A person alleging to be former Marine Sgt. Jean Bonadio has responded to my post Some people don’t get it. Check out the original post and the reply.
Who said the following in rejecting the proposals made by the Iraq Study Group:
“The attempt to create a linkage between the Iraqi issue and the Mideast issue — we have a different view.”
Could it be Osama, the leadership in Iran, Syria, or Hamas? Perhaps Hezbollah? Maybe it was the Germans or the French, you know, our allies who ‘never’ support us? Could it even have been Mr. Stay the Course, President Bush.
Nope!
These were the words of our most faithful and trusted ally, the friend who gets every bomb and every dollar we can’t afford – the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert.
See: Israel Rejects Iraq Study Group Proposals
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday rejected a U.S. advisory group’s conclusion that a concerted effort to resolve Israel’s conflict with its neighbors will help stabilize the situation in Iraq, saying there is no connection between the two issues.
Olmert also rebuffed the group’s recommendation that Israel open negotiations with Syria, but said Israelis want “with all our might” to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.
Admitting the connection would mean admitting that our support of Israel facilitates the two-tiered apartheid system that fuels the fires of hatred toward the United States.
Boże, który przez Dziewicy Poczęcie, przygotowałeś godne mieszkanie Synowi Twojemu; pokornie prosimy: ażebyś, który ją, dla przewidzianych zasług śmierci jej Syna, od wszelkiej zmazy zachowałeś, tak i nam za jej przyczyną, dozwolił czystymi przyjść do Ciebie. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
Could Schenectady County be the first NY State County to have no hospitals providing abortions? We can only hope, but the murderers are ringing the gong.
Based on an article in today’s Times-Union it appears that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany is taking a firm stand on the issue of hospital mergers. The Times-Union does a pretty good job of providing the contrast between affirming life and engaging in the business of death.
See: Merger poses clash of values: Abortion issue splits Catholic St. Clare’s, secular Ellis
When Troy’s Leonard Hospital merged with St. Mary’s Hospital more than a decade ago, Leonard’s doctors suddenly were prohibited from writing prescriptions for birth control pills.
Likewise, the proposed merger of Schenectady’s St. Clare’s Hospital, a Catholic institution, and secular Ellis Hospital raises an array of conflicts over institutional values, including policies on abortion, birth control and when a feeding tube can be removed.
Capital Region obstetrical doctors expressed doubt Wednesday that St. Clare’s and Ellis can merge their values. They also doubted that the institutions, merged or not, could handle the increase of volume if Niskayuna’s Bellevue Woman’s Hospital is forced to close.
The hospital-closing commission, also known as the Berger Commission, recommended merging Ellis and St. Clare’s and closing Bellevue, which has a 40-bed maternity ward and delivers 2,200 babies a year. Ellis Hospital, a 368-bed hospital, closed its maternity ward eight years ago. St. Clare’s Hospital, a 200-bed Roman Catholic hospital, has a 12-bed maternity ward and delivers 800 babies a year.
St. Clare’s does not perform abortions, while Ellis and Bellevue allow them. Bellevue has performed 180 abortions this year, according to the hospital administration. The number of abortions performed at Ellis was not available Wednesday.
The Berger Commission gave St. Clare’s and Ellis a deadline of December 2007 to merge, and if they fail to, one must close.
“It’s probably not going to work because of the religious background,” said Dr. David Cryns, a Latham OB/GYN doctor. “I think St. Clare’s will have to close. I don’t think the diocese will cave.”
The religious differences and the union issues — Ellis nurses are unionized and St. Clare’s are not — will be difficult to surmount, said Dr. Elaine Cheon-Lee, who is chief of obstetrics at St. Clare’s.
“Those are tough issues to resolve and there’s not a lot of middle ground,” Cheon-Lee said.
Dr. Fe Mondragon, of Mondragon McGrinder Medical Associates in Schenectady and Clifton Park, said if St. Clare’s policies prevail, options for women in Schenectady will be minimized.
The U.S. Conference of Bishops dictates health care policies at Catholic hospitals like St. Clare’s and St. Peters in Albany in a document called “The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.”
The document lays out 72 rules for Catholic institutions that encourage serving the poor and administering to the spiritual needs of patients but prohibit artificial fertilization, tubal ligation, vasectomies, the use of condoms or birth control and abortions.
Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the Diocese of Albany chided the Berger Commission at a hearing before the state Senate Health Committee on Friday for not protecting religious values in the proposed mergers.
“Religiously-sponsored hospitals and nursing homes provide a unique and distinctively different approach to the planning for and delivery of health care services, especially in ministering to the spiritual component of illness and recovery,” he said. “We are concerned that this is a fundamental element of care that was not mentioned, or even alluded to in the criteria.”
Meanwhile, an Ellis Hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday that Ellis is committed to providing health care services for women in the Schenectady area.
“A hospital merger is like a marriage, and all of the issues that come up in a marriage come up in hospital mergers,” said Lois Uttley, director of the MergerWatch Project. “How will the kids be raised, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish? When the two partners are different, there can be quite a lot of questions about that.”
No, it is not. Neither in business nor in marriage should one be required to loose his or her sole for the purpose of attaining the goal. Better to be single or out-of-business than to loose your everlasting soul.
MergerWatch, an affiliate of the Family Planning Advocates of New York, was created in response to the loss of contraceptive services after the Troy hospitals merger.
