Free Republic

As part of a survey to understand why they have stopped attending Mass, a few hundred Catholics in the Trenton Diocese were asked what issues they would raise with Bishop David O’Connell if they could speak to him for five minutes. O’Connell would have gotten an earful. Their reasons ranged from the personal ("the pastor who crowned himself king and looks down on all") to the political ("eliminate the extreme conservative haranguing") to the doctrinal ("don’t spend so much time on issues like homosexuality and birth control"). -snip- Respondents also said they were troubled by the church’s views of gays,...

This article from the New York Times trumpets the news that Catholic priests worldwide are rebelling against Vatican teaching forbidding women from being ordained. Guess what? The 'rebellion' consists of about 150 priests in the US and about 300 in Austria and some in Australia. Errr, that would be what percentage of the 400-500,000 priests worldwide? I'm sure the Vatican is extremely worried. The galling thing about this push for women priests is that it comes from the very men who have been engineering an artificial crisis in the priesthood for the last few decades. When I was in England...

Betrayal -- that's what living a cafeteria lifestyle means, so it's hard to feel too sorry for proud, self-proclaimed "cafeteria Catholic" Maria Shriver who is experiencing the reality of betrayal from her cafeteria husband. In 2008, Shriver told the world, via the Washington Post's religion blog, that she chooses what she wants from Church teaching: "Even though I consider myself a Catholic in good standing, I disagree with a lot of the teachings of the Church....I don’t believe that if someone’s divorced they shouldn’t get Communion; I don’t believe that people who are gay shouldn’t be accepted into the...

Those disaffected Anglicans in England and Wales who think they can take up Pope Benedict’s offer and switch to Rome with a “pick and choose” attitude should think again, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols has said. Many Anglicans unhappy with women’s ordination and gay clergy cannot just convert to Roman Catholicism as a way out, but must accept Catholic doctrine wholeheartedly, he said. “Nothing is envisaged in this provision that the Pope has put in place is a kind of minimalist approach to picking bits of the Catholic faith that I like and then seeing myself as it...

Rich Harlow, writing in The Boston Globe, revels in the wit and wisdom of former Catholic priest, James Carroll, whose new book, Practicing Catholic, apparently could have been titled Practicing, Part-time Catholic: "Practicing Catholic" could just as easily have been titled "Conscience of a (Theological) Liberal." It distills its religious outlook from its author's personal history: his Catholic youth, ordination, his excitement over Vatican II's reforms and disillusion with the church's backpedaling therefrom, and finally his decision to trade the priest's collar for the writer's pen. As a Catholic of Carroll's persuasion, I find the intellectual ammo he brings to...

~EXCERPT~ Hillary Rodham Clinton has run away with the votes of Roman Catholic Democrats in nearly all the primaries, often beating Barack Obama by two to one or better, exit polls show. In New York, she received 66 percent of the Catholic vote to his 30 percent. “I didn’t go to bed until 1 in the morning waiting on the results,” said Joe Quinn, a Catholic who is a building superintendent on the Upper West Side. “I slept very well, let me tell you.” Does it matter whom Catholics like Mr. Quinn voted for in the Democratic primaries? By November,...

A progressive group of U.S. nuns has called on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney because of their roles in the war in Iraq. “The National Coalition of American Nuns is impelled by conscience to call you to act promptly to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for ... high crimes and misdemeanors,” the group wrote in a letter written on behalf of its board members. The letter says that impeachment is warranted for their “deceiving the public under the false pretense that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction” and “destroying” the reputation...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, June 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island is under fire from an activist group that claims his recent column in the diocesean newspaper criticizing Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani for his position on abortion violated the Church’s tax-exempt status. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Tobin to determine whether he violated the Church’s tax-exempt status. The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the group’s executive director, said in a news release that Tobin “appears to have violated federal tax...

CATHOLIC MPs, including the Deputy Premier, John Watkins, and the Nationals' Adrian Piccoli, ignored warnings from the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, and received Communion at Mass yesterday. Mr Watkins and Mr Piccoli last week voted to support embryonic stem cell research despite Cardinal Pell warning they faced "consequences" in their religious lives for supporting the research. The MPs received Communion as Cardinal Pell stepped up his warning to MPs who backed the stem-cell bill, telling them they should seriously consider receiving the sacrament. "Certainly, every Catholic politician who voted for this bill should think twice and examine his or...

