Flub: to make a mess of; blunder

Recent headlines detail a rather confusing, but not surprising, situation involving Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York City, and New York state governor, Andrew Cuomo.

The cardinal is the Roman Catholic shepherd for the largest group of Roman Catholics in America. The governor is a member of the Roman Catholic Church who prides himself on his support for aborting children and leading the bandwagon for same-sex marriage. These are two positions that are in direct conflict with Catholic teaching.

That is the starting point for the cardinal flub.

Recently Cardinal Dolan criticized Governor Cuomo for his position on abortion: “I don’t mind telling you that’s one of the things the governor and I talk about,” Cardinal Dolan stated during a radio interview with a columnist for the New York Post. He continued, “Look, he and I have very grave differences, and this is one of them.”

Later, the cardinal corrected himself through spokesman Joseph Zwilling. According to the New York Times, who quoted Zwilling, “The cardinal, who is the archbishop of New York, ‘would not, and did not, suggest the governor might not be a Catholic in good standing going forward.’”

FLUB!!!

You see, Cardinal Dolan has gone out of his way to make it very clear that he has a pleasant relationship with Governor Cuomo, suggesting perhaps that they have simply agreed to disagree on certain matters such as child killing and homosexual marriage.

Be that as it may, good buds should be comfortable expressing any concern—even if it means harming the friendship—by lovingly pointing out when one buddy goes down a path that is leading the wrong way. This should especially be the case when one of the pair is a Catholic cardinal.

Governor Cuomo is one of those public figures who fits perfectly with the Church law that states that he should be denied the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, if he approaches a priest or Eucharistic minister at Mass with the intention of receiving the sacrament. That law, known as canon 915, states clearly that the sacrament should be denied to those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin.”

Canon law expert Ed Peters agreed and said in an interview that Cuomo falls into the category of those who should be denied the sacrament. In addition, Cuomo is divorced and living with his girlfriend, which is yet another reason to be denied Communion. Yet Cuomo continues to receive Christ—and apparently with the cardinal’s blessing.

It is no coincidence that within two days of this latest news about the cardinal and the governor, Pope Francis told a congregation at his morning Mass: “The problem is not that we are sinners. . . . The problem is not repenting of sin, not being ashamed of what we have done.”

But if the most respected Catholic priest a man knows—a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church—not only fails to help the sinner see his error, but avoids talking about it, exactly how can the sinner become aware of how serious the sin could be if he does not repent?

Pope Francis told those attending his Mass that the encounter with Christ that someone has when he is truly sorry for his sins is a transforming experience as he realizes that, in repenting of this sin, he finds “the joy of forgiveness” in Christ.

It is from this perspective that we need to pray that Cardinal Dolan realizes the damage he is doing not only to Cuomo, but to those souls witnessing this blunder in his relationship with the governor.

Governor Cuomo could be experiencing the joy of a forgiving Christ if he were denied Holy Communion and understood the reasons why this action had to be taken. He could recognize in that moment what he is really missing in his life.

The cardinal could make this happen!

Let us pray that the cardinal flub becomes a cardinal moment of grace.

Please join American Life League in our Pray and Fast for Bishops campaign; light a candle for Cardinal Dolan today!

The dust has settled now; a brutal killer has been found guilty of murder. The cowardly abortionist chose life in prison instead of appealing his case, thus avoiding the possibility of facing the death penalty, and life goes on. 

But in a very real sense, life will never be the same again—not for the families of the dead or for those left behind in the wake of his brutality. 

And at a more fundamental level, this tragic story of one abortion practitioner should not disappear without some soul-searching on the part of each and every American. The fundamental question about this case that nobody wants to address is the irony of it. 

If Kermit Gosnell had successfully murdered these three children moments earlier, it would have been nothing more than abortion as usual. Nobody would have taken note. Nobody ever does.

Late-term abortion is not uncommon, no matter how many regulatory laws are in place. My goodness, these practitioners even have their own website! But that is not my point.

America looked, in some cases, for a brief second at the dastardly acts of one man and felt shock because of the barbarism of what he had done and the nonchalance with which he conducted himself. He even laughed during one of his killings as though his acts were, in some distorted sense, comedic. 

As we witnessed this case unfold, much like the hearings on LeRoy Carhart’s version of infanticide and Kenneth Edelin’s court case before him, we saw a portrait of our nation that should disturb the very fiber of every American’s being.

