"We are travelling east."

These are the last words we heard from St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)--spoken, or perhaps written, from a cattle car near Breslau. She asked a brakeman to send them to her sisters in Carmel. The words chill the flesh: We know now her destination was the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

"We are travelling east."

The words struck me forcefully, however, for they also carry another meaning. The train rolled east. The east has always been a Christian word for the dawn of Christ, the final day will dawn in the East, Christ comes from the East. We pray turned toward the East (at least, we try to).

"We are travelling east."

In the east, Edith Stein stepped through that thin veil and greeted eternity.

We are also travelling east this week--east into the darkness of the tomb. In the east, we will greet eternity.

The rituals and repetition of the Holiest Week, all in anticipation of the Brightest Week, are only a sign and shadow of the Great and Eternal Day.

"We are travelling east."

Let us travel east with our Edith, until--as she is now--we are truly there.

Have a blessed Holy Week and Triduum.

Coffee and groaning.

This kid rocks: Go over to Bad Catholic with your cup of coffee this morning, and check out "Christopher Hitchens and Groaning During Sex."

"This is my response to Christopher Hitchens: If the tastes of infinity available to us on earth — art, love, sex, and all the rest — are best unveiled through ritual and repetition, I can only conclude that the Ultimate Infinity we call Heaven will be unveiled and enjoyed through an Ultimate Ritual — and that we will pant for it."

Oh, and don't forget to say a prayer for Christopher Hitchens.

While we're sharing links... did you know you can download the Magnificat's Holy Week booklet for free? Check out this powerful collection of the prayers and liturgical readings of the Church for the next (Holy and Great) days.

Misogynist? NOT.

Let it not be said that St. Augustine was a misogynist. He thought very seriously about the place in creation of human reproduction--of the male and the female and their particular beauty. Contrary to some contemporaries--mostly Manichees--he saw the female form as a cause of rejoicing.

Now, you may read the following excerpt to your village women's studies professor. She might react vehemently, "That's just so weird and sick--who cares about reproductive organs in heaven? Some sicko, that's who. Some white guy obsessed with sex and keeping women in their place."

Ignore her. Augustine was African.

Another possible interpretation of Augustine's thoughts on women is this: Augustine thought seriously enough about male and female reproductive organs to wonder. In his wonder, he could imagine with great reverence what God could have meant when He made us male and female. Far from being perverted, Augustine was able to extract his thoughts from lust for breasts and thighs and hips in order to simply regard them as gifts. I see lots of "free women" exposing female body parts, but I sure don't see much reverence. The female body in pop culture isn't taken seriously enough to make the question, what about eternity?, even make sense.

And, when our treatment of our bodies kills all imagination and wonder, when the questions become nonsense, then we have lost our childlike joy and innocence. In a world without questions, we are old and dry and impotent.

But Augustine, that dead "white" guy, is alive, virile, and exciting. His wonder is contagious: here he is on the female body and eternity.

"Because of these sayings, 'Until we reach the perfection of manhood, the stature of the full maturity of Christ,' and 'Being shaped into the likeness of God Son', some people suppose that women will not keep their sex at the resurrection; but, they say, they will all rise again as men, since God made man out of clay, and woman out of man. For my part, I feel that theirs is the more sensible opinion who have no doubt that there will be both sexes in the resurrection. For in that life there will be no sexual lust, which is the cause of shame. For the first human beings, before their sin, 'were naked, the man and the woman, and they were not ashamed.'

"Thus while all defects will be removed from those bodies, their essential nature will be preserved. Now a woman's sex is not a defect; it is natural. And in the resurrection it will be free of the necessity of intercourse and childbirth. However, the female organs will not subserve their former use; they will be part of a new beauty, which will not excite the lust of the beholder--there will be no lust in that life--but will arouse the praises of God for his wisdom and compassion, in that he not only created out of nothing but freed from corruption that which he had created."

~City of God,XXII.17

How can I keep from singing?

And how can I keep from posting this photo from the Anchoress?

Best rally photo ever.

Hopkins in Lent: Transcience.

