Girl Scouts and the Church: 100 Years is Enough?

The anti-abortion website Lifesitenews.com featured a story concerning a parish in Virginia that banned the presence of Girl Scouts from the parish grounds and adjacent school.

"St. Timothy Catholic Parish in Chantilly says Girl Scouts will not be permitted to meet or wear uniforms on church property, including at St. Timothy School, which covers preschool to grade 8.
The Girl Scouts have been under growing pressure as evidence mounts of their ties with Planned Parenthood, the world’s largest abortion provider."

100 years: Is the run done?

Back in the '90's, I was Director of Youth for the Diocese of Jackson and learned very quickly that the Girl Scouts shared a close relationship with the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry. So, of course, when I read this story I went to the NFCYM site. Here is what they have to say:

"Many Catholic Girl Scout leaders are feeling torn between their commitment to Girl Scouting and their commitment to their Catholic teachings because of the real or perceived relationship between GSUSA (Girl Scouts USA) and organizations like Planned Parenthood. The NFCYM approach to this complex issue has been one of engagement, rather than detachment or withdrawal. NFCYM, through NCCGSCF (National Catholic Committee on Girl Scouts and Campire Girls), needs to stay connected to GSUSA not only because thousands of Catholic girls and Catholic adult leaders are involved in scouting, but because Girl Scouting—like Boy Scouting—provides excellent character development for young people through their programs. NFCYM can only influence secular organizations by staying in relationship with them . . . by being at the table."

I can tell just by the language that where there's campfire smoke, there's hellfire. I've written enough grants and sat through enough Diocesan ministers meetings to understand the nuance of softspeak. I'll break it down.

"Many Catholic Girl Scout leaders are feeling torn between their commitment to Girl Scouting and their commitment to their Catholic teachings because of the real or perceived relationship between GSUSA (Girl Scouts USA) and organizations like Planned Parenthood.(In softspeak, they are implying that Catholic leaders imaginations may be getting away from them. Perception means "unreal"). The NFCYM approach to this complex issue has been one of engagement, rather than detachment or withdrawal(How has that engagement gone? A little Gospel of Life? Some information on the 5th Commandment?). NFCYM, through NCCGSCF (National Catholic Committee on Girl Scouts and Campire Girls), needs(Neediness is very important to softspeakers. Some of those needs are perceived.) to stay connected to GSUSA not only because thousands of Catholic girls and Catholic adult leaders are involved in scouting, but because Girl Scouting—like Boy Scouting—provides excellent character development(although maybe not Catholic character) for young people through their programs. NFCYM can only influence secular organizations by staying in relationship with them . . .(an ellipsis? Is something missing) by being at the table.(Engaged AT THE TABLE. In other words, dotty Aunt Sue who smells of mothballs is invited to Christmas dinner and hollers out from the Catechism but other than that, she's just one voice among others...at the table.)"

Snopes.com affirms that your purchase of Thin Mints does NOT support Planned Parenthood.

 I just bought 3 boxes from a Girl Scout Sunday. And we support a troop here. I figured that the NFCYM was on the watch so why peer deeper into it?

Now I see. The softspeak gave you away, NFCYM. Well, before that, your conventions filled with over 60 year olds and a disproportionate number of women in short-hair and vests sort of tipped me off but I was willing to overlook that. Because you built character.

Maybe the day of NFCYM is done as well.

More on Friday's bombshell...

For those of you interested in keeping up with this, here are a couple of articles about the Dept. of Health and Human Services' late Friday announcement:

Obama Administration picks a fight with Catholics

Religious leaders blast HHS over contraception mandate

LA's retired archbishop, Cardinal Mahony, blogs about Friday's HHS announcement

And, from the response video posted on the front of the USCCB's website, one of the best quotes so far on this contentious topic:


“Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience,” said New York Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.”

Alright, this is huge...

Ever notice how potentially unpopular decisions/announcements are always made on late Friday afternoon, to avoid a week-long press cycle? The hope, of course, is that by Monday, this will be "old" news.

