Vatican Approves English and Spanish Texts for ‘Blessing of a Child in the Womb’

The following from the USCCB:

WASHINGTON—The Vatican has approved the publication of the "Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb," which will be printed in English and Spanish in a combined booklet and should be available for parishes by Mothers' Day. The U.S. bishops who collaborated on the development of the blessing welcomed the announcement of the recognitio, or approval, by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome.


"I'm impressed with the beauty of this blessing for human life in the womb," said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). "I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of the Annunciation, when we remember Mary's 'yes' to God and the incarnation of that child in her the womb that saved the world."


"We wanted to make this announcement as soon as possible so that parishes might begin to look at how this blessing might be woven into the fabric of parish life," said Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship. "Eventually the new blessing will be included in the Book of Blessings whenthat text is revised."


The blessing was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for and recognition of the precious gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society. It can be offered within the context of the Mass as well as outside of Mass.


The blessing originated when then-Bishop Joseph Kurtz of Knoxville, Tennessee (now archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky) asked the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities to see if a blessing existed for a child in the womb. When none was found, the committee prepared a text and submitted it to the USCCB's Divine Worship committee in March of 2008. It was approved by the full body of bishops in November 2008, and then sent to Rome for editing and final approval.

http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-053.cfm

Health Care Act: Supreme Court; Tuesday's oral arguments

Today's oral argument before the Supreme Court is at the heart of the Health Care bill: health insurance purchase mandate (written about yesterday here).

Listen to today's arguments here

http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_audio_detail.aspx?argument=11-398-Tuesday

John Keenan

British Abortion Probe Exposes Widespread Criminality

The following article from The Daily Telegraph was reprinted in prolife.ie, an Irish prolife web digest.

British Abortion Probe Exposes Widespread Criminality


Up to one in five British abortion clinics is suspected of breaking the law and faces a police inquiry following an official investigation ordered by the Health Secretary. The regulator conducted a series of unannounced raids on every clinic offering abortions and found that a “shocking” number may be breaking the law. The Daily Telegraph reports that it understands that more than 250 private and NHS clinics were visited and more than 50 were “not in compliance” with the law or regulations. Doctors were regularly falsifying consent forms and patients were not receiving acceptable levels of advice and counselling in many clinics, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) discovered.


Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, said he was “shocked” by the findings of the CQC’s audit and was preparing to report doctors and organisations to the police. Many clinics may be stripped of the licences that allow them to offer abortions. Mr Lansley ordered the investigation into the clinics after The Telegraph disclosed that several were offering illegal sex-selection abortions and falsifying paperwork. He said the regulator had found that a number of clinics may be acting beyond the “spirit and letter of the law”.


“I was appalled,” he said. “Because if it happens, it is pretty much people engaging in a culture of both ignoring the law and trying to give themselves the right to say that although Parliament may have said this, we believe in abortion on demand.” He said it was not just a matter of enforcing the law. “There is the risk that women don’t get the appropriate level of pre-abortion support and counselling because, if your attitude is that, ‘You’ve arrived for an abortion and you should have one,’ well actually many women don’t get the degree of support they should.”


The main problem identified by the CQC was that doctors were “pre-signing” consent forms. The law requires the signatures of both the supervising consultant and a second professional who has either seen the patient or read the medical notes and the summary of a consultation. During inspections, regulators are understood to have found piles of “pre-signed forms”.


The Health Secretary said he was shocked by the pre-signing of certificates. “We’re talking about doctors who have professional responsibilities and it seems to me that you can’t satisfy your professional and ethical responsibilities [by pre-signing]. I completely understand the law doesn’t require the doctor to have met the woman concerned, but to pre-sign certificates when you don’t even know which woman it relates to and there hasn’t been an assessment, is completely contrary to the spirit and letter of the law.”


He added that action would be taken promptly. “We’re dealing with all this quickly,” Mr Lansley said. “If there is evidence of an offence we will give it directly to the police.”


The Health Secretary said pre-signing forms “constitutes a criminal offence” and could also lead to doctors being struck off by the General Medical Council. He warned that so-called abortion on demand was not acceptable. “It’s not what Parliament intended and it’s not what the law provides for,” he said. “My job is to enforce the law.”