Providence, RI (LifeNews.com) -- A Catholic bishop has issued public comments rebuking Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who is Catholic, for his pro-abortion position. Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island described Giuliani's position on abortion as "pathetic," "confusing," and "hypocritical." The critique came in his weekly column 'Without A Doubt' that runs in 'The Rhode Island Catholic' newspaper. In his column Bishop Tobin exposes the hypocrisy of the "personally opposed, but ... " position employed by many Catholic politicians. "Rudy's explanation is a classic expression of the position on abortion we have heard from weak-kneed...

Schwarzenegger: "I am a Catholic and a very dedicated Catholic, but" I support Research on Human Embryos TORONTO, June 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking at a press conference at the MaRS Discovery District research centre in Toronto yesterday, actor-turned California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger defended his support for embryonic stem cell research seen as controversial in light of his self-professed Catholic faith. "I always said that you should not have your religion interfere with government policies or with the policies of the people," said Schwarzenegger. "I am a Catholic and a very dedicated Catholic, but that does not interfere with my...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Bay Area adoption/foster care agency, Family Builders, partnering with the City and County of San Francisco, has launched a controversial ad campaign in the hope of attracting more homosexual couples to adopt children. Two of the posters that form the core of the campaign feature homosexual couples together with their adopted children. The signs either use the slogan "Family Planning," with the phrase beneath, "Our family was no accident-we planned for it," or the slogan "Intelligent Design," with the phrase, "Before we started our family we considered all the options."...

CHICAGO, May 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – DePaul University in Chicago, one of the largest and most important Catholic universities in the US is hosting the second “Out There” conference on homosexuality and Catholic education. The conference, whose full title is the Conference of Scholars and Student Affairs Personnel Involved in “LGBTQ” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer) issues on Catholic Campuses, is being organized through the DePaul Women’s and Gender Studies department. It is scheduled for October 19-20, 2007 and is calling for submissions for papers and workshops. The first Out There conference was held at Jesuit-run Santa Clara...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Frances Kissling stepped down earlier this year as the head of what most Catholics consider a heretical organization. She resigned her position as the president of Catholics for a Free Choice, a leading abortion advocacy group, and now she's challenging the Catholic Church on excommunication.The topic became the subject of international debate in recent weeks when Pope Benedict XVI spoke on it. He told reporters on the way to rallies in Brazil that pro-abortion Catholics in Mexico City who had voted to legalize abortion there had excommunicated themselves by their actions. Taking the pontiff head on,...

WASHINGTON (May 18, 2007)—The 18 Democrats who recently criticized Pope Benedict XVI when he answered questions about Mexico’s legalizing abortion both misrepresented the Pope’s remarks and defied freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The position was noted by Sister Mary Ann Walsh, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Director of Media Relations in a May 18 statement, which follows. Response to 18 Democrats Sister Mary Ann Walsh, RSM Director of Media Relations United States Conference of Catholic Bishops In an unfortunate May 10 statement, 18 of the 88 Catholic Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives criticized Pope Benedict...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two leading pro-life groups are calling on a group of 18 pro-abortion Catholic politicians to resign after they released a statement blasting Pope Benedict XVI. They took issue with his comments that pro-abortion elected officials have automatically excommunicated themselves and shouldn't receive communion. The Pope made the comments during an in-flight meeting with news reports on his way to Brazil last week. Led by pro-abortion Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, the eighteen members of the House said the penalty of excommunication "offend(s) the very nature of the American experiment and do(es) a great disservice to...

Father John Malloy, the outspoken pastor of Saints Peter & Paul church in San Francisco, will be leaving the parish next month. Fr. Malloy has inspired Catholics across California with his candid criticism of pro-abortion politicians, theological dissidents and inaccurate reporting on life issues in the secular press. After reading a Jan. 7 column in the San Francisco Chronicle about Nancy Pelosi’s calculated use of her faith to net an upward bump in national polls, Fr. Malloy responded with a letter to the editor published by the Chronicle on Jan. 9: “What a joke! If Nancy wants to reclaim her...

Tegucigalpa, May 18, 2007 / 06:27 pm (CNA).- In statements to Carlos Polo, director for Latin America of the Population Research Institute, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, said he agrees that Communion should be denied to politicians who publicly support abortion. In an interview with Time magazine, Cardinal Maradiaga was asked, “Do you agree with the Pope’s statement that pro-choice Catholic politicians merit excommunication?” The cardinal responded by saying: “It is canon law that everyone who works for abortion is excommunicated. It’s not something the Pope invented. If you favor abortion, you are outside the communion of...

