Support a bishop with online prayers

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Rosary for the Bishop, a nationwide campaign to encourage Catholics to pray for their bishops online, got its start back in 2005, when one Catholic in the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, started a local effort to support Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison. As of today, however, that small seed has grown into a group of more than 350 online prayer warriors praying for more than 50 bishops across the country.

According to a CNS story, Rosary for the Bishop was "inspired by a passage from Chapter 17 of Exodus, which refers to Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' hands during battle."

From the CNS story:

"We need to support our bishops' hands so that they do not weary in the battle for the faith," said Syte Reitz, the Madison-area Catholic who initiated the campaign.

"Many Catholics pray the rosary every day," he added. "Why not pray one for our bishops? They are our shepherds, and their job is not easy. They need and deserve our prayers."

You can sign up online to pray for one bishop or multiple bishops. There's also an option to receive reminders via email or Twitter when you are scheduled to pray. And you can see how many other people are praying with you.

Rosary for the Bishop's website says:

"Heaven knows that our good Bishops are under fire for standing up for our Catholic Faith nowadays. What can we do about it? Support them with our prayers!"

To join the campaign, click HERE.

Sisters at the Smithsonian

By Mary DeTurris Poust

"Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America," an exhibit celebrating the courageous and determined women religious who came to the United States almost 300 years ago and changed the landscape of their new land through their groundbreaking work in education, health care, child care, and so much more, is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution's International Gallery of the S. Dillon Ripley Center through April 25.

Sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in association with the Cincinnati Museum Center, the exhibit starts with the Ursuline Sisters who arrived in New Orleans in 1772 and works its way through Revolutionary times, the Civil War, civil and women's rights battles to the present. Among the artifacts on display is a letter from Thomas Jefferson praising the work of the Ursulines, the nurse's bag of a Sister of Charity who was known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" for tending to soldiers on the front lines of the Civil War, and the gavel of a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary who became the mayor of Dubuque, Iowa, in 1980—the first woman religious to be elected mayor of an American city.

After the exhibit wraps up at the Smithsonian, it heads to Cleveland, followed by Liberty Island, New York; Dubuque, Iowa, and South Bend, Indiana. For the full schedule, click HERE.

Needle exhange program in upstate New York is first for Catholic Charities in U.S.

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Catholic Charities of the Capital Region in Albany, N.Y., is starting a controversial needle exchange program -- the first of its kind by Catholic Charities in this country -- in an effort to prevent IV drug users from contracting AIDS when they share needles.

In an article in the Times Union, Sister Maureen Joyce, R.S.M, CEO of Albany Catholic Charities, said "I understand there will be questions, but this is common sense. I strongly believe in this. It will save lives."

The program will allow drug users to anonymously receive syringes and other medical supplies from a custom van that will be located in areas of Albany where injection drug use is known to be occurring.

Later in the same article, Sister Maureen is quoted as saying that the needle exchange is in keeping with "the stated mission of Catholic Charities" and with the larger mission of Christians to care for others.

"From a theological standpoint, we're not being faithful to our mission if we don't reach out to people addicted to drugs, too," she told the Times Union.

For the full story, click HERE. Let us know in the comment section what you think about Catholic Charities running a needle exchange program.

Agendas of Obama and U.S. bishops: Any overlap?

By Russell Shaw

After a first year in office marked by legislative frustration, declining poll numbers, and rising voter discontent, President Barack Obama is now pursuing a scaled-back agenda for 2010 with one overriding priority: jobs. The two big priorities of the American bishops — immigration and health care, and especially the former — seem to be getting short shrift.

With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, not counting people who’ve stopped looking for work, the bishops undoubtedly are also concerned about jobs. But, as they’ve done for years, they continue to press for their issues. Already since the first of the year they’ve launched an effort to mobilize 19,000 parishes nationwide on behalf of health reform that includes abortion funding restrictions, and have called for speedy congressional action on immigration.

Obama is on record favoring immigration reform, but he did nothing about it in 2009, and immigration was not among the topics last night in his State of the Union speech to Congress. In fairness to the president, it must be said that the kind of reform favored by the bishops, with generous provision for regularizing the status of many people now in the country illegally, stands no chance in Congress now.

As for health care, Obama gave it a plug in last night's speech. But it received nowhere near the attention he's given it previously, and he offered no indication of what he personally might do to help get a bill passed. Currently health care reform is stalled in Congress, although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) continue to explore possibilities.

As measured by his words, Obama’s legislative agenda is by no means short on issues. Along with job creation, these include a three-year cap on discretionary programs that account for 17 percent of the federal budget, small-scale but generally attractive measures to benefit the middle class, and some new business tax incentives. But there’s no telling now which of the other things he mentioned he will put presidential muscle behind.

In any case, by comparison with his ambitious objectives of a year ago — health care, environment, financial reform — Obama’s new agenda undoubtedly reflects what John F. Harris of Politico calls “downsized ambitions for a downsized moment in his presidency.” This readjustment reflects Democratic electoral defeats and heightened concern about the midterm elections next November.

