Free Republic

Among those Catholics in public life who openly defy the clear teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the inviolable dignity of every human life from conception to natural death is Representative Patrick Kennedy. The son of the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, he represents Rhode Island’s First Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. We bring to our readers the full text of a letter which Congressman Kennedy received from his Bishop, Thomas J. Tobin. This letter was in response to Kennedy's public defiance against the truth revealed in the Natural Law, confirmed by science, affirmed in Scripture...

I expect political hardball on any legislation as important as the health care bill. I just didn’t expect it from the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Who elected them to Congress? The role the bishops played in the pushing the Stupak amendment, which unfairly restricts access for low-income women to insurance coverage for abortions, was more than mere advocacy. They seemed to dictate the finer points of the amendment, and managed to bully members of Congress to vote for added restrictions on a perfectly legal surgical procedure. And this political effort was subsidized by taxpayers, since the Council...

Published on RHRealityCheck.org (http://www.rhrealitycheck.org) Do Catholic Bishops Run the United States Government? By Jodi Jacobson Created Nov 7 2009 - 11:11pm Tonight, with the aide of some 60 Democrats, women's rights were effectively negated by the US Congress as the House passed the Stupak amendment to HR 3200, the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009. More in-depth analysis of how we got here is forthcoming. But one thing is clear: The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) apparently is running the US government, aided by a cadre of "faith-based advocacy groups," the House Democratic leadership, the White House and...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops dismissed the House Democrats’ plan to try to isolate funding for abortion in the health care bill as a “money-laundering system” that would do nothing to stop federal funding of abortion, an issue that could potentially derail health care reform. The plan, known as the Ellsworth amendment after its author Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), attempts to serve as a compromise between pro-life Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich) and the party’s liberal, pro-abortion leadership. All of the health care bills currently before Congress allow for taxpayer funding of abortion.... The U.S. Conference of...

Cardinal: Pumpkins, Not Crucifixes? Responds to European Court Decision on Schools VATICAN CITY, NOV. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In European schools, crucifixes are prohibited but Halloween pumpkins are promoted, observed Benedict XVI's Secretary of State. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone stated this in response to the Tuesday decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which called for the removal of Christian symbols from public school classrooms. "This Europe of the third millennium only leaves us the pumpkins of the feasts repeatedly celebrated and takes away from us our most cherished symbols," said the cardinal in an article published in L'Osservatore Romano. He...

COLUMNS Monday, 02 November 2009 The Bishops Go On Offense By Robert Royal    A Notre Dame professor reminded me this week of an old football saying: offense sells seats, but defense wins games. Painfully true about the problems of the Irish this year, but I’ve never thought much of that proposition. Taken to its logical extreme, the most you could hope for relying solely on defense is 0-0 ties. Far preferable is the profound and incarnational wisdom of the coach who said that “prayers work better when the linemen are big.�I’ll drop the football metaphors, not least because, in...

Italy's bishops are saying the European Court of Human Rights is guilty of a partial and ideological outlook with its Tuesday decision that crucifixes in public school are a violation of freedom. The Vatican and the Italian government expressed dismay with Tuesday's decision and Italian bishops expressed their own perplexity. The court ruled in favor of an Italian citizen of Finnish origin who complained in 2002 that the state school where her two children studied violated their freedom by displaying crucifixes. The school's administration refused to remove them, contending that the crucifix is part of Italian cultural patrimony; Italian courts...

HINSDALE, Illinois, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A congregation of US Dominican nuns has publicly apologized for the scandal caused by one of its members acting as a volunteer escort at a Chicago area abortion facility, who now faces severe canonical penalties including excommunication and the possibility of dismissal.    LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) first broke the story about Sr. Donna Quinn, O.P., a Dominican nun who is outspokenly in favor of legalized abortion, who had been identified by pro-life witnesses as an escort for the ACU Health Clinic.Sr. Quinn's religious community, the Wisconsin-based Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation, admitted in a press release posted...

Tuesday November 3, 2009 Planned Parenthood's President Lashes Out at USCCB By James Tillman   WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent an email to her supporters on Monday, complaining of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) campaign against the abortion-funding health care bill. Richards begged for quick action from abortion supporters to counter the bishops' influence and push the bill through Congress.Richards' attack was spurred by the nation-wide campaign the USCCB has recently launched, seeking to mobilize parishioners and clergy to call their representatives and...

Cited by some U.S. bishops, the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is providing a new wrinkle in the health care debate The debate over health care reform is igniting another, related discussion: What is the proper role of government in the lives of a country's citizens? The Catholic Church endorses no specific political or economic system -- thus bishops and Catholic thinkers are drawing on Catholic social teaching to support sometimes conflicting solutions to find affordable health care for Americans without health insurance, who number 46.3 million according to the U.S. Census Bureau. There's little debate in the Church that some...

New York City, N.Y., Oct 30, 2009 / 11:14 am (CNA).- The New York Times declined to publish an op-ed presented by the Archbishop of New York, Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, in which he made the point that the “Gray Lady” has been reporting stories with a strong anti-Catholic bias. In his new blog on the archdiocese’s website, Archbishop Dolan explains that his article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed, but the Times declined to publish it. In the blog version, Archbishop Dolan says that next to baseball, “sadly, America...

Wow! This is big news. For months the bishops have been threatening to oppose the healthcare legislation as long as it included abortion funding. But I didn't expect this. Wonderful news. Catholic.org reports: An E-mail directive has been sent from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Activities Secretariat mobilizing every parish in the United States of America. It contains an urgent message which is to be distributed in every parish this weekend and announced at every single Mass. This massive and urgent appeal may be unprecedented in our history as Catholics in America. It is an effort to...

An E-mail directive has been sent from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Activities Secretariat mobilizing every parish in the United States of America. It contains an urgent message which is to be distributed in every parish this weekend and announced at every single Mass. This massive and urgent appeal may be unprecedented in our history as Catholics in America. It is an effort to mobilize the Catholic faithful on an urgent matter of public policy concerning the fundamental and foundational human right to life. The E-Mail specifically asks that no parish opt out of this initiative. We...

Same-Sex Unions “One of the most troubling developments in contemporary culture is the proposition that persons of the same sex can "marry." This proposal redefines the nature of marriage and the family and, as a result, harms both the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good of society. Marriage is a unique union, a relationship different from all others. It is the permanent bond between one man and one woman whose two-in-one-flesh communion of persons is an indispensable good at the heart of every family and every society. “Same-sex unions are incapable of realizing this specific communion...

ELCA Bishops Discuss Drafts of Possible Ministry Policies Revisions 09-222-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) reviewed and discussed drafts of possible revisions to ELCA ministry policies during their Oct. 1-6 meeting here. As a result of their discussions, the bishops requested they have another opportunity to review updated revisions, likely to mean that final action on new policy language will not occur before April 2010. The Conference of Bishops is an advisory body of the church, consisting of the ELCA's 65 synod bishops, the presiding bishop and secretary. The 2009...

This is a good news/bad news story. First the good news: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) cut off all funding to ACORN at some point in 2008, after revelations of the embezzlement of nearly $1 million dollars by the brother of Wade Rathke, the founder of ACORN. What's not such great news is that the Catholic Church, through the CCHD, was funding ACORN in the first place. Catholic News Service (CNS) carried an article on October 16, 2008: CCHD ends funding to ACORN over financial irregularities. According to the article: ...CCHD funded more than 320 ACORN projects with...

His Excellency, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, will offer a Pontifical Solemn High Mass at St. Margaret Mary Church, an apostolate of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, this Sunday, September 20, at 12:30 p.m. The occasion is the 20th anniversary of the first indult Traditional Latin Mass celebrated at this church in 1989. St. Margaret Mary was the first church in California to offer the Traditional Latin Mass every Sunday under the indult granted by Pope John Paul II. in 1988. In 2005, the Institute was invited to the Oakland diocese by then-Bishop Allen Vigneron. Under the...

In his first pastoral letter the Archbishop of Westminster has said that daily prayer is essential for well-being. In a letter issued almost exactly four months after his installation, Archbishop Vincent Nichols thanked the faithful in his new diocese for their encouragement and prayers and urged them to partake in the shared life of faith and prayer, "especially as experienced and strengthened in the parish". Quoting from the letter of St James he said that "our relationship with Christ, expressed in prayer, is central to the stability and fruitfulness of our lives. "A sound practice of daily prayer is essential...

The current national debate about health care reform should concern all of us. There is much at stake in this political struggle, and also much confusion and inaccurate information being thrown around... First and most important, the Church will not accept any legislation that mandates coverage, public or private, for abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem-cell research. We refuse to allow our own parish, school, and diocesan health insurance plans to be forced to include these evils...we insist equally on adequate protection of individual rights of conscience for patients and health care providers not to be made complicit in these evils......

This heroic man stood up against the “gates of hell”, doing what all Bishops are supposed to do, guarding the flock of God against the wolves. The Bishop was correct to challenge the poor judgment of Misericordia University, a Catholic College in his Diocese which sponsored, through its scandalous “Diversity Institute”, an advocate/activist of the movement among some practicing homosexuals to obtain a legal equivalency between homosexual paramours and those who are married. ... ...His heroic defense of the dignity of every human life during the last Presidential campaign was inspired and refreshing! Some, even in the Catholic press, have...

This area includes information and resources for the assembly with implementation and practice of the new Roman Missal.

Good for thought herein: This month, in 1790, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States achieved an important milestone: the installation of the first bishop, in the first American see of Baltimore. Father John Carroll’s consecration — fittingly, on the Feast of the Assumption, 1790 — marked the Church’s transition from infancy to adolescence in our country. More than being mere Catholic history trivia, Carroll’s tenure as bishop provides important lessons, especially in the realm of civic engagement, for Catholics today. But will we, the holy mother Church’s laity and clergy, continue to ignore these principles of living our...

The new executive director of Call to Action is Jim FitzGerald, formerly of Planned Parenthood. Here are some selected excerpts about him from an article in the National Catholic Reporter: “What’s missing in our church is the freedom to talk without fear about issues like abortion or gay marriage or stem cell research. “That’s what I love about Call to Action: Everyone’s at the table,” he says, quoting the theme for Call to Action’s November conference. “It’s easy to be in conversation with people who think like you. But if we only do that, we miss out on something that...

Sermon Delivered by Bishop Clemens August Count of GalenAugust 3, 1941[The following is from the book, Cardinal von Galen, by Rev. Heinrich Portmann, translated by R.L. Sedgwick, 1957, pp. 239-246.] The Third Sermon, preached in the Church of St. Lambert's on August 3rd, 1941, in which the Bishop attacks the Nazi practice of euthanasia and condemns the ‘mercy killings’ taking place in his own diocese.My Beloved Brethren,In today's Gospel we read of an unusual event: Our Saviour weeps. Yes, the Son of God sheds tears. Whoever weeps must be either in physical or mental anguish. At that time Jesus...

If ever there were a time when Catholics should not trust the United States government, it is now. The president, his administration, and the congressional leadership are removing all the abortion restrictions put in place since Roe v. Wade. And yet, the bishops are backing a proposal to give the federal government complete control over the healthcare of every American citizen.   Abortion is not the only reason Catholics should have deep misgivings about giving the government even more control over their lives. The healthcare bill itself provides evidence of how "reform" will extend that control in ways contrary to...

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops web site recently posted recommendations for Catholics reading the Bible: 1. Bible reading is for Catholics. The Church encourages Catholics to make reading the Bible part of their daily prayer lives. Reading these inspired words, people grow deeper in their relationship with God and come to understand their place in the community God has called them to in himself. 2. Prayer is the beginning and the end. Reading the Bible is not like reading a novel or a history book. It should begin with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to open our...

In response to Joe Feuerherd’s question about whether the president might “write off the bishops,� President Obama had this to say. He said that he would not “write off the bishops,� and gave his reasons. “Number one, one of the strengths of our democracy is that everybody is free to express their political opinions, and I take people’s opinions seriously. I’m the President of all Americans, not just the Americans who happen to agree with me,� said the president. “The American bishops have a profound influence in their communities, in the church, and beyond,� he continued. “What I will...

Monday June 22, 2009 U.S. Bishops Issue Statement of Support for Notre Dame’s Bishop D'Arcy By Kathleen GilbertSAN ANTONIO, Texas, June 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following their spring meeting in San Antonio last week, the U.S. bishops today issued a statement of support for Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D'Arcy's "pastoral concern" for the University of Notre Dame. The bishop made national and international headlines earlier this year after he publicly rebuked Notre Dame's decision to honor President Obama. "The bishops of the United States express our appreciation and support for our brother bishop, the Most Reverend John D'Arcy," reads the brief statement...

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict VXI has dedicated to the Priesthood the year-long celebration that spans from June 19, 2009 until 2010. The life and worship of the Catholic faithful is liturgical and sacramental. As such, the Priesthood is central, and as essential as DNA, to our concept of worship. This year, we as Catholics will reflect, meditate and pray on everything related to the Priesthood, beginning with our call to participation in the common priesthood in order to better understand the call to the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood in both degrees, Presbyterate [priests] and Episcopacy [bishops], as well as...

In the wake of the Notre Dame commencement scandal, Catholic college leaders representing some of the worst violators of the U.S. bishops’ 2004 ban on honoring public opponents of fundamental Catholic teachings are lobbying the bishops to withdraw their policy. Yesterday the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), which represents more than 200 Catholic institutions, released its summer 2009 newsletter, including a report on the ACCU’s board of directors meeting last week. The ACCU directors concluded “that it would be desirable for the [U.S. bishops] to withdraw” their 2004 policy, according to the newsletter. The policy in question is...

Monday June 1, 2009 Bishops Who Opposed Notre Dame’s Obama Honor Receive More Than 700,000 Prayers in Thanks June 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Beginning the weekend of May 31, which is celebrated by Catholics as Pentecost Sunday, the 83 U.S. Catholic bishops who publicly opposed the University of Notre Dame’s commencement honor for President Obama started to receive "spiritual bouquets," consisting of hundreds of thousands of pledges by grateful Catholics to offer prayers for the bishops. The prayers, primarily from people who signed The Cardinal Newman Society’s petition opposing the Notre Dame scandal, were offered in thanksgiving for the bishops’ inspiring witness...

From Stella Borealis come this entry about the annual Pentecost challenge made my a homosexual activist group to the local Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.  The group concerned is called Rainbow Sash. Adherents of Rainbow Sash publicly protest the Church’s teaching on homosexuality by making a public display of themselves during the time of Holy Communion during a Mass for Pentecost at the Cathedral of the Archdiocese.  In other words, they seek to receive Communion while protesting the Church’s teachings. My emphases and comments. Archbishop Nienstedt Responds to Rainbow Sash Alliance Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of...

www.catholicnewsagency.com State ethics office investigates Connecticut diocese as lobbying group Diocese of Bridgeport sues for First Amendment violation Bishop William Lori Bridgeport, Conn., May 29, 2009 / 05:16 pm (CNA).- In response to its efforts to fight a bill that would have redefined the financial and pastoral structure of the Catholic Church in Connecticut, the Diocese of Bridgeport is now being investigated by the Office of State Ethics (OSE) for acting as a lobbying group without registering as one. Today, the diocese filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the investigation. According to the Diocese of Bridgeport, a letter...

You Tube's Local Pstor is back at it. His newest clip had me laughing out loud at the song choice... Thanks to Morningstar madness we will soon see Todd and his new, young wife on a platform near you. ...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Bishop Finn to Obama: No dialogue possible over 'irreconcilable' differences Bishop Robert Finn Kansas City, Kan., May 25, 2009 / 02:24 am (CNA).- Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph has pointed out that Notre Dame's president said he chose to honor President Obama and let him speak to promote dialogue, but that Obama said in his speech that he and the Church have “irreconcilable” differences on abortion. This admission, the bishop said, “shut the door on dialogue.” Regarding this latter idea, Bishop Finn expressed that the Church can and in fact does cooperate with the government,...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Archbishop Burke: Catholics could not have voted for Obama with ‘clear conscience’ President Barack Obama / Archbishop Raymond Burke Washington D.C., May 13, 2009 / 06:03 am (CNA).- Returning to Rome after addressing the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Archbishop Raymond F. Burke said in an interview that a Catholic who knew Obama’s "clearly announced" agenda on life issues and marriage could not have voted for him "in clear conscience."The archbishop’s comments came in response to questions from Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online during his flight from Washington, D.C. to Rome. In her interview, Lopez...

Salvatore J. Cordileone, an outspoken defender of life and traditional marriage, was formally installed on Tuesday as the fourth Bishop of Oakland at the Cathedral of Christ the Light. “It was close to one-hundred years ago that my grandparents came from Sicily and settled across the bay (before moving down to San Diego some years later), where my grandfather established his fishing trade,” said Bishop Cordileone in his homily at the Installation Mass. “Like countless others, they labored under the hardship of immigrants – a new land, with a different language and different customs, struggling to be accepted and to...

SAINT STANISLAUSBishop of Cracow, Martyr(1030-1079) Saint Stanislaus was born in answer to prayer, when his parents were advanced in age. Out of gratitude they educated him for the Church. When his parents died, he sold their vast properties and gave the price to the poor. He was ordained, and being a holy priest, soon afterwards became a Canon of the Cracow cathedral. It was necessary to have recourse to the Pope to have him accept the see of Cracow when it became vacant. But the bishop of Cracow’s virtues increased with his dignity and obligations; Saint Stanislaus donned a...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints explains essence of holiness Archbishop Angelo Amato Rome, Italy, Apr 30, 2009 / 05:10 pm (CNA).- During remarks at an event marking the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan order at the Antonianum Pontifical University, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato, explained the essence of holiness and what it means when the Vatican recognizes a person's virtues as heroic. “With Vatican Council II, it can be said that all of the faithful are called to holiness. Holiness is the vocation of all...

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 22, 2009 / (CNA) -- Various Mexican bishops have rejected an offer by government officials to provide them with special protection against threats being made by drug traffickers, saying security officials should protect all citizens equally. Bishop-elect Salvador Rangel of Huejutla said the state governments of Guanajuato and Michoacan offered to provide security, but the offer was not accepted. He said the lives of priests have the same worth as any other citizen who is in danger. The bishop-elect’s comments came as reports surfaced that a priest in the town of Cuitzeo received death threats from...

Plan B decision treats pregnancy as disease, U.S. bishops' official says Washington D.C., Apr 24, 2009 / 04:15 pm (CNA).- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made the “Plan B” contraceptive available to 17 year-old women without a prescription. One pro-life leader has warned the decision treats pregnancy as a “disease” and could put young women and newly-conceived human beings at risk.The move follows a March 23 federal court order requiring the drug Levonorgestrel—also known as the “morning after pill”--be made available to girls 17 and older without a prescription. The U.S. government said it would not appeal...

Last year, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) announced it would no longer fund the community-organizing arm of ACORN, a decision based on the disclosure of ACORN's explicitly partisan efforts on behalf of President Barack Obama's political campaign. Now a much more egregious use of Catholic money has been alleged. LifeSiteNews (LSN), which operates primarily out of Toronto and is leading the investigation, has presented evidence that the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development & Peace (CCODP), an official arm of the Canadian Bishops' Conference, is funding 16 organizations in 9 countries who advocate in favor of abortion and/or contraception....

Bishop D’Arcy corrected Father Jenkins’ contention that the 2004 USCCB document “Catholics in Political Life,” which asks Catholic institutions not to honor pro-abortion leaders, does not apply to the decision to honor President Obama at commencement. Father Jenkins has said that the policy applies only to Catholic honorees, and that because Notre Dame does not support President Obama’s policies on abortion and stem cell research, the honor poses no conflict for a Catholic university. “I consider it now settled,” wrote Bishop D’Arcy, “that the USCCB document, ‘Catholics in Public Life,’ does indeed apply in this matter.” Bishop D’Arcy has also...

With six of the state’s twelve bishops over 70 and the Church’s mandatory retirement age of 75, looming episcopal appointments by the Holy Father could change the face of Catholicism in California. In a story published April 5, the Los Angeles Times reported, “With Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony prominently among them, many of the nation's senior Roman Catholic bishops are nearing mandatory retirement, offering the Vatican a significant opportunity to reshape the American church… Nationwide, the retirements will provide Pope Benedict XVI a chance to put his stamp on a church that is struggling to serve growing ranks of...

I was surprised and saddened when I learned about the invitation extended to President Obama to speak at Notre Dame’s commencement exercises and to receive an honorary degree. Your statements in defense of the award and invitation have only deepened my dismay. We know by science and reason that human life begins at the moment of conception. That includes your life, President Obama’s life, my life and every human being’s life. Faith enhances reason and science by revealing to us that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God and has inherent dignity and value... Your...

WITHOUT A DOUBT Jesus Wasn’t Always Nice Posted Mar 26, 2009 BY BISHOP THOMAS J. TOBIN Jesus wasn’t always nice. I had to remember that in responding to some letters I received from readers who were disappointed by my recent article, My Interview with President Obama. Some folks didn’t like the rhetorical device I employed, namely the fictional interview I composed. Others felt that I was too hard on the President when I criticized him for using tax dollars to fund abortion overseas. They said that I was not being charitable as Jesus would have been. For example, one...

Friday March 27, 2009 UK Bishop Warns TV Commercials for Abortionists will "Result in Deaths of Many" Unborn Children By Hilary WhiteLANCASTER, UK, March 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A proposal by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to allow abortionists to advertise on television comes straight "from the heart of the abortion industry," the Catholic bishop of Lancaster has said. In a statement issued March 26, Bishop Patrick O'Donohue called the proposed changes "deeply damaging" and warned that they would "result in the deaths of many more preborn children and cause untold harm to women" and threaten "yet another...

Friday March 27, 2009 Third And Fourth Canadian Bishops Say Development & Peace Funds to be Held Pending Investigation By Kathleen GilbertVANCOUVER, B.C., March 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two more bishops have acknowledged that Lenten collection money slated for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P) will be withheld until the organization proves it has not been funding pro-abortion groups. The statements come after a LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) investigative report, as well as several follow-up reports, provided evidence that D&P has been sending money to pro-abortion and pro-contraception groups in at least two Latin American countries, and in several countries...

Catholic ‘complacency’ shares blame for country’s failures, Archbishop Chaput says St. Paul / Archbishop Chaput Detroit, Mich., Mar 21, 2009 / 12:32 pm (CNA).- Archbishop of Denver Charles J. Chaput delivered a speech on Saturday reflecting on the significance of the November 2008 election. Warning that media “narratives” should not obscure truth, he blamed the indifference and complacency of many U.S. Catholics for the country’s failures on abortion, poverty and immigration issues.He also advised Catholics to “master the language of popular culture” and to refuse to be afraid, saying “fear is the disease of our age.”The archbishop’s comments were delivered...

From California to Maine, Catholic bishops are increasingly taking on public roles on behalf of what LGBT activists call a "politicized" U.S. Catholic Church. Aiding the faith leaders in their campaign against same-sex marriage is the Knights of Columbus, a tax-exempt fraternal beneficiary society known as the church's "strong right arm." And nowhere is the full impact of the Knights of Columbus' efforts felt than in the fight against awarding same-sex couples marriage rights. ~ snip ~ A key component of the Catholic Church's strategy has been the Knights of Columbus. Obscure Catholic group On its Web site the group...