catholic health initiatives

"Unprecedented Initiative Asks Catholics
"Who Is Under Your Carbon Footprint?"

WASHINGTON, DC.(April 21, 2009)--As the nation marks Earth Day, the Catholic community is launching an unprecedented initiative, the Catholic Climate Covenant, to bring together in new ways religious obligations to care for creation and care for "the least of these" as a distinctive Catholic contribution to the climate change debate.

Leading national Catholic organizations are calling on Catholic individuals and families, parishes and schools, religious communities, colleges and hospitals and other Catholic organizations to take a unique St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor.

Organizational partners and sponsors of the Covenant Campaign reach into every corner of Catholic life here and abroad, including:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Catholic Charities USA serving nearly eight million people in more than 1,700 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions

The Catholic Health Association of the United States serving one in six Americans in hospitals

Catholic Relief Services reaching more than 80 million people in more than 100 nations

The National Catholic Education Association, the largest private education system in the world

The Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious representing hundreds of religious communities who lead with a sense of mission and real world examples of how to care for people in poverty and for God's gift of creation.

Participants also include: the Franciscan Action Network, the National Council of Catholic Women, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the National Federation of Priests Councils, the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and many others.

The effort responds to and builds upon the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, the U.S. Catholic Bishops, and many Catholic religious communities who believe that our response to climate change must be guided by the exercise of prudence, the pursuit of the common good and a priority for the poor.

Pope Benedict most recently referenced "troubling climate change" in his Easter message to the world. Before Easter, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change sent resource packets (in English and Spanish), including the St. Francis Pledge, to all of the 17,000 Catholic parishes and 6,300 Catholic elementary schools in the nation. The Campaign and Pledge are also being promoted by a wide range of other Catholic organizations to reach deeply into every part of Catholic life.

Pressing the issue of responsibility for the impacts of climate change, the Campaign asks the haunting and provocative question "Who is Under Your Carbon Footprint?" in mailings to every parish in the nation, posters, and print ads in Catholic publications, and in major newspapers across the country.

A new website (www.catholicclimatecovenant.org), offers concrete help in carrying out the St Francis Pledge.

"The St. Francis Pledge is at the heart of this effort," says Dan Misleh, Executive Director of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. "By linking prayer, reflection and learning to assessment, action and advocacy, many more Catholics will become aware of the moral implications of climate change, make the connections between their own carbon footprint and their obligation to the poor and take private and public action to address the causes and consequences of climate change."

The whole world is insane it seems.

2009-06-29 17:24:34 by Lorenzo

denver.jobing.com Centura Health is the largest health care network in Colorado formed in 1996 by sponsors Catholic Health Initiatives and ...

initiatives, how can they think they can can be taken seriously when they issue these policies?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28197514/

It's a joke, seriously. They expect to be able to dictate ethics with their track record?

Yes, people, school teachers do molest children as well. The difference is that the school authorities report and have them arrested. They don't move the offending teacher to another school and try to hush it up.

2008-12-12 16:11:26 by Wonder Weirdo, with more SATAN!!

Price: $125.00 $125.00

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Democrats- vow-to-resurrect-apf-4032471551.html?x=0 &.v=3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Giving up on overhauling the nation's health care system is not an option, the top House Democrat said Wednesday as lawmakers looked to President Barack Obama for guidance in his State of the Union address on how to revive the stalled legislation.

Asked if Congress might abandon a health care initiative beset with political and policy problems, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., responded: "I don't see that as a possibility. We will have something."

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told congressional staff that Obama will use Wednesday night's address to reiterate his commitment to an ambitious remake of the nation's health care system, similar to the call he issued last September after critics seized the momentum during a summer of angry town hall meetings.

Although lawmakers don't expect to hear a specific prescription for how to move forward, Pfeiffer said the president would offer "additional details" on his health care goals.

The speech comes as Democrats are struggling to find a way to advance health care legislation after the loss of a Massachusetts Senate seat last week cost them the 60-vote majority needed to deliver.

"The president is a strong persuader, as they say, and I think it makes an awful lot of difference, and I think he will bring everybody together," said Rep. John Larson, D-Conn.

