Conscientious Objection, Nuns, and President Obama

UPDATE: The battle for women's reproductive health has been joined by America's Nuns. Nuns supported the ACA, and now they have come out in support of the contraception mandate. 

It is the Nuns against the Bishops and Hobby Lobby. My money is on the Nuns. Sign a petition in support of the Nuns HERE.

What is nonviolent civil or religious disobedience? Gandhi's definition is the clearest in my opinion:

"I have also called it love-force or soul-force. . .  I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself." - Mohandas Gandhi.

Let us examine the definition of violence:

Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation. This definition associates intentionality with the committing of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it produces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...

A Conscientious Objector takes on the burden of the Objection. That is the nature of nonviolent conscientious objection, religious or otherwise. Transferring the burden of one's own conscientious objection onto the Other is not conscientious objection. It is assault.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Religious Right are engaging in the War on Women as allies. They sent in some Nuns to the battle along with the requisite Corpos. Some other Nuns have filed a brief supporting the Affordable Care Act. 

This religious war on women is not new. It is very old. And now the Nuns are in a civil(?) war up to their necks. Do most America's Nuns support the ACA? Evidently, they do.

As further proof that conservative efforts to paint President Obama as the enemy of religion are a red herring, nearly two dozen leading Catholic nuns filed a brief in the Supreme Court last week supporting the president’s signature legislative accomplishment. As they explain in their brief:

Amici curiae represent the leadership of Catholic women’s religious orders from across the United States. Amici and the orders they serve have a long history of public service in healthcare in America dating back to the 1700s. These services include founding hospitals and free clinics and providing free healthcare to the underprivileged and uninsured. The work by Amici gives them a unique perspective on the unmet healthcare needs of the poor, as well as on the positive impact that will result from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or the “Act”). . . .

Amici believe that a civilized society must ensure the provision of basic healthcare to its citizens regardless of their ability to pay for it. They further believe it is a moral imperative that all levels of government institute programs that ensure the poor receive such care. They believe Medicaid expansion under the Act is critical to the communities they serve. 
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/23/431147/catholic-nuns-file-brief-supporting-affordable-care-act/

Smoke House Sausage and Sauerkraut

I was fond of Smokies sausages when I was a child. It was the lunch treat my Polish Mother, the Polka Queen, brought home every Saturday from the supermarket. They disappeared for a bit but Oscar Mayer recently started making them again.

If you are fond of traditional smokehouse flavor and are food additive conscious, I recommend Czerw's Kielbasy and Polish Provisions. Their home made products contain no by-products, artificial color, fillers, or added water.

Shop early in the week, especially on Easter. You will find that lines of people go around the block on Easter. Poles take Easter seriously. 

I buy barrel Sauerkraut, smoked Cajun Kielbasa which my children love, and Kabanosy, a sort of hot Polish Slim Jim. We have lots of assimilation in Foody Nation Philadelphia. You can get directions, history of the shop, and a list of their products at their website.

 Jan Czerw, Grandfather of the current owners, immigrated from Mislsi, Poland. In 1938, Jan Czerw converted a horse stable into a shop. He built the brick ovens meat is smoked in himself. Czerw's Kielbasa still stands in that original spot, using the same brick ovens built almost 70 years ago. For the Czerws, traditon and quality are standard.

Wesolych Swiat i dobre jedzenie!

Note: There are about 600,000 Folks in Philadelphia who think of themselves as Polish. All those good Folks like to eat good Polish Food. I am going to tell you where I find it. There many excellent Polish shops and food purveyors in Philadelphia. I do not pretend this is a thorough list of every single Polish shop in Philadelphia or nearby. It is where I shop. Maybe you know a good place? Leave a comment and I will go there and give it a try. And write about it. - Plum

"Woman is the nigger of the world." - Ono/Lennon with UPDATE

Update: The Roman Catholic Bishops idea of social justice is nowhere to be found where women and their children are concerned. How many women will die or be tortured in Roman Catholic hospitals? This kiddy-raping woman-killing stuff they do is thought to be moral? God bless the ACLU.

