1.  An article in the Wall Street Journal by Jim Towey, president of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, exposes a publication by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that encourages euthanasia for severely injured military personnel. 

The booklet, Your Life, Your Choices by Dr. Robert Pearlman, an advocate of health care rationing and physician-assisted suicide, encourages wounded warriors to consider whether their life may not be worth living.

LifeNews.com reported that Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) has called for a Congressional investigation into the Obama Administration's policies in this matter. 

2.  A federal court in California has dismissed a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

As reported in the last issue of this newsletter, the Obama Administration had performed the minimal constitutional requirement of defending the law in court, while at the same time criticizing it.

In December 2008, two homosexuals filed the lawsuit, claiming that DOMA-passed by Congress in 1996-is unconstitutional. 

Since the California federal court dismissed the suit on technical grounds, it is possible that it could be re-filed.  However, Brian Raum, Senior Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented ProtectMarriage.com in the case, said, "If another lawsuit is filed against DOMA, we are confident that it will be found to be constitutional."

3.  Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, says Notre Dame must answer for honoring Obama.

The Catholic News Agency reports that D'Arcy is not letting the issues raised by the university's honoring of President Obama lie dormant. Instead, he has written a hard-hitting cover article for America magazine that harshly criticizes Notre Dame for its failure to respect the authority of the bishops.

D'Arcy, along with many other bishops throughout the nation, had told Father John Jenkins, the President of Notre Dame, not to honor Obama.

He stated the real issue was whether or not a Catholic university has a responsibility to give a public witness to the faith. 

"If not, what is the meaning of a life of faith?  And how can a Catholic institution expect its students to live by faith in the difficult decisions that will confront them in a culture often opposed to the Gospel?," D'Arcy wrote.

"In its decision to give its highest honor to a president who has repeatedly opposed even the smallest legal protection of the child in the womb, did Notre Dame surrender the responsibility that Pope Benedict believes Catholic universities have to give public witness to the truths revealed by God and taught by the church?" the bishop asks.

D'Arcy also took Notre Dame to task for its multi-year sponsorship of the play, "The Vagina Monologues."

In addition, the bishop criticized the university's board of trustees for doing nothing to rectify the situation.  But he thanked the large number of students and faculty opposed to Obama's commencement address and the honor Notre Dame bestowed on him.