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Bishops as Provocateurs
In her essay, "The Far Right's First 100 Days: Shifting Into Overdrive", Sara Robinson illustrated, with historical precedents, how dishonest and exaggerated rhetoric can step up into armed rebellion and other acts of violence. A Department of Homeland Security report issued on April 7, 2009, confirmed the rise in militant groups capable of domestic terrorism, "fueled by bone-deep racism" and "an unnatural terror of liberal government." As a resident of a small town in the Deep South, I can confirm that a local sporting goods store has hung a huge sign, "Free Guns," since the last presidential election. Robinson's warnings certainly describe the speech of other Catholic bishops as well. Cardinal James Francis Stafford, former archbishop of Denver, now head of a Vatican bureau, described Obama as "apocalyptic." [1] Denver's current archbishop, Charles Chaput, stated, "In democracies we elect public servants, not messiahs." [2] (A search for "obama+messiah" on catholicblogs.com yielded 118 results as the echo resounded through the Republican "noise machine.") In the contrived controversy over Obama's invitation to speak at Notre Dame, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph told his followers,"We are at war!" with Catholics who supported the university. [3] Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Ill., called the invitation "truly obscene." [4] Bishop Joseph Galante of Camden, N.J., stated, "President Obama intentionally holds and deliberately advocates positions contrary to fundamental moral principles." [5] More troubling are the official pronouncements from the Washington D.C.-based United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Within days of the November 2008 election, they "pledged the resources of the Church to mobilize the Catholic community to...reject the abortion extremism of the Freedom of Choice Act ." [6] The act - "To prohibit, consistent with Roe v. Wade, the interference by the government with a woman's right to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy" - had last been proposed in 2007 and didn't even make it into committee. No legislator or member of the Obama administration had even hinted such a bill would be introduced in the new Congress beleaguered with a financial meltdown and two wars. President George Bush's eleventh hour bone-toss to the Religious Right, the "Provider Refusal Rule," gave every health-care worker the right to refuse a patient any procedure or medication with which they objected on "moral" grounds. As noted by Cathleen Kaveny in a Commonweal article (May 8, 2009), Obama was on solid ground placing this revision under review since there are already three federal laws protecting funding of both corporate and individual health-care providers who do not wish to participate in abortions or sterilizations. When Obama ordered the review, Chicago Cardinal Francis George, speaking as president of the USCCB, issued a statement: "As Catholic bishops and American citizens, we are deeply concerned that such an action on the government's part would be the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism. Respect for personal conscience and freedom of religion as such ensures our basic freedom from government oppression." The cardinal's statement was issued in an official USCCB News Release with the heading: "Message Spread on Web Sites, YouTube - Don't Move From `Democracy to Despotism,' Cardinal Francis George Warns - Alert Health, Human Services to Danger in Rescinding Conscience Protections." [7] In conjunction with Obama's executive order reversing Bush's prohibition against federal funding of stem-cell research, the National Institute of Health (NIH) proposed guidelines with restrictions that such funding would be allowed only for research using stem cells from embryos created solely for reproductive purposes by in vitro fertilization and the embryos would have to be no longer needed for reproduction. Scientists would have to obtain written consent from embryo donors and only voluntary donation would be allowed without pressure or financial incentives. Funding would not be allowed for stem cells obtained from other sources such as cloning, embryos created specifically for research purposes nor from parthenogenesis, the development of an unfertilized egg. The guidelines also stated that research would have to comply with the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, a policy included in annual federal appropriation bills which prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from using appropriated funds for creating or destroying embryos for research. [8] Nevertheless, the USCCB issued the following News Release: "Proposed NIH guidelines divorce stem cell research from ethical foundation - Innocent humans treated as commodities for body parts - Multi-media resources for parishes, schools on new Web page." Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali wrote, "They want to obtain stem cells by destroying human embryos specially generated for research through in vitro fertilization or cloning procedures - a `create to kill' policy." [9] The USCCB press statement ended with, "This campaign is facilitated by the USCCB's partner organization, the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment," apparently a lobbying arm of the USCCB free of the word "Catholic" and free from any pressures of financial disclosure. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington D.C. wrote, "this administration is moving us to a point where people who conscientiously object to taking human life might lose their jobs in clinics and hospitals as a result. That's a fear expressed by opponents of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate restrictions on abortion and might...force pro-life heath care workers to choose between their jobs and their beliefs....In his circles of Hell, Dante places...at the core those who sinned against the truth." [10] Dante's ninth circle is actually populated by traitors such as Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, practitioner of political treachery and defaming his enemy. (Betty Clermont is author of The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America)
1. Jay Hancock, "Cardinal Stafford: Obama is `Apocalyptic'" Baltimore Sun November 17, 2008 http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock/blog/2008/11/car
dinal_stafford_obama_is_apo.html
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