Friday, March 2, 2012

Twilight Zone: Pro-Abortion Lobbyist Re-hired for the Archdiocese of Portland

Once again, Roger Martin is the lobbyist for the Archdiocese of Portland. He voted to legalize abortion when a legislator in 1969 making Oregon one of the first states to "legalize" abortion before it became a federal law in 1973.

Fortunately, he failed in his effort to have no husband or parental notification legislation before an abortion in 1971. (The measure did pass years later, allowing teenagers to have an abortion during school time without parental notification.) He has never publicly denounced his pro-abortion stance.

Roger Martin is a "Republican" and maybe is the only
non-Democrat that they could find. The Democrat leanings are palatable at the Archdiocese.

Below are the articles that warned the Archdiocese and more importantly the Catholic laity, about the misguided staff hired to serve Christ and don't adhere to His expectations for a Catholic.

The "laissez-faire" , "lame-duck" philosophy in the Archdiocese seems to be the order of the day. With a new Archbishop on the horizon they still only have to "talk the talk", not "walk the walk" and save souls. 
 
The re-hire of Roger Martin is an indication of the stagnate mentality on the pro-life issues of abortion, pro-family, and euthanasia. For instance, Father Taaffe's homes for mothers and their babies got not one penny from the Archdiocese (Father was VOCAL's spiritual director). His homes are a now used as a selling point for Catholic Charities. The Archbishop does a wonderful job in his yearly speech for Oregon Right to Life, but no donations to the organization for their exceptional job or yearly conferences.

Now, more than ever, we need continual support from the Archdiocesan lobbyist to keep us appraised of the attack on religious conscience. Roger Martin is getting paid with money from our collection plates. He works for Christ's values and should remember that.

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Articles Regarding Roger Martin 2007-2009 - Voice of Catholics ...
Feb 07, 2011
Before I write to the Archbishop and Mary Jo Tully, who hired Roger Martin, our Oregon Catholic Conference lobbyist, I need to let you know what happened this week at the Capitol. Both people recruited by Roger Martin to ...

Apr 07, 2011
At the Life Lobby Ladies Day, Roger Martin, Catholic lobbyist for Oregon Catholics walked the other way (literally) before the press conference on HB3512, for unborn pain prevention, in the Capitol basement. He could have ...

Mar 06, 2009
Before I write to the Archbishop and Mary Jo Tully, who hired Roger Martin, our Oregon Catholic Conference lobbyist, I need to let you know what happened this week at the Capitol. Both people recruited by Roger Martin to ...

Feb 12, 2009
It seems incomprehensible that Roger Martin was hired again and according to the ACA pie chart receives 1% of the $3,6400.00 or $36400. http://www.archdpdx.org/appeal/ The "Imitation of Christ" Appeal title has justice for ...

Feb 07, 2011
During the 2007 Legislative Session VOCAL reported that Roger Martin, the replacement lobbyist for long time Oregon Catholic Conference's Bob Castagna, voted to legalize abortion when he was a legislator in 1969.

Apr 09, 2009
For those who have forgotten, Roger Martin is the Oregon Catholic Conference lobbyist who voted to legalize abortions and voted against parental/spousal notification when he was a legislator in 1969 and 1973. If you'd like ...

Jan 09, 2008
How at the 2007 Session of the legislature Catholic values were not as well represented as they should have been by Roger Martin the lobbyist for Oregon Catholic Conference who had voted to legalize abortion as a ...

Mar 07, 2011
Let's hope it's on lobbyist Roger Martin's radar screen. “In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness, and tenderness leads to the gas chamber.” – Flannery O'Connor, novelist and short story writer. Posted by VOCAL at ...

Jun 11, 2009
For More Information http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=124433748160657800 Roger Martin, the lobbyist for the Catholic Church, although he's not pro-life needs to get on this. It is frustrating for us who ...

May 13, 2011
Roger Martin, our pro-abortion lobbyist, did nothing! These questions regarding PFL have everything to do with the election of 2012 and keeping the progressive, liberal agenda alive and well-financed by Catholics. For too ...

