USPS 2010 Stamps Honor 2 Catholics

The 2010 list of commemorative issues by the USPS includes 2 Catholics of note.

The 1st stamp to be issued will honor Blessed Mother Teresa. Here is what the USPS release said:

"With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service recognizes Mother Teresa, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. Noted for her compassion toward the poor and suffering, Mother Teresa, a diminutive Roman Catholic nun and honorary U.S. citizen, served the sick and destitute of India and the world for nearly 50 years. Her humility and compassion, as well as her respect for the innate worth and dignity of humankind, inspired people of all ages and backgrounds to work on behalf of the world’s poorest populations.
Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on Aug. 26, 1910, in Skopje in what is now the Republic of Macedonia. Drawn to the religious life as a young girl, she left her home at the age of 18 to serve as a Roman Catholic missionary in India. “By then I realized my vocation was towards the poor,” she later said. “From then on, I have never had the least doubt of my decision.” Having adopted the name of Sister Mary Teresa, she arrived in India in 1929 and underwent initial training in religious life at a convent in Darjeeling, north of Calcutta. Two years later, she took temporary vows as a nun before transferring to a convent in Calcutta. She became known as Mother Teresa in 1937, when she took her final vows.
Following a divine inspiration and deeply moved by the poverty and suffering she saw in the streets of Calcutta, Mother Teresa left her teaching post at the convent in 1948 to devote herself completely to the city’s indigent residents. Two years later, she founded her own congregation, the Missionaries of Charity. Like Mother Teresa, the nuns of the new order wore white saris with a blue border rather than traditional nuns’ habits. In addition to the traditional vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, they took a fourth vow of wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor. “In order to understand and help those who have nothing,” Mother Teresa told the young women, “we must live like them.”
When Mother Teresa accepted the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize—one of her numerous honors and distinctions—she did so “in the name of the poor, the hungry, the sick and the lonely,” and convinced the organizers to donate to the needy the money normally used to fund the awards banquet. Well respected worldwide, she successfully urged many of the world’s business and political leaders to give their time and resources to help those in need. President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, the same year she began work on behalf of AIDS sufferers in the U.S. and other countries. In 1997, Congress awarded Mother Teresa the Congressional Gold Medal for her “outstanding and enduring contributions through humanitarian and charitable activities.”
Mother Teresa died in Calcutta on September 5, 1997, and is buried there. She had been a citizen of India since 1948.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress awarded Mother Teresa honorary U.S. citizenship. As of February 2009, the honor has only been bestowed on five others. Winston Churchill received it in 1963, Raoul Wallenberg in 1981, William Penn and Hannah Callowhill Penn in 1984, and the Marquis de Lafayette in 2002. With the exception of Hannah Callowhill Penn, each of these figures has also appeared on a U.S. postage stamp: the Marquis de Lafayette four times (1952, 1957, 1976, and 1977), William Penn in 1932, Churchill in 1965, and Wallenberg in 1997.
The stamp features a portrait of Mother Teresa painted by award-winning artist Thomas Blackshear II of Colorado Springs, CO "

As LifeSiteNews points out in an article about it (2010 U.S. Stamp Features Pro-Life Heroine Mother Teresa): "Although in making the announcement Wednesday, the postal service did not mention her pro-life stand, the revered Roman Catholic nun and saint was a fearless pro-lifer, happy to put her fame at the service of the unborn threatened by abortion.
When invited to the White House Prayer Breakfast in 1997 by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, Mother Teresa spoke clearly against abortion. "What is taking place in America is a war against the child," she said. "And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another."
Three years earlier Mother Teresa was quoted in The Wall Street Journal saying, "America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts - a child - as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters.""

"Responding to critics who asked who would be willing to care for an unwanted child, Mother Teresa said, "Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child. From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortions. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy!""

I will admit that I am surprized the USPS acknowledged her actions were a result of divine inspiration.

Sadly, while honoring 1 of the great pro-life heroes of the 20th Century they will also be honoring 1 of the biggest promoteers of abortion & Planned Parenthood in particular, Katharine Hepburn. Over the years Hepburn sent out many fundraising letters for PP bragging about the fact that her mother was a co-founder of PP with Margaret Sanger. (& though I have no idea why, once in a while I did get 1, so I am speaking from 1st hand experience as well.) While the USPS release doesn't mention that, it does build up her feminist credentials.

The 2nd Catholic to be honored is Kate Smith. While she was not born a Catholic she converted a few years before her death in 1986. IMHO this stamp is way past due. Growing up I enjoyed watching her performances on TV. There are 2 songs that will forever be connected in my mind with Kate Smith. The 1 is her theme song When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. She cowrote the song The 2nd is the great Irving Berlin song God Bless America. I don't care who else sings it, it never comes close to the depth of emotion that I feel hearing her rendition.

Surprizingly the USPS release fails to mention that in 1982, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

"With this 2010 stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors Kate Smith (1907-1986), the celebrated singer and entertainer whose signature song, “God Bless America” (composed for her by Irving Berlin), has been called America’s unofficial national anthem. The stamp will go on sale May 1. In a career that spanned almost five decades, Smith recorded nearly 600 songs. At least 20 of her records sold more than a million copies, including three religious albums. The stamp art duplicates artwork created for the cover of a CD titled, “Kate Smith: The Songbird of the South.” The artwork was based on a photograph of Smith taken in the 1960s."

The USPS does have a clunker or 2 in this years issues. The 1 most puzzling issue, or non-issue is that there is no Madonna & Child. Instead there will be an angel playing a lute for the religious stamp. IMHO close, but no cigar.

On the other hand some of my other childhood heroes will be honored this year, Roy Rogers & Gene Autry. Along with Tom Mix & William S. Hart they will be a part of the Cowboys of the Silver Screen. Another stamp will honor Bill Mauldin. & there will be the usual Olympic stamp for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.