Still, Obama unquestionably did lay some glowing rhetoric on health care. “Now is the time to deliver on health care,” he declared.

The bishops said much the same shortly before the president spoke. In a joint letter to Congress dated Jan. 26, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the pro-life committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., chairman of the bishops' domestic justice and development committee, and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the migration committee, deplored “the moral and policy failure that leaves tens of millions of our sisters and brothers without access to health care.”

But the bishops also said the bills pending in Congress still would leave 18-23 million people uninsured. And they once more criticized the Senate-passed bill’s abortion provisions, which would expand government funding.

A day earlier, many Catholics in Washington were surprised to read a Washington Post story reporting that, along with former Secretary of State Colin Powell and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, has been a “sounding board” for Obama several times in the past year.

Citing White House aides, the newspaper said Cardinal McCarrick has had “several private and sometimes unreported meetings, talking with the president about the Middle East and health care.”

Whether coincidentally or not, USCCB staff indicated late last summer that the White House had suddenly started seeking talks about finding common ground on health care, including the abortion issue. Not long after, the president himself began saying publicly that he wanted to stick to the “status quo” on the matter, which since 1976 has limited government funding for abortion to cases involving rape, incest, and the mother’s life.

The House eventually passed a bill including such a provision. But the Senate in December voted for a version that expands abortion funding, and Obama prefers it to the House bill. This is how matters stand at the moment, with abortion one among many issues contributing to the current impasse. If the president and the cardinal sit down together again any time soon, they should have lots to talk about.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

New Jersey woman dies from abortion injury

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Abortion advocates constantly remind us that abortion must be kept legal in order to keep women safe, and yet one single mother of four is dead because of fatal injuries allegedly sustained during a legal abortion procedure at a clinic in Queens, N.Y. Of course, clinic workers are denying they did anything wrong since the woman was declared dead at a nearby hospital not on their grounds. But a N.Y. Daily News story reports that one of the woman's arteries was severed during the abortion. So you make the call on who was to blame. The clinic, by the way, was described as a "one-stop gynecology and plastic surgery clinic" and was still seeing patients as of yesterday. So much for keeping women safe.

Read the full story HERE. H/t to the New York State Catholic Conference.

Notes, photos from Haiti

By Mary DeTurris Poust

In his role as Chairman of the Board for Catholic Relief Services, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York visited Haiti this past weekend. While there, he was celebrant of the funeral Mass of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot and Msgr. Charles Benoit, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Port-Au-Prince, both of whom died in the devastating earthquake.

"I find myself having experienced profoundly both the sorrow, the tragedy, the darkness and death of Good Friday, and the beginnings of the light and radiance and hope in resurrection of Easter. My experience these last 48 hours have been a bit of both," Archbishop Dolan said in an interview with the New York press after his visit. "...When I went to St. Frances de Sales Hospital, which is a hospital supported by Catholic Relief Services, there in the rubble was the whole neonatal unit. And you could see the ruins of the incubators and the beds, crushed. You could see the rocks piled one on the other. And there were the mothers there crying because over 40 of their babies were there in the rubble. When they asked me just to pray with them and to give that grave a blessing, you can imagine what a Good Friday experience that was."

You can see photos and read Archbishop Dolan's comments by visiting his blog, The Gospel in the Digital Age, by clicking HERE. You can listen to the interview with the New York press by clicking HERE.

Catholic Relief Services continues to run updates and photos on its site as well. Get the latest by clicking HERE.

Exposing the roots of America's national discontent

By Russell Shaw

As Americans wait, hopefully or apprehensively as the case may be, to see what happens next to the Obama legislative agenda, a question unavoidably suggests itself: How on earth did we get into this mess? A mess that evidently transcends the question of health care, unemployment or any other particular issue and reflects the fact that Americans collectively are angry, confused, and fed up.

“Anger” has of course become every pundit’s favorite explanation for what happened in Massachusetts, where voters handed a Senate seat occupied during most of the half-century past by John and Edward Kennedy to a Republican, Scott Brown. But anger about what?

President Obama says it was residual anger at George W. Bush. Others, noting that Obama has been president for a year, say it’s anger at him. There’s probably truth in both explanations.

Obama was elected in 2008 because he promised change. So far he’s failed to deliver — at least, to many people’s satisfaction. Whether that reflects a failure of policy, of procedure, or of personal temperament, or the machinations of a vast right-wing conspiracy directed by Rush Limbaugh, is an interesting question but one that needn’t detain us here. What matters is that although Obama promised change, to many people things look much as they did before — and they don’t like it. Taking matters into their own hands, it seems, Massachusetts voters produced a change named Scott Brown.

So what is going on here? What’s really bugging Americans in large numbers these days?

A great deal of the answer is found in the history of the last two decades.