But it should further provoke a few thoughts, the most fundamental of which is why we are shocked by the actions of Kermit Gosnell but not by a government that will hand over the dangerous, sometimes abortive, Plan B pill to our fifteen-year-old children. 

Clearly the end result of what Gosnell did and what a child who ingests this pill or any birth control pill may do to her own baby is unmistakable: A human being will die. The older child will die because of a surgical instrument or a pair of scissors, while the younger child will die because a chemical assault weapon has been ingested by his mother. 

While the medical community, for the most part, will not admit to this aspect of the pill’s action in a female body, the facts speak for themselves. And the child who dies at seven days gestational age is just as dead as Gosnell’s victims. 

One of the reasons the abortion industry has flourished for the past 40 years is because most people do not see that no matter when a human being dies before or during birth, the tragedy is just as real. A person who might have lived among us is snuffed out.

It all comes down to this: When is a human being not so human? When is a child not really a child?

The wave of the future includes chemical and medical abortion murders, not surgical Gosnell-type murders. Nobody sees the victims of those killings; they never have.

It’s up to us to change that.

The past few days have revealed an emerging trend which should be heartening to faithful Catholics who have for so long yearned for good news. 

In Boston, a scandal erupted when Boston College extended an invitation to the pro-abortion prime minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny. Students for Life launched the “Not at BC” campaign, stating, “For any college to honor the man who would usher in the mass death of Irish preborn children is simply unconscionable!”

Catholic Action League issued a press release reporting that Planned Parenthood is elated with the invitation to Kenny, telling the Boston Globe that Kenny is an “appropriate commencement speaker.”

But Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who had been scheduled to deliver Benediction at the commencement, announced that he is now boycotting the event. O’Malley issued a statement that received acclaim from many Catholic organizations. The cardinal’s statement says in part, “Since the university has not withdrawn the invitation and because the Taoiseach (prime minister) has not seen fit to decline, I shall not attend the graduation.’’

As we sent our congratulatory message to Cardinal O’Malley, we learned that Pope Francis has clarified by his words and his actions the true meaning of heroic virtue in our day. According to chiesa.espresso, the Holy Father’s reason for not giving the sacrament of Holy Communion at public Mass is “because he says unrepentant public sinners could slip in among the faithful, and he does not want to back up their hypocrisy.” In other words, the pope understands that Church law, known as canon 915, is not a mere suggestion but is in fact a law designed to protect Christ from sacrilege. 

Pope Francis also surprised the world on Mother’s Day when he joined the Italian pro-lifers at the March for Life in Rome. More than 40,000 Italians cheered and celebrated this historic visit by the vicar of Christ to their event. Riding in his popemobile, the pope thrilled those in attendance, and the rest of us vicariously.

These recent events reflect what Pope John Paul II defined as “the new springtime of Christianity.” As he wrote in his 1990 encyclical, Redemptoris Missio: 

If we look at today’s world, we are struck by many negative factors that can lead to pessimism. But this feeling is unjustified: We have faith in God our Father and Lord, in His goodness and mercy. As the third millennium of the redemption draws near, God is preparing a great springtime for Christianity, and we can already see its first signs. In fact, both in the non-Christian world and in the traditionally Christian world, people are gradually drawing closer to gospel ideals and values, a development which the Church seeks to encourage. 

Moments of joy like those described above occur according to a timetable over which we have no control. Yet when we reflect on the actions of Cardinal O’Malley, Pope Francis and, of course, pro-life people the world over who never give in to pessimism as we fight for the dignity of the human individual, we can see that the new springtime is bearing fruit. For that we give thanks.

When American Life League’s Pray and Fast for Our Bishops project was begun this past Ash Wednesday, we had—and continue to have—every confidence that there really are some evils in the world that can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. At the same time, we see by the examples given here that with our prayers for bishops we also send our thanks for the courageous deeds of Cardinal O’Malley and Pope Francis—men who love God more than human respect.

In this era of motherhood by choice, we confront an oddity that I could never have imagined would occur in my lifetime. It becomes much more evident at this special time of year when we honor our mothers and express our sincere appreciation for the sacrifices they made for us during our childhood and beyond.

I think about the young Canadian fellow who appreciated his mother’s nurturing care for him so much that he saved his money for years and was finally able to present her with a check to pay off her mortgage. Fortunately for all of us, he caught the touching moment on video. To date, nearly two million people have viewed this special celebration of motherhood. Bravo Aba!