March weather is back. After two weeks of June warmth and sun, we are rudely awakened by a gray, cold front. A good start to the last full week of Lent.

"There’s none but truth can stead you. Christ is truth."

Something about March--perhaps its Novemberishness--makes me think of Dead Poets.

And here's Hopkins for today.

54. On the Portrait of Two Beautiful Young People

A Brother and Sister

O I ADMIRE and sorrow! The heart’s eye grieves Discovering you, dark tramplers, tyrant years. A juice rides rich through bluebells, in vine leaves, And beauty’s dearest veriest vein is tears. Happy the father, mother of these! Too fast: 5 Not that, but thus far, all with frailty, blest In one fair fall; but, for time’s aftercast, Creatures all heft, hope, hazard, interest. And are they thus? The fine, the fingering beams Their young delightful hour do feature down 10 That fleeted else like day-dissolvèd dreams Or ringlet-race on burling Barrow brown. She leans on him with such contentment fond As well the sister sits, would well the wife; His looks, the soul’s own letters, see beyond, 15 Gaze on, and fall directly forth on life. But ah, bright forelock, cluster that you are Of favoured make and mind and health and youth, Where lies your landmark, seamark, or soul’s star? There’s none but truth can stead you. Christ is truth. 20 There ’s none but good can bé good, both for you And what sways with you, maybe this sweet maid; None good but God—a warning wavèd to One once that was found wanting when Good weighed. Man lives that list, that leaning in the will 25 No wisdom can forecast by gauge or guess, The selfless self of self, most strange, most still, Fast furled and all foredrawn to No or Yes. Your feast of; that most in you earnest eye May but call on your banes to more carouse. 30 Worst will the best. What worm was here, we cry, To have havoc-pocked so, see, the hung-heavenward boughs? Enough: corruption was the world’s first woe. What need I strain my heart beyond my ken? O but I bear my burning witness though 35 Against the wild and wanton work of men.

The Temperament God Gave Your Kids.

I am a temperament junkie--choleric/melancholic. That's me. And (as a melancholic) having the four temperaments in mind has been a tremendous help to me in living with other people. My boss used to drive me crazy with her bubbly, outgoing craziness. Why was she always wanting to have a big party, sing loud 80's songs, and then pray all 20 decades of the Rosary with 15 kids crawling all over her? She enjoyed noise.

It turns out, she's sanguine/choleric. She has a beautiful combination of two temperaments that just rubs me the wrong way. We both like to get things done our way (choleric), but I like to do it alone (melancholic) and she likes to do it All Together in a Big Happy Family (sanguine).

But once I understood where she was coming from--her natural tendencies, her natural strengths, her natural weaknesses--we worked well together. Very, very well.

Identifying and naming can be so helpful (melancholic!).

That's why I was so excited to read The Temperament God Gave Your Kids, written by the same couple (Art and Laraine Bennett) who brought us The Temperament God Gave You.

The basic premise is that there are four natural temperaments (based on an ancient Greek tradition) that characterize human beings: the choleric, the melancholic, the sanguine, and the phlegmatic. I won't give them away: read the books.

These four temperaments each carry their own tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses (identifying people you know--and yourself--is a hilarious exercise!). Understanding our natural inclinations helps us to grow in those areas that are naturally more difficult for us.

In the same way, the Bennetts know from their own experience as parents that the temperaments can also help us understand our children and how to best help them grow in virtue and joy. Their advice is very simple (even a little redundant if you are already familiar with their first book), but it was a wonderful refresher for me at a moment when my two melancholics are being crushed to pieces by the emerging choleric temperament of their baby sister. Crushed.

Learning to coach a choleric while two sweet melancholic cry over their spilt mudpies is a challenge. This book helped me step back, not take the drama too personally, and breathe. And laugh. We are, after all, just human.

My only criticism is that the book is too short: the Bennetts did not spend much time explaining the possible blends of temperament an individual can manifest. And these blends are precisely what differentiate, say, my 100% melancholic child from her more melancholic/choleric sister.

But it's well worth the investment and the time! Read on (especially all you phlegmatics out there).

