In a letter sent Monday, attorneys for Kennedy show that the campaign is fraught with factual inaccuracies that even the most cursory investigation would have revealed. Public records indicate that Autocam has paid almost $10 million in real property and personal property taxes in the State of Michigan since 1997, including $961,386.74 in the year 2012 alone.

“Autocam not only provides well-paying jobs and award winning benefits for hundreds of Michigan families, they also pay their fair share of property taxes,” said Brian Burch, Executive Director of CatholicVote.org Legal Action Fund, which represents Kennedy in his federal lawsuit. But Planned Parenthood has misrepresented the facts in a malicious effort to disparage the Kennedys.”

“The truth of the matter is very different. Planned Parenthood evidently considers Autocam and the Kennedys fair game for political smearing because they wish to provide health care benefits to their employees consistent with their deeply held moral and religious beliefs and therefore do not cover abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and other medical services. Autocam already provides first class benefits, including a $1,500 match contribution to each employee’s health savings account. But compliance with the mandate would require Autocam and the Kennedys to pay millions of dollars in fines, which would destroy their company.

“Rather than addressing the important issues raised by Kennedy’s lawsuit, Planned Parenthood has resorted to a smear campaign designed to discredit the Kennedy family and their company. Their campaign is a shameless effort that cannot go unanswered,” said Burch.

The letter sent Monday demands that Planned Parenthood immediately eliminate all references to the baseless charges, including the implication that the plaintiffs in Autocam’s suit are all male, and publish a retraction of the false and defamatory statements.

The CatholicVote.org Legal Action Fund is representing Autocam and John Kennedy in Autocam v. Sebelius in the U.S. Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan along with the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm headquartered in Chicago.

And now we call him His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus.

Benedict XVI has been a faithful shepherd of the Church for the past eight years. In his own humble way, he has carried on the much-needed work of faithfully defining and implementing the often misunderstood teachings of the Second Vatican Council. His evangelical witness along with that of his predecessor John Paul II is what inspired the founding of CatholicVote.org!

The critics of our Church continue to unfairly attack him, yet his eyes have always been on Christ. And so must ours. Christ always wins.

This week we began mailing free copies of Pope Benedict XVI’s bestselling book: Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week. If you are looking for a book to read this Lent, this is it.

We have a limited number of copies available. If you want your own, this is your last chance!

Donate $40 or more now to the work of CatholicVote.org and receive a FREE copy of Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus’ book on Holy Week.     (Link updated)

What a moment to be a Catholic!

Thank you Pope Benedict. And thanks be to God for sending us this faithful man.

Come Holy Spirit!

May thy will be done.

CV: Your new book is called “Evangelical Catholicism.” We are accustomed to seeing the term ‘evanglical’ to describe Protestant megachurches, not Catholicism. What is ‘Evangelical Catholicism’?

WEIGEL: Evangelical Catholicism is the Church of the New Evangelization — the Church being born from over as hundred years of Catholic reform. That reform culminated with the Second Vatican Council, which has been given an authoritative interpretation by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, an interpretation built around the idea of “putting out into the deep” of missionary activism. Everyone in the Church is a missionary. Every place is mission territory.

CV: Hispanics make up one-third of Catholics in the United States. The Bishops have been responded by creating resources to meet this need. Bishops and priests have learned Spanish. In fact, the news program 60 Minutes showed Archbishop Dolan brushing up on his Spanish, which he learned in 2010. How will this transformation affect Catholics in the pew?

WEIGEL: Whatever the language spoken, the message has to be the message of the Gospel: the call to meet the Lord Jesus in Word and Sacrament; to understand friendship with him as the answer to the question that is every human life; and to offer the possibility of that friendship to others.

CV: The Bishops have been extremely reluctant to perform quality control when Catholics or Catholic institutions betray or outright oppose Church teaching. Is this restraint making it harder to maintain Catholic identity?