Dec 05, 2007
The Oregon Catholic Conference, led by Roger Martin our lobbyist who voted for legalizing abortion when he was a legislator, embarrassed thousands of Oregon Catholics by his lack of defense of marriage and family values.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Cardinal Burke - Stop "Grievous Assault on Religious Freedom" Sign This Petition!

Cardinal Raymond Burke Encourages Catholics to Sign Online Petition to Stop the Birth Control Mandate

Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, sent a written message of support to St. Gianna Physician’s Guild over the weekend encouraging Catholics to sign the organization’s online petition (www.StopTheBirthControlMandate.org) to protest the assault on religious liberty that is happening under ObamaCare. The petition has steadily gained momentum since its launch last August seeing the number of signatures more than double since January 20th. This is after the Department of Health and Human Services released a statement confirming that the mandate would go into effect as scheduled on August 1, 2012. An extension of one year was given to Catholic institutions and other entities to comply.  This mandate does not provide a conscience clause for institutions and others who believe contraception and sterilization are immoral.
Stop the Birth Control Mandate petition asks that the Obama Administration and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, withdraw immediately all references to contraception and contraception counseling from the “Guidelines for Women’s Preventive Services” under The Affordable Care Act. Moreover, it petitions the administration to provide a conscience clause to protect the religious freedom and beliefs of Catholics.
In his letter Cardinal Burke declared:
I wholeheartedly express my solidarity with the Stop The Birth Control Mandate petition promoted by St. Gianna Physician's Guild protesting the recent decree by the Department of Health and Human Services of our federal government.  I encourage Catholics to sign the petition and thus unite their support of Holy Mother Church by protesting the most grievous violation of the right to religious liberty for Catholics in the United States.
 
Cardinal Burke has long had the reputation of providing guidance in areas of faith and morals through his willingness to make public statements to encourage the Faithful.
 
“The petition sends a clear message to the Obama Administration that this contraception mandate is wrong, discriminatory and violates the religious rights of Catholics all across America,” stated the Guild’s President, Thomas McKenna. McKenna noted that already more than 150 Catholic bishops across the country have written letters decrying the mandate. “It is inspiring to see the bishops speaking out with such determination and moral clarity in encouraging the faithful to oppose the mandate. St. Gianna Physician’s Guild applauds their leadership,” McKenna continued.
 
The petition has provided Catholics and people of all faiths an outlet to express their outrage in what many feel is an act of government tyranny. The petition was posted on the Archdiocese of Denver’s web site and has resulted in parishioners collecting signatures after weekend Masses.
 
St Gianna Physician’s Guild (www.StGiannaPhysicians.org) was founded to unite and encourage Catholic physicians, as well as others in the health care profession, to promote and defend Catholic principles in a public way and to inspire sanctification in their lives. The petition can be signed at: www.StopTheBirthControlMandate.org.
 
Source:

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Rosary Campaign for Religious Freedom

As converts (1984) it seems like the Church my family joined is in danger. Not only the one we joined, but the the others we attended to get to our permanent spiritual home on earth.

The government's tentacles are reaching into the lives of sixteen three-year-old preschoolers by not allowing them to say grace and mention God, safeguarding a government grant. (I just found this out regarding a grandchild.) How do we tell children "God's not allowed in school."

You'd think that the government would appreciate a world of order for children, but alas, they would probably much rather have an "Occupy Preschool" movement encouraging children to
break toys and kick teachers.

This message is a day or two into the first novena. Better late than never aka a convert's ignorance on whether it "counts" if we're late

Facebook has one of the Grassroots efforts to help keep our religious freedom.  We will never regret not including these novenas in our prayers, but we'll regret not doing it.
Thanks Angie for the heads up.


Rosary Campaign for Religious Freedom


On January 20, 2012, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the Obama administration would uphold a mandate that would force Catholic institutions to subsidize--through their health care plans--contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion. This is a serious encroachment on religious freedom, which forces Catholic employers not only to consent to, but also directly engage in practices that are morally incompatible with the Catholic Faith and are gravely sinful.

