The 'Catholic Hall of Shame'

It is time to begin the work which we must do within our own household. The action taken by the members of this 'Catholic Hall of Shame' requires a response.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Legislation purporting to reform health care in the United States has passed the House of Representatives. However, it did so only after it was amended by way of the "Stupak/Pitts Amendment" which was forced to a floor vote by the heroic perseverance of the US Bishops and the hard work of faithful Catholics in the Democratic Party like Bart Stupak and faithful Catholics in the Republican Party like Chris Smith. My purpose in this article is not to discuss whether that legislation will ever make it through the Senate, how it may be amended in the process or whether the effort to federalize the delivery of health care services is even prudent at all. I, and many others, have addressed - and will continue to address - the ongoing serious moral concerns raised by this legislation as it relates to the authentic application of Catholic Social Teaching and the principles of authentic social justice.

Rather, my purpose is to expose what I call the "Catholic Hall of Shame" - those Catholics in the House of Representatives who voted against this amendment and therefore expressed their support for the intentional killing of our youngest neighbors in the womb through surgical strikes and chemical warfare in the wombs of mothers, all using federal tax dollars. That is precisely what they did with their vote and they need to be exposed.
I know that some of my readers will immediately say "they are not Catholics." And, I well understand that position. I choose instead to say they are being unfaithful to their Baptism and need to be corrected, out of concern for their repentance and conversion, as well as to stop the lethal effects of their perfidious vote. Others will insist that the Bishops should somehow publicly excommunicate them. In fact, the Canon Law is clear, one can excommunicate oneself (latae sententiae, See, Code of Canon Law, Canon 1314 ff.) by their own action. Whether they have done so and what that means is the subject of numerous articles and will continue to be so.

Rather, my purpose is to expose and oppose their action so as to propose a response. I expose their names so that the faithful whom they represent can work to get them to either change their position or vote them out of office and replace them. Replace them with people who recognize the objective truth that children in the womb are our first neighbors and that intentionally killing them is not health care. It is an intrinsically evil act which must never be protected in the law, enforced by the Police Power of the State or paid for with tax dollars unconstitutionally extracted from the public. I also propose that no faithful Catholic, other Christian, other person of faith or genuine person of good will who recognizes that it is wrong to kill our neighbor ever vote for someone who calls such an act a "private or personal choice." There is no moral difference between killing a child in the womb and legalizing the "choice" of a mother to rid herself of a one year old child if that was her "private and personal" choice. Procured abortion is an objectively evil act, a violation of the Natural law. It is an intentional killing. It must not be protected by the positive law of our Nation or any Nation.

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In fact, no one can claim to care about the poor and support intentional procured abortion as a "choice" and defend the unconstitutional action of a Court which ruled that it was a "constitutional right." We all know the truth now. We operate on these same children in the womb and place them back in their first home. We prosecute people who in the commission of another recognized crime kill them. Our medical science has confirmed what our conscience and the Natural Law written on every human heart long revealed, these are our neighbors and it is always and everywhere wrong to kill our innocent neighbors. And we all know that Mother Teresa was absolutely correct in reminding us that they are the "poorest of the poor". Anyone who claims to care about the poor and supports the killing of these poor by hiding behind the lies of the Orwellian language which has hidden this evil - such as "choice", "privacy", or "personal decision" - is a liar. They should be ashamed. What this reveals, the disintegration of a Nation, was astutely summarized by the late John Paul II in these words taken from his extraordinary Letter entitled "The Gospel of Life" (Par. 20):

"This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government: the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people-even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns unopposed: the "right" ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common home" where all can live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members, from the unborn child to the elderly, in the name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of one part.

"The appearance of the strictest respect for legality is maintained, at least when the laws permitting abortion and euthanasia are the result of a ballot in accordance with what are generally seen as the rules of democracy. Really, what we have here is only the tragic caricature of legality; the democratic ideal, which is only truly such when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person, is betrayed in its very foundations: "How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is permitted? In the name of what justice is the most unjust of discriminations practiced: some individuals are held to be deserving of defense and others are denied that dignity?" When this happens - the process leading to the breakdown of a genuinely human co-existence and the disintegration of the State itself has already begun."

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Those words of the late Champion of Life, John Paul II, need no further elaboration. The Catholics who failed to support the "Stupak/Pitts Amendment" should be exposed. Such is the case with Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who was recently and rightly corrected by his Bishop and the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who has faced a similar response from her own Bishop. The Catholics in the US House of Representatives who voted against the "Stupak/ Pitts Amendment" which tried to protect the lives of our first neighbors in the womb from being killed with tax dollars under the profane cover of the delivery of "health care" are a veritable unfaithful Catholic Hall of Shame. Here are their names:

Reps. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.); Xavier Becerra (D-Calif,); Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.); Robert Brady (D-Pa.); Michael Capuano (D-Mass); William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.); Gerry Connolly (D-Va.); Joe Courtney (Conn.); Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.); William Delahunt (D-Mass.); Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.); Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.); Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.); Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.); John D. Hall (N.Y.); Phil Hare (D-Ill.); Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.); Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.); Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio); Ann D. Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.); Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio); John Larson (D-Conn.); Manuel Luján (D-N.M.); Edward Markey (D-Mass.); Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.); Betty McCollum (D-Minn.); James McGovern (D-Mass.); George Miller (D-Calif.); Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.); James Moran (D-Va.); Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.); Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.); Frank Pallone (D-N.J.); Bill Pascrell (D-N.J); Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.); Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.); Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.); Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.); Jose Serrano (D- N.Y.); Joe Sestak (D-Pa.); Jackie Speier (D- Calif.); Mike Thompson (D-Calif.); Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.); Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.); Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Diane Watson (D-Calif.).

Some of my readers will find the action of listing them and calling them "unfaithful" to be "harsh" or even "uncharitable". However, I list them to invite our readers to specifically pray for their conversion, their return to the truth. I also list them in order to empower those in their Districts to use their vote and influence to defend the fundamental right to life from conception to natural death effectively. If these faithful Catholic constituents cannot help these unfaithful Catholic representatives to return to the truth, they need to vote them out of office and replace them with others who will defend the Right to life. Even if that means running for public office themselves. This fundamental human right is not conferred by a civil government and it cannot be abrogated by a civil government. Killing is not health care.

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As we enter the next National election cycle I expect the attacks against the Catholic Church to accelerate. I will write about the growing hostility in future articles and propose a response. A recent virulently anti-Catholic screed written by a radio host named Allison Kilkenny published in the November 14, 2009 edition of the Huffington Post is a sign of what is to come. I leave you with a sample of the vitriol in this horrid article. Ms. Kilkenny who promotes herself as a political humorist wrote: "As the Catholic church continues its march toward antiquity, I won't be shedding any tears. In addition to preying on the fears and prejudices of the unenlightened masses, I have no tolerance for tax-exempt pyramid schemes that take money from poor people to build golden houses in Italy for a decrepit former Nazi youth, who now wears a funny hat and occasionally blathers in a dead language about hating gay people, suppressing women, and always -- always -- refusing to wear condoms." The Huffington Post should be ashamed.

Finally, to my fellow concerned Catholics. It is time to strengthen our resolve and begin the work which we must do within our own household. This action taken by the members of this "Catholic Hall of Shame" requires a response.

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