WEIGEL: Yes, and a more robust response to Catholic identity issues is required. Catholic Lite impedes the evangelical mission of the Church. That’s why bishops should call Catholic institutions to fidelity: so that they can advance, not impede, the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.

CV: In recent decades the Church has made living the Catholic life easier. Friday penance outside Lent is virtually forgotten. Several holy days are moved to Sundays or dropped altogether if they land on Mondays or Saturdays. The sacrament of Penance is banished to 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoons. Do you think such accommodations might tell young Catholics that the Church doesn’t take itself too seriously?

WEIGEL: In Evangelical Catholicism, I suggest that we need more holy days, not less, and more ways to differentiate ourselves behaviorally from the public culture. A restoration of Friday as a day of abstinence from meat would help say, “We’re different,’ and open up the question of why we’re different. Priests announcing that the church will be open for confessions, twenty-four hours a day, on certain days, would make another powerful signal.

CV: In the wake of the 2012 elections, some have suggested that faithful Catholics should recede from politics altogether and focus all of our energies on changing hearts and minds. But is this really an either/or? Surely we can admit that Catholics need to do more from an artistic and cultural standpoint.

WEIGEL: It’s not an either/or yet. And on the life issues, marriage, and religious freedom, we have to keep fighting the good fight until we won — or we’re in a new form of catacombs. But even then we’d be sending out e-mails making our case! Platforms like CatholicVote.org are an important part of building the Church of the New Evangelization as a culture-forming counterculture, aiming to convert the wider public culture which so often misunderstands, when it does not hold in contempt, biblical religion and biblical morality.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since it’s been 600 years since a pope has abdicated, we thought a bonus question to this well-known papal biographer was appropriate.

CV: With the news of Pope Benedict XVI’s planned abdication, let’s look back at his eight years as Bishop of Rome. Everyone agrees that Pope John Paul II was a master at evangelization. Perhaps comparisons between Benedict and John Paul are unfair. Nevertheless, do you think Pope Benedict XVI will also be known as a evangelist or will he regarded more as a theologian or teacher?

WEIGEL: He should be regarded as both. In addition to his formal magisterium, Benedict XVI leaves behind a legacy of luminous preaching and catechesis; indeed, I think it’s not unfair to say that he was one of the great preachers of our time.

It is a sad irony that as we are about to mark 40 years since the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in the Roe v Wade decision resulting in the death of 55 million babies in the womb since 1973, the government of Ireland has begun the process to legalize abortion on demand with its Health Minister James O’Reilly promising to ram through legislation by the end of this month. It is worth reflecting how this has come about, how many have been misled into thinking such a move is necessary, and whether this could become Ireland’s Roe v Wade.

Ireland’s 1861 Offences Against the Person Act makes abortion unlawful, and multiple national referenda throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have reaffirmed this. Despite the referenda, through regulation and litigation, exceptions have been granted for women to travel to England for the purposes of procuring an abortion.

In the 2011 election in Ireland, the Fine Gael Party, issued a written pledge to voters that it would not introduce abortion legislation. This promise secured tens of thousands of votes for them and helped the party become the senior partner in the current coalition government along with the rabidly pro-abortion but much smaller Labor Party. Until three months ago, it appeared Ireland would remain a safe harbor.

Alas, much has changed.

On October 28, 2012, Dr. Savita Halappanavar tragically died at University Hospital Galway from multiple organ failure after septicemia set in while miscarrying her baby 17 weeks into her pregnancy. Dr. Halappanavar’s husband claims she was denied an abortion to save her life. Dr. Halappanavar’s miscarriage and illness have been abused in a shameful manner by all who fanatically want abortion on demand legalized in Ireland against the will of the great majority of its people. How did people of so many countries rise up, almost simultaneously in protest over something for which an official inquest has yet to begin? The whole worldwide campaign smacked heavily of orchestration and that prepared in advance. Was it? The official inquest will begin later this month, so more facts will likely be known in the coming weeks. Let us hope the answers come in time to save the lives of many thousands of unborn Irish children.