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company, and the reviewer received a free copy of the text in exchange for her opinion. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on The Temperament God Gave Your Kids. They have some good resources for Lent!

Guest blogging!

I'm over at Catholic Lane today, still thinking feminine... Go post a "Yay, Philosopher Moms of the World!" comment in the box.

Have a beautiful St. Joseph's Day.

Joseph and the Man's Gift of Self.

Tomorrow is the Solemnity of St. Joseph in the Western Churches. The must-read for today is Redemptoris Custos, a lesser-known Apostolic Exhortation by Bl. John Paul II. After my thoughts on warped femininity and masculinity, a little immersion in a truly masculine man is most welcome.

From the exhortation:

Mary, His Love

"Through his complete self-sacrifice, Joseph expressed his generous love for the Mother of God, and gave her a husband's "gift of self." Even though he decided to draw back so as not to interfere in the plan of God which was coming to pass in Mary, Joseph obeyed the explicit command of the angel and look Mary into his home, while respecting the fact that she belonged exclusively to God."

Childbirth

"Joseph was an eyewitness to this birth, which took place in conditions that, humanly speaking, were embarrassing-a first announcement of that "self-emptying" (cf. Phil 2:5-8) which Christ freely accepted for the forgiveness of sins."

Manual Labor

"Human work, and especially manual labor, receive special prominence in the Gospel. Along with the humanity of the Son of God, work too has been taken up in the mystery of the Incarnation, and has also been redeemed in a special way. At the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of the Redemption."

Prayer and Paternity

"The total sacrifice, whereby Joseph surrendered his whole existence to the demands of the Messiah's coming into his home, becomes understandable only in the light of his profound interior life."

Conjugal Life

"Joseph, in obedience to the Spirit, found in the Spirit the source of love, the conjugal love which he experienced as a man. And this love proved to be greater than this "just man" could ever have expected within the limits of his human heart."

Lorica!

Happy feast of the Most Blessed Patrick! Saint of Ireland, saint of priests, prophets, and kings.

Here is the Breastplate.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.



I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation

St. Patrick (ca. 377)

Read more:http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/patrick.htm#ixzz1pOhOrstO

Thinking feminine.

The masculine and feminine.

A two-hour survey of evening activities:

1. the newscasts ("HHS Saves Women's Health!" "Same-Sex Marriage Approved in ______!"),

2. channel-surfing (have you seen "How I Met Your Mother"? "The Bachelor"? even "The Voice"),

3. and even giving up and going for a walk (bumper sticker: "Abortion is Healthcare. Healthcare is Good.").

The overwhelming message is this: the categories "masculine" and "feminine" no longer need apply. They are inessential, simply describing certain behaviors of either sex that remind us of the fact that, "Oh! Men and women used to be different."

The only real difference is that now we know that men are much more stupid than women. See any five-minute commercial break on television.

See? Dumb, fun-loving men. Responsible, calm, in-charge women.

We've come so far.

A friend recently shared a paper on the loss of the feminine in post-Nietzschean societies. His ideas (the friend's) bear much more in-depth treatment, but for the moment I was struck by a few passages from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.

Now, Nietzsche was no modern feminist: he believed that in order to escape the Judeo-Christian slave morality, women must once more be seen solely as the bearers of offspring--a role entirely unmasculine, but also entirely isolated from the masculine. The man must dominate the woman in order to use her as a woman.

But he had a unique insight into the tragedy of modern women: "[The modern woman defeminizes herself] so as to imitate all the stupidities from which ... European manliness suffers." (BGE, 239)

How. True.

Let's think of all the popular female complaints about men.

1. They are so stupid (see commercial), that they think they still run the world.

2. All they want is sex (see sitcoms).

3. They never think about children.

4. They fear commitment.

5. They are either hairy and unsanitary or uber-clean metro-sexuals (laser hair removal!).

6. If they're nice, they're gay. (How many times have you heard that line?)

Now let's think of the popular image of independent modern women.

1. They are so smart and accomplished that they dominate everything they attempt--and so well, too, that the stupid men don't know who's really in charge.

