Newsmax.com – N.Y. Catholics: Dems Trying to Bankrupt Church
Democrats have declared war on the Catholic Church, with new laws that threaten to bankrupt Catholic schools, hospitals, charities and parishes. Thus far, the worst attacks have come in New York.
“We’ve taken a lot of hits this year,” Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, the policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, tells Newsmax. “Outside the government, the Catholic Church is the largest provider of health, human services and education in [New York]. But some legislators are so driven by malice that they’re willing to see our charities and schools go under.”
The Empire State’s Democrats are attacking on three fronts.
# A proposal to require all hospitals to perform abortions, or lose their state license would put Catholic hospitals out of business.
# Major funding cuts for Catholic schools by Gov. David Paterson, who continues to force the parochial schools to run state-mandated programs at their own expense.
# An effort by Democratic lawmakers to abolish the statute of limitations on sex abuse lawsuits against the Church, allowing people to sue over decades-old cases in which the alleged perpetrators are dead.
The proposed sex-abuse law applies only to private institutions such as the Church and the Boy Scouts. Public schools are exempt. Yet sex abuse is more common in public schools than in private institutions.
Read the whole thing.
But consider:
1) The Freedom of Choice Act, if passed by Congress and signed by Obama (who has already promised to do so), would institute even greater assaults on the freedom of Catholic and other religiously founded hospitals not to do abortion, nationwide, not just in New York. And it would create a situation where no medical personnel would have a “freedom of conscience” protection so they would not be forced to participate in abortions of convenience.
2) The current budget proposal in Congress, favored by Obama, removes the charitable giving deduction from the tax code, which would surely significant reduce giving to all kinds of charitable organizations, hospitals, churches, relief organizations, orphanages, schools, you name it.
So New York State is just a little bit ahead of federal policy… but only a little bit.
The all out assault on the church, which has been gaining steam for awhile now, is on with a vengeance. And make no mistake, vengeance is the intent of the perpetrators.