Unfortunately, Dr. Halappanavar’s death triggered a panicked frenzy among abortion-on-demand activists and politicians desperate to keep their majority governing coalition intact, fueled by the hysterics of the Irish media, in particular the Irish Times. The aforementioned coalition have used this tragedy to create a platform for the abortion-on-demand agenda in Ireland, based on propaganda and lies about the care which women receive in Irish maternity hospitals. In reality, maternity care for women in Ireland is among the best in the world. Such coalitions engaged in similar lies and deception in the United States during Norma Jean McCorvey’s pregnancy in 1973, and certainly when the pro-abortion forces presented her case as Roe v Wade before the Supreme Court.

The whole abortion debate presently underway in Ireland, like the case in the United States 40 years ago, is now driven by a lie created to foster a culture of death on a population that has always voted against abortion in multiple national referenda. In particular, women in Ireland have been falsely led to believe that their maternity hospitals are dangerous places. Of course the hysteria has also caused tremendous damage to Ireland’s reputation abroad with global headlines suggesting that Dr. Halappanavar died because she was denied an abortion in “backward and out-of-touch” Catholic Ireland.

In this debate, the loudest and most prominent voices are those that have hijacked the tragic death of Dr. Halappanavar for their own ends, such as Ireland’s radically pro-abortion National Women’s Council. The likes of the National Women’s Council have gone from insisting on official guidelines from the Irish government for exactly when abortion is permitted to save the mother’s life to allowing abortion in the instances of when a woman threatens suicide, to permitting abortion-inducing pills, to the legalization of abortion on demand. Clearly, they are more interested in advancing their own radical pro-abortion agenda than protecting the lives of women in Ireland.

What is very clear is that public opinion has only shifted in favor of abortion because of Dr. Halappanavar’s case. It is doubtful whether the people of Ireland would have changed had they not been told lies by an pro-abortion agenda-driven media.

To correct the false information it is important to clearly state the following indisputable facts. Ireland remains one of the safest places in the world for a mother to give birth, this has been so consistently over the years. Maternal deaths are rare in Ireland, and Ireland, without abortion, is one of the safest places in the world for a mother to have a baby – a fact praised by the UN. When a seriously ill pregnant woman needs medical treatment which may put the life of her baby at risk, such treatments are ethically permissible provided every effort has been made to save the life of both the mother and her baby. Dr. Halappanavar’s death had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was not given an abortion with even UK doctors acknowledging that had she been given an abortion she would still have died.

James O’Reilly, Health Minister of Ireland

The media tsunami also had another objective: to demonize the position of the Catholic Church on abortion and present it as lacking compassion. This is exactly why the initial story suggested that it was the “Catholic ethos” of the hospital that prevented responsible treatment of the mother. This lie was then quickly spread around the globe in the hysterical reporting of the case. The journalists conveniently ignored the fact that the Health Minister ( himself pro-abortion) urged the public not to pre-judge the tragedy and adding that he had absolutely no evidence to suggest that the tragedy had anything to do with “Catholic ethos”. The media also ignored the comments of the local Fine Gael member of parliament who explained that the hospital was not run or managed by any religious order and did not have a “Catholic ethos”. The media also ignored the fact that this was the first case of its kind at the hospital and that the hospital had never had a complaint about maternal care.

Pro-abortion advocates argue there are cases, many tragic cases, where abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. Dr. Halappanavar’s tragedy gave brief credence to this assumption. However, international leaders in obstetrics and gynecology, reporting in the recent Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare confirm “…the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women”. While advocates claim that we must legislatively codify into statute the 1992 X-case ruling (which allowed a 14 year old rape victim to travel to England for an abortion) to allow for termination of pregnancy there has been no detailed medical discussion as to when this is actually needed. There is no discussion around the existing medical practices that provide for all necessary treatment that a mother may need, even with the possibility the child may die while treating the mother. However, what is at issue- and what is crucial- is whether, and in what cases- direct killing of the child will be permitted under the new legislation. This will soon be known through a report issued by the Committee on Health and Children, that will serve as the basis for the probably-already-written legislation and regulation whose approval will be rammed through before any thoughtful consideration or input from the people of Ireland.

