Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

H/t Amy Welborn...

Colorado’s governor is not what I would call pro-life:

Archbishop fires 1st salvo at Gov. Ritter
The Catholic leader blasts a plan to restore state funds to family-planning clinics that offer abortion.
By Eric Gorski
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 01/16/2007 10:55:04 AM MST

Archbishop Charles Chaput opposes Gov. Bill Ritter’s plan to restore state funding to Planned Parenthood. (Post)Less than a week after his inauguration, Gov. Bill Ritter is getting heat from the outspoken Catholic archbishop of Denver over a familiar topic: abortion.

In his column in this week’s Denver Catholic Register, Archbishop Charles Chaput calls the Democrat’s pledge to lift eligibility restrictions on state-funded pregnancy prevention and family-planning programs “seriously flawed public policy.”

Ritter, a Catholic who describes himself as “pro-life,” wants to lift an order by his predecessor, Republican Bill Owens, also a Catholic. The order restricted groups that perform abortions from getting state money for family planning and pregnancy prevention.

Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer declined Monday to respond

Chaput’s Column
Read Archbishop Chaput’s complete column challenging Gov. Ritter.
directly to Chaput’s criticism but emphasized Ritter is opposed to funding abortions.
Only family-planning groups that show they can segregate state funds from money spent on abortions would be eligible, Dreyer said. An amendment to the state’s constitution forbids the use of state dollars to subsidize abortion directly or indirectly.

“The archbishop and the governor agree on certain aspects of this issue,” Dreyer said. “The governor believes strongly it is good public policy to attempt to reduce unintended pregnancies, and that is his goal.”

Calling out Ritter is in keeping with Chaput’s belief that Catholic politicians must adhere to church teachings in their public life in order to remain true to the faith. The Denver prelate has gained a national reputation for his willingness to speak out.

Chaput praised Ritter’s desire to improve health care and education and said his State of the State address brimmed with “good will, good sense and hope.”

Much of Chaput’s ire focused on Planned Parenthood, which lost nearly $400,000 in state funding under the Owens administration. Chaput highlighted a passage in Ritter’s State of the State talk in which he talked about judging legislation’s impact on future generations.

“It’s hard to have a future ‘for our children and our children’s children’ without children, and in practice, Planned Parenthood specializes in the business of preventing them,” Chaput wrote. “Even more troubling is Planned Parenthood’s long involvement in abortion ‘rights’ and the lethal services associated with them.”

Chaput questioned whether it’s possible to segregate money for abortion and family planning. He wrote that it’s reasonable to believe Ritter’s stated opposition to abortion and his “pro-life” label given Ritter’s “engaged and active” Catholic faith.

“What his words do actually mean will become clear in the demands he places on Planned Parenthood for proof that state funds truly are segregated from abortion services and don’t materially support the killing of unborn children,” Chaput wrote.

But Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains may not seize the opportunity if the restrictions are lifted, given the high costs of restructuring to meet the state’s demands and other factors, said spokeswoman Kate Horle.

She said Planned Parenthood also would be reluctant to take resources from smaller clinics statewide that currently receive state money for family planning.

“While I recognize it’s Bishop Chaput’s religious prerogative to want to believe Planned Parenthood somehow wants to increase the abortion rate in Colorado – which is what he implies – what we have always done is try to make sure every child is a wanted and a loved child,” Horle said.

Jeanette DeMelo, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Chaput’s chief objective in the column was to start a conversation and find common ground in the debate over family-planning funding.

Chaput did not challenge Ritter’s abortion stance during the campaign.

I recently have started reading Danielle Bean’s blog and came across this old post in NFP, etc. I thought it was great;

Your Turn: Being Open to Life
6/26/06 9:18 PM
A reader writes:
It would be nice to know that there are others out there who struggle with the conflict of truly being open to life and loving children and wanting a big family, but at the same time being overcome by the fear of the realities of a really big family and not knowing how to “slow down.” Because NFP isn’t as easy as everyone says it is and depending on one’s fertility signs, it doesn’t really always work. At least not for me.

Hmmmm, I do not want to get bogged down in the details of whether or not NFP “really works” here other than to mention that NFP methods test out at 98 point whatever percent effective, but what really counts for most people is “user effectiveness” which is a lower number. The simple fact is that using NFP to space or prevent pregnancy, particularly for some people, is not quite as simple as popping a pill. And that’s a good thing. Because we ought not to be using it the way some people pop a pill.

I think that with NFP, there wind up being many “accidental” pregnancies that are not truly “accidents” at all. Couples often know when they are bending or breaking particular rules or not paying close enough attention to fertility symptoms and lo and behold—a pregnancy results!

