Bishop Chaput to Philly?

No fair!

At least a theologically-sound Cardinal is being replaced with a theologically-sound Bishop.

Do you think Denver would be a good place for an Irishman to run a travelogue blog? Some potential for beautiful pictures.

Some very interesting details here.

On June 30, the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops picked the name of a potential Philadelphia archbishop from a list of three candidates – known as a “terna” – to recommend to Pope Benedict.

However, after praying over the issue during the Fourth of July weekend, Pope Benedict decided not to select any of the recommended candidates, and specifically chose Archbishop Chaput for the post.

Very interesting!

Cardinal Rigali: Healthcare Bills Funding Abortion "Seriously Deficient"

Kudos to Cardinal Rigali for his leadership role in combatting Obama's inhumane reforms in healthcare.

Cardinal Rigali said his present letter concerned the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) and related legislation, emphasizing that respect for human life and the rights of conscience is a “fundamental requirement.”

“Much-needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an ‘abortion rights’ agenda or reversing longstanding policies against federal funding and mandated coverage of abortion,” the cardinal wrote, echoing his July 29 letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“In this sense we urge you to make this legislation ‘abortion neutral,’ by preserving longstanding federal policies that prevent government promotion of abortion and respect conscience rights.”

He described the proposed health care act as “seriously deficient” in that it delegates to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) the power to make unlimited abortion a mandated benefit in the health insurance plan the government will manage.

“This would be a radical change: Federal law has long excluded most abortions from federal employees’ health benefits packages, and no federal health program mandates coverage of elective abortions,” he pointed out.

Further, federal funds authorized by the proposed legislation do not pass through the Department of Labor or the HHS appropriations bill, and so are not covered by the Hyde Amendment restricting federal funding for abortions and health benefits package that include abortion.

According to Cardinal Rigali, the Capps Amendment, which was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, created a “legal fiction” and a “paper separation” between federal funding and abortion. The proposal uses federal funds to subsidize the public health plan and private plans that include abortion on demand. It requires a premium to cover “all abortions beyond those eligible for federal funds under the current Hyde Amendment.”

The claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion in the health care proposal is an “illusion,” Cardinal Rigali said.

“Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions,” he continued, warning that those who must purchase the public health plan will be “forced by the federal government to pay directly and specifically for abortion coverage.”

“Government will force low-income Americans to subsidize abortions for others (and abortion coverage for themselves) even if they find abortion morally abhorrent,” the cardinal alerted the representatives, saying this is the opposite of current policy

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Reports from Obama's healthcare town meeting in New Hampshire state there were 1800 protesters outside that weren't let in -- and amazingly, everyone who was let in was a fan of Obama and his healthcare reform.

It was staged.

They used an 11 year old as a plant.

A girl from Malden asked President Obama a question at Tuesday’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire about the signs outside “saying mean things” about his health care proposal.

Eleven-year-old Julia Hall asked: “How do kids know what is true, and why do people want a new system that can — that help more of us?”

Michelle Malkin points out:

Manning Hall has donated thousands of dollars to Obama, as has her law firm.

But, you know, um, like Obama said: “I don’t want people saying I just have a bunch of plants in here.”...

” I have been honored to work with Kathleen Manning Hall on the New England Finance and Steering Committee for Barack Obama for over a year. She has raised money, slogged through the snow in New Hampshire and has devoted every minute of her time toward electing Barack Obama President of the United States. She has not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. Please elect her as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention to vote for Barack Obama.”

Creepy.

News Flash: Lincoln Eradicated Slavery. National Policies to "Reduce it" While Publicly Funding it = Horsefeathers

Cardinal Rigali Pins the Tail on the Obama Rope a Dope.

"First, he said, "public funding of abortion is rejected by the American people, as numerous surveys of public opinion have shown." He also noted that Catholics recently sent "tens of millions of postcards to their elected representatives in Congress, opposing any weakening or reversal of current appropriations riders on abortion."

"Second, no lawmaker or Administration can support such a policy change and still claim to support 'reducing abortions.' The evidence is overwhelming, and universally recognized by groups on all sides of the abortion issue, that the availability of public funds for abortion greatly increases abortions."

The premise that you'd want to reduce abortions is all the evidence you need that abortions are human rights violations.

Somebody kills somebody else in an abortion.

The victim whose body lieth in the trash can is not the woman who claims she has sovereignty over her body.

Lincoln eradicated slavery. We didn't, at the urgency of his leadership, find ways to reduce it while putting policies into place that promoted it and supported it.

"Third, this action takes place as Congress is working to win broad support for a much-needed major reform of our health care system," Cardinal Rigali noted. "This is the worst of all possible times to be injecting the divisive issue of public abortion funding into the debate on government health policy."