Clerical Whispers: Equal say for women in Church decisions

Clerical Whispers: Equal say for women in Church decisions

How very sad that what the Catholic Bishops Conference of India is doing... giving an equal voice to women on ecclesiastic councils:

' Some of the bodies where women stand to get equal representation are CBCI commissions, which take decisions regarding all aspects of Catholic life; seminaries; parish and diocesan pastoral councils, which take administrative decisions; finance committees that decide diocese budgets; marriage tribunals and social service societies.

Women can “also become pastoral assistants in all parishes and take part in a common decision-making process”, says the policy, which includes a plan to ensure violence-free homes and workplaces.'

Eric Cantor responds to Obama

For the Catholic position on the health care debate, go to usccb.org/healthcare

The GOP response to Obama's education speech:

Eric Cantor Responds to Obama - watch more funny videos

Some Things Never Change

In those days of the robber barons (1891), Pope Leo XIII said:

In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.

Murdering our Girls

Increased use of pre-natal testing leads to increased number of abortions. Not only are children with Downs syndrome and other abnormalities killed before they can be born, increasingly pregnancies are terminated for the crime of a fetus of the wrong sex. Some societies place many costs on parents of girls and privilege on those who raise sons, and in China and India the future of the nation is at risk since so few women of marriageable age are available for large segments of the population.

101 East from Al Jazeera, Part 1:


101 East from Al Jazeera, Part 2:

Catholics believe health care is a basic human right.

Patience isn't a virtue that comes to me easily. I correspond by email with a lot of people, and many of my fellow Catholics are very confused about our Catholic Church traditions and policies.
The following is a direct quote from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in the U.S.:


Official Catholic Teaching from
U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops "Position on Health Care Reform

In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right. Access to health care should not depend on where a person works, how much a family earns, or where a person lives. Instead, every person, created in the image and likeness of God, has a right to life and to those things necessary to sustain life, including affordable, quality health care. This teaching is rooted in the biblical call to heal the sick and to serve "the least of these," our concern for human life and dignity, and the principle of the common good. Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans do not have health insurance. According to the Catholic bishops of the United States, the current health care system is in need of fundamental reform. To learn about Catholic teaching on health care in more detail, read the full statement by the United States Catholic Bishops, A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform, at usccb.org/sdwp/national/comphealth.shtml."

Futher information available at the U.S. Catholic Bishops website:
http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/

Who do you trust? Public Option & Political Philosophy

Sojourners, the Christian non-denominational social justice & peace group, has published a toolkit for those interested in the healthcare debate.

The argument about 'the public option' boils down to an issue of trust: do you trust corporations or our nation's government more to act for the common good?

This is a purely political question, touching on general philosophy.

The connected moral question is whether or not those who trust corporations more can deny a public options to those who don't agree with them philosophically.

The Pro-life side of Roe vs Wade

Advocates often ignore the fact that the Roe vs Wade has a pro-life side. The ruling limits the government's interference by trimester in an attempt to balance the rights of women to control their own bodies with the rights of the child she carries. No one may force or limit a woman's control over her state in early pregnancy, while the ruling allows for a state interest in the well-being of the fetus in the third trimester. Most Catholics find the entire issue repugnant; however, our training for the dangers in childbirth was to always side for the life of the innocent child. My husband, who wasn't Catholic, thought that was very weird. I made him swear each time I was pregnant that if something were to go wrong, he would do everything possible to save the child without regard for my safety. Now that fewer mothers die in childbirth, I doubt anyone bothers to teach this to our young girls. Perhaps that accounts for the ease with which they seem to abandon our teachings on contraception and abortion. Many people missed this Florida case when it happened in March 2009. It got very little coverage in the local press and was ignored on the national level. The mother of 2 kids who was experiencing a problem pregnancy was held in a hospital against her will for 3 days and & ultimately forced to undergo an emergency C-section under orders from a Leon County judge. She was not permitted to change hospitals or doctors, nor to refuse medical care since 'the state had a compelling interest in her fetus', which had died in utero. No, I'm not kidding. The Florida Supreme Court declined to hear the case and let the lower court decision stand. http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/reproductiverights/burton_v_florida_acluamicus.pdf