The Governor of Illinois is Pat Quinn, a Roman Catholic and 100% pro-abort. He got elected last year by a razor thin margin largely by under the radar last minute internet ads posted by Personal PAC, a pro-abort lobbying group, headed by a Terry Cosgrove. As payback Quinn appointed Cosgrove to a $46,000 a year job on the Human Rights Commission. Lake County Right to Life has good coverage on this story which may be read here. Regular Guy Paul has been on top of the story at his blog here.
Now I happen to know Cosgrove from the days back in the Seventies when we were both attending the U of I. He is a lapsed Catholic, now a militant atheist, homosexual activist and fanatical pro-abort. He was head of the local campus pro-aborts and I was one of the founders of L.I.F.E. (Life Is For Everyone), the campus pro-life group. One time I saw Cosgrove at Mass circa 1980 at the Newman Chapel, at Saint John’s. Puzzled why he was there, after Mass I found out why. At the pamphlet rack in the back I saw that he had stuffed pro-abort anti-Catholic pamphlets. I disposed of them. He also said in one memorable public forum that he carried a gun to defend himself against “militant anti-choicers”, as he phrased pro-lifers. That a bigot like Cosgrove now has a seat on the Human Rights Commission in Illinois has a nice Orwellian touch. Challenged on the nomination, Quinn made the following truly hilarious statement:
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the bishops to say anything about this. They are too busy patting Quinn on the back for signing a bill abolishing the death penalty. In Illinois if you are a convicted first degree murderer your right to life is sacrosanct. If you are a child in the womb it is open season. Yep, Orwell would be lapping this up.
Thank you for posting this, Don.
One more example of the societal blessings/consequences of “useful saints” votes for pro-abortion catholics because they somehow “advance social justice.”
Your tax dollars are not only paying for baby murders. They fund tens of thousands of evils, e.g., the damnation of youth being brainwashed in pubic schools.
For whatever it’s worth – here is my Spiritual Work of Mercy (instruct the ignorant) for today: fornication and perfidy are not human rights. They are sins.
Let’s pray for Terry Cosgrove and Gov. Quinn and their conversions, and for the bishops, that they may have the courage to speak the truth in love, in season & out of season.
I agree with Chris.
I also will pray that St. Michael can lead some serious a**-kickin’.
I wrote this in the combox of yesterday’s post on the Civil War:
“Why does not the Church publicly excommunicate all publicly professed pro-abortion politicians? Those are rhetorical questions and yes, I realize a person excommunicates himself by such vile acts, yet the public scandal must be confronted with a public response. Look at how St. Peter confronted Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11, or what St. Paul did to Hymenaus and Alexander in 1st Timothy 1:19-20, or what St. John said about Jezebel at the Church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:20-23. Precedence has been established for dealing with Nancy Pelosi, Patrick Kennedy, Joe Biden, John Kerry and the rest.”
If our clergy will not thus discharge their sacred duty, then let them beware the warning of Ezekiel 34:1-11. If God were willing to deal thusly with the hypocritical priests left in Jerusalem after the first deportation to Babylon, then what makes us think that we are exempt when what we do is equal to or great in perversion, perfidy and idolatry than what the people of Judah did and their priests either condoned or worse, sanctified?
People are going to say that I am being uncharitable and unkind and (the worst sin of all) not nice. Well, the wages of sin are still death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Governor Quinn and his fellow Democrats (as well as the neo-cons and RINOs) may sadly find out the truth of that statement when it is far too late. I really like what T. Shaw wrote: fornication and perfidy are NOT human rights.
“Let’s pray for Terry Cosgrove and Gov. Quinn and their conversions, and for the bishops, that they may have the courage to speak the truth in love, in season & out of season.”
As to Cosgrove and Quinn, Chris, that would take some high magnitude prayer. As for a good many bishops, I think they would need an episcopal spine transplant.
Then we better get to it, Don. 🙂
It’s not like we can do much else anyway, is it? Perhaps with the bishops one might correspond with them, but in my experience, prayer really is our best course of action.
Can someone be pro abortion and a Catholic? NO!
No surprise here….
“prayer really is our best course of action.”
In my experience Chris prayer and a punch in the nose often makes a salutary combination. Come to think of it, I have benefited from that combination in my own life. (Thanks, Mom!) 🙂 I will be happy to pray for Cosgrove and Quinn to be converted and saved from the eternal loss of Hell and I will also pray, and work, for the day when they exercise zero power in the Land of Lincoln. As for the bishops, well I guess prayer is better than correspondence since letters seem to mean bupkis to most of them in my experience.
” I will also pray, and work, for the day when they exercise zero power in the Land of Lincoln.”
Lest others think I’m espousing a form of quietism, let me say that I wholeheartedly agree with your efforts to minimize their impact in IL.
For someone like me — a few states to your west — my options are more limited in this specific instance, but prayer is something I can always do. And will do. 🙂
I agree with every word in the comments here by Don.
Our prayers are needed for the most part to show our concern and to indicate our sorrow for offences against the Body of Christ. But as the Church Militant we must at least “request” and pray also that our leadership join us and go before us in battle expressing boldly and broadly the TRUTH contained in our efforts to (in the words of Christ himself) bring fulfillment to “thy Will be done on earth…”.
And for sure understanding that….. “He who is not with me is against me”
[…] IL Gov. Quinn Appoints Anti-Catholic Bigot to Human Rights Commission – D. R. McClarey […]
As usual, however, some conservatives and Republicans tried to make a mountain out of a molehill on this issue (whether this appointment was a case of “pay to play”) when they already had a mountain of Himalayan proportions staring them in the face (Cosgrove’s militant support for a practice millions of Illinois residents consider morally abhorrent and his bigotry toward a religious faith practiced by many citizens).
Some GOP legislators seemed to believe they had to justify their vote against him by raising the specter of whether or not he “bought” his position by raising campaign money for Quinn.
The mere fact that a person who ardently supported a gubernatorial candidate and worked hard to get him elected later received an appointment from said governor is not inherently evil or corrupt, provided the person is qualified for the job to which they are appointed. What governor, president, etc. hasn’t placed the people who supported him from the beginning and stuck with him through thick and thin in positions of influence?
If by “qualified” one means “possessing relevant experience in a given field and basic knowledge of what the job requires,” then Cosgrove would be qualified in that sense, having served in similar positions elsewhere. However, competency and experience in a public position are not ends in themselves — they should be means to the ultimate end of insuring justice for all citizens. And in that sense, Cosgrove is appallingly unqualified, since he aggressively promotes gross injustice to the most vulnerable citizens of all. Who needs any other reason but that to vote against him?
The notion that Cosgrove’s appointment was some kind of Blago-style “pay to play” is, in my opinion, a distraction from the real issues similar to the Obama “birther” or “secret Muslim” allegations — there are enough REAL reasons to oppose these people without having to make stuff up.