2. They have uncontrollable sexual urges. If they cannot fulfill these urges without "being punished by a baby," then Something Bad will happen.

3. They never think about children (see #2).

4. They seek out long-term commitments to anyone but the men in their lives.

5. They are either unsanitary and dressed for bed or sanitary and dressed to kill. They are always hairless.

6. They are really nice and friendly to everyone who agrees with them.

Now, this is harsh. And these are stereotypes. But take a close look: the stereotypical view of men is in strange parallel to the image held up for women.

Masculine: stupid aggressor.

Feminine: smart aggressor.

Together: it's war.

But is there any alternative? Nietzsche solves the problem with a classic domination scheme: If men were more classically masculine and women were more classically feminine, then the war would be won. By men. Domination-subordination.

This could be what the secular feminists rage against. They think they're raging against the Church. They're actually raging against the Father of Nihilism.

There is another way: John Paul II in Mulieris Dignitatem suggests that, because the male-female differences are a way in which the human person--the communion of human persons--is the image of God, they are not originally at war.

The man and woman can exist, not only together, but also "mutually 'one for the other.' (MD, 7)

Try a new list. While these traits should be present in every human person, they exist more intensely in each sex.

Masculine:

1. creating

2. proclaiming

3. saving

4. striving

Feminine:

1. gestating (spiritually and biologically!)

2. listening

3. praising

4. waiting.

The Church notes--in a redeemed echo of the "stupid man" commercials--that every Christian must in a sense become feminine. We are all listening to the Word, gestating the Word in our hearts, praising the Word, and waiting for the Word to come to us.

The honor due to the truly feminine.

Nietzsche knew women had lost something in the modern era. He just had no idea how tragic that loss was. Or how glorious would be its recovery.

Newman on the Fathers.

Since a head cold has me thinking thoughts about as deep as a rain puddle, I'll let the incomparable Bl. John Henry Newman do the talking. We've been reading the Church Fathers--a dose a day--for Lent, and it's been fabulous.

Here's one reason why.

“The world is to them a book, to which they are drawn for its own sake, which they read fluently, which interests them naturally–though, by reason of the grace which dwells within them, they study it and hold converse with it for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Thus they have the thoughts, feelings, frames of mind, attractions, sympathies, antipathies of other men, so far as these are not sinful, only they have these properties of human nature purified, sanctified, and exalted; and they are only made more eloquent, more poetical, more profound, more intellectual, by reason of their being more holy. In this latter class I may perhaps without presumption place many of the early Fathers, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Athanasius, and above all, the great Saint of this day, St. Paul the Apostle.”

~Occasional Sermons

And we can RAP it, too!

From Fr. Z's blog...

The JPII Generation.

Over at Sparks and Stubble, Fr. Griesbach has a beautiful reflection on the coming-of-age of the "John Paul II Generation." I usually roll my eyes and sigh when I hear that phrase: it conjures up for me images of bubbly, emotive co-eds waving copes of Humanae Vitae in the air before heading back to the dorms for a night of orgy. We are the children of the 60% divorce rate, MTV, "Eagles' Wings," and the stoned-out Woodstock hippies. Feel-good retreat weekends once a year have not been enough for so many of us. But Fr. Greisbach gives hope and makes me proud once again to be in the JPII Generation.

This paragraph describes so perfectly the pre-9/11, pre-scandal Church in America:

"We were basically taught that the heart of the Gospel was to love others, and that that meant we should always compromise conviction in favor of the person. The only virtue I recall being drilled into my head was that we seek to be on good terms with everyone, regardless of their point of view. To be likable. It was the underlying subtext in most moral narratives: the protagonist gives up his or her convictions or preconceived notions in order to love the antagonist."