After the fall of communism and the end of the cold war, Americans were promised the “end of history,” a happy ending to end all happy endings. The country still had a few little problems of course, but none of them too serious. After half a century of international anxiety and nuclear threat, Americans could finally put their feet up and relax.

One predictable result of this was the onset of an era of national self-indulgence and self-deception. Its most visible symptom was an economic boom in which greed and risk-taking became the norm.

Complacency was shattered on Sept. 11, 2001. Suddenly the nation was on virtual wartime footing. Americans accepted it at the time. But now, going on nine years later, the strain is starting to show. Iraq was excruciating. Afghanistan looks the same. A man fingered to U.S. intelligence as a threat nevertheless got a shot at blowing up a U.S. airliner last Christmas Day. Add to that the economic crisis of the last two years. Now do you wonder why people want change?

But the roots of the national mood go deeper. It’s been clear for years that the consensus on moral values holding the country together is badly frayed. The rights and wrongs of fundamental issues are bitterly disputed. That’s what the culture war is about. And the efforts of courts to impose solutions are deeply resented.

The United States today unquestionably does need change. And on a fundamental level — the level of values and beliefs. When and if a leader emerges who can satisfy that desire and bring Americans together again on things like abortion and gay rights, as well as on less sharply defined issues like illegal immigration, environmental policy, and health care reform, he or she will be welcomed. But given the ideological polarization of the values debate, that won’t, and the nation’s current angry and unsettled mood seems likely to persist into the indefinite future.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Archbishop Dolan to go to Haiti this weekend

By Mary DeTurris Poust

The Archdiocese of New York just announced that Archbishop Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and chairman of Catholic Relief Services, will visit Haiti this weekend. Full release follows:

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and Chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services, will attend the funeral Mass for Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who was killed in last week’s catastrophic earthquake. The funeral will be held on Saturday, January 23, 2010 in the plaza in front of the demolished Cathedral.

Because he is the Chairman of CRS, the Archbishop was asked to attend the funeral by the Papal Ambassador to Haiti, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, and the surviving bishops of Haiti. While in Haiti, the Archbishop will also take the opportunity to offer support to CRS workers already working in Haiti and assess the progress of relief efforts being undertaken by CRS so as to help determine how the Church in the United States can best respond. He is scheduled to return to New York sometime late in the evening of Sunday, January 24.

Catholic Relief Services has over 300 employees working in Haiti year-round, many of whom lost loved ones in the earthquake. Additional staff and support have been assigned to Haiti in light of the tremendous need that exists at this time. CRS has been present and working with the people of Haiti since 1954.

Archbishop Dolan will be travelling to Haiti via private jet, which is being donated by a generous benefactor. Accompanying him will be Ken Hackett, President of CRS, and Monsignor David Malloy, General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. CRS is the official over-seas aid agency of the USCCB. They will also be bringing some supplies with them on their visit.

Pro-lifers join virtual march on Washington

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Back when I was in high school, getting on a bus early every January 22 to travel to Washington, D.C., and march with fellow pro-lifers through the streets of our nation's capital to protest Roe vs. Wade was business as usual. In rain or snow or freezing temperatures, we would walk and pray and sing. It was a powerful experience, one that is repeated year after year by people who travel from much greater distances than I ever did.

But for many people, the trip to Washington is just not feasible. Now there' s a way for them to join the march -- at least virtually. Taking a page out of video games-meet science fiction, Americans United for Life (AUL) has created the Virtual March for Life. So far more than 36,280 people -- including yours truly -- have registered for a walk that promises to be much drier and warmer than in years past.

You simply register and choose an avatar, a virtual creation of yourself. (See, I told you it was like a video game.) When you finish, the program puts you with the other marchers on the National Mall. Too gimmicky? Perhaps. But it's also a powerful way to let people know that you would be there in person if you could. There are buttons that allow you to link the site to your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Click HERE to register or get more information.

Youth race to reserve 17,000+ tickets for life event

By Mary DeTurris Poust

If anyone tells you that young people are apathetic or disinterested when it comes to the big issues, point them in the direction of the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., where more than 17,000 teens and young adults will converge January 22 for the annual Youth Rally and Mass for Life on the 37th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.

All 17,400 free tickets for the event were reserved within 45 minutes of going online. Last year young people had to be turned away from the event, so the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., decided to issue tickets for the first time this year.

The rally will include a youth concert, confessions, Rosary, and Mass celebrated by bishops from around the United States. Catholic recording artists and composers Steve Angrisano, Matt Maher and Jesse Manibusan will perform during the morning concert, while upstairs nearly 100 priests will hear confessions in the Acela Club Restaurant.

Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl will be joined by cardinals, bishops and hundreds of priests from around the United States for 10 a.m. Mass. The homilist will be Reverend Lawrence Swink, parochial vicar at St. Pius X Parish in Bowie, Maryland. Following the Mass, many of the bishops and the youth will participate in the National Rally and March for Life, which starts at noon on the National Mall.

For more information, click HERE.

