The USCCB is Actually ALIVE!!!

[elts1956]

After some fifty years of silence and division, the USCCB is asking us, the laity, to help them fight the Public Option in bo's and pelosi's health plan for us. Cynical creature that I am, I believe this is a ploy by the USCCB to be able to say, "Gee we did what we could".

At one time, I would never have thought that about a man of the cloth, but that was a time when our Church leaders were leaders not politicians.

I think it's too little too late, but here is a copy of an alert I received from a Pro Life Representative via email.

Dear Pastors, Parish Life Coordinators, and Respect Life Contacts,
On Monday there was an Action Alert generated by the Respect Life office based on NCHLA’s Action Alert, in anticipation of Bulletin Announcement deadlines.
Yesterday afternoon, the USCCB sent an Urgent Nationwide Action Alert , with the following attachments, requesting that every parish begin this weekend encouraging active participation. The actual e-mail generating web link is the same that went out earlier, and is on the Respect Life website, but here are some additional significant helpful resources (please click on the links below):
HC Cover Letter to Leaders (Please read the request to Leaders for participation)

HC Ad/Flyer "Saving Lives" (Consider making several copies and posting, and/or printing on the opposite side of the Bulletin Insert below)

HC Pulpit Announcement and Prayer (This includes a request for announcements over two weekends, and a suggested Prayer of the Faithful)

HC Bulletin Insert
The following two information sheets from the USCCB’s Health Care Web site may also provide useful information, especially in response to some policy makers’ replies to the emails generated by the action alert suggesting that there is no cause for concern regarding these issues:† Abortion and Conscience Problems in the Bills

† Current Policy on Federal Abortion Funding

Thank you for your attention and active participation!!

[DOShea]

What date does this email refer to when it speaks of "On Monday...?"

No one in my parish knows anything about this.

[elts1956]

Originally Posted by DOShea

What date does this email refer to when it speaks of "On Monday...?"

No one in my parish knows anything about this.

Good question. No one in my Parish acknowledged it this past Sunday either. I think this article is fairly recent. But as usual with the USCCB too little too late. I will try to find out more.

[elts1956]

Originally Posted by DOShea

What date does this email refer to when it speaks of "On Monday...?"

No one in my parish knows anything about this.

This is what I found in an email from LifeNews.com: Mon. Nov. 2, 2009

Catholic Bishops Launch National Campaign to Defeat Pro-Abortion Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With the latest version of the health care reform legislation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi containing massive abortion subsidies and mandates, the nation's Catholic bishops have launched what they say is their biggest legislative campaign ever. In an extraordinary call to Catholics to prevent health care reform from being derailed by the abortion lobby, the United Sates Conference of Catholic Bishops has sent bulletin inserts to almost 19,000 Catholic churches across the country. "Health care reform should be about saving lives, not destroying them," the insert states. It urges readers to contact congressional leaders so they support efforts to "incorporate longstanding policies against abortion funding and in favor of conscience rights" in health reform legislation. "If these serious concerns are not addressed, the final bill should be opposed," it adds. The insert highlights the Stupak Amendment from Rep. Bart Stupak a pro-life Michigan Democrat, and says it "addresses essential pro-life concerns on abortion funding and conscience rights." "Help ensure that the Rule for the bill allows a vote on the amendment," the insert states. "If these serious concerns are not addressed, the final bill should be opposed." A dramatic ad of a pregnant woman notes that the Hyde Amendment, which passed in 1976, has prevented federal funds from paying for elective abortions. Yet healthcare reform bills that are advancing violate this policy. The ad message: "Tell Congress: Remove Abortion Funding and Mandates from Needed Health Care Reform." Bulletin inserts were distributed to dioceses October 29, the day Pelosi unveiled the latest pro-abortion health care bill. "The bishops want health care reform, but they recoil at any expansion of abortion," said Helen Osman, USCCB Secretary for Communications, who helped organize the campaign. "Most Americans don’t want to pay for other people’s abortions via health care either. This impasse on the road to reform of health care can be broken if Congress writes in language that assures that the Hyde Amendment law continues to guide U.S. federal spending policy."

As I said, no word in my Parish either even though I sent a copy of the bulletin to my parish priest. We'll have to see what happens.

[Ridgerunner]

There was nothing in my bulletin about it, though my bishop has certainly put articles in the diocesan paper warning of abortion coverage in the government takeover of medicine bills. He did go farther than that, though. Pelosicare is contrary to Church teaching in a number of ways, and abortion is only one of them.

There is a peril in the USCCB or anyone else focusing on that aspect of the bills to the exclusion of a broader critique. Obama has already said (untruthfully, of course) that abortion coverage is not in the proposals. When the USCCB focuses on that one aspect, it sets Obama and others up to deceive; seemingly removing the one objection that has been voiced. It allows, too, for further deceptive utterances, or even language in the bill, that seem to negate the USCCB's one objection, thus seeming to indicate approval in every other way.

[puzzleannie]

letter to the faithful is to be delivered to every parishioner in the Diocese this week, the means is left up to each pastor, and the bulletin announcement and pulpit announcement must be made, but again it is up to each pastor how he does it. The letter was handed out in our parish after each Mass yesterday, with a pulpit announcement from the pastor.