Then he brings it home. That summer of 2003 (the summer I married Scientist Dad and we went on pilgrimage to Poland, land of the pope):

"It was all coming down around us in that summer of 2003, the summer of World Youth Day. And I think it was then, as we looked upon the humble yet strong frame of that man of God, John Paul II, that many of us realized that the generation before us had sold us a useless bill of goods, rather than the Gospel. We had not been taught the fullness of the faith, we were not given adequate tools to handle real life – to deal with evil, to seek what is good. We were not trained in the virtues, we were not given a solid foundation in logic and critical thinking, we were not exposed to the cultural and religious treasures of our western heritage. Instead, we had been brought up by a generation that was convinced that the way to show their love for us was by being likable and entertaining us. The youth ministry mantra was, I’ll never forget, the “4 F words”: food, fun, friends, and faith.

But in the face of terrorists trying to kill us, criminal priests, divorce, substance abuse, psychological illnesses, violence, and promiscuity, the 4 F words just didn’t cut it... Many of my peers left the faith, tired of being around a bunch of people who seemed obsessed with being likable, rather than being good. Who didn’t have any answers for the larger questions of life. Who didn’t seem to want to talk about suffering and death and desire and addiction.

But there were some of us who, through God’s providence and grace-filled guidance, were able to hold on to our faith. And with much struggle and prayer, we began an arduous transformation, a fundamental shift in the understanding of what it means to love and be loved as Christ has shown us. To this day we are trying to make that shift, even as we remain a conflicted generation, this JPII generation."

Sanctity is swimming against the tide for every generation. All generations shall call Her Blessed, but all generations shall curse His name. For every conflict, though there is hope.

"Slowly, and with God’s grace, many are breaking free of the appetite for a Church experience that is characterized by a warm and fuzzy group hug among people who like each other, and instead developing the desire for a new and more profound ecclesiology that is rooted in a common fidelity to Christ and sacrifice for the sake of what is true and good and beautiful. This conversion of appetite in my generation has been largely due to the reforms undertaken during the last 25 years to some of the fundamental structures of the Church. Doctrinal soundness and rigor in formation has been restored in seminaries for the most part. Core doctrines of the Church have been clearly expressed in the Catechism and in many wonderful encyclicals and other papal teachings. The liturgical excesses of the 70s and 80s have for the most part been cleared up and the new translation has brought us into greater continuity with our tradition. Bishops are for the most part speaking with one voice and in union with the Holy Father. The basic structures necessary for the continuation of Christianity in the West have been buttressed in recent decades, and the JPII generation is the first to really experience the fruit of these reforms. Thus we really bear the name of the great reformer: John Paul II."

He perfectly articulates that unbearable tension between the converts to the Church and our parents' generation:

"Yet as much as the JPII generation has been graced by the reforms of these last years, I pray that the hell that is fermenting in the West does not break lose until our children come of age. They will be much more competent to handle the wiles of the evil one. They will have had the advantage of clear Catholic teaching from their youth, of being formed by a reasonably intact liturgy and reconstructed domestic ritual of prayer. And they will not have to contend with an older, ideological and jaded generation that second guesses every effort at holiness and is threatened by any attempt at human excellence."

I pray, too, that the persecution does not come until I am buried and looking on from purgatory. I pray for my children with such great fervor now--they will suffer greatly for their faith--and I pray for the children who will persecute our children's children. How can we do anything less than give them the fullness of the faith, a constant experience of the prayer, and a knowledge that they are never alone, for the entire communion of saints is theirs?

Pope John Paul II is theirs, too. He may very well have saved my generation from hell--his soul will continue to bless my children and give them glory.

Read the whole thing here.

Discernment of Spirits.

Lent brought me a new podcast: from Discerning Hearts, Fr. Timothy Gallagher's commentary on Ignatius of Loyola's Discernment of Spirits. The opening interview alone was worthwhile for its biography of St. Ignatius (who was quite the Don Juan, rivaling Augustine in the drama of his conversion).

The interview on the Second Rule offered so much encouragement.

The Evil Spirits' Strategy

Ignatius wrote that, once the soul has turned its face toward God and begins to fly after the things of God, the evil one (the "flesh," the Devil, demons, the heart's concupiscence) changes its tactics. The heart is no longer enticed by occasions of sin--in fact, it begins to flee from or at least feels displeasure at what is unpleasant, evil, or just plain banal (you know, I really just don't want to watch Modern Family anymore). Now, he says, the Father of Lies reverses course: instead of luring the soul toward the lusts of the flesh, it lures the soul into "sadness."