The strength of Haitian faith

By Mary DeTurris Poust

In almost every story about the Haitian disaster, we are reminded that 80 percent of Haitians are Catholic. Well, today the New York Times ran a powerful story about what that faith means to the people of one Haitian parish in Queens, where so many have lost loved ones and friends in their native land.

Comparing the Haitian people to Job, Linda Freebes, principal of the parish school, said: "Whatever is put in front of them -- they're faith-filled people -- they come out the other side."

As parishioners packed their church this weekend to pray for their country and for loved ones dead or missing, their unwavering faith was apparent, even as some said they did not understand God's plan.

"God is good," one person told the Times. "We have to accept his will."

Even amid their sorrow, or maybe especially because of it, parishioners are doing whatever they can to raise money for relief efforts. Students from the parish school paid $3 each to participate in a "dress down" day, trading school uniforms for regular clothes. It was a simple way for the children to feel like they, too, are helping their families, who may be just a short plane ride from New York but must feel like they are a world away right now.

Is your school or parish holding any special events to raise money for the Haitian relief effort? If so, please share in the comment section. To read the full New York Times story, click HERE.

Witnessing Haitian's patience and spiritual grit

By Tom Tracy

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — My very first involvement in the Catholic press began with both catastrophe and response and, separately, the Haitian people. It was 1992 and I happened to be in the "wrong" place at the right time when the infamous Category-Five Hurricane Andrew punched a hole the south Miami area. The excitement of being on the scene and documenting the community, charitable, military, church and state response was thrilling and inspiring.

Subsequent hurricanes in the Caribbean and Florida created similar moments.

Then there was early 1990’s Haitian refugee crisis, and again south Florida was one place for watching history play out as a deposed Haitian president appeared to the Haitian exile community at the old Miami Arena, and the now-Orlando Bishop Thomas Wenski, then a parish priest in Little Haiti in Miami, was shuttling to Guantanamo Bay to look after Haitian refugees being detained there.

So it humbling that Our Sunday Visitor phoned and asked if I could fly down to Haiti following the earthquake in the company of an expert response team from Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Actually I have been a few places here and there around the globe, but only now have I visited this place which figures so prominently in the news right now, and from time to time previously. I simply never had a big excuse or assignment to go to Haiti, and admittedly I have been a little afraid to look for reasons to go there.

Arriving by way of Santo Domingo two days after the earthquake, I started to feel a momentary sense of dread and anxiety as our CRS delegation made its way 200 miles across the island and across national borders toward the Haitian capital. Along the way we read various grim reports of the conditions there, and of lawlessness. But invariably, the camaraderie offered within our caravan of good people, with their confidence in the mission, was more powerful than fear.

Now I am in my third day here and, for the moment, a humble witness to history, coming across so many talented and motivated people coming to help from around the region and the world.

Today, we stopped at a command center for the United Nations — a communications and military compound based near the Haitian airport where all the big emergency response and food aid organizations are interacting. Military police from as far away as Rwanda mingle with aid workers and medical staff, including at a temporary hospital there.

My hope and prayer now is that I can be a good steward of this opportunity to contribute some time and energy following the earthquake, unsure at this moment how long that will be here.

Last night I was awakened in my dorm at Caritas Haiti’s Guest House by the sound of religious songs being sung in mini-tent city outside our gates. The Haitian people that I have seen here thus far are living up to their reputation (familiar to anyone who has interacted with Haitians) for patience, extreme resilience, and true spiritual grit.

Tom Tracy, based in south Florida, is on assignment in Haiti for Our Sunday Visitor.

Photo by Tom Tracy. At the United Nations' field hospital near the Port-au-Prince airport.

Bishop Wenski: 'Hopefully even in evil God can bring about good'

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Florida, has deep and strong ties to the Haitian community in both this country and abroad. Before becoming Bishop of Orlando, he served briefly in Haiti and later was director of the Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center in Miami and pastor of three Haitian parishes in the Archdiocese of Miami. Fluent in Haitian Creole, the bishop took time away from meetings related to the Haitian earthquake crisis, for an email interview with Our Sunday Visitor. Here are the bishop’s thoughts on the current situation in Haiti and his hopes for the country’s future.

OSV: Right now people are focusing on the immediate crisis in Haiti following the devastating earthquake. Can you give us a broader perspective, putting this crisis into the context of Haitian life before the earthquake?

Bishop Wenski: Life in Haiti was always hard for the majority of its population, most of whom live on less than $2 a day. However, the earthquake hit an area of Haiti where a third of its population of 8 million-plus people live -- Port-au-Prince and vicinity. So, it’s really unprecedented. With the high mortality rates, it is hard to imagine one Haitian family not immediately affected.

OSV: Relief organizations are being flooded with donations for Haiti right now. Is there the possibility that relief aid will help Haitians finally build a better future for themselves and their children, or are the issues there -- poverty, government instability, etc. -- too great?
Bishop Wenski: Hopefully, those in charge of leading the recovery will get it right. In the short term, removal of debris and rebuilding will provide much needed employment; however, in the long term, the now destroyed infrastructure (in the best of times fragile) will need to be rebuilt: hospitals, schools, churches, utilities like electricity, water and communications.

