3 Minute Roundup

No disagreement between CHA, bishops on health reform
WASHINGTON — Despite a New York Times report to the contrary, the Catholic Health Association and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are working together to achieve health reform legislation that does not expand federal funding of abortion, according to the CHA president and CEO.
Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview Dec. 28 that her organization has never wavered in its commitment to health care that protects “from conception to natural death,” as outlined in the CHA document, Our Vision for U.S. Health Care. She disputed a report in The New York Times Dec. 26 that a recent CHA statement on Senate negotiations over abortion funding in health reform legislation represented a split with the bishops.
“There is not a shred of disagreement between CHA and the bishops,” Sister Carol said. “We believe there is a great possibility and probability that in conference committee we can work toward a solution that will prevent federal funding of abortion.”
She said the CHA, which represents more than 600 Catholic hospitals in the U.S., “brings a lot of expertise with funding structures in the marketplace” to the debate and hopes to “bring that to bear” during the conference committee’s work.
Shortly before the Senate approved its version of health reform legislation early Dec. 24, the chairmen of three USCCB committees said the bill should not be approved “without incorporating essential changes to ensure” that it “truly protects the life, dignity, consciences and health of all.” (CNS)
 
Aid workers fear disease in overcrowded volcano shelters
LEGAZPI, Philippines — Church aid workers trying to bring relief to evacuees from the danger zone around the Mayon volcano feared outbreaks of disease as evacuation centers surpassed their limits.
Workers told the Asian church news agency UCA News there was a need for portable toilets, tents and building materials.
“We now have 502 families — 2,288 people — in our school. Of course our classrooms can’t accommodate all of them,” Adelia Vibar, principal of the primary school in the town of San Jose, told UCA News. “I have only five toilets for all these people. If we are to avoid epidemics we need more, urgently,” Vibar said.
In all, nearly 10,000 families, more than 47,000 people from 32 villages, have been evacuated from their homes around the volcano, which has been spouting ash and rumbling. The government warned an eruption was imminent. (CNS)
 
Survey: Catholics in China not keeping pace with population
SHIJIAZHUANG, China — A new survey of the Catholic Church in mainland China indicates that the Catholic population might not have kept pace with overall population growth.
The results of the study, conducted by the Faith Institute for Cultural Studies, a church-run organization based in Shijiazhuang, were published Dec. 18 and reported by the Asian church news agency UCA News Dec. 23. The survey found that about 5.71 million Catholics live in mainland China, served by nearly 3,400 bishops, priests and deacons. Nearly 3,300 priests serve in more than 100 dioceses.
The statistics did not distinguish between Catholic communities registered with the government and those that operate clandestinely. The report said figures for the latter may not be entirely accurate due to the difficulties involved in getting information.
The Faith Institute for Cultural Studies spent three months gathering information through e-mails, phone calls, faxes and personal interviews. (CNS)
 
Foolishness of trying to argue with an atheist Print
Written by Father John Catoir   
Sunday, 08 November 2009 00:00

Atheists are impossible to argue with because they have a hidden agenda. The atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel revealed the essence of it in his book The Last Word: “It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God.”

Nagel and others like him have set their will against believing. For this reason, it would be foolish to try to convince them that they are wrong. They simply won’t let you.

Isn’t it interesting that he said he hopes he’s right? Doesn’t that make him an agnostic, one who admits he doesn’t really know?

Indeed it does, and yet he calls himself an atheist! Why, I wonder? Perhaps because he doesn’t want to admit that there is a Creator out there who can make demands on him?

Carl Sagan, the late astronomer, once said on national TV, “There is not a shred of evidence in the entire universe to prove the existence of the supernatural.”

By the word “evidence” he, of course, meant scientific proof. But there are other kinds of proof if you have the eyes to see.

In the 1980s, I corresponded with Sagan. He was a kind man, and we exchanged about 12 letters on the topic of God’s existence. (If you’re interested, they are all included in my book Enjoy Your Precious Life. Write to me at P.O. Box 745 Chester, N.J. 07930, and send $15 postage-paid).

I asked Sagan this: “Can you produce any evidence that God does NOT exist?”

He replied, “Of course I cannot. There could always be a sufficiently subtle and remote God who does not manifest himself, and if he wishes to hide himself that is his business.”

Here we have a lowly man demanding that almighty God prove himself scientifically.

It’s a big risk to trash the First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have other gods before me.” The false god in this context is the ego of the nonbeliever. Putting one’s will against God’s is dangerous.

Granted, we should respect the sincere conscience of others even if they are in error, but we do not have to respect their self-sabotage.

The sin by which the angels fell was pride. It led them to a state of mind called “deliberate inadvertence.” The angels did not stop believing in God; they merely turned away from him because they did not want to serve him any longer.

“I will not serve,” was the cry. Feeling themselves equal to God, they defied him.

Of course, atheists will laugh at you if you mention angels, which is precisely the reason you should never argue with them.

When people are in denial, their mind is closed. They would rather enjoy their delusion than admit they are subject to God and his supreme law.

The next time an atheist asks you to prove that God exists, just say, “I don’t have to. God will do that for you one second after your death.”

Or say, “Albert Einstein is arguably the most brilliant scientist in the history of the world. He was convinced that there has to be a supreme intelligence behind the universe. Are you smarter than Einstein?”

Father John Catoir is a columnist for Catholic News Service and former president of The Christophers.
 
Diocese of Springfield