This might lead to a great deal of frustration with NFP, but as I said, I think it is a good thing. NFP is not fun. This fact likely encourages many couples to be more generous in planning their families than they would otherwise be. The seriousness with which most couples learn and use NFP is usually directly proportional to the seriousness of their reasons for using it. Personally speaking, if conception did not come easily for us and my husband and I had to actively plan every single pregnancy in the way people using artificial birth control do, we might have 3 or 4 children by now. We surely wouldn’t be expecting our eighth. We would be missing out and wouldn’t even know it.

All of which brings us to the heart of the emailer’s struggle. It can be hard—so very hard—to accept God’s plan for our families in place of our own. It is downright scary sometimes to turn something as powerful and potentially life-changing as our fertility over to God. And this works both ways. I know women struggling with infertility who want desperately to conceive and are unable to. These women too experience frustration, disillusionment, and fear in accepting God’s will for themselves and their families.

But our bodies and our fertility do belong to God. Sometimes the hardest words in the world to pray are “Thy will be done.” I know that when I pray it, my mind sometimes races through all the possibilities of what “God’s will” might be and I am tempted to add, “Oh, except for that! Thy will be done as long as it isn’t that!” Something to work on.

Sent to me by one of my co-workers….

Each Friday night after work, Bubba would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a
venison steak. But all of Bubba’s neighbors were Catholic…and since it was
Lent, they were forbidden from eating meat on Friday. The delicious aroma from
the grilled venison steaks was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful
that they finally talked to their priest. The Priest came to visit Bubba and
suggested that he become a Catholic. After several classes and much study, Bubba attended Mass…..and as the priest sprinkled holy water over him, he said, “You
were born a Baptist, and raised a Baptist, but now you are a Catholic.”

Bubba’s neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived, and the
wonderful aroma of grilled venison again filled the neighborhood. The Priest was
called immediately by the neighbors and as he rushed into Bubba’s yard clutching
a rosary preparing to scold him, he stopped and watched in amazement.

There stood Bubba, clutching a small bottle of holy water which he carefully
sprinkled over the grilling meat and chanted: “You wuz born a deer, you wuz
raised a deer, but now you is a catfish.”

So what is going on with the Anglican Commuion? Amy Welborn asked, and got this answer:

The over-arching thing is the coming Lambeth Conference in 2008. Every ten years all Anglican bishops the world over gather in England for this; it lasts about five weeks, I think. Invitations from the Abp of Canterbury go out shortly. The “Global South” churches — places like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, the Southern Cone of South America — are threatening to run a rump conference in Africa if the pro-gay USA and Canadian churches are not disciplined, and they’re adamant that the gay bishop must not be invited. If that rump Lambeth Conference is held the Anglican Communion will be over.

Meanwhile, next month there is a meeting of Anglican primates which has been called months ago to discuss the issues raised by the “Windsor Report” (dealing with the gay issue, sexuality in general and how teachings on these subjects should be approached by the inter-related provinces of the Communion) and the USA and Canadian response to the Windsor Report.

The primates’ meeting is the immediate crisis. The Global South Bishops are outraged at what they see as the inadequate North American response to Windsor. The North American bishops are offended that certain other provinces (Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda) are actually planting jurisdictions in North America, accepting oversight of formerly Episcopal congregations and even consecrating bishops for North America. And the powerful Archbishop of Nigeria (19 million Anglicans) and others are now saying that they will not sit down at the meeting with Katharine Jefferts Schori, the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, if she comes — not because she is a woman, but because of her heterodox views. These Global South folks are strongly Evangelical Anglicans, and Mrs Schori seems to find regarding Jesus as the one Way to the Father excessively limiting.

Then there’s England. The Global South is enraged that the Church of England is permitting its gay clergy to enter into civil partnerships (officially it expects these to be celibate unions). The Anglo-Catholic “Forward in Faith,” a powerful organization, is lobbying for its own English province with orthodox bishops; now Evengelicals have told the Archbishop that they want to be free to avoid dealing with heterodox bishops and are threatening to leave. The Archbp of Nigeria has said that he believes Canterbury and the CofE should be disciplined for tolerating heresy.

Meanwhile, parishes all over the United States have been announcing their withdrawal from the Episcopal Church. They then seek oversight from a foreign bishop or one of the new American bishops the foreign bodies consecrated. The Episcopal Church Center in NYC is therefore coordinating a concerted legal strategy with the various dioceses aimed at squelching the secessionists with litigation to prevent them from taking their property.

And the Archbp of Canterbury said publicly last week that he feared he was losing control of the Communion. A website with a wealth of info on this is Virtue Online, www.virtueonline.org

No, not Trump. Wurel, as in the archbishop of D.C.

