New Hampshire House committee rejects 20-week abortion ban, bill to protect pregnancy centers
House Bill 1590 would ban most abortions at 20 weeks, down from 24 weeks, and House Bill 1416 would block state or local governments from forcing pro-life centers to promote abortion or contraception.
So, along with Gov. Ayotte, the N.H. House committee, are dyed- in-the-wool members of the culture of death -- especially attacking the tiny, precious pre-born baby!
(Note: Vermont has the lowest birth rate in the entire country, and New Hampshire is close behind! One conclusion that comes to mind, is that contraception -- and abortion! -- are used and practiced by the state's population. The question then begs; are Catholic women, too, using the forbidden tools to stop conception or killing their developing baby?)
"CONCORD (LifeSiteNews) — The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee has shot down two pro-life measures, one to ban late-term abortions and another to protect pro-life pregnancy centers from burdensome, conscience-threatening mandates.
House Bill 1590 would ban abortion at 20 weeks except in cases of so-called “medical emergency” or “fetal abnormalities incompatible with life,” down from the current cutoff point of 24 weeks.
House Bill 1416 forbids state or local governments from forcing pregnancy centers to commit, refer, counsel, or otherwise advertise for abortions or contraceptives; and from banning them from offering their own pregnancy services; or otherwise “interfer[ing] with a pregnancy resource center’s staffing or hiring decisions by requiring it to interview, hire, or continue to employ any person who does not affirm the center’s mission statement or agree to comply with the center’s ethics and operating procedures.”
Last week, however, both bills died in committee 13-4 and 9-8, respectively, Valley News reports. Republican state Rep. Kelley Potenza, who co-sponsored the 20-week law, claimed it was less about abortion and more about making the threshold more consistent with New Hampshire’s fetal homicide law.
“Both bills will still be considered for a full vote in the state House, but their losses in the committee indicate they are unlikely to pass,” Live Action’s Cassy Cooke notes. “Regardless, they would have faced an uphill battle, as New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte has vowed to veto all pro-life legislation.”
According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reviewed by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), while more than 90 percent of abortions occur in the first trimester, more than 50,000 abortions a year take place after 15 weeks (almost four months into pregnancy), and approximately 10,000 after 20 weeks (five months), with various pro-abortion sources affirming that most of them are not sought for extreme alleged “medical emergencies.”
Meanwhile, crisis pregnancy centers and other community health locations have long provided low-income women with a wide variety of services, including ultrasounds, basic medical care, adoption referrals, parenting classes, and children’s supplies that help mitigate the fears and burdens that lead some to choose abortion. For that reason, they have long been a target of left-wing rage, with attacks often focusing on claims that they deceive women, both about abortion and about their own services. But the pro-life contentions most often derided as “misinformation” are in fact true, and accusations of self-misrepresentation typically refer to little more than the fact that ads for them appear in online searches for the term “abortion.”
The abortion movement is notoriously hostile to such alternatives to abortion, from publicity campaigns to malign crisis pregnancy centers, to attempts to strip medical licenses from pro-life doctors, to violence and threats against pregnancy centers that under the Biden administration were less likely to be prosecuted than purported cases of anti-abortion violence."
End of article...
Pray for an end to the scourges of abortion, contraception, infanticide, homosexuality, euthanasia, and now assisted suicide!
Viva Cristo Rey! Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun, and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...
Fr. Ripperger: Mary, the Mother of God can convert corrupt Church leaders
During exorcisms, demons have revealed to Fr. Chad Ripperger that some of the Catholic Church’s leadership is ‘very morally compromised, and some of it is involved in stuff that’s very dark.’
"(LifeSiteNews) — Exorcist Father Chad Ripperger told former U.S. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is the one who can convert corrupt Church leaders.
During a four-hour interview on The Shawn Ryan Show, Ripperger affirmed that during his exorcisms demons at times have called out the sins of people “very high up within the Catholic Church.”
“They’ve talked about very specific details” about sins that members of the Church hierarchy have committed, Ripperger said. “And it’s not just me. Other exorcists also get bits and pieces of this stuff.”
Demons have even revealed the names of these corrupt Church clergy to Ripperger and other exorcists, he shared.
Ripperger also shared that some people “within the Vatican” are displeased with his work. Asked by Ryan why this would be the case, he replied, “If you’re involved in sins that are particularly egregious, you’re not going to want someone like me out there trying to teach people the faith and how to fight the good fight and become more knowledgeable about their faith.”
Besides his exorcism work, Ripperger has frequently preached about spiritual warfare and the spiritual life in general. Many of his talks can be found on the Sensus Fidelium YouTube channel. He also has his own YouTube channel, Sensus Traditionis.
In multiple exorcism sessions, demons have revealed to Ripperger that some of the Catholic Church’s leadership is “very morally compromised, and some of it is involved in stuff that’s very dark.”
“A lot of these guys went into the priesthood already on the other team,” Ripperger shared. He went to explain that they intended to use the power of their priesthood against Catholics and against the world.