A Michigan mother-of-two has claimed a Catholic hospital could have killed her after it forced her to suffer through a painful miscarriage at 18 weeks because it doesn't believe in abortion. Tamesha Means, 30, of Muskegon, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Friday against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding treatment she allegedly received at Mercy Health Partners hospital in December 2010. Then 27, the suit claims Means visited the hospital - the only one in her county - three times after her water broke some five months early. Mercy Health Partners is part of Trinity Health, a Catholic-run medical group that prohibits abortion in its hospitals. - By HELEN POW

Update: A Catholic hospital has argued in a wrongful death lawsuit that a fetus is not a person. Just let that sink in for a moment.

A beautiful woman has died in agony in the service of a Catholic dogma. A dogma that the Roman Catholic Church itself was willing to repudiate . . . for money. She was not a Catholic. She miscarried and made the mistake of going to a Catholic hospital.

My indignation response has been triggered so often of late that I cannot feel indignation anymore. This scares me. I am beyond wanting to hurt Forced Birthers. I am likely to stomp somebody. The State of Ohio is working on passing an abortion law just like the Irish law that killed this beautiful woman.

I need to go and find a nice safe place to decompress. Someplace where I will not be hurt for being a female. I just do not know where that place might be.

It’s time to abort the Catholic Church

Bloody butchers and pious toads who mask their medieval ignorance with a pretense of charity and care; it’s long past time to end the illusion and recognize the barbarism of the church. Shut ‘em down.

The latest victim in over a millennium of Catholic abuse is Savita Halappanavar, a young woman who was 17 weeks pregnant when her condition began to deteriorate. She went to a Catholic hospital, a fatal mistake.

Rest in Peace, Ms. Savita. I pray that you are the last woman who dies because of the depraved indifference of a nation (Ireland), the Roman Catholic Church and the Morals Police simply because you are a woman.

Asshats on Parade - Humiliation Version or Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar

Narcissus by Caravaggio

Narcissus was the beautiful youth in Greek myth doomed to gaze enraptured at his own reflection forever.

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings.

This, from his blog, is the Testimony of Cardinal Mahoney regarding his sin and crime of aiding and abetting the secret rape of hundreds of children in his diocese.

"Given all of the storms that have surrounded me and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently, God's grace finally helped me to understand:  I am not being called to serve Jesus in humility.  Rather, I am being called to something deeper--to be humiliated, disgraced, and rebuffed by many.

I was not ready for this challenge.  Ash Wednesday changed all of that, and I see Lent 2013 as a special time to reflect deeply upon this special call by Jesus.

To be honest with you, I have not reached the point where I can actually pray for more humiliation.  I'm only at the stage of asking for the grace to endure the level of humiliation at the moment.

In the past several days, I have experienced many examples of being humiliated.  In recent days, I have been confronted in various places by very unhappy people.  I could understand the depth of their anger and outrage--at me, at the Church, about injustices that swirl around us.

Thanks to God's special grace, I simply stood there, asking God to bless and forgive them."  

The rape of children in Mahoney's diocese is all about his suffering. The anger of their parents is Mahoney's apotheosis, a special sign from Jesus. 

Mahoney is the victim. But, like Christ, he will forgive us. I do not know whether to laugh, cry or vomit. God save us from the mad priest. 

It is the Sin, Stupid.

"Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday opened a meeting of Roman Catholic Church leaders from around the world to debate how to counter rising secularism on the 50th anniversary of the momentous Second Vatican Council." Read more...

There have always been agnostics and atheists in the pews. We all come to experience community. Secularism is not harming the church. The Roman Catholic hierarchy are harming the church. I do not know why they think this conference will help. The RCC actively discourages telling the truth and they excommunicate or demote any theologian, like Hans Kung, who points to reality.

The RCC can always tell you who is to blame for their decline. It is the Gays' fault. No, it is the children's fault. No, it must be secularism. It must be my fault. I left your church when I was 13, swearing to never come back, and so did every other sane Catholic kid. We all know the RCC is never to blame. Never. 

It is the kiddy fucking and the kiddyfucker aiding and abetting that is the cause of your decline, stupid Nazi-Poop. It is trashing Gay folks. It is the Magdalen Laundries. It is prohibiting condoms in Africa. It is promoting Cardinal Law. It is the sad and sickening sexual dysfunction. It is your SIN, you dumbass arrogant Perverts.

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Billy Lynn Takes One for The Team

PHILADELPHIA — Msgr. William J. Lynn was found guilty of endangering children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision. Read more...