But this is NOT going away.

As much as we try to avoid the muddy waters of politics on SFC, this news goes beyond politics. This, my friends, affects religious liberty.

The news:

So, what's the big news? Let me deliver it to our readers in the (obviously gleeful) words of a left-leaning site, ThinkProgress (emphasis mine):


Today, in a huge victory for women’s health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles. This means that after years of trying to get birth control covered to the same extent that health plans cover Viagra, our country will finally have nearly universal coverage of contraception.


Opponents of contraception had lobbied hard for a broad exemption that would have allowed any religiously-affiliated employer to opt out of providing such coverage. Fortunately, the Obama administration rejected that push and decided to maintain the narrow religious exemption that it initially proposed. Only houses of worship and other religious nonprofits that primarily employ and serve people of the same faith will be exempt. Religiously-affiliated employers who do not qualify for the exemption and are not currently offering contraceptive coverage may apply for transitional relief for a one-year period to give them time to determine how to comply with the rule.


The breakdown:

Essentially, the current administration announced late this afternoon, that it is rescinding a key exemption that was granted to religious entities by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (signed into law by President Obama in 2010). The original exemption gave broad legal assurances to churches as well as to religious-affiliated institutions (such as universities and hospitals), that they would not be required to pay for health insurance coverage for prescriptions and procedures that violated their own religious beliefs.

With today's announcement, that exemption is now being limited only to "certain religious organizations." In other words, while local religious bodies (i.e. churches, synagogues, etc.) will not have to provide contraception coverage to their paid staffs, other "[n]onprofit employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan," will now - under federal mandate - be forced to provide such coverage, regardless of whether or not such actions go against the religious creeds of these employers.

Who would be affected?

Who are the "nonprofit employers" that Secretary Sebelius now excludes from a religious exemption? They would include religiously-affiliated hospitals, religiously-affiliated schools and universities, and religiously-affiliated social and charitable organizations. This means that, under this new rule, Catholic hospitals will be required by federal law to provide their employees with health insurance which pays for contraceptives (even potentially abortifacient ones) and for procedures such as sterilization - products and procedures which are explicitly forbidden in Catholic teachings. The same must be provided to employees of Catholic parochial schools, Catholic universities and of Catholic social service organizations such as Catholic Charities and Catholic-run adoption agencies.

Only religiously-affiliated employers that primarily serve and employ people of the same faith will be excluded from this new rule. Meaning, that only small and religiously-homogenous organizations will be excluded. I.e. local parish churches, dioceses and the like.

SFC analysis:

This is wrong - plain a simple. This violates the First Amendment's explicit protection of citizens' right to the free exercise of religion. To have the government force adherents of a particular religion to fund and to provide services which are clearly prohibited by the beliefs of that religion is not just wrong-headed or unfair: it is unconstitutional and, dare I say, ludicrously dangerous to the fundamental rights of all American citizens as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

When the president's health care bill was passed in 2010, it did so with the high-profile support of some Catholics: namely the Catholic Health Association and the head of the Leadership Conference of Women's Religious. Those who joined these groups in support of the health care bill did so in direct contradiction of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and others, who warned that they did not see sufficient legal protection for religious groups who could not, as a matter of religious belief and conscience, fund or provide coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilizations. Those Catholic groups who supported the bill against the bishops' wishes, rallied around the "religious exemption" that was written into the original health care bill. This exemption, according to the bill's loyal supporters, would remain in place and would protect religious employers.

Well, that blew up. As many suspected, the administration is now claiming that these religious exemptions were only "interim final" rules. Now, more than a year and a half later, the rules are changing. It seems that our Catholic bishops were almost prophetic in their refusal to lend any support to the health care bill. Seemingly, they were right, while the Catholic Health Association, the Leadership Conference of Women's Religious and others were either hoodwinked by some in the administration and/or were just dead wrong.

At any rate, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has already issued a response to today's late-breaking news.

Stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen, because this has just begun...

Oy vey! The Cathechism in Hebrew!