These problems go almost to the “very, very top,” he noted.
Because the Catholic Church is a conduit of grace for the world, the moral problems within the Church have real damaging consequences for wider society. For example, after “Satanists, freemasons and communists infiltrated the Church” in the 1930s and 1940s, moral problems such as homosexuality within the clergy were evident by the 1950s and 1960s. As a result, the normal graces that would flow from the Church to prevent the spread in the world of pedophilia, for example, were greatly reduced.
When Ryan asked Ripperger if there was anything else he wanted people to know about the corruption of Church hierarchy, the exorcist said first that “we need to pray for the Church’s protection, and that God will give us holy leaders.”
The second thing to know is that “you get the leaders you deserve.”
“The vast majority of Catholics in the Church are living habitual lives of grave sin,” Ripperger observed. This means the main way we solve the problem of corrupt Church leaders, “other than God stepping in and solving the problem,” is by praying and becoming “holy ourselves so that we merit having leaders that we’re worthy of,” he said.
Asked by Ryan whether he would pray for this intention at that very moment, Ripperger said that the main prayer he would pray for Church leaders is the Hail Mary because the Blessed Mother is “the one that’s going to, I think, convert them in the end.”'
End of very revealing article...
Pray for strength and honor!
Viva Cristo Rey! Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun, and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...
"There are a host of Catholic commentators who express their disdain for the "disobedience" of the SSPX but at the same time find themselves disobedient to certain Vatican commands."
"No conversation about the SSPX is complete without the word “obedience” being thrown around. And, in all fairness, the nature of obedience is really at the heart of the matter, so this makes sense. However, in the context of these conversations, the notion of obedience seems to frequently take on a character that exalts this particular virtue above all the rest. One gets the impression that modern Catholics have been formed with a Bible translation that presents St. Paul’s famous treatises on charity with the word “charity” translated as “obedience”: “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three,” Paul writes, “but the greatest of these is obedience.”
Now, it may seem like I am caricaturing the position of commentators who oppose the Society, but I don’t think I am. Erudite commentators who oppose the Society, and do so intelligently and in good faith, generally have no issue admitting that the crisis in the Church is unique and universal—meaning that it is grave and cannot be ignored and that it touches on every aspect of the life of the Church, thus it harms the lives of Catholics. Nonetheless, no matter how bad the crisis, or how corrupt the hierarchy may be, and so on, for those who have planted their flag in the “obedience” camp, it is simply beyond the pale that the Society could be justified in its actions.
Cardinal Sarah’s intervention, written against the Society, is a perfect example. In it, he recognizes the reality of crisis and admits that there are prelates who act as false shepherds, etc. In other places, Sarah has compared the suppression of the Traditional Roman Rite to diabolical activity; and he has, at times, spoken against the most public and grave theological tendencies stemming from various Roman authorities, at least during the Francis papacy. Nevertheless, when it comes down to it, his position is that one must obey, at the expense of everything else, and it seems that this obedience will somehow cover the multitude of sins denigrating the lives of Catholics the world over.
We can only speculate, but Sarah has had a public closeness to Opus Dei, which has a policy of never criticizing the hierarchy. In addition, and I can say this from experience because I was very close to joining Opus Dei before I committed to Catholic Tradition, there is an extraordinary level of importance placed on obedience to superiors in a very distinct way in the spirituality of Opus Dei. This emphasis on obedience is not a novel thing, technically speaking, because members of religious orders have historically made specific vows of obedience, along with their other vows. In addition, Sarah holds Benedictine spirituality dear to his heart, and it is public knowledge that he strongly considered joining a Benedictine monastery.
Now, far be it from me to criticize Benedictine spirituality, but it is worth pointing out that the monastic way of life is not the way of life for most Catholics, whether they be clerical or lay. Again, this is not a criticism, just an observation of the facts. And, the fact remains that since those who join particular religious orders must take a vow of obedience, this tells us that there is more than one way to approach the virtue of obedience. Simply put, the need for the vow in religious orders tells us that the monastic understanding of the virtue is not the normal understanding; and, therefore, it is not the standard for the vast majority of clerics and laymen.
Similarly, we find a similar distinction in the lives of regular citizens versus professional soldiers. The Chain of Command is everything in a military setting because the potential consequences of disorder and chaos in conflict scenarios can prove to be disastrous; therefore, subordinates do what they are told because the success of the mission depends on it. Those of us who are not in military orders do not make the same commitment to obey superiors, even if we demonstrate our obedience in different ways.
I am just as patriotic about my nation as a decorated member of my nation’s military, and I am, in principle, willing to die for love of country; however, I did not make the decision to obey orders the same way a soldier has. To extend the analogy, the military institutions are no more or no less a part of the country than the civilians, and the superiors of the various orders have a direct authority over their subjects; but they still must answer to both the head of state and thelaw. And, the head of state is also not above the law, especially Divine Law and Divine Commandments.
