REPORT ON THE "CATALYST" - CATHOLIC LEAGUE FOR RELIGIOUS & CIVIL RIGHTS - APRIL, 2021

 REPORT ON THE "CATALYST" - CATHOLIC LEAGUE FOR RELIGIOUS & CIVIL RIGHTS - APRIL, 2021

VERITAS - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - Friday, April 9, 2021

 

    The Catholic League is the nation's largest civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and institutional Church against defamation and discrimination. President: William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

    Annual membership dues are $30. Senior citizen dues are $20. and student dues are $ 20. Members receive Catalyst the league journal. The Catalyst is published monthly except for combined issues Jan.-Feb. and July-August.  Today's Report is page one of 16 pages.  

    I have been a member for more than 50 years. Because of the kind of society, we live in today, I strongly urge you to become a member. Here is the address.

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

450 Seventh Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10123

USCCB REJECTS COVID BILL:  ++++++++++++ PAGE ONE OF SIXTEEN

    The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) formally opposed the American Rescue Plan Act, more commonly known as the "Stimulus Bill" or the "Covid Relief Bill."

    USCCB president Jose Gomez wrote the letter on March 6 to all U.S. Senators urging them to vote against the bill; Several USCCB committee chairmen co-signed the letter.

    This came the day after the USCCB released a letter by Gomez (and the committee chairmen)stating they could not support the bill unless it prohibited funding for abortions. The sponsor of the bill refused to accede to the bishops request.

   The bishops were unequivocal in their opposition to the bill. "This grievous result gives us heavy hearts because it leaves us with no choice but to urge you to oppose final passage of the American Rescue Plan Act." 

    The big story here is the decision of the bishops to make good on their promise that abortion is the "preeminent issue." For those Catholics who prioritize social justice issue, this is a stunning loss. After all, this was their dream bill, packed with money for all their favorite programs.

    There are many elements of the bill that are very appealing to the bishops, and to Catholics in general. But to ask Catholics to support legislation that helps the needy while denying the unborn the right to life is offensive. The most basic human right is the right to life, not income assistance.

VATICAN REJECTS GAY UNIONS; DISSIDENTS REBEL

       Pope Francis has been under considerable pressure by gay activists, in and out of the Church to give the green light to gay marriage. On March 15, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith released a statement to queries on this issue that is the most decisive rejection of those efforts ever written. Dissident Catholics were enraged.

    The Church's top doctrinal office said, "It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage(i.e. outside of the indissoluble union if a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as in the case of th unions between persons of the same sex,"

    The statement made it clear that this "does not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by the Church teachings." It is homosexual unions that are the problem, not homosexuals.

 

    With regard to homosexuality, the Vatican said it cannot "approve and encourage a choice and way of life" that is "objectively disordered." God, the document declared, "does not and cannot bless sin." In short, "the Church does not have, and cannot have the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex." In other words, the Church must follow Scripture.

    This does not sit well with those Catholics who have been at war with the Church's teachings on sexuality. The German bishops, in particular, were unhappy; many are prepared to sanction gay unions. In the U.S., so-called progressive Catholics were beside themselves.

    The statement simply reaffirmed the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage.... Pope Francis has been welcoming to homosexuals. In fairness to the Pope, it is not his fault that some interpret his friendly approach as signifying an interest in changing Church doctrine. That's their problem.

    To put it differently, it is one thing to say all persons possess equal dignity in the eyes of God; it is quite another to say that whatever they do is acceptable to God. Human status and human behavior are not identical......                   George H. Kubeck