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Welcome to the Web site for the Diocese of Fargo, North
Dakota.
We invite you to learn about the Diocese and our
parish families
by looking through
the categories listed on the left.
May God
bless the time you spend here with us. |
Cardinal cites reasons ban on
public funding of abortion should be retained
WASHINGTON
Posted June 30, 2009 |
| Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chair of the
Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, wrote to members of the House Appropriations Committee June 30
urging them not to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Last week
the House subcommittee considering the Financial Services appropriations
bill for 2010 voted to permit direct public funding of abortion in the
nation’s capital. Cardinal Rigali said that the
subcommittee’s action “effectively nullifies the Dornan amendment,”
which for a total of 18 years has prevented public funding of elective abortions in the District. He said this
move, “presumably the first step in a broader effort to restore such
funding throughout the federal government,” is misguided for three
reasons. |
Nuns bow their heads during the opening prayer at the March for Life
rally on the
National Mall Jan. 22 in Washington.
(CNS photo/Leslie E. Kossoff) |
“First, public funding of abortion is rejected by the
American people, as numerous surveys of public opinion have shown,”
Cardinal Rigali said. He also noted that Catholics recently sent “tens
of millions of postcards to their elected representatives in Congress,
opposing…any weakening or reversal of current appropriations riders on
abortion.”
“Second, no lawmaker or Administration can support such a policy change
and still claim to support ‘reducing abortions.’ The evidence is
overwhelming, and universally recognized by groups on all sides of the
abortion issue, that the availability of public funds for abortion
greatly increases abortions,” the bishops’ Pro-Life Committee Chair
argued.
“Third, this action takes place as Congress is working to win broad
support for a much-needed major reform of our health care system,”
Cardinal Rigali noted. “This is the worst of all possible times to be
injecting the divisive issue of public abortion funding into the debate
on government health policy.”
Cardinal Rigali concluded by urging the full House Appropriations
Committee to reverse the subcommittee’s action and retain the funding
ban in current law. The full text of his letter is available at:
www.usccb.org/prolife/Rigali-DornanAmendment-2009.pdf. |
U.S. Bishops seek comprehensive immigration reform
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Cardinal Francis George of Chicago called on
President Barack Obama and Congress on June 18 to enact comprehensive
immigration reform before the end of 2009. A statement approved at the Spring
meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, of which Cardinal
George serves as president, states, “We urge respect and observance of all just
laws, and we do not approve or encourage the illegal entry of anyone into our
country. From a humanitarian perspective, however, our fellow human beings, who
migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of
immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into
remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering
should not continue.
Read the full statement here.
True health reform must respect
human life, dignity
WASHINGTON (May 22, 2009)
In a May 20 statement, Bishop William F.
Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., offered the U.S. bishops’ principles and
criteria for health care reform.
“The Church provides health
care, purchases health care and picks up the pieces of a failing health care
system,” Bishop Murphy said. “The Catholic community encounters and serves the
sick and uninsured in our emergency rooms, shelters and on the doorsteps of our
parishes. One out of six patients is cared for in Catholic hospitals. We bring
strong convictions and everyday experience to the issue of health care.”
Read the full USCCB press release
here
God is constantly faithful
Bishop Samuel Aquila
Read the full message here.
We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of prayers
and offers of assistance during the flooding that affected much of the
Diocese of Fargo this spring. Please continue to pray for all of those
affected. Over the past few months, several people have requested
information regarding how to send financial donations for flood
relief/disaster response. The information follows:
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Floodwaters pour over a rural road in Cass County.
(Photo by Tanya Watterud)
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