“The health care landscape is littered with divorces of hospital mergers that failed,” Uttley said. “A lot of them failed over these cultural and religious issues.”
MergerWatch does not oppose the consolidation of religious and secular institution, but it advocates for protecting women’s health care services. That can be done, Uttley said, by creating a “hospital within a hospital.” In Austin, Texas, for example, one floor of a Catholic-run hospital is incorporated under a different name. It has its own staff and its own funding, and doctors there can offer birth control, abortions, tubal ligations, and family planning advice.
“People in Schenectady need to go into this with their eyes open,” Uttley said. “When the community is aware that a merger is being proposed and gets a chance to have a say, then very creative solutions can be devised.”
…
Again, being creative is wonderful, but being creative doesn’t require that you loose your soul. The ultimate solution to any problem is the solution that is consistent with faith in Christ and His Church. That’s the sort of faith we must live by.
Boże, który sługę Twego św. Ambrożego, biskupa wielką napełniłeś mądrością, i dałeś mu silę do zwyciężania przeciwników Kościoła świętego, użycz nam tej łaski, abyśmy wiarę Chrystusową serdecznie ukochali, i żadnymi względami ludzkimi wstrzymać się nie dali od spełnienia jej przepisów. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
Not a word mentioned.
It appears that Ellis Hospital and St. Clare’s in Schenectady, NY have agreed to merge based on the findings of the Berger Commission.
Ellis, which provides abortions (God have mercy on us) and St. Clare’s, a Catholic hospital, have accepted the State’s merger recommendation.
Will St. Clare’s demand that all abortions cease? I see no other alternative. I can’t imagine that a Catholic institution would simply agree to moving abortion services next door (not out-of-site, but out-of-mind). Let’s see how strong Christian witness will be in the face of government. For my part I’m guessing that we already know who’s in charge – the State.
From today’s Times-Union: Rivals bow to state panel: Ellis, St. Clare’s hospitals agree to merge in Schenectady
SCHENECTADY — Ellis and St. Clare’s hospitals have accepted the recommendation of a state commission to merge, both facilities announced Tuesday.
The hospitals released a joint statement in response to recommendations from the Berger Commission, the nonpartisan panel charged with undertaking an independent review of health care capacity and resources statewide.
The recommendations, released Nov. 28, were aimed at cutting costs in the health care industry.
“We approach this challenge together with a shared commitment to ensuring that the people of our community continue to receive the high quality of care they expect and deserve,” the joint statement said. “We face a great deal of work ahead to determine how together, St. Clare’s and Ellis can best deliver the full range of health care services our community expects. While a difficult and complex undertaking, we believe this is a positive step toward strengthening health care in Schenectady County, for generations to come.”
…
Ellis Hospital opened with five beds in 1885, according to the hospital Web site. The facility bears the name of John Ellis, who founded the Schenectady Locomotive Works. Today, Ellis employs 380 physicians and dentists, in addition to support staff.
On the other side of the city of Schenectady, two community leaders had approached the bishop about opening a hospital in 1942. Seven years later, St. Clare’s Hospital opened, according to the hospital’s Web site.
Deacon Raphael, who is also a Police Officer in Buffalo, NY requests our prayers for two of his comrades who were shot in the line of duty last night.
Please pray for Officers Carl Andolina and Patricia “Patty” Parete. Officer Parete is in very serious condition.
Renee from the Polish American Forum notes that her parents received two replies to letters they sent as follows:
“Thanks for your comments. Anyone who knows anything about World War II knows that Poland didn’t kill $3 million people. The Nazis did. But we should have done a better job in the caption to make clear that Mr. Weiss was standing beside a wall at the Holocaust Center containing the Poland inscription and that the inscription about Poland referred to everyone killed by the Nazis. Thanks again for the feedback. David Ashenfelter”
and
“Hello again. We’re planning to write a clarification for tomorrow’s paper about the photo, where it was taken and what the inscription meant. Thanks again for taking the time to respond to the story. We appreciate and value your comments… Best wishes. David Ashenfelter”
Boże, któryś błogosławionego biskupa Mikołaja niezliczonemi cudami wsławić raczył, spraw, abyśmy przez modlitwy i zasługi jego od ognia piekielnego wybawieni byli. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
O Oriens,
splendor lucis aeternae,
et sol justitiae:
veni, et illumina
sedentes in tenebris,
et umbra mortis.O Dawn,
splendor of eternal light,
and sun of justice,
come, and shine
on those seated in darkness,
and in the shadow of death.O Wschodzie,
Blasku światłości wieczystej
i Słońce sprawiedliwości,
przyjdź i oświeć
żyjących w mroku
i cieniu śmierci.
So we sit in darkness waiting for something to happen to us, for the light to break through. We wallow in our self imposed agony, O God, when will you set us free?
We forget that He set us free already. We are free to choose Him, an easy choice if you consider the alternatives. We are free to enter into union with Him, every day at the altar; a great gift and blessing.
But still we sit and cry out, expecting the quick fix and the black and white answer. It won’t come, because our questions are not worthy of consideration. Rather what we need to do is allow the light of the new Dawn to shine in us, to set ourselves aside, and to work in truth, to struggle —“ fighting the good fight, and by doing so we will succeed —“ eternal life, eternal light.