Joseph Pecar
Open letter to Francis Cardinal George
President of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB]
By Joseph Pecar
Your Eminence,
Surely you are aware of the shameless scandal being given by supposedly highly educated people — often in the name of heretofore highly esteemed Catholic institutions — that is now taking place at an alarming rate. The IHS "cover-up" at Georgetown and Notre Dame's invitation of Barack Obama to be the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University's 164th Commencement Ceremony, are just two recent examples.
There are millions of ordinary people who in the past have always adjudged Abortion — and the Infanticide and Black Genocide it engenders in America — to surely be intrinsically evil. However, as a result of such scandalization, their consciences have been corrupted to the point where they now wrongly conclude "such practices could not truly be evil." Why? Because, they reason, if individuals seeking to firmly ensconce radically pro-Abortion and anti-God ideologies in the moral fabric of our Nation were evil, surely Georgetown, Notre Dame and others would not cover icons, remove Crucifixes, and take other steps in deference to or to bestow honors on them."
Since conscience is the very foundation of spirituality, the desecration of the consciences of untold numbers of souls that occurs when leaders of prestigious Catholic institutions willfully give scandal to others are obviously, and in their own right, grievously despicable, heartlessly cruel moral transgressions. But the accumulative evil wrought by Abortion-related scandal is not limited to the degradation of the moral well-being of individuals alone.
No, as the number of citizens and legislators with wounded consciences grows large enough, even more pernicious rights to unrestricted Abortion will be voted for and enacted. That means even more innocent human lives will be lost to Abortion. And because the number of so called "Botched Abortions" scale with the number of "Good Abortions" performed, then the number of post-Abortion but born-alive babies who die despite efforts to save them, the number of post-Abortion but born-alive babies simply left to die (Infanticide), and the number of Botched Abortion survivors left with life-long afflictions and suffering — all will also increase.
What this means is that those giving Abortion-related scandal are responsible for risking, and in most cases the high-likelihood and probability, of being directly responsible for increasing the number of Abortions — procedures which in one way or another stop beating human hearts. Procedures that kill babies. Acts that violate the Fifth Commandment!
Knowing this, how can anyone seriously assert that fostering "academic freedom at a university," Government funding, tax breaks, honoring heads-of-state, or other similar secular goals take precedence over or justify the hideous evils of willfully perverting people's consciences, of willingly risking or actually taking precious, innocent human lives, or willingly exposing innocent Abortion survivors to lifetimes of suffering from the insidious side-effects of Abortion procedures that don't accomplish their horrific purpose.
If you agree with this reasoning, then you must also agree that Notre Dame's intention of allowing Obama to speak and bestowing and honor on him this Sunday has already desecrated the consciences of millions of people and intentionally risks lives of even more than the 1.3 million Abortion victims that already occur every year.
The moral abomination of those consequences has already prompted the castigation and condemnation of 65 Bishops. Others have issued statements like Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl's who said "the invitation should not have been extended, but once given, should not be rescinded" — a position that seems to acknowledge the turpitude of the invitation, but refuses to even try to prevent the life threatening consequences that will result should Obama actually be allowed to speak and be honored.
As Bishop Paul S. Loverde has warned, "This situation underscores the need for Catholics to be united and speak with one voice in our respect for all human life; otherwise, we project confusion and uncertainty on this most basic of issues." With 197 Dioceses in the United States and perhaps 430 or so Bishops total, there are still many in the hierarchy to hear from.
And perhaps most tragically in terms leaving the entire Catholic Church in a state of confusion and uncertainty is the fact that the USCCB, the very entity with the Apostolic duty and responsibility to proclaim the Truth and lead American Catholics — as it did regarding the controversy over whether it was a moral transgression to vote for the assertively pro-Abortion Obama in the 2008 Election — has again essentially remained silent about this burning controversy and taken no public action to prevent the Notre Dame outrage from occurring.