Others were looking for a dose of reality from the president.

"I think he has to acknowledge that the well has been poisoned, that the debate has been lost, and tell the American people again why this is part of the economic strategy moving forward," said Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa. "Not an issue of fairness because we need to cover everybody, but it's the only way we're going to get our deficit in order in the long run is by addressing health care."

Democrats got encouragement Wednesday from groups as diverse as the nation's Catholic bishops and the head of the largest labor union federation. In a letter to members of Congress, the bishops urged lawmakers to "recommit themselves to enacting genuine health care reform."

"The health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority, which is to ensure that affordable, quality, life-giving care is available to all," said clergy from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "Now is not the time to abandon this task."

Similarly, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said the Senate should come up with a measure that the House can pass. "We fought too long and too hard for health care to quit for now," Trumka said in an interview.

Both the Catholic Church and labor unions have flexed their political muscle in the debate. The bishops say they won't support a final bill that includes Senate-passed language they see as too weak in restricting taxpayer funding for abortion. Labor unions struck a deal with the White House to weaken a proposed tax on high-cost insurance plans.

Pelosi didn't say whether the final bill will be the sweeping overhaul sought by Obama, or smaller-scale legislation that accomplishes only some of his goals. Democrats were on the verge of passing far-reaching legislation before the Massachusetts election.

Stunned by the loss, Democratic leaders have taken health care legislation off the fast track as they try to find a path forward acceptable to rank-and-file Democrats wary of unhappy midterm election voters.

The leading option for moving forward -- having the House pass the Senate bill along with a package of changes that both chambers would approve -- will take weeks, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Wednesday. That's time most lawmakers would much rather spend focusing on jobs and the economy, the concerns they say preoccupy their constituents. Many believe health care has become a political drag.

In a sign of the turmoil surrounding the issue, some House Democrats have begun pushing to revive a proposal for a government-run insurance plan left for dead months ago after it became clear it could not command the necessary votes in the Senate.

The House and Senate separately passed 10-year, nearly $1 trillion bills last year to remake the nation's medical system with new requirements for nearly everyone to carry health insurance and new regulations on insurers' practices. Negotiators were in the final stages of reconciling the differences between the two measures before last week's GOP upset in the race for the Senate seat long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.

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Wow, great. "Something". No matter how crappy or unpopular it is. Nice going Nancy.

They are all going to be unemployed

2010-01-27 20:45:26 by Mark

Price: $99.00 $99.00

Whyy do Catholics continue to receive such a backlash on their stance on stem cell research?? What would be your response to what they think is right? Isn't it a better stance than some other religions??

"Research initiatives involving the use of adult stem cells, since they do not present ethical problems, should be encouraged and supported." -- The Catholic Church; 'Dignitas Personae' 32
http://www.usccb.org/comm/Dignitasperson ae/Dignitas_Personae.pdf

"To date, most of the stem cell triumphs that the public hears about involve the infusion of adult stem cells. We've just recently seen separate research reports of patients with spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis benefiting from adult stem cell therapy. These cells have the advantage of being the patient's natural own, and the worst they seem to do after infusion is die off without bringing the hoped-for benefit. They do not have the awesome but dangerous quality of eternal life characteristic of embryonic stem cells." -- Bernadine Healy, M.D; 'Why Embryonic Stem Cells Are Obsolete'
http://health.usnews.com/blogs/heart-to- heart/2009/03/04/why-embryonic-stem-cell s-are-obsolete.html

Because there is government money to be had on research they already know is going to fail.

It isn't a new scam. So called scientists have been scamming the government out of research Grants for decades. All they have to do is periodically present a shadow of hope for results and *bam* more funds.

The problem is countries like Brazil are have a better success rate with adult cells. The Catholic Church has had an Exemplary Science program for at least 200 years. Why is it exemplary? For The exact reason the government is not. There is no money for Catholic Scholars. They do it because it is their call, not because they hope to make a fortune and get a tenured professorship at a prestigious university.

