Prayer and Action

Our pastor gave a powerful homily at Mass this morning, and continued his thoughts in the weekly bulletin – I thought that I would share some excerpts here, in the hopes that we might all prayerfully consider how we can respond courageously to the situation described below. Blessings to you this Monday morning!

Dear friends in Christ:

A week ago last Friday, January 20, two days before the 39th anniversary of the tragic Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade which has resulted in more than 50 million preventable deaths in the U.S., the Obama Administration took another step to diminish religious freedom and force Americans to violate their consciences. Against a huge outcry, the Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services Department has upheld its earlier decision to force all employers to pay for and provide sterilization, abortifacents (abortion producing drugs) and contraceptives in their health insurance coverage with only the most narrow exemption clause. This decision is being denounced and condemned by our own archbishop, the entirety of the Catholic bishops in the United States, religious leaders of other faiths, a growing number of democratic supporters of the president and many others who cherish the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence (you may read the bishops’ statement at www.usccb.org).

…In speaking to a group of American bishops on January 18, two days before the Obama Administration’s latest assault on the freedom and rights of Americans, Pope Benedict XVI said:

“At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good and thus about the conditions for human flourishing. In America, that consensus enshrined in your nation’s founding documents, was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principals deriving from nature and nature’s God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.”

…Some may ask, “what is the big deal?” The big deal is this – when foundational principles are assaulted and eroded, sooner or later the house comes tumbling down. Our country has survived, grown and flourished because these principles have been honored, defended and respected. America’s greatness has been in the liberty and the rights that her citizens have enjoyed…