Many devote Catholics can only shake their heads and wonder "how can this happen — how can the USCCB not speak out and lead in this most basic of issues?" "Do the USCCB Bishops not have the moral judgment maturity to tell the difference between spending time on things like whether the Ascension should be celebrated on Thursday or Sunday and actions that destroy the sanctity of good consciences and the evil of life-taking, life-ruining Abortions?"
In the face of such questions, if the USCCB does not to do something about the Notre Dame scandal by May 17, all Catholics and other Americans will surely conclude your office is both meaningless and useless.
While time is running out to rescind Obama's invitation, the truth is that if it is revoked, the nearer that happens to May 17, the bigger the media firestorm will be and the greater the opportunity the Catholic Church will have to Evangelize its Culture of Life message. Clearly, if the Church is prepared to respond, the media firestorm could pave the way "to go forth into the whole world and preach the Gospel" — on a scale never before possible in the history of Christianity.
I would like to add my prayers to God to those of throngs of others that before it is too late you work together to take whatever action necessary to rescind the invitation to Obama to be the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the Notre Dame's 164th Commencement Ceremony.
Let me close with the words of Judie Brown, President of the American Life League, "The kernel of truth in the Notre Dame scandal is that very same truth that Christ spoke about more than nineteen hundred years ago. It is God's truth, a truth that surpasses everything including commentaries, press conferences, political posturing and all else that has been occurring and will continue to occur around the Notre Dame fiasco. Those who attempt to mollify the evil forces in our age by bending this truth, softening it, misrepresenting it or ignoring it, while maintaining that they are Catholic, are doing such a grave disservice to the Church that there are no words to describe it."
Peace and Prayers,
Joseph A. Pecar
Note: Additional details and references to materials used in this letter can be found at the renewamerica.com Internet site in an article entitled "A final appeal to Dr. DeGioia and Father Jenkins Rescind the Obama invitation" that was posted May 12. It can be read at http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/pecar/090512.
© Joseph Pecar
May 13, 2009
Your Eminence,
Surely you are aware of the shameless scandal being given by supposedly highly educated people — often in the name of heretofore highly esteemed Catholic institutions — that is now taking place at an alarming rate. The IHS "cover-up" at Georgetown and Notre Dame's invitation of Barack Obama to be the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University's 164th Commencement Ceremony, are just two recent examples.
There are millions of ordinary people who in the past have always adjudged Abortion — and the Infanticide and Black Genocide it engenders in America — to surely be intrinsically evil. However, as a result of such scandalization, their consciences have been corrupted to the point where they now wrongly conclude "such practices could not truly be evil." Why? Because, they reason, if individuals seeking to firmly ensconce radically pro-Abortion and anti-God ideologies in the moral fabric of our Nation were evil, surely Georgetown, Notre Dame and others would not cover icons, remove Crucifixes, and take other steps in deference to or to bestow honors on them."
Since conscience is the very foundation of spirituality, the desecration of the consciences of untold numbers of souls that occurs when leaders of prestigious Catholic institutions willfully give scandal to others are obviously, and in their own right, grievously despicable, heartlessly cruel moral transgressions. But the accumulative evil wrought by Abortion-related scandal is not limited to the degradation of the moral well-being of individuals alone.
No, as the number of citizens and legislators with wounded consciences grows large enough, even more pernicious rights to unrestricted Abortion will be voted for and enacted. That means even more innocent human lives will be lost to Abortion. And because the number of so called "Botched Abortions" scale with the number of "Good Abortions" performed, then the number of post-Abortion but born-alive babies who die despite efforts to save them, the number of post-Abortion but born-alive babies simply left to die (Infanticide), and the number of Botched Abortion survivors left with life-long afflictions and suffering — all will also increase.
What this means is that those giving Abortion-related scandal are responsible for risking, and in most cases the high-likelihood and probability, of being directly responsible for increasing the number of Abortions — procedures which in one way or another stop beating human hearts. Procedures that kill babies. Acts that violate the Fifth Commandment!