OSV: Where must the rebuilding effort begin in order to be most effective?

Bishop Wenski: First, since much of Port-au-Prince is destroyed, many families should be relocated to the provincial towns and villages where many in Port-au-Prince have their roots. To do that, adequate resources also have to be directed to these areas even though they might not have been directly affected by the earthquake. Then Port-au-Prince has to be "redesigned" and "re-imagined" so that it can emerge from its ashes better than before.

OSV: How is the devastation from the earthquake likely to affect the everyday lives of Haitians for the weeks, months, years to come?

Bishop Wenski: A child who loses a mother or father because of the earthquake will be affected forever; a mother that cannot give a decent burial to her child killed in the earthquake will carry that with her for the rest of her life. This earthquake will be the ecological event of the 21st Century - and it will shadow Haitians for generations to come.

OSV: In your statement (HERE), you talk about the need for President Obama to give Haiti Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Can you explain the importance of this and what it could mean not only for Haitians nationals living in this country but their families back home?

Bishop Wenski: There is a discrete number of Haitians in the United States "out of status." They face deportation, which would only complicate the humanitarian situation on the island. TPS would allow them to stay for the time being and to work legally, which would be of immense value to them as well as to their loved ones back home.

OSV: How is this crisis going to impact the Haitian community here in the United States?

Bishop Wenski: Almost every Haitian I've talked to in the U.S. since the earthquake has family members and friends in Haiti. Right now many are anxious awaiting news of the fate of these loved ones. Haitians are a resilient people. They will survive, but the pain of loss - and the extent of loss - will leave a permanent mark on this community. Hopefully, even in evil God can bring about good. The solidarity of the international community hopefully will hearten Haitians here and in Haiti; and this tragedy has affected Haitians of all social and economic classes. Hopefully this tragedy will bring about a new national unity among the Haitian people who have been long divided over class and or political lines. And for us in the United States, let me say that geography has made the U.S. and Haiti neighbors; now is the time that we show that we also are truly brothers and sisters.

OSV reporting on the ground in Haiti

As I write this, I've got a reporter in the air on the way to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where he'll spend the night before driving into Haiti tomorrow morning with a team from Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Tom Tracy is an experienced photojournalist and award-winning writer for the Catholic press. As infrastructure and logistics allow, he'll be filing photos and stories in coming days which will be posted here.

Tonight, from the Miami airport, he talked to Tom Price, a senior communications manager for CRS, who said the U.S. bishops' overseas aid agency were lucky to have some food and hygiene supplies pre-positioned in Haiti "but not enough for a disaster of this size."

CRS has been in Haiti for 50 years and has 313 staff members there, almost all of whom have now been accounted for (although a number have lost family members). It is one of eight major international aid agencies established there.

CRS emptied its warehouse in the Dominican Republic today and trucked it into Haiti. Price said the priority is food distribution and "moving rubble to find people."

"The average Haitian lives hand to mouth most days ... but now we have a situation where the masses are finding there is no food to be hand, we also need to get drinking water in there as the water supply is being depleted," Price said.

"It is absolutely devastating," he said. Haven't made a donation yet? Click here.

UPDATED Astonishing U.S. Catholic generosity

UPDATE: Catholic Relief Services tells me that so far they've received $5.9 million in donations for their relief efforts in Haiti. Of that, $4.4 million has been given online.

The American Red Cross is reporting it has received $8 million through phone text messages that add $10 to a person's phone bill.

USA Today is reporting that total Haiti donations from Americans are on track to break records. Here are the records to beat:

After Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, private donations by Americans totaled $6.47 billion, says Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy. Almost $2 billion was given by private U.S. donors after the Asian tsunami.

[yesterday]
I just got off the phone with Robyn Fieser, the Latin America communications officer for Catholic Relief Services. She said that so far they've collected $1.8 million in online donations for their Haiti effort — averaging about $200,000 an hour.

Keep it going! From reports out of Haiti, the situation there is only going to get worse in coming weeks with lack of lodging, clean water, sanitation, food and medical services.

How to help the people of Haiti

If you are looking for the best way to help victims of the Haitian earthquake that has killed thousands, click HERE for a list of organizations, including Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities, Caritas, Food for the Poor and others. The list includes links to organization sites.

In addition, the U.S. bishops are urging parishes to take up a special collection this weekend for the people and church of Haiti. Collections will support the efforts of Catholic Relief Services, which has already made an immediate commitment of $ 5 million for emergency supplies.

CNS Blog has posted John Thavis' unedited interview with Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who is chairman of the board for Catholic Relief Services. You can view the clip below:

Haitian archbishop among dead - UPDATE 2

By Mary DeTurris Poust

The New York Times is reporting that Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Port-au-Prince has died in the earthquake that has devastated the island nation, leaving thousands dead and affecting millions more.

