My new least favorite person - Rep. Lynn Woolsey writes in Politico:"I expect political hardball on any legislation as important as the health care bill. I just didn’t expect it from the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Who elected them to Congress?

The role the bishops played in the pushing the Stupak amendment, which unfairly restricts access for low-income women to insurance coverage for abortions, was more than mere advocacy.

They seemed to dictate the finer points of the amendment, and managed to bully members of Congress to vote for added restrictions on a perfectly legal surgical procedure.

And this political effort was subsidized by taxpayers, since the Council enjoys tax-exempt status.

When I visit churches in my district, we are very careful to keep everything “non-political” to protect their tax-exempt status.

The IRS is less restrictive about church involvement in efforts to influence legislation than it is about involvement in campaigns and elections.

Given the political behavior of USCCB in this case, maybe it shouldn’t be."Rory Cooper at the Heritage Foundation has a very good response to Woolsey.
I wonder how Catholics who are represented by Woolsey feel about her attacking their Church?
update - John Pitney with a lesson from history:Of course, Representative Woolsey is not the first Democrat to object to legislative advocacy by the clergy. Here is another:
"It is an attempt to establish a theocracy to take charge of our politics and our legislation. It is an attempt to make the legislative power of this country subordinate to the church. It is not only to unite Church and State, but it is to put the State in subordination to the dictates of the church."That was Senator Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), on March 14, 1854. He was talking about an anti-slavery petition.

For those of you who just want to know what is going on in this new chapter of the health care debate, I'll summarize the two important points before filling-in the back story below:

1. The health care bill that was passed last Saturday wasn't as bad as it could have been, thanks in no small part to the vigorous efforts of Catholic bishops and faithful
2. ... but, this process has a long, long way to go. And we have to remain vigilant that the small concessions we have gained are not given up in the legislative rumble and tumble to come.

Now, all the confusing details....
Planned Parenthood, incensed that moderate Democrats joined Republicans in support the abortion-neutral Stupak amendment, are attempting to use their "strongest weapon - the White House." The Family Research Council is correct that the passage of the Stupak amendment was "a stunning rebuke of [the Planned Parenthood] agenda in an arena they traditionally dominate." It's no surprise they are trying to go over the heads in Congress now.
Pro-aborts love point out "fractures" in the pro-life community, but they are definitely engaging in some serious squabbling at this point. If anyone had any doubts about Rosa DeLauro's pro-abortion ideology, it's completely in the open now. Don't trust her "pro-life compromise" bills. The only thing she wants to compromise is the pro-life movement. 
And to encourage unity on our side, let's be clear - passing the Stupak amendment did not play into the hands of pro-abortion Democrats trying to pass their health care bill, as John McCormack explains.
President Obama, for his part, was asked yesterday about these recent developments, and his response was mostly worthless. On the one hand he said this is "a health care bill, not an abortion bill," but he also hinted that he thought changes needed to be made to the bill's current language - so who knows. 
Timothy Gibbs, his spokesman, certainly isn't any help in establishing the President's position on this issue. Once again, his attempts to gratify both pro-abortion and pro-life forces has resulted in his angering and frustrating both sides. But right now our side is faring slightly better.
Meanwhile, the most immediate danger is that the abortion-neutral Stupak amendment will be stripped in conference. In a letter to Nancy Pelosi, 41 Democrats demanded that she strip the abortion-neutral language before it passed out of the House. One democrat is "confident" and "working very hard" to ensure that the final bill is pro-abortion. Jack Smith at the Catholic Key argues that Pelosi does not have enough votes to pass the final bill.
As for the Senate - the next battlefield over health care, faces many of the abortion problems that plagued the House version of the bill. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska appears to be willing to take over the mantle of Bart Stupak and introduce an abortion-neutral amendment into the Senate version of health care.
Cardinal George of the US Bishops conference has promised to remain "vigilant and involved throughout this entire process." You can count on my watching it closely.
For those interested in the technical side of things, the National Right to Life Committee has good resources online, updated with frequency and detail. 

I love picking up stories that reveal the humanity of unborn babies. 
I've blogged before about the scientific studies which reveal that babies begin forming memories in the womb.
Now a new study shows that babies, even before they are born, are learning how to talk just like their mothers sound. 
Look at the extract of the scientific findings:
"In the first days of their lives, French infants already cry in a different way to German babies...
In this study, the scientists compared recordings of 30 French and 30 German infants aged between two and five days old. While the French newborns more frequently produced rising crying tones, German babies cried with falling intonation.