I begin to think, "Who am I kidding?" or "I won't bother with that fast. After all, I failed it last week." I sometimes, after an argument with the Scientist Dad, begin to sigh, "Well, I guess we just can't talk about that subject anymore. It's not worth it." Or, I become discouraged at the concatentation of circumstances: "I'll never be able to teach Miriam--these little kids are too much! She should go to school... she's better off there than with me." Or, "What's the use of asking Todd if I can go to Stations? He'll just feel tired, and I won't be able to concentrate anyway. Too tired."

Mope. Mope. Mope.

The Father of Lies.

Being able to recognize that sadness--the "bite" of Satan, as Ignatius calls it--gives me the chance to reject it. This is only a passing mood. The reasons for avoiding the Stations, bothering Todd for a night out, that difficult conversation about our marriage, giving up on homeschooling--they are false reasons, because they cause that unreasonable sadness.

The Good Spirits' Strategy

On the other hand (thank heavens for the other hand!), Ignatius says that the good spirits (our own virtues, good desires, our angelic warriors, Christ Himself) have already won this battle. All we must do is reject the sadness, turn to them, and join in their victory.

At this point, the good spirits offer only encouragement. When the soul was turned away from God, the good things acted as the Big No-No Police. NO sex. NO cheating. NO gossip. All that is Good, when we are not good, seems to be judging and reprimanding us at all times. OOPS, you fornicated! OOPS, you cheated! OOPS, you gossiped! Repent!

That's because you did mess up. And you need to repent.

Once we choose the good and reject the bad, however, the Good is suddenly and only our friend, mentor, and joy. While evil becomes a thing of sadness, good becomes a thing of pleasure and enjoyment. We find that, when we overcome our sadness and give ourselves to others in prayer and service, we want to... pray and serve more! (Do you see how this works?)

"To those who have, more will be given."

This is heart of the discernment of good spirits: if you are choosing the good, you will desire more good. As we have been buried with Christ, we want even more to burrow deeper into Him and His suffering and passion. As we die to ourselves in Him, we want even more to die. And as we enjoy the crown--even the foretaste of the crown--we desire it more and will suffer any difficulty to see "His title and His crown."

So, if this Lent has begun to grow difficult and the sadness is in your heart, be encouraged. Your heart is turned to Christ, and He has only good things for you.

Image source.

Rendering unto Caesar.

"And know it now: the senate have concluded

To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar."

~Brutus, Julius Caesar, Act II, sc. ii

I am not wont to post breaking news, but here it is. I am afraid, however, that, unlike Julius Caesar, our own Caesar will not reject the crown the Senate offers.

Archbishop Dolan expressed his hope only this morning that the Congress would be able to help--and now that avenue seems to be closing. There are the courts, and there is always, always fidelity to prayer.

You may check here to see how your Senators voted.

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Senators Politicize and Gut First Amendment

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 1, 2012 Contact: Joshua Mercer Phone: (312) 945-8683 Email: mercer@catholicvote.org

Senators Politicize and Gut First Amendment Catholic Voters Look to November to Restore Rights

CHICAGO – CatholicVote.org President Brian Burch issued the following statement following today’s vote on the Blunt Amendment in the United States Senate:

“Voters across America watched today as a majority of the United States Senate voted to gut the First Amendment of our Constitution by failing to protect the religious freedom of all Americans.

“Today’s vote was in response to a controversy the Obama administration chose to create. The President and his Secretary of Health and Human Services have divided the country with an unprecedented assault on our first freedom – the right to believe – by forcing every American to pay for medicines and procedures that millions of Americans find morally objectionable. And now a majority of the United States Senate has chosen to affirm this assault on people of faith, endangering all those served by religiously affiliated organizations.

“Make no mistake, this mandate is unconstitutional and will be overturned by the courts or by the American people by electing a majority of Senators who will stand up for religious liberty.

“We call upon all voters of faith, and all citizens who believe in freedom to hold accountable every Senator who voted against the First Amendment today.”