Planned Parenthood and the Food Pantry

The Anchoress points out another warning sign.  Excerpts:

...Thus, the move to dismantle the Catholic conscience — or at least to redefine it as a threat to the public good — is underway. To that end an administration that didn’t need to involve the churches in its policies at all has gone out of its way to do exactly that.

And now, comes a “nuanced” assist.

Planned Parenthood called Paul’s Pantry, part of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the biggest food pantry in Wisconsin, and asked them to come and pick up donations, which may have been noble, but wasn’t something the Catholic organization felt comfortable doing — sending a truck over and perhaps giving the abortion provider a photo opportunity. The American Life League reports what the worker at the pantry said:


All I told the young lady from Planned Parenthood was that I couldn’t send a truck to pick up, and gave her a list of other food pantries that might want to pick up, I gave her no reason at all and she didn’t ask why. Soon after, I started receiving the hate e-mail and phone calls...

...What happens next, of course, is entirely predictable, and of a piece with President Obama’s move with the HHS Mandate; this is all gauged to eliminate the churches from the public square. Here comes the creation of a narrative that supports that effort while being all out of alignment with what has always been true about Catholic missions:

Planned Parenthood (and its friends) are entities that serve the public good; the Catholic Food Pantry (and its friends) are entities that block the public good

Suddenly, PP needs to donate food to a Catholic food pantry (“come over here, little mouse, I have a nice bit of cheese for you…”) and snap!; just as suddenly the conscience of the church that has served the nation since its inception is problematic and a detriment to its communities.

Sudden and conveniently so. With a bit of publicity from the press, and the usual social media machinations, before you know it the government will insert itself into the story and say:

“Catholic Food Pantry, You Have No Right To Your Conscience; Surrender Your Conscience to The Civic Arena, Or Close Down!”

Things are moving very swiftly, and it is all meant to foment social chaos and division. Those willing to be manipulated will be, but if you do not wish to be manipulated, you need to understand: this is a deliberate move to provoke Catholics and others into confrontation with a government that is eager to define down the whole notion of conscientious objection...