MI Catholic Conference joins WV bishop: Catholics United “misleading public”, does not represent Church; Bishop: “deceptive”
A timely and excellent press release from the Michigan Catholic Conference (Catholics United has been taking out advertisements against Bart Stupak in Michigan) – I have bolded parts of the statement:
Statement on Ad Campaign Attacking Congressman Bart Stupak
(Lansing) – Earlier today The Detroit News Washington bureau reported that a group calling itself “Catholics United” has undertaken a television advertising campaign against Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) for his strong stance against abortion funding in the U.S. Senate version of health care reform. The statement below was released in response to a separate media inquiry if “Catholics United” was affiliated with the Michigan Catholic Conference. The statement may be attributed to Paul Long, Michigan Catholic Conference Vice-President for Public Policy.
“The Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) are the official voices of the Catholic Church, in this state and across the country, respectively, on matters pertaining to public policy. No group has done more to promote the need for universal health care coverage than the Catholic Church. Both the MCC and the USCCB have stated as clear as day, however, that the Senate-passed version of health care reform is unacceptable in its current form as it fails to uphold the Hyde Amendment, which ensures no federal taxpayer dollars are used to pay for abortions or health plans that cover abortions, and also fails to protect individual conscience rights.
“The aforementioned television advertising campaign is misleading the public and distorting the official policy positions of the Catholic Church in Michigan and throughout the country. In no way does Catholics United represent the public policy positions of the Catholic Church. In fact, the ad campaign and its accompanying news release grossly misrepresents the official position of the Catholic Church on health care reform, and unfairly and erroneously attacks Congressman Bart Stupak for his efforts to prohibit tax-payer funded abortions.”
Send a message to Catholics United – we papists won’t be misled – we Stand With Stupak.
Stupak, as of this morning, was still standing strong. Nancy Pelosi continues to shut him and his pro-life companion Democrats out of the process. She said to reporters today: “There will be no further changes in the bill.” She’s going for broke, in other words.
Catholic Democrats, meanwhile, is joining its catholyc friends at Catholics United and is blasting out emails trying to convince Catholics that subsidizing abortions and abortion providers will somehow bring down the rate of abortions. Yeah, right.
The Catholic Medical Association (good people), however, has also come out with a statement confirming that the health care legislation funds abortions (LifeNews reports on this and related topics here).
On a related note, Josh has already blogged about Bishop Bransfield calling the actions of Catholics United “deceptive.”
Let’s pray to St. Joseph today – patron of the family!
Related update - Archbishop Chaput writes today about the most recent round of catholyc deception: “The Captivity Of ‘Catholic’ Witness” (a must-read, as always)
Tweet this
Email
RSS
4 Comments
Shame on Stupak and shame on Michigan for electing such a “sell out”! I hope people in Michigan have long memories and gets him out in November!
Why doesn’t the Church sue them for identity theft or something.
I wonder if the USCCB could litigate against these groups. I mean, if they are promoting things completely in opposition to official teachings, and presenting themselves as somehow “official” mouthpieces of the Church, isn’t it slander or libel or something like that??? (I’m not that smart in my legal terms so don’t flame me guys)
It seems borderline criminal to me. If I call myself something in order to spread false information, isn’t that criminal? Like when people lie and say they are doctors and then do weird treatments in their homes, they get arrested for impersonating a real doctor. Can these groups get in trouble for impersonating as Catholics?
Or maybe for using the word “Catholic” in their title? Like if I make burgers at home and sell them as Big Macs, McDonald’s would sue me for stealing their name and I could be liable for ruining their business by giving Big Mac a bad reputation after people tasted my lousy version of it. Isn’t that in essence what these groups are doing? Sending out a fake message and passing it off as Catholic, hence attempting to defame and destroy the Original?
For real. Action needs to be taken. The Church needs to kick booties and take names.
t would be helpful for faithful Catholics to remind their elected representatives that not withstanding any confusion among Catholics right before the vote, there is plenty of time for us all to learn the truth well before November. Any politician who believes they in some way “have cover” to vote in favor of this bill will feel voter wrath. We will not be confused then nor believe that the politicians are confused now.
Caption of the Day/PPOTD