Now I understand that the U.S. bishops, with a few notable exceptions, are not really willing to publicly discipline the more “celebrity” wayward members of their flock. Especially in D.C., where most of the Catholic pols you hear about are of the lefty variety. But, in the case of Nancy Pelosi, I really feel the time has come for something to be done.

Pelosi isn’t “working” on her stance toward abortion, homosexual marriage, etc. She’s not “evolving.” She’s been a staunch supporter of these policies, and others, for years. This has not changed. She is now the third most powerful politician in the coutnry (shiver). It is time for action to be taken.

Archbishop Wuerl really needs to step up to the plate, like he did in Pittsburgh, and make it known that Church teachings have to be followed by everyone. What kind of example does it set for normal Joe and Jane Catholic, who are trying to live lives faithful to the Church’s teachings, even when it’s hard, when they see people like Pelosi, Kerry, Kennedy, et al., being given an essential free pass? They’re going up and receving Holy Communion, even though being conscious of mortal sin means you can’t receive communion. You cannot tell me that Pelosi et al. do not know how the Church feels about abortion.

From a PR perspective, would it be the greatest thing? No, probably not. More calls about how Catholics are nutty, intolerant, behind the times. But you know what? We have to preserve the integriry of our faith. We can’t just let people get away with these things because they’re powerful or prominent citizens. If anything, they should be held to a higher standard. We should be proud to tell our kids that the Speaker of the House is Catholic. As it is, at least we’ve got Roberts, Alito and Scalia for examples. And Senators like Brownback and Santorum. But American bishops must step up and set an example for everyone. You cannot divorce your faith from your life. Your life is meant to be a testimony to your faith. What kind of message are they sending? Not one I want my kids to see.

I was hopeful when Bishop Wuerl was sent to D.C. that he’d take a firm stand on this. I don’t want to be disappointed.

Great article from Catholic Exchange. I don’t know about you, but this is something I have often struggled with. Even though I go to confession and I know that God has forgiven me for my sins (well, once I do the penance ), it can still be hard to tell myself that I’m forgiven and not go back and confess it again, saying “wait, no, I’m really sorry. I don’t think you get how badly I screwed it up.”

***

On a recent episode of 7th Heaven, Rev. Eric Camden had suffered a heart attack and made a temporary sojourn in heaven. While there, he was able to pick out some non-traditional gifts for his children. For his oldest daughter Mary, he chose an eraser which would allow her to forget some of the mistakes of her past, thereby allowing her to stop compounding those mistakes.

What a wonderful gift! Who among us wouldn’t like to forget some of the things we have done or failed to do in our lives? We know we can always seek God’s forgiveness for our mistakes. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we have the opportunity to be washed clean. Jesus suffered and died to save us from our sins. We know that if we approach God with true contrition, forgiveness is ours for the asking.

Human forgiveness is not always so easy to obtain. There are amends to make to those whom we have hurt. Sometimes, sadly, there are consequences of our actions that cannot be changed. We simply have to move on and make the best of our wounded relationships.

Perhaps the hardest forgiveness to come by is the forgiveness of ourselves. Memory is a wonderful thing. It allows us to look back and recall all those different threads that have come together to weave the fabric of our lives. Over the years, the bad times also seem to recess in importance thereby making it easier to forgive others who have hurt us in our lives. And yet, we do seem to remember the times we have hurt others. We remember our bad choices, harsh words we may have spoken in anger, and times that we just chose to walk away rather than take action. Perhaps remembering these things does serve a purpose in that, hopefully, we won’t repeat the same error. But once we have sought and received God’s forgiveness, we need to make an effort to forgive ourselves. Our mistakes have brought us where we are and there is nothing so bad in our lives that God can’t bring some good out of it. We need to put the past behind us and move forward from where we are, trusting that God is there to guide our steps.

I have blogged about this since time immemorial, but if you need primers on what, precisely, the Church teaches about Catholics and the political life, go here:

http://www.trinitydc.edu/about/president/blog/

There are links to several USCCB docs, statements by (former) Archbishop Cardinal McCarrick of DC, and things from America magazine, although I generally hold that publication at arm’s length due to some of the comments of its editors on TV.

Trinity College, btw, is Nancy Pelosi’s alma mater. Methinks she should read the President’s blog. But I really doubt she cares. Much like John Kerry.

Below I listed St. Elizabeth Ann Seton as one of my favorite saints. Today is also her feast day. If you’ve never seen the movie on her life, A Time For Miracles , with Kate Mulgrew as St. Elizabeth, it is a great, great movie. In my all-time top 10. You can order it from Ignatius Press, since I’ve never seen it in a secular retail store, like Best Buy. Of course Barnes and Noble or stores like that may also be able to order it for you. It is fantastic (I overlook the fact that her husband ran for Ohio Governor as a Democrat).