Jesus and the Pharisees: "Art thou mad, bra?"

The Catechism is being published in HEBREW! I did a double-take this morning when I read about it but it makes good sense.

L’Osservatore Romano reports that the first three volumes of the Catechism (presumably the first three parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) have been translated into Hebrew. Father David Neuhaus, the Latin patriarch’s vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Jerusalem, worked “silently and discreetly” on the translation, with the assistance of Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land.
Father Neuhaus explains that the Hebrew-speaking Catholics to whom he ministers “are mainly of mixed Israeli origin: relatives of Jews, children of Jews, some converted Jews and other persons who are not Jewish but have been integrated into Jewish society … We insist on Christian formation, Christian in a secular and Jewish environment.”
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=13031


I was even more surprised to follow a link to a community of Hebrew speaking Catholics living in Israel. The mind boggles! However, I am a bit comforted that the original hearers of the Gospel are still out there.

L'Chaim!

A New Year and a new path home...

Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI announced the establishment of a new Church structure for Anglicans and Episcopalians in the U.S. who want to become Catholic. It is the second "personal ordinariate" founded in response to the 2009 document Anglicanorum coetibus, in which the Pope responded to the requests of disaffected Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church in a way which preserves the good and unique aspects of their Anglican heritage - aspects such as beautiful hymnody and choral music and unique prayer and liturgical traditions. As described in the establishing document, the purpose of the ordinariate is "to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared."

On the technical side of things, a personal ordinariate is a Church structure similar to a diocese, but one that is nation-wide and led by an "ordinary" (a priest or a bishop) who is answerable directly to the Pope. Much like a diocese, an ordinariate has parish churches, priests and faithful. Naturally, the parishes that will be part of the Anglican ordinariate will preserve Anglican forms of worship and governance while being fully "Catholic" in their faith and in their relationship to the Successor of Peter (i.e. the Pope).

The first Anglican ordinariate, named Our Lady of Walsingham, was established last January in England and Wales. Yesterday, it was announced that the U.S. version is called the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and it will be headquartered in Houston, Texas at Our Lady of Walsingham Church. Fr. Jeffrey Steenson, formerly the Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande but now a Catholic priest, will be the ordinary for the structure in the U.S.

For the vast majority of American Catholics, this development will not mean a whole lot. As you travel to different cities in the future and look for a place to fulfill your Sunday obligation to attend Mass, however, you might now have a few more choices. But from a Southern perspective, the birth of the ordinariate is interesting because many of the long-established Anglican parishes and groups who are lined up to join the Church through the ordinariate are in Southern states - especially Florida and Texas (the latter of which is the birthplace of Anglican Use Catholic parishes). You can take a look at the unofficial Google map of these communities.

Pray for these brothers and sisters of our who are beginning their journey into the Catholic fold and pray for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, who is the Pope of Christian unity!

Vaclav Havel RIP

Dagmar Havlova, the widow of Vaclev Havel, mourns in procession

Pope Benedict XVI sent a telegram of condolence to the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, on the death this past Sunday of former president Vaclav Havel, whose funeral was celebrated this morning (Friday)  in the Cathedral of St Vitus at Prague Castle. President Havel was 75 years old.  In the text, the Pope expressed his nearness to those attending the funeral, joining them in "commending the soul of the deceased to the infinite mercy of our heavenly Father" and recalling Vaclav Havel's courage in the defence of "human rights at a time when these were systematically denied to the people of your country". He paid tribute to his "visionary leadership in forging a new democratic policy after the fall of the previous regime" and gave thanks to God "for the freedom that the people of the Czech Republic now enjoy".  The Holy Father concluded by imparting the Apostolic Blessing as "a pledge of spiritual strength and comfort" to all those mourning the deceased, "in hope of resurrection to new life".
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=19553

Havel was an artist at heart but it would appear his muse was justice. He was a self-admitted non-practicing Catholic but had the respect of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Havel would even admit that he was compelled to go to confession when meeting John Paul II and did so: "I suddenly realized I was in fact confessing in front of him, even though I'm not accustomed to going to confession, since I'm not a practicing Catholic. I felt the need because of the great will to understand the other person that emanates from the person of the pope".