2009-10-19 11:10:55 by bumpin 420

When President Barack Obama announced a timetable last week that puts off comprehensive immigration reform until next year, some advocates and other observers weren't surprised, given the still-struggling economy and the massive health care and energy bills ahead of the issue.

But while supporters of both the president and immigration reform put faith in its new promise — which as a candidate Obama had promised in 2009 — some advocates are sounding more doubtful.

Some fear that “comprehensive” will be dropped from “immigration reform,” and that the weight of other initiatives will result in more piecemeal approaches to overhauling the nation's immigration laws, widely viewed as broken.

“We still feel it's one of the top three priorities,” said Margaret Pulles, spokeswoman for the San Antonio-based Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, or MATT.org.

“Come January, if we're not hearing something,” said Graciela Sanchez, executive director of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, “we'll have to make a push.”

“Reform is a priority in the Latino community,” said San Antonian Rosa Rosales, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “I would strongly urge that Latino organizations push the issue that we need comprehensive immigration reform now.”

Obama “is not going to forget the immigrant community,” she added.

Advocates on the front lines of helping immigrant families torn apart by deportations aren't so sure, sounding more exasperated with a continued hard line from the Department of Homeland Security.

“I'm very concerned,” said Alejandro Siller, coordinator of Mexican American Catholic College's San Juan Diego Project, which provides services to immigrants and faith-based groups that assist them. “Raids continue because there is no solution.”

A comprehensive bill being drafted by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is likely to include border security, penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers and what MATT.org calls “a fair and realistic plan for integrating undocumented workers into a legal system of employment.”

What opponents call “amnesty,” supporters couch as “a pathway to citizenship” for the 11 million to 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Instead of harsh punishment or deportation, Archbishop José Gomez wrote in a column last week, immigrants should receive community service, or another punishment “that fits the crime.”

Immigrant advocates also want Congress to change immigration caps and visa limits they consider unreasonable.

Donna R. Gabaccia of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota said the limits have contributed “to a sense that immigration is out of control.”

That the same number of visas is extended to both Nigeria and Mexico, for example, is not realistic, the historian said. And congressional loopholes for refugees and relatives of immigrants compound the problem, she said.

“People say immigrants should get in the back of the line, but there is no line. There are no visas or almost no visas for unskilled and semiskilled workers to wait in,” Gabaccia said. “The diminishing small number of visas guarantees illegality.”

Members of San Antonio's congressional delegation who back reform sound doubtful of passage, too, especially given 2010 elections.



Obama has said he's willing to move forward if the votes are there, said Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. “It doesn't look like we have the votes, in all honesty.” He said Congress might instead address reform “partially.”

Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, agreed. However, he thinks the Senate will introduce a bill before year's end.

“One of the complications is that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), one of our champions, is not on the Senate floor,” Gonzalez said.

Obama's recent comments from Guadalajara, Mexico, were encouraging, Gonzalez added, because they indicate reform is still on his agenda.

But the congressman added that if a comprehensive bill isn't passed, “We'll try to do it piecemeal.”

He cited the Dream Act, introduced in March, which would extend permanent residency to immigrant students who came to the United States as children and have graduated from high school.

Gonzalez said more border security funds would be approved regardless of an immigration bill, and “a temporary workers program of some sort” will be addressed.

“We have certain windows,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said. “Experience and history have told us if it's postponed to the following year, then you're talking about 2011.”

Even opponents of immigration reform say the Obama administration may just run out of time.

“These are all big initiatives he has taken on,” said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “There's a limit to how much you can get done.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/5331619 2.html
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Any "comprehensive immigration reform" needs to be put in simple terms with no hidden bylaws, and put to the vote in 2010. The final decision has to be left to the people, not politicians who think they know what's best for us.
"We the people" need to stay active in OUR government, and start holding our elected officials to a higher standard, and accountable for bad decisions made on behalf of the few rather than the many. It's still our government, the only reason our employees get away with stupidity is because we let them.

2009-08-16 19:23:09 by ❶•☆•xXx•☆— BOMB ♥ SHELL☆•xXx•☆•❶