Tribulation Times
January 24, 2012
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POPE BENEDICT XVI: "At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus about the conditions for human flourishing. In America, that consensus, as enshrined in your nation's founding documents, was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles deriving from nature and nature's God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such".THE NEW AMERICAN: Religious Groups Vow to Fight Obama’s Contraception MandateThe Obama administration announced January 20 that under its 2010 ObamaCare medical legislation employers will be compelled to cover birth control for women free of charge, including controversial contraceptive drugs which can induce abortion early in a woman’s pregnancy. The administration rejected an appeal from religious organizations, led by the Catholic Church, for an exemption on insurance provided to employees of religious institutions such as hospitals, colleges, and charities. Under the ruling, most health insurance covered by employers will be required to include free access to all contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including such “emergency contraception” as Plan B, RU-486, Ella, and other “morning after” drugs which can induce abortion in women who take them very early in their pregnancies.The White House made the announcement about the ruling through Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, who insisted that the decision “was made after very careful consideration, including the important concerns some have raised about religious liberty.” She expressed her belief that the mandate “strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.”REVIEW: A Primer On the HHS Rule, What You Need to Know
RELATED VIDEO: Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan on HHS Conscience Regulation
CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC: “Never before in US history”Both the president of the U.S. bishops and the bishops’ Pro-Life chairman called on the thousands of Catholics gathered for the National Prayer Vigil for Life to speak out for the protection of conscience rights and religious liberty. “From a human point of view, we may be tempted to surrender, when our government places conception, pregnancy and birth under the ‘center for disease control,’ when chemically blocking conception or aborting the baby in the womb is considered a ‘right’ to be subsidized by others who abhor it,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at the vigil’s closing Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on January 23. His words referred to the January 20 announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that nearly all employers will be forced to cover drugs and procedures that violate their conscience in their health insurance plans. “When the ability of feeding, housing, and healing the struggling of the world is curtailed and impeded if one does not also help women abort their babies, one can hardly be faulted for being tempted to the ‘sin against the Holy Spirit’ and just consider all as lost,” Cardinal-designate Dolan said. Addressing the opening Mass the previous evening, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, excoriated the HHS rule.
“Never before in our US History has the Federal Government forced citizens to directly purchase what violates our beliefs. At issue here as our President of the Conference stated it this past Friday, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for conscience and religious liberty,” said Cardinal DiNardo.LINKS TO HOMILIES: http://www.usccb.org/about/media-relations/resources/2012-national-prayer-vigil-for-life-homilies.cfm
ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT HOMILY: http://archphila.org/archbishop-chaput/homilies/homilies.htm
Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects
10. Provided He is pleased we ought to be satisfied, and ought not to be troubled about our feelings of dissatisfaction or annoyance; these arise within us only because we are not sufficiently mortified and simple-hearted to cut off the windings and reflections of self-love.
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This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