From the Associated Press story in the Times:

"Father Pierre Le Beller of the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in western France says fellow missionaries in Haiti told him they found Miot's body in the ruins of the archdiocese office.

Miot was 63. Le Beller spoke to The Associated Press by phone from the Brittany town of Landivisiau."

UPDATE 2:

Catholic News Service had reported earlier that 100 hundred priests and seminarians were also killed in the quake. They have since updated that story.

From the CNS story:

"Amid the confusion, Archbishop Auza told the Vatican missionary news agency Fides that 100 priests and seminarians also were killed. The clergy were reportedly members of the Montfort order on retreat in Port-au-Prince.

"Father Matt Considine of the U.S. province of the Montfort Fathers, based in New York, said that although the 'situation is very confused,' the order's officials have not been told that any of their members died in Port-au-Prince. The order has fewer than 100 members in the country, he told CNS Jan. 13, adding that although there was a retreat going on, it was not in Port-au-Prince and everyone is 'presumed OK.'" Click HERE for the full CNS story.

To donate to victims of the earthquake, the worst in 200 years in Haiti, click HERE to go to the Catholic Relief Services website. The site crashed earlier today due to heavy traffic, but that's actually a good sign. Keep those donations coming, and if the site is down, please try again later.

SF archbishop schools Pelosi

Archbishop George H. Niederauer has responded to self-described ardent Catholic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's mangling of Church teaching on abortion and freedom of conscience.

In a recent Newsweek interview, Pelosi said she "practically mourn[ed]" her "difference of opinion" with the U.S. bishops on Church teachings.

"I feel what I was raised to believe is consistent with what I profess," she said, "and that we are all endowed with a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have the opportunity to exercise their free will.”

In a column in his archdiocesan newspaper, Archbishop Niederauer responds:

"It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel—racism, infidelity, abortion, theft. Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it is not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right."

Read the whole thing here.

Another look at the Brit Hume controversy

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Last week we reported (HERE) on Fox News analyst Brit Hume's on-air observations that fallen golf legend Tiger Woods should turn to Christianity for redemption and forgiveness. This weekend New York Times columnist Ross Douthat offered some keen observations about Hume's statements, about freedom of religion in this country, and about the need to have honest and open discussions about our religious differences.

Douthat writes:

"If you treat your faith like a hothouse flower, too vulnerable to survive in the crass world of public disputation, then you ensure that nobody will take it seriously. The idea that religion is too mysterious, too complicated or too personal to be debated on cable television just ensures that it never gets debated at all.

"This doesn’t mean that we need to welcome real bigotry into our public discourse. But what Hume said wasn’t bigoted: Indeed, his claim about the difference between Buddhism and Christianity was perfectly defensible. Christians believe in a personal God who forgives sins. Buddhists, as a rule, do not. And it’s at least plausible that Tiger Woods might welcome the possibility that there’s Someone out there capable of forgiving him, even if Elin Nordegren and his corporate sponsors never do.

"Or maybe not. For many people — Woods perhaps included — the fact that Buddhism promotes an ethical life without recourse to Christian concepts like the Fall of Man, divine judgment and damnation is precisely what makes it so appealing. The knee-jerk outrage that greeted Hume’s remarks buried intelligent responses from Buddhists, who made arguments along these lines — explaining their faith, contrasting it with Christianity, and describing how a lost soul like Woods might use Buddhist concepts to climb from darkness into light."

Click HERE to read the full column.

Marriage on trial - UPDATE

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Same-sex "marriage" heads to Federal District Court in California today, where judges will hear arguments in an effort to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that outlawed gay "marriage" in the state, as the New York Times reports HERE and the Los Angeles Times reports HERE. The case, which could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, will play out on YouTube, an unprecedented move and something that supporters of Prop 8 fear will intimidate witnesses. During the 2008 campaign for Prop 8, supporters were harassed and threatened for their opposition to same sex "marriage."

UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today to block YouTube coverage of arguments for at least the first few days of the trial. The court said that it needed more time to decide on the videotaped broadcasts. The order will be in place until Wednesday. Click HERE for the Times story.


Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese writes on the op-ed page of the Times today that the chief judge in the case, Vaughn R. Walker, has stacked the deck against Proposition 8 and its supporters. He writes:

"Most troubling, Judge Walker has also ruled that the trial will investigate the Proposition 8 sponsors’ personal beliefs regarding marriage and sexuality. No doubt, the plaintiffs will aggressively exploit this opportunity to assert that the sponsors exhibited bigotry toward homosexuals, or that religious views motivated the adoption of Proposition 8. They’ll argue that prohibiting gay marriage is akin to racial discrimination.

"To top it all off, Judge Walker has determined that this case will be the first in the Ninth Circuit to allow cameras in the courtroom, with the proceedings posted on YouTube. This will expose supporters of Proposition 8 who appear in the courtroom to the type of vandalism, harassment and bullying attacks already used by some of those who oppose the proposition.