Saints of the States

Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha

A 17th-century Native American woman who cared for the sick and elderly, and a Catholic nun who worked with lepers in Hawaii, are on the verge of becoming the newest American saints, after Pope Benedict XVI certified miracles due to their intercession, the Vatican announced Monday (Dec 19).


Here's an inspiring tale concerning Blessed Kateri's latest miracle:

Kateri's supporters submitted evidence of miracles but believed Kateri's chances of sainthood died with Pope John Paul, who bestowed sainthood on more people than all other popes combined.

Jake Finkbonner with his mother in front of a statue of Bl. Kateri

Then, in 2006, a 6-year-old boy cut his lip during a basketball game in Washington state.
Overnight, Jake Finkbonner's face swelled up and he developed a high fever, according to an NPR report. Doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital said a flesh-eating bacterium called Strep A was attacking the boy's face. Over the next few weeks, it destroyed his lips, cheeks and forehead. Doctors told the family the boy was going to die.
The family's priest asked his congregation to pray to Kateri on Jake's behalf. The priest chose Kateri because of her facial scars and Indian heritage – Jake is half Lummi Indian.
The prayers started coming in from around the world, and a representative from the Society of the Blessed Kateri went to the hospital to place a pendant of Kateri on the boy's pillow. The next day, the infection stopped progressing and Jake recovered.
Investigators from the Vatican researched the incident for three years, and on Monday, Pope Benedict approved it as a miracle attributed to Kateri's intervention.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Kateri-gets-miracle-she-needed-2412929.php#ixzz1h51cOAPT

Fungus Among Us

Ew. Looks likes something you'd see in a restroom off 55-S

" A communion wafer that fell to the floor at a South St. Paul church and turned blood red is not a miracle. Twin Cities archdiocese officials said Wednesday that the discoloration was instead caused by a fungus.

While the Catholic Church fully recognizes the possibility of miracles and remains open to their possibility, it does so with extreme scrutiny, investigation and care. This incident was the result of natural biological causes and should not be considered in any other way."http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/135632408.html

In seminary, a professor of Biblical studies told us to be cautious against Eucharistic miracles. He said that even though they may be compelling, he didn't see them as his Risen Lord. The Church herself warns the faithful to not make miracles a reason for believing. Jesus even said, "Blest are those who have not seen yet believe  (Jn 20:29)."

Yikes.

My life has been virtually miracle free. Well, as far as seeing anything miracle-y. I consider that to be a favor from God and not some kind of diss. At Our Lady of Lourdes, the nuns would tell the most gory tales of Eucharistic miracles and, personally, it creeped me out. I prayed God not send any apparitions, bleeding statues, hosts or walls or have anything burning yelling at me. I'll just pray, listen and obey. He, at least, held up his end of the bargain.

Recent "saint"ly news

Bl. Marianne Cope (d. 1918)

It seems that one American "blessed" may have just taken the final step toward sainthood.

Yesterday, Vatican officials announced the findings of an independent medical board, who declared that there is no medical or scientific explanation for a recent miracle attributed to Blessed Marianne Cope. They have recommended that Pope Benedict name Bl. Marianne a saint.

It would be up to Pope Benedict to follow the recommendation of the Congregation for the Causes for Saints and to officially add Bl. Marianne to the list of the Church's saints. After that, she would officially be called "Saint" Marianne Cope.

Bl. Marianne Cope was a Franciscan sister who was born in Germany but raised in Utica, New York. In 1862, she entered the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, New York. As a religious sister in New York, she helped to establish two Catholic hospitals in that state. She is best known, however, for her service to leprosy patients in Hawaii during the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1883, she responded to a plea for assistance and volunteered to move to Hawaii to serve. There, she succeeded Father Damien (now St. Damien), a Belgian-born priest also renowned for his ministry to those suffering from leprosy.