Archive for

2009

  • U.S. bishops again urge ban on abortion coverage in health reform

    WASHINGTON (CNS) — The U.S. bishops again have urged U.S. senators to put Hyde amendment language into proposed health care reform legislation to prohibit federal funds from being used for elective abortion coverage.

    Such a step, they said, would align the legislation with policies now governing all other federal health programs and with the just-passed appropriations bill.

    The bishops urged the action in a Dec. 14 letter from Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

    In a separate letter Dec. 14, Cardinal DiNardo and the chairmen of two other USCCB committees urged the Senate to accept an amendment that would allow states to lift the five-year waiting period for legal immigrants to obtain Medicaid coverage.

    On abortion, the bishops noted that senators voted overwhelmingly Dec. 13 for the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which contains Hyde language banning federal funding for health coverage that includes elective abortion and maintains laws protecting conscience rights.

    A major problem with the current health care reform legislation in the Senate, Cardinal DiNardo’s letter said, is that “it explicitly authorizes the use of federal funds to subsidize health plans covering elective abortions for the first time in history.”

    “Health care reform is too urgently needed to be placed at risk by one lobbying group’s insistence on changing the law,” the cardinal added.

    On Dec. 8 the Senate voted to table a bipartisan abortion amendment to its version of health care reform legislation.

    The bishops said their three top priorities for health reform are respecting life and conscience, ensuring affordability and giving immigrants fair access to health benefits for which they pay taxes.

    On immigrants, the bishops urged passage of an amendment by Sen. Robert Mendendez, D-N.J., which they said would “ensure adequate coverage to as many as 600,000 legal immigrants each year who otherwise may not be able to access such coverage.”

    “We believe that legal immigrants, who work, pay taxes and are on a path to citizenship, should have access to health care services, such as Medicaid, for which they help pay,” said the letter from the cardinal and Bishops John C. Wester of Salt Lake City and William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y.

    “Moreover, providing low-income legal immigrants access to Medicaid would help ensure that the general public health of immigrant communities and the nation is served,” they added.

    Bishop Wester chairs the USCCB Committee on Migration and Bishop Murphy the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

    Sent to the senators along with Cardinal DiNardo’s letter was a sheet containing quotes from senators who said during debate on an abortion-related amendment proposed by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and others that the Nelson amendment went too far.

    But in their vote on the appropriations bill, “almost all Democrats, including almost every senator who claimed the Nelson amendment’s policy went too far, voted in favor of that exact policy,” the cardinal said.

    “These senators voted to retain the actual current language of the Hyde amendment, and of the parallel provision governing abortion in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program — and that language clearly requires a policy in all other federal health programs that is identical to that of the Nelson amendment,” he said.

    The “only substantive difference” between the current “noncontroversial and widely supported” provisions and the Nelson amendment “is that the latter explains at length that (a) it does not prevent purchasers who do not receive federal subsidies from buying a health plan including elective abortions … and (b) it does not prevent purchasers receiving federal subsidies from buying separate supplemental abortion coverage with their own funds,” the letter said.

    After a break of several days to consider the appropriations bill, the Senate resumed debate on the its version of health reform legislation Dec. 15. Senate leadership hoped to bring the legislation to a vote before the Christmas recess.

    Posted on December 16, 2009, to:

  • Podcast: December 20, 2009

    This week’s paper offers Bishop John M. D’Arcy’s Christmas message. Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, who will be installed as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend on Jan. 13, offers his views on the priesthood. Papal honors were celebrated with seven monsignors and a Notre Dame professor who was named a Knight of St. Gregory. Father Benedict Groeschel, EWTN personality, visited Fort Wayne over the weekend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Franciscan Center. A blessed Christmas season to all readers of Today’s Catholic.
    Listen now

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    Posted on December 16, 2009, to:

  • With anonymity comes loss of humanity

    “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

    Literature aficionados may recall that opening line from Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities,” a novel set in London and Paris about the French Revolution. But that famous phrase written 150 years ago also applies to how information is spread today via the Internet.

    It is the best of times for obvious reasons. We literally have information on virtually any topic at any time of the day at our fingertips. Just tap out the topic of your interest, and you can read/learn about anything you ever imagined.

    The concept for those of us old enough to have relied upon the old Funk & Wagnalls’ encyclopedias for information still resonates with me. The ability to answer any question about any topic in a blink of the eye is something those of us from that age bracket will never take for granted.

