If You Talk with Casey, Fitzpatrick, &/or Toomey on Monday....

Dear Fathers and Monsignors,

On Monday, Senator Casey, Representative Fitzpatrick, and Senator Toomey are each hosting receptions for constituents in DC for the March for Life. As you are certainly aware, each of these officials identifies himself as both pro life and Catholic. Please remind your parishioners - particularly those who will be in Washington - of the pertinent track records of these officials, so that they will be best able to advocate for pro-life/pro-family concerns....

Federal ProLife Legislation Specifically Suported by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (An Update on the Eve of the 39th Anniversary of the Infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision)

The USCCB has urged support for the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act: "Passage of ANDA is urgently needed to protect the civil rights of health professionals and other health care entities. This bill reaffirms a basic principle: No health care entity should be forced by government to perform or participate in abortions."

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  Senator Casey is NOT a co-sponsor of S. 165 (as of 1/21/2012).


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  Representative Fitzpatrick is a co-sponsor of HR 361.


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  Senator Toomey is NOT a co-sponsor of S. 165 (as of 1/20/2012).

The USCCB has urged support for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

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  Senator Casey is NOT a co-sponsor of S. 906 (as of 1/21/2012).


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  Representative Fitzpatrick voted for HR 3.


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  Senator Toomey IS a co-sponsor of S. 906.

The USCCB has urged support for the Protect Life Act.

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  Senator Casey is NOT a co-sponsor of S. 877 (as of 1/21/2012).


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  Representative Fitzpatrick voted for HR 358.


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  Senator Toomey is NOT a co-sponsor of S. 877 (as of 1/21/2012).

The USCCB has urged support for the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

• Senator Casey is NOT a co-sponsor of S. 1467 (as of 1/21/2012).


• Representative Fitzpatrick IS a co-sponsor of HR 1179.


• Senator Toomey IS a co-sponsor of S.1467.

"The Catholic bishops of the United States called 'literally unconscionable' a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans. Today's announcement means that this mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change at all; instead there will only be a delay in enforcement against some employers....The HHS rule requires that sterilization and contraception – including controversial abortifacients – be included among 'preventive services' coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans....At issue, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders insist, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for the conscience of Catholics and all other Americans" (USCCB, 1/20/2012)

Protecting the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

"DOMA is rational, and its repeal would be unjust....

"Redefining marriage to mean simply an arrangement of consenting adults violates justice because it interferes with basic human rights.

"First, changing the institution of marriage by making it indifferent to the absence of one sex or the other denies that children have the fundamental human right to be cared by both their mother and father. Such revision transforms marriage from a child-centered to an adult-centered status to the detriment of children....

"Second, redefining marriage also threatens the fundamental human right of religious freedom. Those who refuse on moral and religious grounds to accept or accommodate the redefinition of legal marriage are already being wrongly accused of bigotry and hatred, bias and prejudice....

"All persons have a rightful claim to our utmost respect. There is no corresponding duty, however, for society to disregard the meaning of sexual difference and its practical consequences for the common good; to override fundamental rights, such as religious liberty; and to re-define our most basic social institution" (Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, chairman of the USCCB's Subcommittee for the Promotion & Defense of Marriage, November 2011).

• Senator Casey is NOT a co-sponsor of S.CON.RES.11, "A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the Obama administration's discontinuing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act" (as of 1/21/2012)


• Representative Fitzpatrick is NOT a co-sponsor of H.CON.RES.25 , "Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the Obama administration's discontinuing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act" (as of 1/21/2012; NOR is he a co-sponsor of H.R.875, the Marriage Protection Act).


• Senator Toomey is NOT a co-sponsor of S.CON.RES.11, "A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the Obama administration's discontinuing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act" (as of 1/21/2012).
  

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT ON CATHOLICS IN PUBLIC OFFICE

"I think that people who make decisions contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in public ways, in matters of faith and morals, should decide for themselves not to receive communion. They've broken their communion with the church, and to receive communion means you're in communion with the church. If you're not, it's hypocritical to receive communion.

"I think the best way to handle this is the way the bishops of the United States have agreed together to handle it, which is first of all to talk personally with those individuals who make decisions contrary to the teaching of the church. If they fully understand the teaching of the church and continue to act contrary to it, we should ask them not to receive communion.

"If they persistently decide to do so in a way that causes scandal, which means leading other people into the same kind of sin, then I think it's necessary for the bishop to publicly say something" (Archbishop Chaput, 7/19/11).