People have been asking me if there have been any updates on the HHS mandate, and rightly so.
I offer the answer with a tired, exasperated look on my face (or at least that's what I'm thinking in my mind) - "yes and no"
Yeah, there have been updates. More of the tip of the iceberg has been revealed by the administration:
1) Abortions for a dollar
2) College kids now have to be covered for contraceptives through their college insurance plan
3) The Bishops have restated their position - "we ain't budging on this, and we'll close the whole thing down and be an underground persecuted Church as opposed to violating our consciences
4) People from camp Obama met with the Bishops' Conference and, as Cardinal Dolan said it, "they told us that we didn't properly understand Catholic teaching"
5) A group of crazy nuns and a few "catholic" commentators continue to back the President
6) Team Obama continues to publicly be shocked that people are so upset and they point to their willingness to "give it a year"
7) Team Obama continues to, out of the public eye, not only not carry on dialogue, but continues to push through decisions that are of the same frightening nature
People have been asking why there haven't been any updates.
a) The Planned Parenthood "I Have a Say" video has kept me SUPER busy with emails and phone calls and so forth
b) I'm just flat tired of all the nuances of the HHS debate. Not tired in the sense of losing my energy to fight, but sick of reporting on every detail --- it basically comes down to this --- if Obamacare (and all the moral "blank checks" it allows the President to write and force us to accept) if it passes the Supreme Court and the administration is not rebuffed, then we Catholics are, in the earthly realm, in grave jeopardy.
There you go. End of story. It is as most orthodox Catholics have been saying for four years - "This guy has it out for Catholics and has it out for life" Nothing else to say.
Sure, when things break I'll put them up here, but I'm starting to fear that writing a post about, for example, the 1$ abortion announcement last Friday, grants to much credibility to the news, and, I fear, can almost remove it out of its proper context:
The proper context being good vs. evil. This is a battle against principalities and powers, against those forces who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. I don't care if the President or Pelosi or Sebelius or Cecile Richards are cognizant of their roles in this battle or not (they strike me as more of the pawn type).
Any news on this HHS stuff???? Absolutely - Team Obama/Planned Parenthood is who we've been warning about for years... they are who we said they are...and we come to it...the great battle of our age.
Stories on the details of the mandate, after a while, start to take the focus off of what is really going on. If there are people out there on the fence STILL, then hearing that abortions for a dollar is part of Obamacare isn't going to convince them to suddenly back the Church. I'm not going to waste more time trying to convince people on the fence that this is all evil - I'm simply going to fight the evil, and I urge you to do the same.
praying that ALL will see the evil engulfing this world and for hearts to be changed to respect life at ALL stages from conception to natural death! Thank you for ALL you are doing Fr. Hollowell!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree. Thank you Father you are a wonderful Priest!
ReplyDeleteThank you Father. Your writings are filled with truth. I am an older Catholic and still believe all the Church teaches. Keep up your most wonderful work!
ReplyDeleteAnother great post. Thank you, Fr. Hollowell, for being on our side.
ReplyDeleteLook out you sowers of darkness and death...., HERE COMES FATHER HOLLOWELL, and every one of us....and we are: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!!! Get behind us.....cause we're getting in your ugly face!!!
ReplyDeleteSt. Louis Marie de Montfort--
ReplyDelete"Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost. Do not be deceived; there are only two roads: one that leads to life and is narrow; the other that leads to death and is wide. There is no middle way."
Thank you very much. This is exactly the type of update I was hoping to read somewhere today. The details are always overwhelming, especially for those of us who don't have much political power to do anything, but we are all desperate for news of the greater fight between Good and Evil. Thanks again for keeping the focus where it should be.
ReplyDeleteI was watching CSPAN this past weekend (Yes, I confess. I am a nerd.) and a professor was giving a presentation on the 1850s and the Fugitive Slave Act. The professor made an important and interesting statement: It wasn't the Abolitionists of the 1830s and 1840s that made the majority of Northerners support abolition, rather it was the Fugitive Slave Act.
ReplyDeleteThe Fugitive Slave Act, required that local law enforcement in the North "return" any black person that was suspected of being a runaway slave. Futhermore, any person who provided food and shelter to such "runaway slave" was subject to 6 months jail and a $1000 fine. Prior to the Act, the majority of Northerners were rather ambivalent towards slavery. The vast majority of Northerners were personally against it (sound familiar?), but as long as slavery was confined to the South, they were not clamoring to end the institution. The Fugitive Slave Act changed that by effectively making every person in the North an active participant in the institution of Slavery, regardless of their own personal convitions. Northerners had always known that slavery was wrong, but when they were required to actively support it and return "runaways", they no longer could ignore it. This is what made the North support abolition.
I beleive that the HHS Mandate is the Fugitive Slave Act of our time. One can no longer be ambivalent about abortion. One can no longer be "personally against abortion" while ignoring that it exists. When you are forced disregard your moral convictions, and are required to fund and thus support abortion, you are personally involved in the murder of the unborn. Just as our forefathers were forced to support an institution which they found morally repugnant, so too are we being forced to support a morally repugnant institution.
Obama, HHS, Planned Parenthood and its supporters may believe they have won, but I believe that in reality they have awoken the ambivalent. No longer can one be just a bystander. No longer can one be just personally against abortion and turn the other way. No longer can on just pretend that abortion is not involved one's life. The HHS Mandate is forcing us all to participate in the murder of the unborn. This cannot stand.