    The hours spent in libraries, oftentimes in a futile search for information, are haunting memories from my education. To this day, I still don’t think I know how to efficiently move about and maximize my time spent in search of information in a library.

    Fortunately, it doesn’t matter anymore. I have all the access to information I need at my laptop on the Internet.

    But like so many other advantages that come to us in life, there is a flip side, an equal and opposite action if you will, an insidious side that entraps and corrupts. It is the worst of times too.

    Besides the obvious access to the seedier side of life that is so readily available on the Internet, we have allowed the creation of the individual who is empowered by anonymity, which in turn allows that person to abandon human decency as it pertains to the treatment of others.

    I, along with two partners, own a Web site that chronicles Notre Dame football. It caters to the fanatics. The editors of the site pour a steady stream of information to our subscribers by reporting on games, practices, press conferences, interviews, high school football recruiting, etc., which in itself is a good and positive thing. It provides educated, well-thought feedback on what is happening in the Notre Dame football world.

    But with such a venue comes the creation of the “message board” world. Our pay message board is called “The Four Horsemen Lounge,” named after the famous Notre Dame backfield from 1924. People come to this message board for “serious discussion of Notre Dame sports,” or at least that’s how we described it upon its inception.

    But that’s not what it is, or at least, that’s only a small part of what it is now. Subscribers who join the site create a message board name like ND4ever or Rockne32 to identify themselves. This anonymity has created some interesting interplay from subscriber to subscriber or subscriber to editor. As an editor of the site, when I state an opinion, my full name appears. But only myself and the other editors are identified.

    That anonymity has created a world in which disrespect for one another is rampant, where cruel, judgmental, vulgar comments are fostered, and where the cloak of namelessness allows for no accusation or insult to be too far “out there” to hurl.

    Several years ago, when the Web site was created, the concept had a purity to it. Notre Dame fans sharing ideas with other Notre Dame fans and reading about the program through the eyes of the people reporting on the process who are up close and personal.

    Those elements still exist to some extent because there remain some intelligent, thoughtful and respectful individuals.

    What concerns me is the next generation of Internet readers because they are growing up in this anonymous world in which hiding behind a name like WeisGuy1 empowers a person to be as nasty and demeaning as he would like toward player, coach or fellow subscriber without the repercussions of identification or accountability.

    That’s not to say that those from the older generation are not among the more outspoken and disrespectful. But most of those people grew up in an era when the expression of an opinion bore a degree of responsibility. You couldn’t hide behind the wall. The old fashioned “letter to the editor” required a full name and address sent to the newspaper — and verification that you sent it — before your opinion was printed.

    These truly are the best and the worst of times that we live in when it comes to the acquisition of knowledge and the sharing of thoughts on the Internet. Unfortunately, with those benefits comes the creation of a monster that is a hateful and destructive beast.

    Posted on December 16, 2009, to:

  • Jesus is answer to every human need

    4th Sunday in Advent
    Lk 1:39-45
    This weekend observes the last Sunday in Advent. The first reading is from the Book of Micah, who is regarded as one of the Minor Prophets, in large part because of the book’s brevity.

    It contains only seven chapters. (By contrast, the Book of Isaiah has 66 chapters. The author was a contemporary of Isaiah, the author of the first section of the Book of Isaiah.)

    Very few biographical facts about the author of Micah are known. He came from a small village some 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. However, nothing is known of his background.

    As did so many prophets of ancient Israel, Micah was determined to call his people, the Chosen People, back to God and away from sin. He argued for piety and for loyalty to the covenant with God. Furthermore, he warned that indifference to God only led to disaster, personal as well as national.

    In his day, piety was in short supply. Greed and exploitation overwhelmed the economy, merely indications of rampant personal greed. Religious practices were sparse and often insincere and poorly presented when they did occur.

    Amid all this, Micah promises that a savior will come. This savior will lead the people away from sin and to God. The savior will come from Bethlehem.
    Here, Micah refers to David, who was born in Bethlehem. David was so important. As king of Israel, his royal role was not primarily political, but rather it was religious. His task was to see that the people obeyed God.

    Micah forecasts that when this savior becomes king, all will be well. All will be at peace.

    For its second reading, the church this weekend gives us a lesson from the Book of Hebrews. Heavy with its Hebrew symbolism, this epistle also is renowned for brilliantly extolling Jesus as Lord and as the Lamb of God.