The reason for this is presumably the differing intonation patterns in the two languages, which are already perceived in the uterus and are later reproduced."Or to put it in simple English: before they are even born, babies start learning from their mommies.
Amazing.

update - it appears that gay marriage proponents decided not to introduce their measure in the senate meeting today. Great work, papists! Thank you for defending traditional marriage in the state of New York!
===

As I wrote late last week, Governor Patterson may try to bring gay marriage to a vote TODAY.
Edward Mechmann (who blogs for the archdiocese of New York) gives AmP readers some tips:Please visit the NYS Catholic Conference Catholic Advocacy Network or the National Organization for Marriage to send emails to the NYS legislature.  
Thanks for taking a few moments to contact your state reps!

AmP Reader Joseph explains: "If you love the poor your life will be filled with sunlight and at the hour of your death, you will not be afraid" Father Benedict Groeschel CFR
Many times the main stream media reports on the minority of priests, who have fallen from grace. Above is a youtube clip documenting the priesthood of Father Benedict Groeschel CFR from New York City.Father Benedict was responsible for leading a new order of Franciscans in the New York Metropolitan area to care for the poor and destitute. Take a look at it and see what one good priest can do and how his ministry can effect so many over a 50 year period."

I blogged about her story last week. Jill Stanek has found video of her describing the amazing story:


Brad Wilmouth at LifeNews has more.

You can bet Planned Parenthood is panicking. As they should.

{It promises to be a very busy Monday morning for me, so until I have a chance to catch up on the news again, please participate in a particularly fun photo caption call!}

• Stupid: Planned Parenthood President calls bishops "ideologues" in NYT 
• Text/Commentary: Anglican Constitution establishing personal ordinariates 
  

{Add your humorous caption in the comment box!}

View the last Photo Caption Call here. Submit new photos for AmP photo caption call to my email!

[Photo source: AmP Reader Jay]

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, asked her twitter followers if they agreed with her quote in today's New York Times.

I'm curious if you agree with her quote:On Sunday, some abortion rights advocates lashed out at the bishops. “It was an unconscionable power play,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, accusing the bishops of “interceding to put their own ideology in the national health care plan.”Let's be clear: all that the bishops were demanding was the status quo. PelosiCare, as currently amended, represents no immediate expansion in abortion funding. Before it was amended, PelosiCare represented a huge expansion in federal funding for abortions. 
This was not an issue of ideology - the vast majority of Americans oppose federal funding of abortions. The only ideology being pushed here is that of Cecile Richards and her friends.
Richard's claim that it's the bishops - not her and her friends - who are pushing an unpopular ideology ties in well with this Politico report which details the behind-the-scenes squabbling that took place between Democrats leading up to the vote on the abortion-neutral Stupak amendment:Some of the lawmakers argued that Pelosi was turning her back on a decades-long campaign by female Democratic members in support of abortion rights. [Rep. George] Miller rose to Pelosi’s defense, which resulted in an angry confrontation between him and [Rep. Rosa] DeLauro, said the sources.Miller told DeLauro that there were “more pro-life votes in the House than pro-choice” and that abortion-rights advocates had better acknowledge that reality. DeLauro is, of course, a vicious pro-abort and one of the top abortion strategists. Her arguments were overcome by the political reality that even more Democrat representatives supported removing federal funding for abortions than supported it.
I'm happy to see the number of individuals in the Democrat party DeLauro can count upon as allies for unrestricted abortion expansion and funding is decreasing.
Unfortunately, pro-aborts still have their "strongest weapon" occupying the White House.
And as for Cecile Richards and her "ideologue" smear, here is my reply. What's yours?

Hot off the Vatican (internet) press:

• APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS PROVIDING FOR PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (includes these subsections-->)
  
• PRESS RELEASE
• APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS
  
• COMPLEMENTARY NORMS FOR THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS
  
• THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS (FR. GIANFRANCO GHIRLANDA, S.J., RECTOR OF THE PONTIFICAL GREGORIAN UNIVERSITY)
  

Commentary:

• Damian Thompson: Pope's historic offer creates an Anglican tradition within the Catholic Church
• Fr. Z's first notes
• CNS: Papal document on former Anglicans maintains some Anglican traditions
• John Allen: Vatican releases rules for ex-Anglicans, insists 'no change' on celibacy
• Damian Thompson: Apostolic Constitution: married ex-Anglican bishops may keep insignia of episcopal office