IN A RECENT STORY, the Washington Post recognized there is revitalization and renewal within the Catholic Church after years of scandal and turmoil. Amid this renewal, however, is a disturbing trend among some of the most influential Catholics in the media - I like to call them the "three blind mice." By name, they are FOX news channel's Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews. In each of their cases, Catholic teaching has taken a beating and factual reporting on Catholic matters is a joke. I first exposed these maverick Catholics in my new book, "Saving Those Damned...

The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today said "Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) and seventeen other members of Congress who describe themselves as Catholic not only are ignorant of their faith but also need a civics lesson." Father Euteneuer was responding to their statement about Pope Benedict XVI in a press release from DeLauro's office which stated that the Pope's recent comments that Catholic politicians risk excommunication and should not receive Communion by saying, "Such notions offend the very nature of the American experiment and do a great disservice to the centuries of good...

FRONT ROYAL, Va., May 17 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, (HLI) today said "Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) and seventeen other members of Congress who describe themselves as Catholic not only are ignorant of their faith but also need a civics lesson." Father Euteneuer was responding to their rebuke of Pope Benedict XVI in a press release from DeLauro's office which stated that the Pope's recent comments that Catholic politicians risk excommunication and should not receive Communion by saying, "Such notions offend the very nature of the American experiment and do...

Catholics for a Free Choice distribute bogus holy cards, blasphemous comic books in Mexico that use Blessed Virgin in pro-abortion campaign Falsifying the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the pro-abortion group that mendaciously calls itself “Catholics for a Free Choice” has for the last four years been distributing holy cards in Mexico bearing the following caption in Spanish: “The love of God and of Mary of Guadalupe is larger. For the lives of women, legal and safe abortion.” On the back of the card, the following text is printed: “Dear Mary of Guadalupe, we thank you because your love...

DENVER, Colorado, May 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law Monday two bills legalizing homosexual adoption and banning abstinence-only sex education. Ritter defended his decision to sign H.B. 1330, which permits homosexual couples to adopt, by claiming the law would “strengthen families and provide children with as stable an environment as possible,” The Colorado Springs Gazette reported. Jim Pfaff, president and CEO of the Colorado Family Institute, told Focus on the Family’s Citizen Link that both bills were examples of paybacks to financial supporters. “Both bills show that this was a Legislature that was willing to...

May Catholic clergy refuse communion to politicians who publicly support abortion rights? Who gets the right to choose in that case? This deeply theological question has lately assumed an odd prominence in American political life. This week, for example, according to news accounts, 18 Catholic House Democrats, including Reps. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Patrick J. Kennedy (R.I.) and Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.) publicly rebuked Pope Benedict XVI for reaffirming during a recent Mexico City trip that legislators who vote to permit the killing of the unborn have excommunicated themselves and may be refused communion during Mass. "Do you agree with the excommunications...

Eighteen Catholic members of the U.S. House of Representatives have publicly criticized Pope Benedict XVI’s condemnation of politicians who support abortion rights. In a May 14 statement, the Democratic congressmen said that the pope’s reiteration that Catholics who participate in the legislative promotion of abortion should consider themselves excommunicated “offend[s] the very nature of the American experiment and do[es] a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done,” reported The Hill. “We are concerned with the pope’s recent statement warning Catholic elected officials that they risk excommunication and would not receive communion for their pro-choice views,”...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who supports abortion rights, on Monday during a speech at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., said both abortion-rights supporters and abortion-rights opponents sometimes use "misleading and unconstructive" language and urged both sides to find "common ground," on the issue, the Boston Globe reports (Klein, Boston Globe, 9/19). Kerry during an interview in July 2004, while running for president, said, "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. ... But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or...

Jack Gannone was about to have a defining moment, one that would unite him with more than a billion people of 200 nations and 600 languages.Like most of them, he never saw it coming. The day was April 23, a Sunday, and inside the sparely modern sanctuary of St. Eleanor Roman Catholic Church in Collegeville, 6-month-old Jack squirmed on his mother's lap."Parents, do you understand what you are about to do?" the Rev. Andrew Brownholtz asked. John Gannone and Sara Benton nodded.Suddenly Jack found himself tilted head-back over a marble font. He did not howl, but gave a what-in-the-world roll...

Last January, I raised a challenge for Notre Dame: to consider how we can affirm the highest principles and practices of a university – ensuring the academic freedom to explore the full range of ideas and expressions produced by human thought and creativity - and, at the same time, to affirm our Catholic character and engage the Catholic intellectual tradition in a way that shapes and enriches the educational experience of our students. The challenge is not to do just one of these – or even to do both of them in parallel – but to promote academic freedom and...