We know that Scripture tells us that heads of state have authority that, in principle, comes from God; so, we are to obey them, generally speaking. However, we also know that there are great heroes of Catholic history who have even led movements against their governments, with military power, because of their allegiance to a Higher Law. General Franco comes to mind. They “disobeyed” laws on the books to ensure the integrity of God’s Law as the supreme law in their nations. Because of this, they are heroes.
Even in military settings, soldiers are tested on what the limits of obedience must be in a given situation. They must be prepared to conscientiously disobey when a superior demands something that will lead to failure. Of course, it is not always the case that a subject can understand the plan of the superior fully, so, all things being equal, they should be prepared to obey. However, if it is evident that disaster will follow obedience to a particular order, they must be prepared to disobey.
This disobedience appears, on the surface, to be immoral; however, it is done out of respect for the military as such and to keep their vows and pledges in the truest sense.
Catholics must obey the pope, all things being equal, but we must also obey God. There are times when the pope’s commands are not in line with God’s commandments. This is tragic, but it does happen. To deny that this could happen would be to conflate the will of the pope with the will of God. Of course, it is the case throughout Church history that so many holy popes have done the will of God, and we see this in the fruits of their actions. However, it is also the case that popes have erred, and the results have been destructive.
Now, it is also important to keep in mind that the papacy itself, even when considering papal infallibility, makes distinctions between what Catholics are obliged to obey in all circumstances and what may not be binding. We must follow the pope to the letter when he defines dogma for us, or when he approves of dogmatic commands from an ecumenical council. However, even within the teachings of a Council, not all are binding in the full sense because they are not presented as such.
Historic theologians from the Council of Trent wrote the following in a treatise on how we know what is defined—and, therefore, binding in conciliar teachings—and what is not of the same caliber:
But whatever is introduced in the decrees of councils or popes by way of explanation, or to respond to an objection, or is merely taught in passing as something distinct from the main point which was the subject of controversy: these things do not pertain to the faith, that is, they cannot be considered judgments that determine what is of catholic faith…Not all, even of those things that the councils affirm simply and absolutely, is a de fide decision.(De Locis, lib. 5 cap. 5 q. 4)
If we are honest with ourselves, despite certain teachings from Vatican II, which are essentially reformulations of already defined teaching, virtually the entirety of the Council is made up of explanations or statements made in passing. Now, just because something is not pronounced de fide does not mean we shouldn’t do our best to assent to the teaching with our intellect and will; however, that there is a distinction between what is de fide and what is not makes all the difference.
Donum Veritatis, at least where it treats the matter of the nature of different levels of dogmatic pronouncements (roughly, paragraphs 20-31), expresses something similar. Interestingly, the same document says the following after it explains when a theologian could have grounds for legitimate withholding of intellect and will:
In cases like these, the theologian should avoid turning to the “mass media” but have recourse to the responsible authority, for it is not by seeking to exert the pressure of public opinion that one contributes to the clarification of doctrinal issues and renders servite to the truth.
Well, to my mind, there are a host of Catholic commentators who express their disdain for the SSPX but who seem to be “disobedient” to the teachings of DV. Larry Chapp, for example—who has alleged the SSPX is “cultish” and practically sedevacantist—has made a name for himself in recent years by going after documents that came from the Francis papacy. In one article, he called Cardinal Fernandez’s document on homosexual blessings, “a waste of words.”
To my mind, I find his sentiments on the SSPX hypocritical, since he, too, demonstrates a species of disobedience to the Roman authorities, and even to the letter of a document that comes from the John Paul II papacy, written by Cardinal Ratzinger, whom I know he loves dearly.
Obedience isn’t just about Canon Law or papal authority; in the same way, any virtue can be applied to myriad circumstances. DV clearly states that when theologians, and I believe Chapp considers himself a theologian, should not go to the “mass media” to air their grievances about theological matters. That being said, I don’t fault Chapp for doing so because I agree with his intention to shed light on the issue with his expertise. I just wish he would recognize that he is, in fact, being disobedient to the letter of the law—because he understands the spirit behind it—and allow others the same grace that he affords himself.
And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)
All of this is to say that there are cases, even when we consider doctrinal pronouncements, where we can be justified in withholding our assent, which would include our obedience, at least intellectually. Governmental decisions by popes and the hierarchy are not doctrinal decisions, primarily; and, therefore, we cannot afford them a higher level of authority and a binding character that exalts doctrinal pronouncements. Therefore, that there could be disobedience in certain circumstances is not out of the question, especially when the disobedience is only apparent and, in fact, is obedience to something higher.
All people of good sense should understand that obedience is not the same thing as blind compliance, and, if obedience is a virtue, which it surely is, it must be oriented toward the good—the highest of which is the salvation of souls.
Granted, I understand men of good will disagree on the SSPX question. But please, unless you are prepared to swallow the whole Conciliar Experiment hook, line, and sinker, do not accuse the SSPX of disobedience as if it is a sin unique to them. Things are more complicated than that, so we should speak and act accordingly."