Because this story is changing by the minute please follow my live updates on twitter.
Today Pelosi is trying to get enough votes together to approve her deeply-flawed health care bill.
It has been an eventful morning. From what I can tell, after failing to get enough promised votes for health care without an abortion-neutrality amendment, Pelosi decided to allow it.
Right now Politico is reporting that the US Bishops have endorsed the bill.
That's not true - rather, it appears that the bishops are encouraging that members support the abortion-neutrality amendment (which is finally coming to a vote) and have laid out other conditions under which their primary reservations will be resolved.
[update - Politico has changed the title of their "live pulse" story to clarify that the bishops have only endorsed the Stupak/etc amendment - not the whole bill. Because this story is changing by the minute please follow my live updates on twitter.]
Politico has published a letter from the bishops that they issued today. It looks like in the final crucial hours of health care the "social justice" side of the bishops is calling the shots. I'll explain later.
Also, as much as some people try to downplay the importance of abortion funding in this debate, another article in Politico today basically concedes that this entire process of approving PelosiCare was almost ground to a halt solely on this issue.
Things on the hill are apparently crazy today. They are crazy because Pelosi is trying to push this health care bill through without time for deliberation and prudence. She wants to rush through an overhaul of the way one-in-six dollars is spent in this country without listening to the majority of the American people.
That's a heck of a way to run a government.
Please continue to email and call (202-224-3121 ) your representatives to demand that they vote YES on the pro-life stupak amendment, and then vote NO on HR 3962.

• Bishop: health care reform "fatally flawed ... needs to be opposed and defeated"
• Action: What to say to *your* representative about healthcare 
• Alert: Gov. Patterson plans to push gay marriage in NY next tuesday
• Update: Bp. Tobin stays strong, and Rep. Kennedy backs off
• Picture: Climate Change jerks vandalize La Sagrada Familia Church in Spain
• Report: Pelosi's office trashed by pro-life demonstrators  
  

"For the last time, I'm not hiding reindeer in the catacombs!"
[Photo: Reuters]

Once you have contacted your representatives, read Bishop James Conley's lucid and comprehensive exposition of why Catholics must oppose to current form of health care reform.
Here is his bottom line:With the exception of a few leaders, like Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak, Congress has ignored or rejected every attempt at resolving the serious concerns voiced by the bishops—or alternately, has pushed solutions like the Capps Amendment that do not solve the problems, and even create new ones. The White House has done nothing to intervene. “Common ground” thinking in Washington apparently has more reality as public relations than as public policy. And as a result, all of the main healthcare reform proposals in Congress, including the huge, 2,000-page merged House bill, are fatally flawed. Unless they are immediately and adequately amended, they need to be opposed and defeated.

For all of Congress’ public talk about “consensus building” and “consensus health care,” Washington has proved once again that hearing loss can be job-related. Most American Catholics, from people in the pews to pastors and bishops, want healthcare reform to work. But too many people in Washington don’t know how to listen, or don’t want to listen, or just don’t care.Read the full text for his reasons here.

Today is the last opportunity to call your representatives on health care. Let's light up the phones!
Please email and call (202-224-3121 ) your representatives to demand that they vote NO on HR 3962.
update: I found a list of the 69 democrats who have expressed opposition to health care - these are the representatives Pelosi and Obama are trying to win over to their side - this list also includes their individual statements which means you can hold them to their promise!
(they are also receiving pressure from pro-abortion democrat groups - so they need to hear your side!)

See my previous post on this pressing issue here. God Bless you for your activism on this issue.

Today is the last opportunity to call your representatives on health care. Let's light up the phones!
Please email and call (202-224-3121 ) your representatives to demand that they vote NO on HR 3962.

See my previous post on this pressing issue here. God Bless you for your activism on this issue.

No less than one week after the American people, for the 31st time, clearly rejected homosexual marriage when given a chance to vote on the issue, the highly-unpopular governor of New York is attempting to force it on his state before he leaves office:"Gov. David A. Paterson said Thursday that he would include gay marriage on the agenda of an extraordinary session he is calling for Tuesday, potentially setting up the first vote on the issue in the State Senate and a dramatic floor debate.

Senate Democratic leaders could still block the issue from coming to the floor and have done so before, though it appears more likely to be put to a vote this time. Gay rights advocates, who feared holding a vote amid a Senate leadership feud this summer, cheered the governor’s action.

The measure’s chances of passing, though, are seen as far less likely. While a same-sex marriage bill has already been passed twice in the Assembly, it faces an uphill battle in the Senate. Democrats have a shaky 32-to-30 edge in the chamber, but several Democrats have said they will vote against the measure, and no Republicans are publicly supporting it." (NYT)I'm trying to figure out a clear action item in response to this story, so papists can get involved, and when I find it, I'll post it.
Sounds like New York needs a defense of marriage act passed to stop this nonsense.
update - very relevant to this topic is what Maggie Gallagher - president of the National Organization for Marriage which recently won in Maine - wrote today about despair:Despair is a spiritual weapon, and it is the gay-marriage movement's single most powerful weapon.

I understand that, and therefore I understand why gay-marriage advocates use it so often. But why do we pro-marriage conservatives use it on ourselves so often?[Read on.]