Unlike the instance of the Roe v Wade fiat in which the Supreme Court in the United States forced abortion on demand on the American people, the people of Ireland have a unique opportunity to yet again defeat the Culture of Death. This latest effort to institute abortion on demand in Ireland can be defeated by organizing the largest-ever public education and lobbying campaign, uniting the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church in the North, pro-life organizations and elected officials, and using cutting edge strategies and tactics. Should legislation and regulation pass despite our best efforts, the same campaign will be initiated in favor of a referendum overturning the actions of the parliament. And in the next national election, an information campaign will be initiated to defeat those members of parliament who supported opening the door to abortion on demand in Ireland.

With the prayers support of those around the world who have valiantly fought to defend unborn children in their own countries, Ireland will continue to protect the lives of children and uphold the dignity of women in Ireland.

Anthony Murphy is the Editor of The Catholic Voice newspaper, based in Dublin, Ireland.

The legislation is called the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act or H.R.61, and it would “prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Service (HHS) from providing any federal family planning assistance to an entity unless the entity certifies that, during the period of such assistance, the entity will not perform, and will not provide any funds to any other entity that performs, an abortion.” [Full text of the bill]

Planned Parenthood’s annual report, released on January 7, makes clear that our taxpayer money should not go to this organization:

• Planned Parenthood committed 333,964 abortions during their 2011-2012 fiscal year, representing a record-high number.
• Their annual report notes that they received a record $542 million in total taxpayer funding (federal, state and local governments) in one year, making up 45% of their annual revenue.
• With our country’s continued debt problem, Planned Parenthood should not be receiving federal aid. Their own annual report declares an excess of $87.4 million in revenue from the past year and over $1.2 billion in assets.

Call Capitol Hill today at (202) 224-3121 and tell your Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 61. (You can look up your Representative here.)

“Not only is Planned Parenthood getting richer by collecting public bailouts for abortion services, they’re also profiting off the taxpayer by making abortion services the core of their so-called family planning support – they try to push abortions on women so they can make more money,” said Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote.org. “The time has come to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Other resources:

• “Planned Parenthood Sees Record High Abortions, Taxpayer Funding,” LifeNews.com, 1/7/13.
• SBA List Fact Sheet on Planned Parenthood’s 2011-2012 Annual Report, SBA List, 1/7/13
• “Planned Parenthood Now Receives Approximately $1.5 Million Dollars a Day in Taxpayer Funding,” AUL, 1/8/13
• “Planned Parenthood Sets Record for Abortions and Government Funding,” Heritage, 1/9/13

CatholicVote’s President Brian Burch and other pro-life leaders sent this letter today to Members of Congress urging them to support the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 61). The bill, authored by Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, would prevent Title X federal funding from going to big, profitable abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood until they agree not to perform or refer for elective abortions.

Here is the letter below:

January 8, 2013

Dear Member of Congress:

Congratulations on your recent election to serve your constituents in the 113th Congress. The purpose of our letter is to encourage you to stand in strong support for the right to life – in all stages, and in all places.

With that goal in mind you should know that right now one of the greatest threats to women and young girls is the Obama Administration’s attempts to insert the federal government further into the role of promoting elective abortions with federal taxpayers’ money. One example is the treatment of Planned Parenthood, a political ally of the President and the largest provider of elective abortions in the country. Planned Parenthood is a giant abortion chain and it has received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and reimbursements from the government. No one knows exactly how much we’ve wasted in supporting abortion businesses, but a 2010 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report showed hundreds of millions have been funneled to them. Planned Parenthood’s 2011-2012 Annual Report showed they received a record $542 million in total taxpayer funding in one year, making up 45% of their annual revenue.

