Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Christian Unity! Our Second Video
Yes, Arthur and I are having fun trying to do these videos. Hopefully we will get really good at it.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Question for Catholics
Please, please PLEASE calling all or any Catholics that could answer these questions. I have contacted several Catholic organizations several times--emails and phone calls over and over . I cannot get ANY answers from anyone. My priest doesn't know. Seminarians don't know. My diocese of Raleigh isn't answering my emails. When I CALL I get people who cannot answer--at any level including the Bishops conference!! (Spent an HOUR waiting on a cellphone to get on EWTN Radio and they didn't get to my phone call.) The Catholics at the fortnight of Freedom have no answers. These are CRITICAL questions--life altering questions for the Catholic and they must be answered.
[Background note: As my husband and I were at the Fortnight for Freedom, which in our parish is praying in the church from 7a to 7p, all the people leading the prayers and the people doing the responses would go out and discuss what was going on between shifts. ALL of them--no kidding--not one of them thought the Healthcare Law had anything to do with them personally. They all couldn't understand what we were saying. When we talked about having to personally pay for contraception and abortion in our insurance, they all just said they got their insurance through their employers and that this in no way would effect them! Not one of them understood that they would now have to pay for these coverages themselves. They thought this was only affecting the church organizations!
When I asked one of the church leaders what we were supposed to do as Catholics, he said that all we could do was pray for the church, because he warned, "this is going to turn into a Tiananmen Square." I just agreed and I saw myself out there getting run over. Then he said, "It's going to make the people in DC really wake up when some of the priests and bishops are jailed." WHAT the HECK? What about US? WE are being forced to purchase contraception and abortifacient medications now too. Aren't we also, as faithful Catholics supposed to be out there in the square getting run over WITH our priests and bishops? Is there something going on that I am not aware of? Did the bishops okay Catholics purchasing insurance that covered contraception in the past or something? ]
Here they are:
1. Most of the Catholics I have spoken with get their insurance through their employers and have NO idea if it covers abortion or contraception. Is this okay for the Catholic layman? Have the bishops come out and said that is an acceptable decision for the parishioner to purchase insurance that covers contraception and abortion? If so then you can understand their confusion as to why all of a sudden it is now immoral for the government to make the Catholics organizations do something that the parishioners have been allowed to do all along. This is confusing!! Why on EARTH would it be okay for us Catholics to do and not the Catholic organization? Help me out with understanding this.
If the church hasn't actually told its parishioners that it is immoral for it to purchase and pay for insurance that covers abortion and contraception, they have actually created a very terrible situation for themselves. But if it is immoral, then these questions need to be answered:
2. Are the parishioners now supposed to drop their insurance if it covers contraception and abortion?
3. If we choose to pay the fine for rejecting insurance coverage, where does the fine go? The healthcare tax seems to go straight back into the coffers of the healthcare pool that FUNDS the things we are against? Are we supposed to refuse to pay the fine?
And finally, will the USCCB acquiesce to the law once the religious exemptions are expanded to include Catholic organizations and then allow the Catholics (and all other pro-lifers who are not Catholic) to just be ignored? Will they give up the fight then? They say they will not but I have heard Catholic bishops and spokesmen continue to talk as if they will. They say that the primary concern right now is the expansion of the religious exemption. That is very frightening for us. Then WE will have to go to jail and the bishops will not. I cannot believe they would do that to their flock.
Please, if you could forward these questions I would so appreciate it!
God bless,
Arthur and Teresa Beem
[Background note: As my husband and I were at the Fortnight for Freedom, which in our parish is praying in the church from 7a to 7p, all the people leading the prayers and the people doing the responses would go out and discuss what was going on between shifts. ALL of them--no kidding--not one of them thought the Healthcare Law had anything to do with them personally. They all couldn't understand what we were saying. When we talked about having to personally pay for contraception and abortion in our insurance, they all just said they got their insurance through their employers and that this in no way would effect them! Not one of them understood that they would now have to pay for these coverages themselves. They thought this was only affecting the church organizations!
When I asked one of the church leaders what we were supposed to do as Catholics, he said that all we could do was pray for the church, because he warned, "this is going to turn into a Tiananmen Square." I just agreed and I saw myself out there getting run over. Then he said, "It's going to make the people in DC really wake up when some of the priests and bishops are jailed." WHAT the HECK? What about US? WE are being forced to purchase contraception and abortifacient medications now too. Aren't we also, as faithful Catholics supposed to be out there in the square getting run over WITH our priests and bishops? Is there something going on that I am not aware of? Did the bishops okay Catholics purchasing insurance that covered contraception in the past or something? ]
Here they are:
1. Most of the Catholics I have spoken with get their insurance through their employers and have NO idea if it covers abortion or contraception. Is this okay for the Catholic layman? Have the bishops come out and said that is an acceptable decision for the parishioner to purchase insurance that covers contraception and abortion? If so then you can understand their confusion as to why all of a sudden it is now immoral for the government to make the Catholics organizations do something that the parishioners have been allowed to do all along. This is confusing!! Why on EARTH would it be okay for us Catholics to do and not the Catholic organization? Help me out with understanding this.
If the church hasn't actually told its parishioners that it is immoral for it to purchase and pay for insurance that covers abortion and contraception, they have actually created a very terrible situation for themselves. But if it is immoral, then these questions need to be answered:
2. Are the parishioners now supposed to drop their insurance if it covers contraception and abortion?
3. If we choose to pay the fine for rejecting insurance coverage, where does the fine go? The healthcare tax seems to go straight back into the coffers of the healthcare pool that FUNDS the things we are against? Are we supposed to refuse to pay the fine?
And finally, will the USCCB acquiesce to the law once the religious exemptions are expanded to include Catholic organizations and then allow the Catholics (and all other pro-lifers who are not Catholic) to just be ignored? Will they give up the fight then? They say they will not but I have heard Catholic bishops and spokesmen continue to talk as if they will. They say that the primary concern right now is the expansion of the religious exemption. That is very frightening for us. Then WE will have to go to jail and the bishops will not. I cannot believe they would do that to their flock.
Please, if you could forward these questions I would so appreciate it!
God bless,
Arthur and Teresa Beem
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
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