Do you think it is a coincidence that President Obama wants someone baptized as a Catholic to head the Department of Health and Human Services?

        As the Obama  administration targets Catholic institutions, President Obama wants the cover of "Catholics" who reject fundamental church teaching on life like his Vice President (Joseph Biden) and Secretary of Health and Human Services.

        The record shows that Obama wants a pro-abortion "Catholic" to head the Department of Health and Human Resources as he prepares to put Catholic hospitals to the choice of performing abortions or closing.

        When Obama's first choice, former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, was exposed as a tax cheat, Obama turned to Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a "Catholic" who has been publicly told by her bishop not to present herself for Holy Communion until she repents.

        Raymond Arroyo, news director of EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) and host of "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" said: "Like Daschle, Kathleen Sebelius is a pro-choice Catholic who as governor of Kansas has gone out of her way to support abortion--a procedure considered a grave moral evil by the Catholic Church.  Throughout her tenure as governor she has consistently vetoed legislation that would even mildly restrict the practice.  A bill that would have limited late term abortions and another, a year earlier, that would have required a medical reason for a late term abortion were both vetoed by Sebelius."

        Kansas Archbishop, Joseph Naumann first privately urged Sebelius to take "necessary steps for amendment of her life" and admonished her to refrain from seeking Holy Communion until she changed her position on abortion.  Sebelius continued to present herself for Holy Communion, so Archbishop Naumann made his private admonition public, dissuading Sebelius from seeking Holy Communion.

        Archbishop Naumannn explained in a newspaper article: "The spiritually lethal message, communicated by our governor, as well as many high-profile Catholics in public life, has been in effect: 'The Church's teaching on abortion is optional!'"

        No wonder the unrepentant Sebelius was Obama's second choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services!

        It is up to the United States Senate to confirm or refuse to confirm a president's cabinet nominees, but it is up to the bishops to protect the Holy Eucharist and to prevent public scandal and confusion.

        Mr. Arroyo said: "The Sebelius case (and the cases of Pelosi, Kerry, Biden, Daschle, Durbin, Kennedy, etc.) present the church and its leaders with a serious challenge.  By their public actions, these politicians are insisting that what the church has taught since its founding and what the pope and the bishops have repeated for centuries is not true--and that any Catholic may disregard the fundamental rights of the human person with abandon. Either this is within the limits of Catholic Orthodoxy or it is not.  But every day that it goes unaddressed the church loses credibility, influence, and ultimately, moral authority.  Until a unified, PUBLIC correction is offered by the bishops, with appropriate penalties, they will continue to cede their teaching office to politicians who are at best confused and at worse malicious.  To remain silent is not an option.  I fear it is not the 'conflict at the altar' that scares many bishops, but the inevitable conflict in the public square.  Whether they like it or not, the conflict is here and the time to respond is now before the flock learn the lesson of their wayward brethren: 'Ignore the bishop, he doesn't matter anyway.'"

        The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops should have acted unanimously long ago to uphold canon law.

        Analysis of the so-called Catholic vote in the 2008 presidential election suggests that the bishops' tolerance of prominent pro-abortion Catholics put the Obama administration in position to reverse the federal government policy on abortion and force Catholic hospitals to permit abortions or close.

        The Conference is unanimously opposed to the proposed Freedom of Choice Act, but Obama is now President and as a candidate he was clear and consistent in his support of it, so the bishops cannot claim he is surprising them by supporting it and they should have declared his support of it completely unacceptable BEFORE the election.

        Bishops who are reluctant to embarrass prominent "Catholic" politicians presenting themselves for Holy Communion while promoting abortion as acceptable, need to recall that Jesus acted boldly instead of meekly tolerating those moneychangers who were defiling the Temple.  Protecting the sanctity of the Temple was His paramount consideration then.  The protection of the Holy Eucharist must be the paramount consideration of all Catholic bishops now.

        Mr. Arroyo is right: "... it is the public officials who are politicizing the sacrament [of Holy Communion], not the bishop correcting them.  When a person professes to be a believing Catholic, which is what is PUBLICLY implied by the reception of communion, then turns around and acts (again PUBLICLY) by endorsing policies in open conflict with their faith, who is doing the politicizing?  We are not talking about private sin here, which while no less serious, is hidden in the heart.  This is public sin that confuses teaching and by its very nature leads others astray.  It is obligatory for a bishop to correct such public abuses of Catholic identity, to say nothing of their sworn responsibility to protect the sacredness of the sacrament."

        But Raymond Arroyo may have underestimated the seriousness of the problem when he characterized the suggestion that a bishop doing the correcting "is 'politicizing communion' or inviting 'conflict at the altar rail'" as "sheer foolishness."

        It is not plausible that a lack of good sense explains why so many bishops have long tolerated sacrilege and contributed to public scandal and confusion by refusing to enforce Canon 915.

        Canon 915 is unambiguous and mandatory: "Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

        Sinisterness, or malevolence, was involved in the pedophile infiltration of the priesthood, and explains the enabling by priests and distributors of Holy Communion of pro-abortion politicians posing as faithful Catholics and publicly presenting themselves for Holy Communion .

        Shockingly and scandalously, these simple truths have been disregarded even by Catholic bishops: (1) fundamental Catholic teaching is not geographically dependent, (2) ALL Catholic bishops are bound to prevent sacrilege, public scandal, and confusion, despite their personal political preferences, (3) canon law mandates that those "who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion," and (4) publicly supporting abortion is "obstinately persist[ing] in manifest grave sin."