Bishop Paprocki to Illinois Governer: "I beg of you..."

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A good friend of mine is an editor for Touchstone Magazine out of Chicago. He passed on the following e-mail. God bless this courageous Bishop. If you have a blog, please get the word out. Thanks!!
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ATTENTION: Especially you Catholic bloggers! 

There is NEWS in this latest blog for Mere Comments by Jim Kushiner. 

Ken 

########### 

[merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/04/bishop_begs_gov.html](http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/04/bishop_begs_gov.html) 

Bishop Begs Governor: Respect Freedom of Religion 

Few may have heard the local Illinois news about Governor Blagojevich 
issuing an executive order demanding that pharmacists must fill 
prescriptions for contraceptives, even if it goes contrary to their 
conscience. Fewer probably heard what one of the Catholic auxillary bishops 
of Chicago said to Gov. Blagojevich at a Mass for John Paul II just a mile 
or two from our office on April 3. We take this directly from the Sunday 
bulletin of St. John Cantius Church, Chicago: 

########## 

POST-COMMUNION REMARKS (condensed version) 
AT MASS FOR POPE JOHN PAUL II 
St. Hyacinth Basilica, Chicago, Illinois April 3, 2005 

These comments were made by Bishop Thomas Paprocki concerning the recent 
legislation demanding that pharmacists must fill prescriptions for 
contraceptives, even if it goes contrary to their conscience. 

Before we leave this beautiful Basilica of St. Hyacinth, I wish to say a few 
words of thanks and to make a special request in honor of Pope John Paul II. 
.. 

..Thank you also to the civic officials for your presence, especially the 
Consul General of Poland and his wife, Mr. & Mrs. Franciszek Adamczyk, and 
the Governor of the State of Illinois, the Honorable Rod Blagojevich. 

That brings me to my request. As some of you know, I come from a family of 
pharmacists. My grandfather and his brother were pharmacists. My father and 
his brother were pharmacists with their own drug stores. Two of my brothers 
currently work in pharmacies, and I have a niece just beginning pharmacy 
school, thus marking four generations of pharmacists in the Paprocki family. 
In fact, if I had not become a priest, I probably would have become a 
pharmacist myself. But I never would have thought that the day would come 
when pharmacists would have to choose between practicing their profession as 
a pharmacist and living their profession of the Catholic faith. Yet that is 
precisely the situation that Illinois pharmacists now find themselves in 
because the Governor last Friday signed an ³emergency regulation² requiring 
that all pharmacies and pharmacists in the State of Illinois will be 
expected to accept and fill prescriptions for contraceptives without delay. 

The obvious problem, as Pope John Paul II so clearly and repeatedly taught, 
is that Catholics believe that artificial contraception is morally wrong; 
moreover, some contraceptives, so-called ³morning after² pills, actually 
induce abortion by stopping the life of an early human embryo. 

As a lawyer myself, I believe that this executive order violates the First 
Amendment religious rights of the pharmacist under the United States 
Constitution and the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act. As a 
Bishop, I am dismayed that our secular society has reached the point that 
individuals are being required by law to violate their personal religious 
beliefs in order to accommodate the selfish demands of special interest 
groups. 

Mr. Governor, I mean no disrespect. I am not here to criticize or scold you. 
On the contrary, I respectfully plead with you, I beg of you, to rescind 
your executive order. You are here, as we all are, to pay our respects to 
the life of Pope John Paul II. He spoke consistently and forcefully against 
moral evils and the whole point of his life was to put such words into 
action. 

Pope John Paul II once said, ³In the designs of divine providence, there is 
no such thing as mere coincidence.² Hence, I believe it is no mere 
coincidence that I have this opportunity to address this issue in person and 
in public just two days after the Governor issued his decree. 

Mr. Governor, out of respect for our beloved Pope John Paul II, please 
respect his wishes; please rescind your order. Let our pharmacists be free 
to follow their faith! 

########## 

The spirit of John Paul II lives on in Bishop Paprocki in speaking truth to 
power on behalf of religious freedom.
 
Thank you for posting. I love Touchstone! These cases are scary. So far we’ve been able to avoid having Catholic hospitals provide abortions. I fear if this tide isn’t stemmed it will happen.

Lisa N
 
I love the fact that the Bishop spoke out. If only we had more brave men of God. However, we have to move from begging and pleading to demanding. We need to stand united against blatant discrimination against Christians. Also, this is not a violation of the First Amendment freedom of religion. The First Amendment simply states that the State cannot establish a mandated religion. Let’s not play into the hands of those that confuse what the First Amendment really is. Let’s call a spade a spade. This law violates the very foundation of this country and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. As such, all Christians in Illinois should demand that this law not be passed.

An equivalent law would be to mandate a health food store sell french fries.
 
YES!!!

I’ll do my part to make sure this governor is a 1 termer.

Although, I’ll need a little help…
 
A word on the First Amendment – it does not merely say that the government cannot establish a religion. It says that there shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion “nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
 
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fogo74:
A word on the First Amendment – it does not merely say that the government cannot establish a religion. It says that there shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion “nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Click to expand...
Exellent point. I stand corrected on my irresponsible oversight. The Bishop is correct in this regard.
 
Ok, I just put Bishop Paprocki on my list of bishops I would like to have succeed Bishop Imesch in Joliet, who reaches retirement age a little over one year from now.
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 We have first dibs because we are next door to Chicago!
-Illini
 
I frankly don’t like this because the Bishop should not be “begging” the Governor to do what is morally right and avoid what is manifestly contrary to the natural moral law. The Bishop ought to be severely admonishing the Governor (yes I know he is not Catholic) If pastorally it would have been unwise to admonish him in public while he is in attendance, the Bishop should have spoken about the matter generally and left no doubt as to the what the moral law requires in the Governor’s mind.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta when invited to speak at a prayer breakfast with pro-murder President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hilary Clinton in attendance, did not hesitate to pointedly condemn the evils of abortion. She did not let a misguided respect for political leaders, hinder the expression of the vows of her baptism (which include a rejection of Satan and all his works). This was the reaction to her courage: "Many of those in attendance rose to their feet and applauded; the President reached for a glass of water, while his wife, and the Vice President and his wife looked on stone-faced."
 
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