To see more of this New York Times article and get the facts, go to the link above. What you get here is a personal reaction from a lapsed (big time lapsed) Catholic.

I congratulate our District Attorneys Williams and Abraham and our brave Grand Jurors on this important conviction. Now get back to fixing the statute of limitations problem please. Archbishop Chaput has been defanged a bit. Thank you.

I take no pleasure in watching this (curiously boyish, chubby, gray, befuddled, cute) Old Man dragged off to the pokey. I think of him taking that book of offenders names from the safe late at night, and adding to it in secret. I think of Lynn keeping it when Rome wanted it destroyed. Think of it.

Monsignor Lynn did all he was allowed by Rome to do: keep his mouth shut. And then he did more. He kept the truth for us when Rome wanted the list of offenders destroyed.

Cardinals Krol and Bevilacqua, princes of the church, died quietly in their beds at home. They used their law degrees to shield child rapists upon orders from the Vatican. They never went to trial after hiding mucho child abuse with holy aplomb for decades. Think of me wailing here like a child "... but it's not fair."

Let me be clear. Monsignor Lynn deserves to go to jail for his part in aiding and abetting kiddyrapers for years. But Lynn is the least of the offenders.

Sure makes you wonder exactly what his fellow priests were applauding at the big dinner, don't it? Was it keeping the secret book of offenders? What heroic act were they applauding? Taking one for the team of course. Like I said.

Msgr. Lynn got standing ovation at Chaput dinner, say those at event:

Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former church official awaiting trial for allegedly protecting sexually abusive priests, drew words of encouragement from Philadelphia's new archbishop and a standing ovation from scores of priests at a private gathering last month, according to people familiar with the event.

During the invitation-only dinner for Archbishop Charles J. Chaput at a parish hall in Montgomery County, Chaput singled out Lynn in the crowd and noted how difficult the ordeal has been for him, according to one priest who attended and two people briefed by others at the gala.

Much of the audience, which included hundreds of priests, then stood and applauded, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.

I Live in Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States of America in the Northern Hemisphere on Earth

Twenty-one priests from the Philadelphia Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church have been named and/or suspended because of credible charges of child sexual abuse. Cardinal Justin Rigali has requested prayer for these priests.

A Prayer for Justin Rigali and his Merry Men:

I pray that their carnal members rot and fall to the ground.

I pray that they develop suppurating stinking boils on every square inch of their body.

I pray that they die soon in writhing pulsating prolonged agony.

I pray that Jesus really is waiting to see them and keep his promise:

"And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." - Mark 9:42

I am a good Catholic. I know rote. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

I quote from the Grand Jury Report 0f 2011 Summary:

"The present grand jury, however, is frustrated to report that much has not changed. The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again. The procedures implemented by the Archdiocese to help victims are in fact designed to help the abusers, and the Archdiocese itself. Worst of all, apparent abusers – dozens of them, we believe  remain on duty in the Archdiocese, today, with open access to new young prey."

A poster named Sfer (BabyBoomer) on a message board made this apt comment:

"Gee, it's usually defense lawyers who try to paint their clients as co-victims. It sounds odd coming from an Archbishop. They're usually the ones accusing others of "relative morality" and "objectively disordered". The shoe is on the other foot now."

Update 1:
After I wrote this blog entry, I had a moment in which I repented and considered that the entry might be blasphemous and a little too coarse. See, I really am a Catholic; always second guessing my feelings and thoughts because I have been taught that my instincts are sinful by the RCC.

And then I read that the Jesuits (the fucking Jesuits) are paying now for making themselves ignorant of and aiding and abetting the child abusers in their midst for decades. Words fail me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8408229/Jesuits-pay-166m-compensation-to-sexual-abuse-victims.html

Update 2:
Rolling Stone has published one of the most readable and comprehensive articles on the Philadelphia Roman Catholic Church's coverup of the sexual abuse of children and the effort by two District Attorney's to bring light and justice to Philadelphia. This case is remarkable because it is the first time a member of the RCC administration has been charged with child abuse:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-catholic-churchs-secret-sex-crime-files-20110906

Update 3:
Monsignor Lynn has been found guilty. Of course, I have an opinion.
http://plumstchili.blogspot.com/2012/06/billy-lynn-takes-one-for-team.html