03/09/12Other Women's IssuesTHERE ARE OTHER WOMEN’S ISSUES By Lavinia Spirito Regardless of where you fall on the ideological fence, the latest Health and Human Services mandate forcing religious institutions to provide services that violate their beliefs should give us pause. Regardless of whether the discussion for you is simply about ‘women’s health’ and not religious liberty, lets take the time to ask ourselves: is this the only women’s health ‘issue’ worthy of discussion? Wh...
02/05/12HHS Contraception MandateThe Catholic reaction to the HHS Mandate has made it on to the major Media and will be a topic of discussion for a little while at least. To help you understand why Catholics are strenuously opposed to this move by the Obama Administration, we are gathering insights and thoughts from other sources. As a short, clear, concise description to why Catholics should be opposed to this mandate, I (the Webmaster) recommend the commentary by Fr. Robert Barron. Fr. Robert Barron on his "Word On Fire" Co...
05/15/11Right to Life Speech 2011ARTICLE ADAPTED FROM ADDRESS TO KENTUCKY RIGHT TO LIFE VIGIL JANUARY 2011; Lavinia Spirito We are gathered here to mark the 38th anniversary of a masterpiece of judicial muddled headedness: the 1973 Supreme Court holdings in Roe v. Wade, and its companion Doe v. Bolton LEGAL FOUNDATIONS By virtue of these mediocre pieces of social engineering by the US judiciary, 1.5 million lives a year are thrown out like the trash and our entire western society defines itself partly by the conferri...
10/10/10No ComplaintsNo Complaints Nancy Mullen, CWBS Leader October 7, 2010 Saturday morning began with a trip to my hometown hairdresser for a family haircut. After getting my hair colored, I was put under the dryer. This provided a quiet opportunity to continue my reading of Merlin Carothers, Power in Praise . Chapter 6, entitled “Good-bye Grumblings,” opened the door for a discovery of how our Lord wants us to govern our thoughts. “Once we make an agreement with God not to grumb...
05/16/10Conscience and Coercion, Article 4; The Church's LeadershipLAVINIA THEODOLI SPIRITO MARCH 16, 2010 CONSCIENCE AND COERCION ARTICLE 4 THE CHURCH’S LEADERSHIP The Church is led by the Holy Father in conjunction with the Bishops. These Bishops are the primary shepherds of their people. According to Lumen Gentium their duty is to sanctify, educate and govern. It is up to them to teach, comfort, and exhort us to the right thing. It is their role to speak out in times of confusion where the issues are blurred and everyone is led by their vers...
05/15/10Conscience and Coercion Article 3; PluralismLAVINIA THEODOLI SPIRITO MARCH 16, 2010 CONSCIENCE AND COERCION, ARTICLE 3; PLURALISM CONSCIENCE RIGHTS The Founding Fathers of the United States of America held rights of conscience more highly than they had been held in Europe. In the forming of our nation, freedom of conscience guaranteed protection from legal restraints in matters of religion and conscience, and allowed individuals to be spared civil duties or restrictions that they could not in all good conscience obey. Today it i...
05/10/10The 10 Suggestions The 10 Suggestions Recently, the Ten Commandments of the Bible have been reduced to the “Ten Suggestions.” In my own life, I was raised to follow the Ten Commandments, fearing my parent’s scorn if I broke any of them. (Believe me, my Mother’s judgment was faster and less merciful than that of God!) As I became older I began to bend the rules a bit here and there, until I passed the elastic limit of some, and found myself “outside the law.” For a while...
05/10/10You may choose to believe in gravity but… Y ou may choose to believe in gravity but… I read with interest Lavinia’s 2 articles on Conscience Formation ( Conscience and Coercion Articles 1 and 2 ) and something that keeps resonating in my thick (almost impenetrable) brain is the idea that the conscience must be founded on Truth. As an engineer, I am aware that “Scientific Truth” is an empirical reality which is observable, testable and provable. This works easily in the realm of Physics in which million...
05/07/10Conscience and Coercion, Article 2; The Right to PrivacyLAVINIA THEODOLI SPIRITO May 7, 2010 CONSCIENCE AND COERCION, ARTICLE 2; THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY The right to privacy as a right to absolute private autonomy is created and then affirmed in the Supreme Court cases of Roe v. Wade (1973), Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1996). Legal scholars agree to disagree on what exactly is meant by this right as it is unmentioned in the Constitution and appears to be a wholly artificial judicial construct found in its &lsquo...
03/16/10Conscience and Coercion, Article 1; What Is A ‘Catholic’ Vote?LAVINIA THEODOLI SPIRITO March 16, 2010 CONSCIENCE AND COERCION, ARTICLE 1; WHAT IS A ‘CATHOLIC’ VOTE? MORAL COHERENCE There are several points that need to be made about the so-called ‘Catholic’ vote. The obvious one is that to be a Catholic vote, a vote needs to be cast according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church, otherwise it’s a ‘this is what sounds good to me’ vote. To dress it up post facto as a Catholic vote based on some nebulous feelings...