allen and Andrew Levy. It detailed the horrific failed plight of Sarah Capewell to save her own child from Government Health care rationing in the U.K. She lost her son Jayden due to the decision of the NHS, the Health Care System in Great Britain - a system similar to what some have proposed for the United States of America - to let him die, for economic reasons. They had also refused to treat her in her efforts, while she was pregnant, to prolong his time in her womb and slow an early birth. Over economic concerns and alleged efficiency they refused any attempts to save Jaydon. "
Read the entire story at Catholic Online.

Protesting Obamacare on Martha's Vineyard

On August 27, I was honored to joing prolife heroes Chris Slattery of Expectant Mother Care and Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition on a trip to Martha's Vineyard to raise awareness about the dangers of Obamacare. Especially if you are elderly, disabled, or unborn.

Not only was it a beautiful day, but well over half the passersby gave us enthusiastic thumbs up. We were down the road from Blue Heron Farm where the President was staying and the Cindy Sheehan folks were set up.

See the video at AirMaria.com here and here.

Sarah Palin refuses to drop 'death panels' term

And why should she? Given the track record of Ezekiel Emmanuel, the president's advisor on health care, who favors euthanasia, she better keep that term fresh in our memories. Look at the euthanasia already taking place in the UK, and you are viewing the future of Obamacare.
Wesley Smith has a piece in First Things explaining the origin of the death panels provision in Obamacare. Sarah explains where they are in the bill.
"Now look at one way Mr. Obama wants to eliminate inefficiency and waste: He's asked Congress to create an Independent Medicare Advisory Council—an unelected, largely unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. In an interview with the New York Times in April, the president suggested that such a group, working outside of "normal political channels," should guide decisions regarding that "huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives . . . ."
Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by—dare I say it—death panels? Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans. Working through "normal political channels," they made themselves heard, and as a result Congress will likely reject a wrong-headed proposal to authorize end-of-life counseling in this cost-cutting context. But the fact remains that the Democrats' proposals would still empower unelected bureaucrats to make decisions affecting life or death health-care matters. Such government overreaching is what we've come to expect from this administration. "
Read the entire story in the Wall Street Journal.

Catholics Against Obama Care set September 11 as Day of Prayer and Fasting for defeat of Health Care Reform

Catholics Against Obama Care is calling Catholics as well as those of other denominations to participate in a day of prayer and fasting on September 11, 2009, for the special intention that Obama health care reform be defeated.

Catholics Against Obama Care acknowledges that Catholic Church has always advocated health care reform; but Obamacare, as delineated in the HR-3200 Bill, is not health care -- it is death care. Mandated abortion, health care rationing, and euthanasia are not health care. Obamacare is government control over people's lives and, as Jon Voight points out the removal of a person's free will. Voight said in an interview on Fox News with Mike Huckabee, "They're taking away God's first gift to man -- our free will and no man no matter what his title, even if he's president of the United States, has the consent of God to decide he's God."

Jean M. Heimann, the founder of Catholics Against Obama Care, is a Catholic freelance writer and also the author and administrator of the award-winning weblog Catholic Fire. Catholics Against Obama Care, a grassroots movement, which began on August 22, the feast day of the Queenship of Mary, has selected the Mother of God to be the group’s special intercessor in their efforts to defeat this anti-Catholic, anti-life bill.

Heimann explains how Catholics Against Obama Care began:

“I had been praying for Obama's conversion at daily Mass and for the truth to be revealed about this administration's deceptive health care reform bill. One day, I felt that I needed to do more than just sign petitions and contact my congressmen. I felt that God was calling me to do something more to stop this evil bill which mandates abortion, rations health care to the disabled and the seriously ill, and encourages euthanasia for the elderly.So, I selected several talented pro-life Catholic writers/bloggers from different areas of the country -- CT, Idaho, Hawaii, Florida, Wisconsin, and Kansas -- who agreed to use their gifts to share the truth with others about this so-called health reform bill.In addition to educating and enlightening others about what the bill is really all about, we also want to encourage other Catholics to become pro-active by praying and fasting that this bill does not become law.”

For more information, contact Jean M. Heimann at jean.heimann@gmail.com

Catholics Against Obama Weblog Site: http://catholicsagainstobamacare.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NOBOCare

Catholic Fire Weblog Site: http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/

President Obama's speech to schoolchildren

Here is the link to the white house webpage containing the President's speech to schoolchildren today.
Here's a part of the speech which I like. Except that when you refer to government responsiblity for schools, I wish he meant the local school board, and I'm pretty sure he means the NEA. My comments as always, are in red.
"I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper(or a blog critiquing the President's speech!) – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team."
I like the way he takes away the excuse many poor children have who are minorities and come from broken homes.

"But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you.
Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. "
Funny, he never said this during the campaign, his supporters were actually waiting for checks to arrive after the election. He implied that he was going to send them all money.
What I do resent is that, taking a page from the Bill Ayer's manual, Obama circumvented the family and spoke directly to students. That's not unusual, I see liberals doing that all the time.
But, where is this going?
What's in the next speech?
What's in the lesson plans?
Never trust a man who lets babies die in abortion. He has no morals.

I'm on Catholic Radio International

I was recently interviewed on Catholic Radio International about my fears about Obamacare. Listen here.

Follow my column as the Harford Catholic Examiner

Click here to read my first story on the famous 1971 letter to a prolife constituent to see how far Teddy Kennnedy strayed from his Catholic roots.

Interview with a Catholic movie star: "Bella" star Eduardo Verastegui

Here is the video link of the August 11, 2009 press interview with Eduardo Verastegui and yours truly.I was impressed by his humble demeanor, he went round the room in the beginning, shaking hands and hearing introductions, and when he sat down, right in front of me, he looked a little nervous. Eduardo has just been to China, Italy and Africa advancing the cause of needy pregnant poor women, raising money for a hospital for the poor in LA, and he is nervous in a provincial college in front of mostly Catholic press. It shows that his focus in not on his impressive accomplishments. When asked if he fears being pigeonholed as a 'Catholic' actor, he looked steadily into the questioner's eyes, and replied, "there is only one thing I am afraid of; not serving God".Courtesy of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate from www.airmaria.com
Photos courtesy of my daughter Gabriela in the photo.