The rigour of the Care Quality Commission, responsible for regulating abortion clinics, hospitals and care homes, has been repeatedly called into question since it was established in 2009. Last month, the commission’s chief executive resigned after a Department of Health report criticised the quango. Cynthia Bower stepped down from her £195,000-a-year post on the first day of The Daily Telegraph investigation into abortion clinics, which found that some doctors were offering terminations on the basis of gender and raised major concerns over the regulator. The level of potential abuse uncovered at abortion clinics is expected to lead to further searching questions over regulation in the past.


Ann Furedi, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), claimed that inspectors from the Care Quality Commission had been diverted from their duty of inspecting standards at institutions such as hospitals. Mrs Furedi suggested that the timing of the inspections was “absolutely wrong” and risked jeopardising other work undertaken by the CQC.

Are we surprised to learn that abortionists are not following the law in Britian either? "Lets make criminal acts legal" and give criminals free reign and that's supposed to work?

Health Care Act: Supreme Court; Oral Arguments before

Dear Dominicans & Friends:


As you may recall, last Friday, March 23rd, 2012, marked the second anniversary of the signing of the Health Care Reform Act by Mr. Obama. Time has revealed an insidious agenda of promoting abortion, abortifacients, and contraception through the instrument of the Administration's health reform efforts. In this effort, the Act provided for "no copay" for certain preventive medical procedures. There was no mention of contraception or abortifacients in the original statute. The traditional meaning of preventive medicine, which included such procedures as "well-checks," check-ups," and procedures like colonoscopies, etc., was applied by the federal government to include measures to prevent disease or conditions that develop into a disease or bodily disorder. Although not in the original federal statute, the national institute of medicine stretched the term "preventive" to include measure to prevent pregnancies. Obviously this stretch of meaning was grounded on a lie.

Through this mechanism has come the HHS mandate that invades our personal and religious liberties forcing all to fund morallly offensive procedures such as the use of contraceptions and abortifacients (and eventually abortions)!

In addition, the contraceptive prophets have argued that the right to health care includes the right to use contraception and abortifacients--as well as abortion--and that this right to health care is equal to First Amendment freedoms of the free exercise of religion. This nonsense pervades the public mind despite the fact there is no "right" to health care grounded on natural law. There is certainly no such right traditionaly at law or in equity nor is there a moral obligation of the state [government] to provide such health care.

Despite these facts, the current scheme of the individual mandate and the HHS mandate was thrusted on this Nation two years ago. Twenty-nine states have filed suit in a Florida District Court seeking to have this law set aside on the basis of the "commerce clause" and the 9th and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

This morning, March 26th, 2012, oral arguments on this matter have commenced and will continue two more days. The timing of this is providential, as it is occurring during the octave of the Feast of the Annunication (which is being celebrated today as the regular feast day, March 25, 2012, fell on a Sunday this eyar.

You can listen to the oral argument at this link:

Please pray and fast for wisdom that truth may prevail on the minds of the justices of our U.S. Supreme Court. Their decision will be issued in late June or early July of this year. If this law is struck down, the entire Administration construct of contraceptive and abortifacient rights and "preventive" health care will collapse like the tower of babel.

In St. Dominic,

John Keenan

Lost a grand lady...

This week, Ellen Logue, a long time Lay Dominican of the St Albert Chapter (Oakland CA, Western Province), passed away.  Last summer at the Lay Provincial Council meeting, the council celebrated Ellen's 60 years as a professed member of the Dominican Laity.

Those of us who were blessed to know Ellen will greatly miss her; and pay that she speedily joins our Lord in that eternity to which we seek and strive with the help of our Dominican profession.

We look forward to meeting you again on the other side, Ellen. May the Lord grant you peace, and do pray for the Order to which you gave so much.

Truth Be Told issue #21 - Newsletter of the Laity of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

The 21st issue of "Truth Be Told," the newsletter of the Laity of the Province of the Holy Name of Jesus has been posted to the web.

The newsletter is available for download at the provincial web page here:
http://laydominicanswest.org/newsletter/

Baker Diocese has a bishop!

Congratulations to the Baker Diocese, which today receives the appointment of Fr Liam Stephen Cary (St Mary Church, Eugene, Portland Diocese) as their new bishop!

Fr Cary, who grew up in Prineville, is a late vocation; born in '47 and ordained in '92 in Portland. Welcome home!

(Diocese of Baker press release here)

Church in the public square - survival

Back in the late first century, Ignatius injected himself into enough "political debates" that he wound up getting eaten by lions at the Coliseum. But no doubt tut-tutting NPR listeners would have deplored the way the Church had injected itself into live theater.

Cleverness, from an interesting article on the current challenge, The Church of Big Government at National Review Online.