A Memorial Mass for our late, beloved Parish Manager, John Krolikowski, will be offered on Thursday evening, September 15th, in our church. A light dessert reception will follow in Kellaghan Hall. John’s sudden passing has stunned his own family and our parish family, as well. In his memory, we have established the KROLIKOWSKI CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND, to assist his family in trying to give his children his desire of a Catholic education in our school. Your kind response to this fund-raising will more than be appreciated, and a Mass will be celebrated for all donors to this fund. Please see another article in this bulletin for more information on how you can help.

Mr. Keith “Rusty” Skinner, a very active member of our parish, will be ordained a Permanent Deacon on Saturday, September 17th in the Cathedral. Though seating there will be rather limited, his wife (Wanda) and his daughters (Gwendolyn, Amy and Cynthia), who are as excited as we are about his ordination, invite you to a parish reception for him the next day (September 18th) in our Parish Center after the 11:30 A.M Mass.

Last July 21, the health news site Natural Society featured these breaking news headlines: “Newer Birth Control Pill Linked to Higher Risk of Blood Clots”; “Birth Control Increases Risk of Contracting, Transmitting HIV”; and finally, “Medical Panel Pushes for Free Birth Control for Women.” One might ask, “Who was on this medical panel - Dr. Kevorkian?” But no, it was the Institute of Medicine, advising the Department of Health and Human Services on “preventive services for women” to mandate in virtually all private health plans under the new health care reform act.

HHS says it delegated this task to the IOM so that people would see the outcome as based on “science” rather than politics. But IOM’s report seems based less on science than on the ideology of authors who share Planned Parenthood’s view of sex and procreation, several of whom have served on the boards of PP affiliates and other pro-abortion organizations. The report says enhanced access to contraception will reduce abortions, though there is ample evidence against that claim.

In fact, the panel recommends that health plans must cover all drugs approved by the FDA as prescription contraceptives – including the newly approved “emergency contraceptive” called Ella, which, like RU-486 can cause an abortion weeks into pregnancy. When asked about a conscience exemption for those who have a moral or religious objection to this, an IOM spokesperson said it wasn’t her panel’s job to take account of other people’s personal “feelings.” Many people fear HHS will take the same approach.

Secular news media – Time, U.S. News, USA Today, and LA Times – obediently repeated the panel’s public relations message that it is offering “free” birth control for women. That message is nonsense! Currently, women who want birth control coverage pay for it through their premiums, and sometimes also have a co-pay or out-of-pocket expense. Under the new mandate they will still pay for it, but the cost will be buried in the overall premium – and everyone else, including churches and other religious employers as well as individual Catholics, will be forced to pay for it in their premiums too, so payments coerced from those who object will make birth control coverage a bit cheaper for those who want it.

And what about the “cost” in women’s lives from those blood clots and cases of AIDS? Researchers have known about both problems for years. In 2005, for example, a study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control noted: “The positive link between pill use and HIV infection was… supported by a meta-analysis of 28 studies, including seven prospective studies.” Most American women haven’t been told this! Ironically, other “preventive services” recommended by the IOM include screening for sexually transmitted diseases. But why would you mandate something that can cause what the other services on your list seek to prevent?

The other big “cost,” of course, is the cost to freedom of religion and respect for conscience. Though not alone in its view, the Catholic Church has been prophetic and counter-cultural in warning that artificial contraception and sterilization do not enhance women’s well-being. No American, of course, is required by law to believe that teaching. But should the government, in the name of all Americans, now be allowed to coerce even the Church’s institutions into acting on the opposite view, when the evidence supporting its message is stronger than ever?

According to the recently appointed Archbishop of my home town of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, the media do not “provide trustworthy information about religious faith.” His comments were made during an address on religious freedom before some 10,000 English- speaking pilgrims at the World Youth Day in Madrid.

The Archbishop told the group of young Catholics that, “In the U.S., our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex ‘marriage,’ and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public smears and legal threats not only against Catholics, but also against Mormons, evangelicals, and other religious believers. With relatively few exceptions, the mass media tend to cover these disputed issues with a combination of ignorance, laziness, and bias against traditional Christian belief.”

He added: “We make a very serious mistake if we rely on media like the New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, or MSNBC for reliable news about religion. These news media simply don’t provide trustworthy information about religious faith — and sometimes they can’t provide it, either, because of limited resources or because of their own editorial prejudices.” These are secular operations focused on making a profit. They have very little sympathy for the Catholic faith, and quite a lot of aggressive skepticism toward any religious community that claims to preach and teach God’s truth.”

Archbishop Chaput noted that the media gave a lot of coverage to the so-called “Arab Spring,” that involved civil unrest in Middle Eastern countries, like Syria, Iraq, Tunisia, and Pakistan. “But very little of that coverage has mentioned that the turmoil in Muslim countries has also created a very dangerous situation for Christians and other religious minorities across North Africa and the Middle East.” There “Christians face frequent discrimination, slander, beatings and even murder.” He especially criticized the lack of media coverage for widespread anti-Christian violence in Egypt. “In Egypt, angry mobs have attacked Christian churches and monasteries, burning them to the ground and murdering the people inside.”

He warned that it is dangerous when democracies attempt to erase religion from the public arena: “Forcing religious faith out of a nation’s public square and out of a country’s public debates does not serve democracy,” he said. “It doesn’t serve real tolerance or pluralism. What it does do is impose a kind of unofficial state atheism. To put it another way, if we ban Christian Churches or other religious communities from taking an active role in our nation’s civic life, we’re really just enforcing a new kind of state-sponsored intolerance — a religion without God.”

Very Rev. Canon Tom