Not only is Planned Parenthood getting richer by collecting public bailouts for abortion services, they’re also profiting off the taxpayer by making abortion services the core of their so-called family planning support – they try to push abortions on women so they can make more money. To make matters even worse, these big abortion businesses have been found to be complicit in promoting sex-selection abortions, facilitating human trafficking, engaging in coercive behavior, and failing to maintain financial records in accordance with the law, just to name a few things.  

To help address this problem Representative Marsha Blackburn (TN-7) introduced the first pro-life bill in the U.S. House of Representatives on the first day of this session of Congress, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 61). Her legislation would prevent Title X federal funding from going to big, profitable abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood until they agree not to perform or refer for elective abortions. This is an important step because we can’t afford the moral and financial cost to this country for innocent lives to be taken, especially as it happens with federal taxpayer money.

We respectfully request that you lend your co-sponsorship and public support to H.R. 61 and other pieces of legislation like it so that we can stop taxpayer funding for abortion and begin to hold Planned Parenthood and others who violate the law accountable. Thank you for your time and consideration to this important matter.

In Support of Life,

Penny Nance
President, Concerned Women for America

Lila Grace Rose
President, Live Action

Star Parker
President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education

Andrea Lafferty
President, Traditional Values Coalition

Ralph Reed
President, Faith & Freedom Coalition

Gary Bauer
President, American Values

Brian Burch
President, CatholicVote.org

Matt Smith
President, Catholic Advocate

Buddy Smith, Executive Vice President
American Family Association

Mario Lopez
President, Hispanic Leadership Fund

Austin Ruse
President, C-FAM

C. Preston Noell III
President, Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.

Seton Motley
President, Less Government

Georgette Forney
President, Anglicans for Life

William J. Murray
Chairman, Religious Freedom Coalition

Jim Backlin
Vice President of Legislative Affairs, Christian Coalition of America

Dr. Keith Wiebe
President, American Association of Christian Schools

Steven W. Mosher
President, Population Research Institute

Mandi Campbell
Legal Director, Liberty Center for Law and Policy

Mathew Staver
Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel

Deryl Edwards
President, Liberty Counsel Action

Jim Martin
Chairman, 60 Plus Association

Judson Phillips
Founder, Tea Party Nation

Jay Sekulow
Chief Counsel, ACLJ

David Bossie
Preisdent, Citizens United

Colin Hanna
President, Let Freedom Ring

Roland Warren
CEO, Care Net

Micheal Needham
CEO, Heritage Action for America

There’s just a few hours left in 2012. Here’s a look back at the Top 10 CV Articles from 2012.

10. The Worst Archbishop Ever

9. Cardinal Dolan: White House Lectured USCCB Staff on How to Interpret Catholic Teaching!

8. How the White House’s 98% Contraception Figure for Catholics is Wrong

7. Updates: Want to Know What is Happening with Komen vs. Planned Parenthood?

6. Attacks on Susan G. Komen Reveals Planned Parenthood’s Real Face

5. News Outlets Failed to Reveal Lesbian Denied Communion at Mother’s Funeral is a Buddhist and Gay Rights Activist

4. Video: “Why I Love Religion, And Love Jesus”

3. Cardinal Burke’s Election Year Prayer

2. 191 Bishops Have Spoken Out Against Obama/HHS Mandate

1. Obama v Romney – The Choice is Clear

Despite the obvious setbacks and tragedies from this past year, there are many reasons to have hope. No matter what happens, our hope is always in Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. But we also think it’s important to mark the signs of hope, and the work of the Catholics and the Church in our world.

That’s why for the last four years, we’ve published an annual Top Ten Reasons for Hope.

This list tries to capture the newsworthy events and notable stories of people’s lives which are signs of Christ’s hope.

While the list is certainly not exhaustive, these ten events inspired us.

We hope it will inspire you, too.

Wishing you and your family a truly joyous Christmas.

-The CatholicVote Team

P.S. If you support our work, please consider a tax-deductible donation.