    In Hebrews, Jesus appears as the perfect victim and priest. His sacrifice on Calvary was sublime, perfect, and utterly unique. Also, it was eternal. Its effects of reconciling humanity with God will never cease. Thus no other sacrifices are necessary. All has been accomplished.

    St. Luke’s Gospel furnishes the last reading. It is the story of the Visitation. Mary travels from her own home to a place in the hills of Judah. Traditionally, it has been thought that this place is the site now called Ein Karem. Once a few miles from Jerusalem, it has been absorbed by the growth of the city and for all practical purposes is today a part of Jerusalem.

    Mary goes to meet her cousin, Elizabeth, the wife of Zachariah. Elizabeth herself is pregnant. Since Elizabeth was past the childbearing age for a woman, her conception was regarded as miraculous. Her child had a special destiny. He was holy. Elizabeth’s unborn child will be John the Baptist.
    Elizabeth realizes that Mary is expecting a child, but Mary’s child will be the messiah. Elizabeth’s unborn child understands the profound character of all that is transpiring, and the unborn child senses God in the presence of Mary and her own unborn infant. Elizabeth and her unborn testify to the Messiah.

    Reflection
    It is the last weekend of Advent. Christmas will be within the week. For almost everyone, it will be a busy, hurried day, even if a day of excitement, anticipation and joy.

    Nevertheless, there is time to make Christmas a personal spiritual event. So, in these readings during Advent’s last weekend, the church calls us to Jesus. He is everything, the church emphatically and joyfully declares. In the words of Hebrews, in the words of Luke, Jesus is the answer to every human need.

    The writings of Micah remind us that when we allow Jesus to come to us, all peace and happiness will abide with us.                     

    Posted on December 16, 2009, to:

  • The rule book

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful if mourning the loss of a loved one came with a rule book — what to do, what not to do and how long to do it? Unfortunately, like almost anything in life of any importance, grief does not come with an instruction manual. I have come to learn that the one unrivaled rule of grief is — there are no rules!

    I must admit, from my experience, since losing my father and my young husband in the same year and all the subsequent losses my heart has endured, our understanding of grief as a culture has come a long way.

    Since the time of my parents’ generation, when grief was not shared and each mourner was left to his own devices, experts in the field have developed guidelines and stages by which the bereaved can navigate.

    The experts will tell you that in general it is best to wait one to two years following a loss to make any major decisions such as selling a home, leaving a career or remarriage. Stages including shock, anger, sorrow, depression and others are the hallmark of those who have blazed the trail for us. Now we see that grief is multidimensional and in no way as orderly or predictable as a stage. Those in mourning will move in and out of any emotion as their need takes them.

    Current guidelines I have found helpful include paying close attention to your body, mind and heart’s response to the loss, expressing your feelings in constructive ways, and being gentle with yourself.

    Many bereaved speak gratefully of the overwhelming support they receive from family and friends. But there are just as many who are challenged with well-wishers who will tell them in no uncertain terms how, when and where to grieve — offering sage advice, often unsolicited.

    Following the death of my husband, I, like many who are newly bereaved, found myself bombarded with uninvited advice on very personal decisions ranging from whether to move and when to what to feed my preschool-age daughters. The well-intended guidance only proved to confuse me more during a time when my only hope was living to the next moment.

    As I began to educate myself on how a young widow should  grieve, by reading, attending seminars and searching for a support group that fit my unique needs, I was inspired by a statement that changed the course of my grief and has fueled my bereavement ministry as well. Alan Wolfelt, founder of Center for Loss and Life Transition in Colorado, said that each of us is the expert of our own grief journey. 

    Think about that for a moment. Within that single statement there lies an innate truth that our culture has lost sight of. We each have within us the knowledge of what we need to mourn in healthy ways — our personal rules of mourning. And the journey is comprised of identifying those needs and discovering ways to meet them.

    My heart demanded that I slow to a snail’s pace in the aftermath of my husband’s death. Eventually I was able to create a new normal and regain my energy and passion for life. But my heart always knew just what I needed all along the way, even when I didn’t.

    It’s important to surround yourself with others who wish to support you. They listen when you need to talk and allow you to express your unique and personal pain. However, it is equally and perhaps even more important to listen to your heart and discover your own personal response to the pain and joy of grief.

    Posted on December 16, 2009, to: