Posted on 08/27/2008 4:48:31 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Cleveland nun to close one night of Democratic convention with prayer
By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON – St. Joseph Sister Catherine Pinkerton of Cleveland is not usually one to seek the spotlight, but she will take center stage at the Democratic National Convention Aug. 27 when she gives the benediction to close the party’s third day of business.
Sister Catherine, 86, a lobbyist for Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby, will close the convention on the night that Sen. Barack Obama is expected to formally become the party’s nominee for president.
The invitation to lead the prayer came as a surprise to the veteran lobbyist, who has become a well-known figure on Capitol Hill during her 24 years with Network. She said she accepted only after informing her congregation’s leadership of the invitation.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to do that or not,” she told Catholic News Service Aug. 20. “I thought, ‘What have I got to lose?’ It’s my right to do that as an American citizen.”
While Sister Catherine is no stranger to the give-and-take world of politics, until recently her work has been limited to nonpartisan concerns related to international trade and investment. However, since April Sister Catherine has served as one of nine co-chairs of the Catholic National Advisory Council to the Obama campaign.
She said she agreed to serve on the council only after seeing the excitement the campaign has generated among young people, especially young Catholics, across the country.
“A lot of the young people with whom I’m working went double-barreled into it (the campaign),” she explained. “I thought if the young people are seeing something here and these are young kids immersed in Catholic theology and social teaching, then there’s something to this.”
After news of her role in the convention became public, calls poured in to Sister Catherine’s Washington office and her congregation’s motherhouse in Cleveland. The callers, for the most part angry Catholics, expressed concern that Sister Catherine’s appearance on the convention dais is tantamount to supporting the Democratic party’s platform, especially its unwavering support of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
A spokeswoman for the congregation said the motherhouse had received about 30 calls and a handful of e-mail messages through midday Aug. 20. Regina Sullivan, the order’s director of communications, said the congregation has told callers that Sister Catherine is taking the stage as an individual, not as a representative of the Congregation of St. Joseph.
Sister Catherine said she was paying for her flight to Denver, the site of the convention, while the party was paying for her hotel room.
Her work with the advisory council has been limited to offering advice on how to reach Catholic voters. She said the council has met intermittently over the last four months and that she has offered ideas when asked.
“The idea was they wanted to mobilize Catholic faith communities across the nation for Obama,” she said.
Aug 21, 2008
And she's been a "social justice" lobbyist in Washington for the past 24 years. Nice to know where some of our offertory money goes.
Catholic DNC ping.
notice how the secular left is all of a sudden “religious”?
everybody’s praying in denver!!!
I’m surprised her bishop would allow this, based on the DNC’s commitment to abortion.
“Even the very elect.”
Working for the candidate of infanticide. A shining example for Catholic vocations.
She is disgrace to Nuns.
On June 29, 2001, Lennon was named as an auxiliary bishop of Boston; he was ordained as a bishop on September 14, 2001. From 2001 until April 2006, Lennon served as a bishop in Boston, holding a variety of positions, including vicar general.
After Bernard Francis Law resigned his position as Archbishop of Boston in December 2002 amid the church sex scandal, Lennon became very important in leading the troubled archdiocese through the turbulent times as he was the interim leader. He served as the Apostolic Administrator of the archdiocese between Law's resignation and the accession of its new Archbishop, Sean O'Malley.
On 5 April 2006, Lennon was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the replacement for Bishop Anthony Pilla in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. He became the 10th bishop of Cleveland in an installation ceremony on 15 May 2006.
Lennon's appointment as Apostolic Administrator of the Boston Archdiocese, following the resignation of Cardinal Law, brought criticism from some sex-abuse victims' groups.
This criticism increased after Lennon's appearance in the Frontline Documentary "Hand of God." The movie documents the history of a Salem, Massachusetts sex scandal and its effects on the film maker's own family. Church figures are shown minimizing the scandal, lying about their knowledge of the priest involved in the scandal, and refusing to speak with victims. Lennon closes the Salem parish despite the fact it is not losing money for the Church. Then, when the movie's filmmaker attempts to film the administrative building where his brother reported his own sexual abuse, Lennon exits the building, shoves the camera, declares he won't "feel bad about this" after being told why the filmmaker wants to film the building's exterior, attempts to avoid any discussion of the sex scandal by refusing to talk about anything other than the Church's private property rights, and responds to the film maker's claim that he doesn't care by calling the filmmaker a "sad little man."
---Wikipedia
said the congregation has told callers that Sister Catherine is taking the stage as an individual, not as a representative of the Congregation of St. Joseph.
As an individual will she denounce Obamas unwavering commitment to murdering unborn children?
Sure, when winged pork takes to the air.
Notice how their religious folks are the outcasts?
Skip the prayer and go straight to the exorcism.
"Social justice" = Marxist socialism
A practitioner of the black arts can always find an unscrupulous priest to sell him some holy water.
Drives me nuts. I would love to have ten minutes with this “sister”.
Quit killing babies then we'll talk.
She is a sick woman who puts things like ‘excitement of young people’ and other stupid reasons above Christian morals. No self-reflecting Christian should be at that convention to endorse anything or anyone there.
If you check this order’s website under Life Issues they proclaim their fight against the death penalty. Not a word about abortion
It’s good to see the bitter ‘RATS “clinging” to their Bibles and croissants. Even if they are a bunch of babykilling atheists.
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