We can relate to this one son’s expression of love for his mother in many ways, especially when put in the context of the profound words Pope John Paul II wrote in the Gospel of Life: “A mother welcomes and carries in herself another human being, enabling it to grow inside her, giving it room, respecting it in its otherness. Women first learn and then teach others that human relations are authentic if they are open to accepting the other person: A person who is recognized and loved because of the dignity which comes from being a person and not from other considerations, such as usefulness, strength, intelligence, beauty or health.”

In those few words we gain a glimpse into what motherhood should mean versus what it has come to in our age. Sadly, today, millions of mothers approach Mother’s Day with emptiness, sadness, and anxiety. The reason will be that rather than welcoming and carrying her baby, she chose to kill him. No, she probably did not commit this act personally, but rather she facilitated it at the hands of an abortionist, a nurse practitioner, or maybe even a midwife. 

In the topsy-turvy world of abortion-on-demand, there is nothing sacred about motherhood, which is why this coming Sunday will be either a celebration of love or a dreaded day of guilt and sorrow.

But it does not have to be that way. There is hope, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and there is every reason to believe that this bleak period in history can be reversed. 

How is that? Simple!

Americans must finally admit that the decriminalization of abortion was among the most tragic errors ever perpetrated on mankind by human judges with no apparent grounding in the natural law. 

Our fellow citizens must see the preborn child, from his very first moment, as a member of the human family—not a “problem” in need of a solution.

Each of us can use our talent, our confidence in truth, and our personal admiration for the sacrifices of our own mothers to make this happen. It is not rocket science; it is as simple as teaching that one plus one equals two.

This Mother’s Day make a promise to your mom, wherever she is, that you will show your love for her by doing more to help others understand what abortion does to a mother and to her preborn child. We can all do something; choosing to do nothing is simply not an option. 

Finally, to my own mother I say, “Happy Mother’s Day, Mom, I love you. I thank God for you. You have always been my hero. God rest your soul.”

The dictionary states that the definition of diverse is one thing differing from another. It further defines diversity as a noun meaning variety.

So my question is whether or not the morning-after pill—Plan B—is but a type of vulgar diversity that includes abortion, in vitro fertilization, same sex attraction, and destruction of marriage as we know it.

Plan B is adult medicine which was recently ordered to be available to children as young as 15. The goal of Plan B is to provide a last-ditch effort to a female who has had sex and does not want to bear the consequences that might include pregnancy and a baby. Plan B is the equivalent of prescribing a dose of guilty pleasures without consequences—thus presuming that the sexual urge cannot be controlled.

I propose that the escalation in the promotion of Plan B is nothing more than a variation in the way humankind views the value of the human being and his dignity. There are many reasons why I propose this. 

The morning-after pill, or for that matter any birth control pill, will not protect the user from the risks of sexually transmitted diseases or the questionable influence of others—including the male who can make the over-the-counter purchase as he prepares for his sexual conquest. In addition, these chemicals can work to abort a baby before he has the opportunity to implant in his mother’s womb. In other words, Plan B becomes another tool in the diverse selection of health choices a human being can make—and another example of the devaluing of oneself and a newly created or yet-to-be-created child. In the process, the sexual act continues to be perceived as a mechanical function of the body that can be medicated, employed in diverse ways or, through surrogacy, shopped out to somebody else if a baby is the desired result.

If this hypothesis sounds convoluted, reflect on where our culture is today. 

Contraception is a way of life for more than 90 percent of Americans. This translates into God only knows how many early day abortions, countless cases of sexually transmitted disease including HIV, and breast cancer among women who have used the pill.

Lack of respect for the human body and the sacredness of the conjugal act bred by the advancing contraceptive mentality over the past 50 years have led to all manner of diverse sexual practices. Such diverse behaviors have become commonplace and have therefore ceased to be defined as questionable or immoral. We see couples desperate for children who turn to in vitro fertilization and surrogacy because they suffer infertility—a problem often brought on by the pill and other factors including abortion.

We see same-sex couples using surrogate mothers to enable their own desire for children. We see same-sex couples striving to normalize their relationships by entering into civil unions or marriage itself, thus destroying once and for all the sanctity of marriage as we know it.

Contraception is the largest nail in the coffin of respect for the dignity of the human being. As long as it flourishes to the extent that it has, nothing else in the world of human sexuality is off limits—not even the ghoulish practices of a Kermit Gosnell. 

This is not the kind of diversity that is healthy for the human being, nor is it a recipe for the salvation of a human soul.