"Thankfully, some of Judge Walker’s rulings have been overturned. For example, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the disclosure of internal communications among the core Proposition 8 organizers. But there is no question that virtually every ruling by Judge Walker so far has put advocates of traditional marriage at an increasing disadvantage.

"Despite this, during the trial, the supporters of Proposition 8 will work hard to demonstrate that it was rational for voters to conclude that marriage is a unique institution that promotes the interests of child-rearing, and that those interests are broader than the personal special interests of the adults involved. And they’ll make the case that voters were very much within their rights, when casting their ballots, to consider their own moral and religious views about marriage — or any other subject."

To read the full Meese op-ed, click HERE.

Goosing the gullible

By Russell Shaw

It’s hardly news that politicians sometimes say things to particular audiences in hopes of pleasing them, without necessarily meaning to follow through later on what they seem to have promised. Perhaps that explains President Barack Obama’s odd performance on funding for elective abortions in health care reform. Perhaps. But I suspect something more basic is at work.

The fundamental concern driving pro-life Americans in the abortion debate — to protect unborn human life — appears simply not to matter much to our pro-choice president. This is not to say he’s an evil man. But on the record it is fair to suppose that in his moral universe the unborn possess negligible moral weight, while the right to choose abortion and act on that choice is a matter of the highest priority.

If that is correct, then soothing words directed now and then by Obama to an audience like the one at the Notre Dame commencement last spring are best understood as verbal counters in a political game aimed at advancing the right to choose while simultaneously jollying the gullible.

Passing over Obama’s well-documented promises to pro-abortion audiences, the statements he’s presumably intended for pro-life ears during the last eight months reflect something like this. And so we get the following.

At Notre Dame last May 17 the president said in part, “Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause.”

The health care debate moved into high gear soon after. On Aug. 19, speaking via a teleconference organized by religious groups, Obama protested health care “fabrications” including claims that legislation then moving forward provided public funding of abortion. On Aug. 23, in his weekly radio address, he followed that up by saying, “When it comes to the current ban on using tax dollars for abortions, nothing will change under reform.”

Next day a nonpartisan web site called FactCheck concluded that “despite what Obama said” the House bill really would use public funds to pay for abortion.

Even so, addressing Congress Sept. 9, Obama noted a “misunderstanding” that needed correcting. “Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions and federal conscience laws will remain in place,” he explained.

Yet on Nov. 7 the House found it necessary to amend its bill by adopting the Stupak-Pitts amendment — essentially, the Hyde Amendment which since 1976 has barred federal funding of elective abortions and allowed it only in cases of rape, incest, and to save the mother’s life.

The president then repeated his endorsement of the “status quo” on funding. But although Stupak-Pitts — a.k.a. Hyde — is the status quo on this matter, Stupak-Pitts wouldn’t do, he said.

Shortly before Christmas the Senate defeated the same amendment that the House earlier passed. A few days later it approved a health care bill containing a so-called compromise on abortion funding that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other pro-life groups said would allow public funding of elective abortions and require people with conscientious objections to help pay for them. Obama prefers the Senate bill to the House bill.

In sum, Obama’s public utterances don’t add up. He says he supports the status quo on abortion funding, but when push comes to shove he supports loosening up. This makes sense if one assumes he is prepared to give pro-lifers rhetoric but not substance. The health care fight will come to a head in the next several weeks, and the president could still change his tune. Unfortunately, that seems highly unlikely by now.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

The man behind the Stupak Amendment

By Mary DeTurris Poust

As this story in the New York Times points out, U.S. Representative Bart Stupak's name has been turned into a slogan ("Stop Stupak!") by those opposed to the amendment bearing his name, an amendment that will prevent federal funds from being used for abortion coverage in the ever-changing, highly controversial health care reform legislation. As legislators wrangle over how to reconcile the House and Senate versions of reform, which is plowing ahead despite growing public anxiety and distrust, Stupak is standing his ground: His amendment or no reform.

From the Times:

“'It’s not the end of the world if it goes down,' he said over dinner. He did not sound downbeat about the prospect of being blamed for blocking the long-sought goal of President Obama and a chain of presidents and legislators before him. 'Then you get the message,' he continued. 'Fix the abortion language and bring the bill back.'”

The Times' profile of the congressman takes an insightful look at the man behind the slogan, with a brief and obligatory nod to the opposition, who blame the U.S. bishops for being the puppeteers pulling the Stupak strings. It's worth a read. Click HERE to get the full story.