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States have unanimously agreed to fight this mandate relentlessly. We should also do our part in the public square, making our voices heard to our respective Senators and Representatives.

But we can't fight this battle unarmed. This war on Religious Freedom and the protection of Conscience is a supernatural war, and we need Divine assistance.

So, beginning on February 1, please join us in an 18 day Rosary Novena for the overturning of this mandate and for the conversion of the politicians who are trying to impose this upon us. Please pray a daily Rosary for 18 days for the following intentions
 
Day 1-9

For the overturning of the HHS mandate that would require Catholic institutions to provide health insurance plans to their employees, subsidizing contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs. And for the conversion of our politicians

Day 10-18

In thanksgiving for our prayers being answered.

Please stand up for your Religious Liberty, and storm Heaven with your prayers.

"Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will."--Mark 11:23-24

He's given us His Word.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Bishop Vasa Fires Up Pro-Life Rally. Music To Our Ears.

Oregon's own Bishop Vasa rallied pro-life troops at the Roe v. Wade event in Santa Rosa, California on Sunday, January 22nd.

Now in Santa Rosa, Bishop Robert Vasa Sunday called politicians who support abortion rights “unfit for public office” and suggested they face excommunication from the Catholic Church for expressing such a position.

Vasa made the remarks at a rainy afternoon rally in Courthouse Square on the 39th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, granting women the right to legal abortion.
The event drew about 100 participants who prayed, sang songs and carried signs such as “Defend life” and “Women do regret abortion.” It also drew a handful of protesters who tried to disrupt the event with chants of their own supporting abortion rights.

Vasa, who previously served as bishop of the Baker Diocese in politically conservative eastern Oregon, was blunt in his condemnation of laws and leaders that don't stand up to protect the unborn. 

He said that because of the position of the United States on the issue of abortion, it is “not the land of the free and the home of the brave.” 

“It's a land of the imprisoned and the home of the cowards,” said Vasa, who traded his bishop's mitre for a baseball cap in deference to the weather.

Such forceful public rhetoric is a marked departure from that of previous leaders of the 165,000-member Santa Rosa Catholic diocese, which sits in a strongly liberal region with widely held feminist values. Vasa became its spiritual leader in July. 

Sunday, he called laws like Roe v. Wade “illicit and invalid” and leaders who support abortion rights “as guilty of abortion as those who choose it themselves.”

“Any government leader, particularly those who claim to be Christian, who claim to be pro-choice, is unworthy of public office,” Vasa said to cheers from the damp crowd. “Absolutely unworthy and absolutely unfit for public office.”

In an interview after his remarks, Vasa suggested such leaders who publicly hold such a position shouldn't accept communion at Mass. He also said they could be excommunicated, or banished from the church through their actions. “In some ways, they excommunicate themselves,” he said. 

If he learned a politician expressed a position so out of line with Catholic beliefs, then he would first try to have a “face-to-face” with that person and urge them to recant their remarks. If they did not, then that person would be “on thin ice.” 

But he noted that the church “tends to resist” formal excommunications, noting that Catholics who advocate abortion rights suffer from the conflict between two incompatible positions within them. 

“I, for one, if someone wants to put hot coals on their own head, I say fine,” Vasa said.
Rep. Mike Thompson, the North Coast's seven-term Democratic congressman, is Catholic and supports abortion rights.  “I support a woman's right to make decisions about her health care,” Thompson has said, adding that he separates his role as a lawmaker from his Catholicism.

Midway through one of the early speeches, an abortion-rights activist jumped up and attempted to disrupt the event. When protesters pushed JT Bymaster, a 33-year-old massage therapist, and told him to leave, he began yelling “Abortion is a right!” and noted he was in a public place and enjoyed the same free-speech rights as they. 

Lawrence Lehr, president of the group Sonoma County Pro Life, said there are signs that anti-abortion activists are “chipping away” at Roe v. Wade and helping win support for the passage of state laws that restrict access to abortions. He urged them not to lose heart.

“The goal is not to be successful. The goal is to be faithful,” he said.


http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120122/ARTICLES/120129839

Tuesday, January 24, 2012