Our friends at the Brazilian web log Fratres in Unum send us the following text which we are honored to share - we ask news providers reading us, especially those of pro-life organizations, to spread it far and wide, urgently (no attribution of any kind needed):
A brief introduction to foreign Catholic brethren
A bill caled PL03/2013 was recently voted and approved by the Brazilian Congress. Originally, when presented back in 2002, the bill was about the emergency treatment of women victim of rape, but the text of the bill was changed on April 5th 2013 in a way that in practice will legalize abortion in Brazil. The bill was submitted to Congress in an urgency regime, requested by the Minister of Health of President Dilma Rousseff, Alexandre Padilha.
The minister stated that this bill was about the emergency treatment of woman victim of rape and that Congress should honor the 2013 International Day of Women, celebrated on March 8th, by passing this law. When some pro-life groups found out about the trap that was hidden in the wording of the bill it was too late, the bill was already approved by Congress (House and Senate) and since then the life of the unborn in Brazil is hanging by a thread, that thread being the full veto of this bill by the President Dilma Rousseff.
Back in the 2010 presidential campaign, when President Dilma's candidacy was at risk over recorded interviews where she stated that she was in favor of abortion, President Dilma signed a public document committing herself not to change the current abortion legislation in Brazil. She won the elections but despite her compromise her government is trying again and again over the years to legalize abortion using the tactics of trying to widen the interpretation of legislation.
The PL03/2013 bill is President Dilma's latest step to accomplish the goal of legalizing abortion in Brazil. The text that follows is a painful revelation that the CNBB, the Brazilian Episcopal Conference, is, in the best possible scenario, at least informing beforehand the enemies of life, in this case President Dilma Rousseff's government, about the content of a note that the CNBB intends to publish about the PL03/2013 bill.
The tone of the text is best understood if the reader takes into account the history of CNBB on many social issues over the decades, the English-speaking reader can't access all this information but a piece of that history concerning abortion can be found in an article published by the National Catholic Register here.
After reading the article above and the one below the reader will find that there's some reasoning behind the suspicion that many Brazilian catholics have about the CNBB's historical close connections to the Brazilian ruling party: PT (Labor's Party).
***
Party Allegiance: Note about the PL03/2013 sent beforehand to the "appreciation" of the President Dilma Rousseff. How delicate! (Original link)
A certain numerary of Opus Dei, pro-life militant and member of the Commission of Bioethics of the CNBB, is in the spotlight recently for a do-gooder attitude that infests some Catholic circles.
This time she puts herself in defense of a position supposedly neutral and balanced, but, in reality, "pontius-pilatian", by the CNBB.
Otto von Bismarck, great persecutor of the Church, said that "the less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night". That is, laws are like sausages, it's better not to know how they are made. However, in a discussion this lady was having in a Facebook group she gave away the methods used by warm Catholics that look for an accommodation between right and wrong, between virtue and vice, softly gagging other leaderships with its actions (like the Commission for Life and Family of CNBB was trying to do with a communication that is already circling by email and on social networks to its subordinate organs - link).
Up to the morning of this July 16th 2013, you, dear reader, don't know the official pronouncement of the CNBB. Rome burns while Nero plays, calmly, his harp. President Dilma has until August 2nd to veto or to sign the bill. We already know the story: some days before the baby is thrown out with the water CNBB will publish a little diplomatic note. Everything seems to be very synchronized...and, indeed, it is!
Instead of timely making clear the Catholic position using the occasion of the visit of Pope Francis to Brazil, in which the government would hardly take such an unpopular measure, what does the Brazilian National Bishop's Conference do? To our eyes it sleeps. But, discretely, it acts. The distinct member of the Bioethics Commission tells us:
"As I have less compromise on the subject than Father [blacked out], I think I can put it in a nutshell one of the aspects of the CNBB's position. It considers not very delicate to present its demand to the media before presenting it to the President. Therefore, we are all waiting for the final position, even those who already know about it"
That's really it, dear reader: the Brazilian Episcopal Conference considers "not very delicate" to make a pronouncement before presenting "its demand" to the President! Before positioning itself before Catholics, society in general and, above all, before God, the CNBB forwards "its demand" to the prior knowledge (or was it to receive a nihil obstat?) of Mr. Gilberto Carvalho, the Mandatarian's interlocutor.
The enemy, instead of being confronted and neutralized on its intentions, is appeased. Instead of being treated for what it effectively is - enemy - receives the delicacies dispensed to cause partners, treatment reserved in reciprocity by wheeler-dealers. After all, gentlemen, should the cause of God be defended with tooth and nail, whatever the cost, or can it be the object of wheeler-dealing and human respect?
Even though some people consider "just, right and true that a woman receive medical treatment and anti-STD drugs", specially with a bill voted on the 8th of March, Women's International Day - what a delicacy -, isn't it obvious the real eager of the Federal Government on imposing abortion in Brazil? The bad intention exposed by tortuous maneuvers, in the dead of night, with projects approved with lightning speed, wouldn't it all demonstrate nothing more than a preoccupation with the health of women, therefore concluding that the bill will only need minor cuts? Come on, gentlemen! Don't be useless idiots!
The defense of the partial veto, with minor changes that would left untouched the whole body of a norm badly worded on purpose, created with the objective of widening its conclusions in the future, the defense of this is the same as letting oneself be fooled by whom who has clearly shown its true colors. To go down that path would be nothing but a patent demonstration of ingenuity or...complicity.
The noble member of the Bioethics Commission of CNBB considers "unreasonable a request for a total veto", because the "President will never do that". "Politics is the art of what is possible", a quote from that same Otto von Bismarck that she use to repeat frequently. Well differing, the Pope John Paul II qualified the political exercise as "the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good" (Exort. Apost. Christifideles laici, n. 42)
As the great Bishop Manoel Pestana Filho- considered by some as too "radical" - remembered , quoting Cardinal Pie, "there's a prudence that kills us". He always used to repeat the old bishop of the once-happy Anapolis [Brazilian city, a reference for the pro-life movement]: "The Lord does not asks us victory, but struggle". Therefore, CNBB, forgive the faithful if they have "not very delicate" thoughts about your proceedings. Brazilian catholics only want you to do politics according to John Paul II, not wheeler-dealing according to Bismarck!
How not to remember the famous quote of Saint Ezequiel Moreno? "Many of those who call themselves catholics help the 'revolutionaries'. They are always 'moderate', esteeming 'public peace' as a supreme good. These tolerant Catholics, condescending, mild, sweet, lovely to the extreme with Freemasonry and with the furious enemies of Jesus Christ, keep all their bad humor to those who scream 'Long live Religion' and defend it, suffering continuous penalties and exposing their lives. For them the latter are 'exaggerated and not prudent, compromising everything and causing the loss of the Church's interests."
It's paramount to recognize purely and simply that we are in a war and that the enemy must be confronted, not appeased!
(translation provided by Fratres in Unum)