10 top OSV stories for December

Here are links to the top 10 OSV stories in December 2009:

1. Where in the world are today’s Catholics?

2. Weighing evidence for the Shroud of Turin

3. Abortion Clinic Director becomes a pro-life advocate

4. Does Afghanistan troop surge meet just war conditions?

5. 10 stories to watch in 2010

6. The link between climate change and global population

7. Christmas gifts that give back

8. Are we toast in 2012? What the Church teaches about the End Times

9. Tomorrow's looming disaster: The priest shortage

10. Editorial: Putting the U.S. Catholic Church in global context

An Italian Epiphany tradition

By Mary DeTurris Poust

I know we officially celebrated Epiphany on Sunday, but I'm one of those purists who continues to celebrate Epiphany on January 6. So here we are, at the end of the Christmas season. The kings have arrived. And so has La Befana, apparently. I didn't know about the Italian Epiphany tradition until I got a tweet this morning from one of my favorite blogs, Bleeding Espresso. Blogger Michelle Fabio, an American ex-pat who moved to her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy, regularly shares the traditions, tastes and beauty of Italy and its people.

La Befana is a good witch, who gave up the chance to join the kings on their journey to Bethlehem and so has been searching for Jesus on January 5/6 year after year, leaving presents for good little children since she's not sure which one might be Jesus. But really, if you want a great telling of this tale with good humor and wonderful writing and delicious food, always wonderful Italian food, head over to Bleeding Espresso by clicking HERE. It will add a little something extra to your Epiphany celebration.

Weighing in on Brit Hume

By Mary DeTurris Poust



The video clip of FOX News analyst Brit Hume recommending that fallen golf legend Tiger Woods turn away from Buddhism and embrace Jesus Christ if he wants to redeem himself and save his personal life has been getting the expected rounds of criticism in the media, with some going so far as to liken him to an Islamic terrorist.

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League offered this observation:

"None of Hume’s critics, of course, seem to have any problem with the increasingly aggressive campaigns launched by atheists seeking to proselytize Christians. During this past Christmas season, we were treated to a slew of atheist evangelizing efforts, ranging from billboards in towns across America to posters on urban buses, all designed to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity. In England, author Philip Pullman is pushing for an atheist curriculum in the elementary schools, and his fellow countryman and cohort, Richard Dawkins, wants summer camps aimed at weaning kids away from Christianity. These examples, of course, are seen by Hume’s critics as nothing more than exercises in free speech. But when he speaks, as an analyst, not as a reporter, he’s put on the liberal watch-list as a closet Taliban."

What's your take on this? Did Hume cross a line that shouldn't be crossed, or did he, as a news analyst and Christian, have a right to state what he knows and believes to be true? Tell us in the comment section.

Bumping into God

By Mary DeTurris Poust

I know from my trip to the grocery store yesterday -- with a main aisle filled with red hearts and other Valentine's Day paraphernalia -- that the Christmas season is approaching its end (even if we are waiting for the actual Feast of the Epiphany on Wednesday). But I came across an essay today that gives us every reason to go back one more time and revisit the recent holiday and holy day.

Written by a California psychotherapist who has made an interesting journey from cultural Jew to conservative Christian (with a side trip to Buddhism along the way), the essay gives us a taste of what our faith and our church looks like to someone on the outside. And how, despite a person's best intention to lay low, a faith community can draw her into its fold in subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle ways.

Robin writes on American Thinker:

"Beyond the music and pageantry, what moved me the most was being with hundreds of people who loved God. Maybe some were questioning his presence or feeling abandoned. But they showed up, and that's half of life.

"It was a stirring night for this wandering Jew who has traveled from east to west, from Left to Right. As the Sufi poet Hafiz wrote, 'This moment in time God has carved a place for you,' and sitting in the sanctuary, I felt that place.

"Even though I didn't know the right words, or the hymns, or how to pray, it didn't matter. All the differences among people -- race, class, politics, even religion -- vanished. Faith, I realized, is the ultimate uniter.

"And in a heartbeat, I understood why leaders from Marx to Mao try to keep people away from God, and why they will always fail. I flashed to an image of those mothers who somehow find the superhuman strength to lift up a car and free their children.

"On Christmas Eve, I learned that this same unstoppable power exists inside all of us, especially when we stand together. As Jesus himself taught, faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain."

This Christmas Eve, my family pondered and then quickly reversed plans to attend the earliest Mass at our parish because the atmosphere is more circus-like than sacred. Even the 6 p.m. Mass we attended is typically filled to the rafters and requires extra effort to stay focused and avoid annoyance. And yet this year I found myself looking around at the people seated next to me and ahead of me. Some of them were friends, some familiar faces from other Masses, and some total strangers.

At that moment I felt filled with an incredible sense of hope, realizing that even those folks who show up only on Christmas Eve and Easter are obviously hungry for something beyond what "normal" life can provide. And perhaps someone who never comes to church any other week will come face to face with God during one of those momentary encounters and never be the same.

As the essay writer says, "They showed up. And that's half of life." She's right. God is just waiting for us to show up, whether we're in church every week or once a year. Putting ourselves in his presence is half the battle.

To read the full essay, click HERE. It's definitely worth your time, if only to remind every one of us how powerfully we can influence other people by how we welcome them -- or not -- into our parish community. H/t to Ed Mechmann for this one.