My friend Josh at Catholic Vote Action gives us an update on the ongoing "dialogue" going on between Congressman the-church-isnt-pro-life Kennedy and Bishop oh-yes-she-is-are-you-stupid Tobin. 
Bishop Tobin recently granted an interview to the Providence Journal:At another point the bishop addressed what he called the question of whether church leaders are “trying to impose our moral or religious beliefs on Congressman Kennedy.” His answer: “Well, the fact is he professes to be a Catholic.” Speaking of Catholic legislators generally, Tobin indicated that the church’s view is that, “if someone is clearly and consistently and obstinately opposed to the church on something as serious as abortion — which again is a grave and intrinsic evil — then they really have to question their membership in the church and their participation in the life of the church.”Josh further tells us:
Kennedy didn’t apologize to Bishop Tobin, but he did backtrack a little. From the Providence Journal:
Kennedy accepted the invitation in a letter last week and said his comments “were never intended to slight the church.” Kennedy acknowledged that “the church has always stood for health-care reform.” He added, “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy of the church on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.”

Kennedy also said that no group “is getting everything it wants” in the medical overhaul. The church “has every right to promote its position,” he said, but if a group “seeks to impose absolutes on the debate, we are left standing idle instead of moving our nation forward.”That last argument is a canard. Question: What is causing the biggest logjam in moving health care reform bills? It’s Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s insistence on having abortion coverage. If she relented on that, this process could move forward. I totally agree.
Thanks again, papists, for heading my call to contact Kennedy's office demanding that he apologize, and for contacting Bishop Tobin and supporting his strong, public response to Kennedy's slander.

Hands off my cathedral, kids:
Greenpeace climbers hang a big banner reads "World Leaders Make The Climate Call" at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. AP/David Ramos {what does that even mean?!}

In honor of your stupidity I'm going to keep my electric space heater on all night. Seriously.
update - and here's another photo {ph/t - The Courtier}:
I'm not sure if this was a separate occasion, or what the timeline was. But I hope they were prosecuted.

Hands off my cathedral, kids:
Greenpeace climbers hang a big banner reads "World Leaders Make The Climate Call" at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. AP/David Ramos {what does that even mean?!}

In honor of your stupidity I'm going to keep my electric space heater on all night. Seriously.
update - and here's another photo {ph/t - The Courtier}:
I'm not sure if this was a separate occasion, or what the timeline was. But I hope they were prosecuted.

I was on Capital Hill yesterday afternoon for pro-life meetings about efforts to stop this pro-abortion health care reform being voted on this weekend.
As I was going into one of the House buildings, I saw Randall Terry on the street outside rounding up people to go to Nancy Pelosi's office "to tear up the health care bill."
I have no tolerance for Randall Terry's activities, and I wasn't about to get involved in whatever he was planning. I went to my meetings, and after came out, I wasn't surprised to hear people talking about the commotion he had caused at Nancy Pelosi's office, which included Fr. Norman Weslin - an elderly priest who was famously arrested on Notre Dame's campus earlier this year - again being arrested and dragged out into a waiting cop car.
I twittered the news (here and here) as it was related to me, and Jill Stanek has a full report, including video of what transpired. A bystander promised to get me pictures of what happened, but I don't see much point in posting them.
Such activities, in my estimation, serve no purpose. They certainly do not seem to convert any hearts, and only allow enemies of our cause to caricature us as violent, unlawful trouble makers, which is of course a disservice to our sincere efforts to advance a culture of life in this country.

PelosiCare will be voted on this Saturday evening. Before that vote happens, we need to email and call (202-224-3121 ) our elected representatives to demand that they vote NO on HR 3962.
Whatever you've heard, 1) this legislation still funds abortions with our taxpayer dollars. 2) Its price tag is outrageous and will be crippling to our economy. 3) Nationalized health care systems always disadvantage the elderly and the very sick. 
I'm blogging at APP about the problems with this health care bill:

• Chapter and Verse: How PelosiCare pays for abortions
• Facts: few more reasons to oppose HR 3962
• Report: "Health Care Reform Assumes Millions Will Pay Fines"
• Video: Ordinary Americans Against Health Care "Reform"

Even if you've never contacted your representative before, please do so today. It's really important.
It's especially important to contact moderate Democrats, as almost all Republicans have promised to vote against it, and almost all liberal Democrats have promised to vote for it.
Pro-abortion organizations, which stand to profit massively if this legislation passes, are mobilizing their members to contact their representatives. Well our voice needs to be heard as well, and now.
You are welcome to say anything you want to your representative, but a very effective thing to tell them - if it is true - is something along the lines of: "If you vote for this health care bill, I will not vote for you again, and if there is an acceptable candidate running against you, I will vote for them, and ask my friends to do the same."
Politicians listen to promises like that. It's a promise I intend to keep.