Knowing this, how can anyone seriously assert that fostering "academic freedom at a university," Government funding, tax breaks, honoring heads-of-state, or other similar secular goals take precedence over or justify the hideous evils of willfully perverting people's consciences, of willingly risking or actually taking precious, innocent human lives, or willingly exposing innocent Abortion survivors to lifetimes of suffering from the insidious side-effects of Abortion procedures that don't accomplish their horrific purpose.
If you agree with this reasoning, then you must also agree that Notre Dame's intention of allowing Obama to speak and bestowing and honor on him this Sunday has already desecrated the consciences of millions of people and intentionally risks lives of even more than the 1.3 million Abortion victims that already occur every year.
The moral abomination of those consequences has already prompted the castigation and condemnation of 65 Bishops. Others have issued statements like Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl's who said "the invitation should not have been extended, but once given, should not be rescinded" — a position that seems to acknowledge the turpitude of the invitation, but refuses to even try to prevent the life threatening consequences that will result should Obama actually be allowed to speak and be honored.
As Bishop Paul S. Loverde has warned, "This situation underscores the need for Catholics to be united and speak with one voice in our respect for all human life; otherwise, we project confusion and uncertainty on this most basic of issues." With 197 Dioceses in the United States and perhaps 430 or so Bishops total, there are still many in the hierarchy to hear from.
And perhaps most tragically in terms leaving the entire Catholic Church in a state of confusion and uncertainty is the fact that the USCCB, the very entity with the Apostolic duty and responsibility to proclaim the Truth and lead American Catholics — as it did regarding the controversy over whether it was a moral transgression to vote for the assertively pro-Abortion Obama in the 2008 Election — has again essentially remained silent about this burning controversy and taken no public action to prevent the Notre Dame outrage from occurring.
Many devote Catholics can only shake their heads and wonder "how can this happen — how can the USCCB not speak out and lead in this most basic of issues?" "Do the USCCB Bishops not have the moral judgment maturity to tell the difference between spending time on things like whether the Ascension should be celebrated on Thursday or Sunday and actions that destroy the sanctity of good consciences and the evil of life-taking, life-ruining Abortions?"
In the face of such questions, if the USCCB does not to do something about the Notre Dame scandal by May 17, all Catholics and other Americans will surely conclude your office is both meaningless and useless.
While time is running out to rescind Obama's invitation, the truth is that if it is revoked, the nearer that happens to May 17, the bigger the media firestorm will be and the greater the opportunity the Catholic Church will have to Evangelize its Culture of Life message. Clearly, if the Church is prepared to respond, the media firestorm could pave the way "to go forth into the whole world and preach the Gospel" — on a scale never before possible in the history of Christianity.
I would like to add my prayers to God to those of throngs of others that before it is too late you work together to take whatever action necessary to rescind the invitation to Obama to be the principal speaker and recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the Notre Dame's 164th Commencement Ceremony.
Let me close with the words of Judie Brown, President of the American Life League, "The kernel of truth in the Notre Dame scandal is that very same truth that Christ spoke about more than nineteen hundred years ago. It is God's truth, a truth that surpasses everything including commentaries, press conferences, political posturing and all else that has been occurring and will continue to occur around the Notre Dame fiasco. Those who attempt to mollify the evil forces in our age by bending this truth, softening it, misrepresenting it or ignoring it, while maintaining that they are Catholic, are doing such a grave disservice to the Church that there are no words to describe it."
Peace and Prayers,
Joseph A. Pecar
Note: Additional details and references to materials used in this letter can be found at the renewamerica.com Internet site in an article entitled "A final appeal to Dr. DeGioia and Father Jenkins Rescind the Obama invitation" that was posted May 12. It can be read at http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/pecar/090512.
© Joseph Pecar
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