Rally for Religious Liberty -Noon in Federal Plaza (50 W. Adams) Tomorrow!

 People have deeply-held beliefs on all sides of these discussions, and you, as public policy leaders, will be called on to help move these debates forward. . . .These debates can also be contentious. But this is a strength of our country, not a weakness. In some countries around the world, it is much easier to make policy. The leader delivers an edict and it goes into effect. There’s no debate, no criticism, no second guessing.


-Kathleen Sebelius to Georetown University Public Policy Graduates


Hear you this Triton of the minnows ? mark you (HHS) "absolute shall ?" - Shakepeare Coriolanus ( bowdlerization my own)


In some countries, you fatuous ninny Kathleen?  Let's talk about January 2012 right here in the old Land of Free and the Home of the Brave.
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Collectively, Catholic organizations provide services to more Americans than any other entity except the federal government itself. Its 600 health care institutions, for example, provide care to one in six patients treated in the United States every year. Catholic schools provide education to millions of elementary and secondary school children, while more than a million students attend the nation's 200 Catholic colleges and universities. And it is this very ubiquity that is the real target of the anti-conscience mandate. The "fundamental transformation" Obama and his accomplices wish to inflict upon America can't be managed while large, autonomous institutions like the Catholic Church and its charitable organizations remain in place.

A Catholic belongs to the Catholic Church because of faith in the Church as the Body of Christ.  A "Cultural Catholic" is an art lover.  A Progressive Catholic is a politician.  Catholics are Democrats, Republicans and Americans.


I am what might more accurately be called a 'bad' Catholic. If I miss Mass it is not because I have fundamental objection to the all-too-humanly-flawed celibate patriarchy that protects the Church's Magisterium* ( bishops and stiff-collars), it because I did not drag my lazy-ass to Church. If you belong to the club, go to the meetings. It is that fundamentally simple.


My liberty to exercise my faith is challenged by the current occupant of the White House and the folks who give him his marching orders -Planned Parenthood, NOW, the DNC, SEIU, General Electric, Hollywood & etc.


I will exercise my Rights at Federal Plaza tomorrow at noon in Chicago Federal Plaza** with thousands of my co-coreligionists, neighbors and friends.  I will go to Confession for my parade of sins.  I will get my ass to Mass. I will vote against the people who want to end my liberty. 




* "The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him."

**Chicago, Ill., Jun 5, 2012 / 02:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On June 8, Stand Up For Religious Freedom will hold its second round of national protests against the contraception mandate, continuing the movement that drew tens of thousands of protesters in March.

“We're up to 154 rallies across the country now, which is about 10 more than we had last time on the rally day,” said Stand Up For Religious Freedom's communications director Matt Yonke. The group is “expecting a few more (cities) to trickle in before Friday,” when the events begin at noon local time.

Organized in response to the Obama administration's denial of conscience rights to religious institutions, the first set of rallies included 28 Catholic bishops as well as other Christian and Jewish leaders. This time around, Yonke said, publicity and group endorsements have “only been bigger.”

“We had 64,000 (people) last time,” he recalled, noting the attendance tally from the first round of coast-to-coast demonstrations that took place March 23. “I definitely think we're going to top that.”

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/05/22/catholic-institutions-revolt-e
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/hhs-secretary-kathleen-sebelius-full-remarks-to-georgetown-universitys-public-policy-institute/2012/05/18/gIQAYER
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/religious-freedom-movement-holding-new-national-rallies-june-8/
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/06/ej-dionne-and-the-contradiction-of-progressive-catholicism

Rally for Religious Liberty - Friday June 8th at Noon in Chicago's Federal Plaza

I participated in Chicago's Rally for Religious Freedom in March of this year.  It rained like a son-of-a-gun, but more than 2,000 people jammed Federal Plaza in a very peaceful, dignified and good humored show of support for Religious Freedom.

My family spent decades pounding the sidewalks for workers rights.  Early on we were all taught to never cross a picket line - we never did. If a store was struck by real labor, we purchased else-where.  My father and his brothers and my cousins, picketed in support of the printers at the Chicago Tribune.

Likewise, we hit the kneelers in church to pray for aborted children.  My uncle Larry Hickey, who was the Chief Engineer for Cook County Hospital,  made national news (AP Chicago 1975 linked below).    Uncle Bud was ordered to install crematory furnace for the disposal of unclaimed and unidentified bodies from the County Morgue, but primarily aborted fetuses.  The crematory furnace was not fired for five years, because the Chief refused to dispose of human remains. This was in February of 1975.

I started teaching in Catholic schools in 1975.  Roe v. Wade was giving the abortion industry its baby steps and the American media its universal assistance.  Democrat politicians who happened to be Catholic were not yet fully bought by Planned Parenthood's dead-baby bucks.   George Dunne, President of the Cook County Board, never fired Uncle Bud for the Chief's Civil Disobedience; in fact, Dunne made Larry Hickey the Chief Engineer of Cook County.  That was then;this is now.

Now, Democrat politicians who happened to baptized as Catholics would see a Larry Hickey become an occupant of Cook County Jail, after firing, convicting, sentencing and stripping him of pension, of course.

There are no Democrat George Dunnes.  In fact the last genuine Catholic Democrat that I can recall in recent years, resigned as State Representative - Kevin Joyce. Rep. Dan Lipinski might be. There are Dick Durbins, Dan Hynes, Pat Quinns, Mike Quigleys and Rich Daleys.  They and Planned Parenthood, SEIU and other left-leaning PACs put Barack H. Obama in the White House

President Obama stripped St. Xavier University of its religious identity and immediately the school invited former Obama mouthpiece Robert Gibbs to be a guest speaker.  Governor Pat Quinn revealed his complete submission to Illinois Personal PAC's Terry Cosgrove, over Francis Cardinal George all through the fall of 2011. Cosgrove orders and Quinn jumps.

In January 2011, President Obama's baptized Catholic HHS Secretary made official war on the American Catholic Church.

So, on Friday June 8th, I'll be in Federal Plaza with thousands of Catholics, Protestants and Jews voicing support for Religious Liberty. I hope that you will also enjoy the fresh air and great company.

Rally for Religious Freedom

Uncle Bud's ( Larry Hickey Chief Engineer Cook County Hospital) saga linked here:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19750222&id=QpxOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2606,5132451