While I’m on it, other good Saints’ movies:
–Leonardo de Fillippis’ Therese , which came out last year, starring Lindsay Youmas, Fillippis, and his wife. Great movie, gives a nice primer to her life (Therese serves are narrator) and told me a lot I didn’t know about her, so it inspired me to do more reading on Therese and Theresian spirituality. Available at mass retailers (I got mine at Target, of all places). Also available via Ignatius press. There is a soundtrack, composed by a nun (a Carmelite, I believe) that is also available. Be sure to read Story of a Soul , if you haven’t already. I have the Institute for Carmelite Studies, based in D.C.. version, which has all three manuscripts and a bunch of geeky scholary stuff. But if that’s not for you you can certainly find a basic version just about anywhere.

–Bernadette , which is available through Ignatius press. I haven’t seen this one at the mass-market stores. Haven’t watched it all the way through but looks very good. There is also the “sequel”, The Passion of Bernadette , with the same actress and director, but I haven’t seen that one yet. I actually just finished the novel The Song of Bernadette tonight, which has recently been re-issued by Ignatius press with a new forward by George Weigel. It is long, but don’t let that stop you, because it is great. I loved it. I found I really needed a dedicated lot of time to read it (yay, two hour steroid infusions at Children’s!) but once you get going it has fantastic pacing and wonderfully realistic characters. Great novel and a great movie, o the same name, which won Jennifer Jones (Bernadette) a Best Actress statuette. Can you believe that??? You can get that movie just about anywhere. Black and white, I believe, but don’t let that stop you!!

Tagged by Nutmeg over at Life In A Nutshell (see the blogroll, I think she’s there, she should be! Otherwise: http://lastthingonmymind.blogspot.com)

1. Favorite devotion or prayer to Jesus?
Morning Offering….when I remember to do it. Without a Magnificat for this month (store sold out, grrr), my morning prayer has really suffered…

2. Favorite Marian devotion or prayer?
I am an (attempted) daily Rosary girl, so the “Hail Mary” and the “memorare,” whenever I have a special petition. When I was in 6th grade that meant getting to sleep over at Anne’s house (my best friend). Now I use it, um, a bit more reverently.

3. Do you wear a scapular or medal?
I used to wear a great miraclous medal but the chain broke. So I have to get a new one…once I have the dough. I like to get nicer chains than the ones they come with because those are too clunky for me, and this is a small medal.

4. Do you have holy water in your home?
When I lived at home, we did. I have to find my font, which I brought with me in the move, and get it up.

5. Do you ‘offer up’ your sufferings?
Dude, I grew up with a Catholic Mom. It was the first thing out of her mouth. So yeah, it’s a habit.

6. Do you observe First Fridays and First Saturdays?
My dad does, so I try to. When I remember. Which reminds me–this weekend is one!!

7. Do you go to Eucharistic Adoration?
I wish my parish offered it! When I go to Mass at the Cathedral I go early so I can sit in front of the tabernacle and say my rosary. When I’m driving in Pickerington and I pass Seton Parish I may go in because they have perpetual adoration.

8. Are you a Saturday evening Mass person or Sunday morning Mass person?
Sunday morning–gotta sing!

9. Do you say prayers at mealtime?
Yuppers.

10. Favorite Saint(s)?
My patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux. St. Teresa of Avila. St. Thomas Moore. St. Gregory (patron saint of singers), and St. Cecelia (patroness of music). St. Gianna Molla. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, because she was a wife, mother, and a nun. How cool is that? St. Bernadette.

11. Can you recite the Apostles Creed by heart?
Yes.

12. Do you usually say short prayers (aspirations) during the course of the day?
The occasional “Our Father” as I’m walking around.

13. Where is your favorite place to pray?
On my couch, with my rosary and my bible, in the late afternoon, because the couch is right by my glass patio doors, so the sun comes in through the trees and warms up the room. I feel like a contented cat.

14. Bonus Question: When you pass by an automobile accident or other serious mishap, do you say a quick prayer for the folks involved?
I’ve started to. I do cross myself when I pass a Catholic church, however.

OK, so much for the slow! I got so into them I just kept reading and finished them last night. Much, much better than the movies, at least I think so. Not that the movies are bad , I just like the books better. As I usually do. It was great to read more about some of the characters that the movie sort of short-shrifted (i.e., Galadriel) or eliminated together (i.e., Tom and the Dark Forest). I could’ve done with 1) less Gollum and 2) less Ents (wow they really annoyed me in the movies, too). But other than that, much to my surprise, I really liked them. Now all my Tolkien-obsessed friends can say “I told you so.”