Church Under Attack

Monday, August 06, 2012

The following excerpts are from the Catholic News Agency (CNA) column by Joe Trembley:

Timing is everything. This maxim is especially the case if good is to prevail over evil. Whether it be personal sin or political tyranny, response to a crisis is most effective when it is done in the beginning stages.
As the spiritual classic, the "Imitation of Christ," cautions: "(W)e must watch, especially in the beginning of temptation; for then the enemy is more easily overcome, if he be not suffered to enter the door of the mind, but is withstood upon the threshold the very moment he knocks. Whence a certain one has said 'Resist beginnings; all too late the cure.'"
What applies to sin in the spiritual order also applies to injustice in the political order. And just as with personal sin, when government is a menace to liberty it must be met head-on at the outset.
If history bears witness to the fact that secular-liberalism, when unleashed, runs roughshod over human rights, then the HHS contraceptive mandate is only a harbinger of things to come. This mandate bids us to resist the social and political intolerance while there is time to do so.
We can anticipate the State not stopping at coercing Catholic agencies to provide abortifacients and contraceptives to her employees.
No.
There is another demand that is turning out to be--and will certainly prove to be–a more pressing matter. Indeed, the political will to advance same-sex marriage and criminalize its opposition are much more emotionally charged than the demand for contraception. Enter Chick-fil-A.

Click below to read more:

Chick-fil-A and Chicago: A heads-up for the Church - By Joe Tremblay

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

The bishops of Kenya have decried renewed international efforts to promote contraception in Africa.
Contraception, the bishops write, “is both dehumanizing and goes against the teaching of the Church, especially in a country like Kenya where a majority of the people are Christians and God fearing. It already threatens the moral fabric of the society and is an insult to the dignity and integrity of the human person.”
“The drive by foreign agencies, whose motives we hardly comprehend, to target millions of girls and women in Africa for the artificial family planning program by the year 2020 is unimaginable, dangerous and could lead to destruction of the human society and by extension the human race,” the bishops said in a statement.
“We cannot allow our country to be part of an international agenda, driven by foreign funds and by so doing, losing our independence and our African values of the family and society,” the bishops continued. “The same foreign forces are dedicating billions of shillings promoting same-sex unions while millions of women across are dying due to lack of proper maternal care facilities.”

The following excerpt is from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

An annual report on religious freedom throughout the world, released by the US State Department, "sends a signal to the worst offenders that the world is watching,” according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But a former State Department official charges that the Obama administration has done little to promote religious freedom.