Catholic Pastors Directed To Distribute Anti-Health Care Reform Material At Mass

The Colorado Independent:

This past weekend the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops instructed pastors at parishes across the country to distribute material urging Catholics to oppose the health reform bills making their way through Congress for allowing public funding of abortions. Priests were to insert the Bishops Conference pdf leaflets and letters into parish news bulletins, distribute them at church doors or place them in pews. They were also directed to read a statement at mass to reinforce the message.

The Conference of bishops reportedly sent the orders out last Thursday, the same day Speaker Nancy Pelosi presented the mammoth 2,000-page House reform bill to lawmakers and the public.

Read the whole story: The Colorado Independent

Comments

[Martha12]

Please report all incidents of Catholic lobbying to the IRS. Use this form:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf

Lobbying

In general, no organization may qualify for section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying). A 501(c)(3) organization may engage in some lobbying, but too much lobbying activity risks loss of tax-exempt status.

Legislation includes action by Congress, any state legislature, any local council, or similar governing body, with respect to acts, bills, resolutions, or similar items (such as legislative confirmation of appointive office), or by the public in referendum, ballot initiative, constitutional amendment, or similar procedure. It does not include actions by executive, judicial, or administrative bodies.

An organization will be regarded as attempting to influence legislation if it contacts, or urges the public to contact, members or employees of a legislative body for the purpose of proposing, supporting, or opposing legislation, or if the organization advocates the adoption or rejection of legislation.

Organizations may, however, involve themselves in issues of public policy without the activity being considered as lobbying. For example, organizations may conduct educational meetings, prepare and distribute educational materials, or otherwise consider public policy issues in an educational manner without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.

Additional information:

Measuring lobbying activity: substantial part test
Measuring lobbying activity: expenditure test

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=163392,00.html

[markpkessinger]

This article jogged my memory about an incident in 2005, when All Saints' Episcopal Church in Pasadena was threatened by the IRS with the loss of its tax exempt status because the rector gave an antiwar sermon two days prior to the 2004 election. Here t he URL for the Huffington Post report on that incident (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/11/07/irs-threatened-to-revoke-_n_10232.html). So here is my question: does the IRS intend to so threaten the Roman Catholic Church for its meddling in the healthcare debate? If not, why not?

[Artemis34]

Let's start introducing ballot initiatives to remove any rights or privileges the Catholic Church may enjoy.

[brahdog]

wwjd? he would fight against health care reform. praise be.

[ReedYoung]

If somehow he took the Roman Empire Political Action Committee's unscientific position on embryos and blastocysts, I'm quite certain that the Jesus of the Bible would organize a boycott of the "health insurance" corporations which happily finance "abortions on demand" while refusing care when we require it to people who have paid our dues for months and years. Why don't catlicks stop underwriting the corporate "baby killers"? Because they're a bunch of worthless hypocrites, that's why.

[Artemis34]

Jesus would support health care reform including PUBLIC health care:

"Heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." (Matthew 10:1)

"Heal the sick, ... freely ye have received, freely give [be generous]." (Matthew 10:8)

Jesus didn't say "heal the sick, if they work, if they are Christians, if you like them, if you judge them worthy, etc" just "heal the sick!"

And I did not see any prohibition in the bible against using the government to heal the sick. I did not see anything in the bible that says you must use private insurance.

[Artemis34]

Also, Jesus did NOT say to ask the patient's views on abortion and only "heal the sick" if they agree with you!

These people are pseudo-Christians, some would say pseudo-people, based on their pathological lack of compassion.

[brahdog]

i was being sarcastic

[StopSexismNow]

Want to zap their tax exempt status? For those who wish to file a formal complaint with the IRS (please everyone do THIS!), the form is very simple and straightforward and SHORT. It can be found here:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf

The email address, physical address or fax where to send completed form can be found on the form itself.

Thanks to ReedYoung for pointing me to the right link for this info.

[Artemis34]

Yep, tax the Catholic Church, make 'em help pay for PUBLIC health care.

They are free to say and do what they like, as long as they relinquish their tax exempt status.

[Artemis34]

Learn more at:

IRS Complaint Process For Tax Exempt Organizations
http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=178241,00.html

I would copy your state and federal representatives too asking them to support legal repeal of their tax exempt status.

[ThinkCreeps]

Jefferson:

My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves, and who read in that system only what is really there.

[Artemis34]

"...religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole

American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion,

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,'

thus building a wall of separation between church and State."

- Thomas Jefferson

[ThinkCreeps]

Jefferson:

Priests...dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.

[ThinkCreeps]

Jefferson:

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

[Artemis34]

Jefferson is great! He would have opposed the Catholic Church and would have favored health care reform:

"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." ~Thomas Jefferson

[jessicajuliette]

My dear departed Mother never blindly followed the teachings or precepts of the Church..

We went to Catholic and Jesuit institutions because she felt they provided a superior educational experience.

My Mother stood up to the nun who bullied me when i had an asthma attack, and ruined the form of the Holy Communion procession.(i could have died, but the nun was most concerned that the form of line leading into the Church be perfect)...

My Mother was a tiny woman, a dead ringer for Dorothy Dandrige, but she didn't let anyone push her
chIldren around, she didnt care what "Holy Mother the Church said."
SHE was the Mother in her household.

motto,long winded Hallmark card moment to say, let's think for ourselves, and tell the Catholic Church to "su** k it....

[ReedYoung]

But not to boycott private "health insurance" corporations which provide "abortions on demand." I guess the life of the fetus isn't important enough to the hierarchy to inconvenience rich Catholics, only to kill poor ones. So proud to have quit that gang when I left my parents' home for college.

[raker]

This officially makes the catholic church a political entity, a vile, despicable Republican political entity. Tax them. Shun them. Marginalize them. Abandon them.

[coastalcarla]

Unfortunately, the law actually says that in order to be in violation, they have to endorse a specific candidate in an election. Issues don't seem to count. But they should. The Catholic church and the Mormon church should have lost their tax exempt status over Prop 8 in California. But they didn't. And they're going to continue to play politics as long as that loophole in the law exists.

[raker]

Two elections ago, the catholics urged each other to deny communion to John Kerry. That was tantamount to endorsing the other guy, the one who gleefully executed hundreds of Texans, contrary to catholic policy. The catholic leadership is loathsome.

[Horus45]

A sure way to lose your tax exempt status!

[AddyGmom]

Remove tax exempt staus for ALL churches!!!

[ReedYoung]

... and all tax exemptions for household or individual income above $250,000. Having "capital gains" out of that much money is not an extraordinary contribution to GDP, it's just what's expected of you. Want a cookie?

[Hagrid]

Tax the dang pedophiles!

[Artemis34]

Start a state ballot measure / referendum to create a state level tax that effectively wipes out their state and federal tax exemptions!

[Kiri sute gomen]

Tax exempt status? Or are they to big to fail?