I am back from my retreat, and thankful to report that I feel the great ship that is me has begun the slow, arduous task of righting its course.<\/p>\n
Coming home yesterday was a relief in some ways, particularly in that I was able to attend mass in the evening with my dear family.\u00a0 I wont go into all the details of what struck me as off about the “mass” I tried to attend in the morning at the “worship center”… although I will say that I have never in my life seen 200+ septuagenarians who exhibited a poorer understanding of the concept of reverence.\u00a0 Of course, it doesn’t help when the “processional” consists of the priest waltzing down the center aisle his white alb, howdying everyone as he goes, then wandering into the vestry, returning in his chasuble, and leading everyone in a rousing chorus of “Oh what a beautiful MORRRRRning….”.\u00a0 I did not feel at all bad about slipping out the back after the homily and heading for home.\u00a0 Anyway, I digress…<\/p>\n
Back at Ss. Simon and Jude, I was thankful not only to receive the Eucharist, but to hear a very forthright homily from Fr. Lankeit tying the readings of the day, on understanding true authority, with our great Bishop’s letter to all the churches in the diocese, which was read from the pulpit in every church yesterday.\u00a0 Here is that letter:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 January 25, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith.\u00a0 The federal government, which claims to be \u201cof, by, and for the people,\u201d has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people\u2013the Catholic population\u2013and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception.\u00a0 Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those \u201cservices\u201d in the insurance policies they write.\u00a0 Almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their health insurance plans.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In so ruling, the Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our nation\u2019s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty.\u00a0 As a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).\u00a0 The Administration\u2019s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We cannot\u2014we will not\u2014comply with this unjust law.\u00a0 People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens.\u00a0 We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom.\u00a0 Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America\u2019s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God-given rights.\u00a0 In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties.\u00a0 I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same.\u00a0 Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Therefore, I would ask of you two things.\u00a0 First, commit ourselves to prayer and fasting, that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored.\u00a0 Pray the rosary, asking Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of our nation, to intercede for us.\u00a0 Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible.\u00a0 Second, I recommend visiting www.usccb.org\/conscience to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration\u2019s decision.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United in prayer and in confidence in God\u2019s mercy, I remain<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sincerely yours in Christ,<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 + Thomas J. Olmsted<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bishop of Phoenix<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Fr. Lankeit’s address yesterday emphasized three things that we as the faithful can and must do in the face of this attack on our religious liberty.<\/p>\n
\n
- Fasting<\/li>\n
- Prayer<\/li>\n
- Writing to congress<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
With that in view, each member of our family is making a vow to fast in some way for the strengthening of the Church, that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored<\/em>.\u00a0 We are additionally praying the rosary together for the intercession of Our Lady on behalf of the Church.\u00a0 And we will begin our school day today with writing letters to all the members of our congressional delegation, asking them to overturn this unjust and unconstitutional HHS mandate.<\/p>\n
Many have been warning for quite some time that persecution is coming to the American Church, and the signs have been growing that it is already here.\u00a0 This new effort is the most blatant to date, and all of us must join together to protect religious freedoms for our posterity.\u00a0 As Fr. Lankeit said as he finished his homily yesterday, “We have our marching orders.”\u00a0 Let’s get busy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am back from my retreat, and thankful to report that I feel the great ship that is me has begun the slow, arduous task of righting its course. Coming home yesterday was a relief in some ways, particularly in that I was able to attend mass in the evening with my dear family.\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,598,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-netties-world","category-politics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3393"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4293,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393\/revisions\/4293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.adoptedjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}