From Idaho Chooses Life

NEWS RELEASE 9/26/2006
For More Information:
David Ripley
208.344.8709


ICL Urges Bishop Driscoll to Intervene


“We issue a public call for Idaho’s Catholic Bishop, Mike Driscoll, to intervene quickly and forcefully in the brewing scandal involving Sister Helen Prejean,” ICL Executive Di­rector David Ripley said in a statement issued Wednesday. Sister Prejean is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at an event to raise money for the Idaho ACLU on Friday, September 28th. (Please see their homepage).


This nefarious organization plays a pivotal role in undermining Christian morality and the sanc­tity of both family and human life.


They proudly proclaim their tenacious opposition to laws like Parental Consent, which has caused untold damage to girls and families – but the larger harm has been the preborn children snuffed out by their accomplices at Planned Parenthood. The Idaho ACLU has opposed every bill in the Legislature since its inception designed to protect preborn children.


A quick view of their website demonstrates beyond debate that they are also involved in a deeper and more pernicious campaign to undermine morality – particularly targeting vulnerable teenagers and preteens. (Please see their “comic strip” on abstinence education).


And there is probably no other organization in America with an agenda more hostile to basic Christian tenets than the American Civil Liberties Union.


Sister Helen Prejean, made a celebrity by her work to end the death penalty, is not just helping the ACLU build its war chest – she is also a keynote speaker at the upcoming Fall Conference, designed to educate and build the faith of rank-and-file Catholics across the state. It is obvious that she cannot fulfill both obligations without causing scandal and demoralizing countless Christians across Idaho.


We ask Bishop Driscoll to intervene. We respectfully and prayerfully urge him to ask Sister Helen to withdraw from Friday’s fundraising gig. If she is unwilling to do so – then we believe it appropriate for Bishop Driscoll to remove her from the Fall Conference.



“It is crucial that the Catholic Church not be misunderstood as sanctioning the radical agenda of the ACLU,” concluded Ripley.


We urge all defenders of the innocent to contact Bishop Driscoll’s office and urge him to take action: 342-1311.

I found the following at Sr. Prejean's blog, it is in response to criticism following her signature appearing on an ad in the New York Times last year calling for the removal of President Bush:

The life issues involved in the beginning of life are exceedingly complex. My stance on abortion is a matter of public record. I stand morally opposed to killing: war, executions, killing of the old and demented, the killing of children, unborn and born. As I have stated publicly many times, I stand squarely within the framework of "the seamless garment" ethic of life. I believe that all of life is sacred and must be protected, especially in the vulnerable stages at the beginning of life and its end.
I signed the ad because as a follower of the way of Jesus and a U.S. citizen, I cannot stand by passively and silently as I witness my government wage such grievous oppression and violence.

what I find hard to comprehend, is if George Bush is such a horror, where is the horror over the work of the ACLU? Is sister so focused on one small button on the "seamless garment" that she is willing to overlook the rest of the entire garment, shredded without mercy by the enemies of life who she is willing to raise money for? How does one blanket oppose the death penalty whereby one would ask the state to renounce the use of lethal force over those tried and convicted of heinous crimes, yet remain silent in turn about granting that same lethal force to be used against the most innocent and vulnerable among us? Why is execution with a trial so much worse than execution without one?