I am as Catholic as the moon is round. It's not visible, sometimes, the moon, my Catholicism, but it's there, pulling the tides, shaping the earth, pulling and shaping me. I knew who made me before I knew who I was. God made me. ''Why did God make you?" the catechism asked. ''God made me to show His goodness and to make me happy with Him in Heaven," the catechism taught me. I was a child who loved being a Catholic. I loved bowing my head at the name of Jesus, kneeling, lighting candles, inhaling incense, listening to Latin prayers...

“Catholic” Democrats in the House believe that if they claim they are good Catholics, they can vote for abortion. For the record, I am a Catholic and at one time was a registered Democrat. These reflections are as someone who is committed to restoring protection to all innocent human life. As president of Arizona Right to life, I remind the reader that AZRTL is committed to restoring legal protection to the unborn child and as an organization AZRTL will support committed pro-life candidates of whatever party who seek to end the slaughter of the unborn. AZRTL has a long and...

Minnesota churches will soon see a sign of protest in collection plates. Gay Catholics and their supporters plan to mark their donations to send a message to let the church know who exactly is giving them their money. Cash donations will be marked with a pink triangle around the pyramid on the back, while checks will have a notation in the memo field. “If you want our money, then support us,” says parishioner Tom Degree. “They need to know how much they are receiving from GLBT congregants.” Degree and others are concerned about several positions the Catholic church has taken...

The mother of a Loretto High School student obtained photographs that exposed a drama teacher as a former Planned Parenthood volunteer, a revelation that led to the teacher's firing last week. It wasn't the first time Wynette Sills raised her anti-abortion views on the all-female, private Catholic campus. Sills, who leads anti-abortion rallies outside Sacramento-area Planned Parenthood offices three times a week, complained to school administrators last year about a classroom presentation on domestic violence, said Gail Erlandson, a theology teacher for 11 years at Loretto. Sills objected to brochures listing agencies that offer help for women because they included...

In 2004, there was the scandal of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a Catholic institution, giving an award to strongly pro-abortion Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Despite pleas from concerned Christians and even from Francis Cardinal George, Loyola refused to cancel the award. Well, it seems history is once again repeating itself. The Women's Council of St. Ignatius College Prep, located in the city of Chicago, will have Madigan as their featured speaker at their 7th Annual Women's Council Dinner on September 22, 2005. Madigan once pledged to close down Illinois crisis pregnancy centers — which she deems "phony"...

“It’s about a learning experience …” This is the primary response from Fr. Guy Massie, our commission’s director, when asked about the essential purpose of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. His words summarize the truth behind why the ecumenical commission lives, moves, and has its being. The New York area is a prime environment in which to encourage, enable, and enthusiastically invite people from all walks of life to dialogue concerning faith. Because the population of our city is so diverse, no one group of people or person truly speaks for the majority, especially on matters of faith. Interreligious and ecumenical...

The Vatican on Thursday said too many Roman Catholics were not taking their religion seriously and that those faithful who receive communion and still support abortion rights were behaving scandalously.In an 88-page working document for a synod of bishops to be held in October, the Vatican also decried dwindling attendance at Sunday Mass and reaffirmed a rule that Catholics who divorce and remarry outside the Church cannot take communion.The document on the theme of the Eucharist said many Catholics had lost the sense of the sacred surrounding communion, which the Church teaches becomes the body and blood of Christ during...

Stresses Scandal of Receiving Communion while supporting Abortion VATICAN, July 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican held a press conference today to present the "Instrumentum laboris" (working document) for the Eleventh Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, scheduled to be held in the Vatican from October 2 to 23, 2005 on the theme: "The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church." The document, drawn up on the basis from Church leaders throughout the world to a draft called the "Lineamenta", lamented "the fact that too many faithful receive communion without having sufficiently reflected...

Charlie Angus and Celina Symmonds had their lives turned upside down when they were told by their parish priests that they could no longer take communion because their stands on social issues conflicted with church teachings. Angus, a New Democrat MP who represents a northern Ontario riding, ran afoul of the Roman Catholic church over his support for the federal government's controversial same-sex marriage bill. "It's quite disturbing,'' said Angus, pointing to what he called "the rising militancy of language within the church. I went to Ottawa feeling that I would be speaking as someone rooted in a faith tradition...

The Textbook that Should Disappear I have a simple wish for the new pope, Benedict XVI. I hope that he will encourage Georgetown Prep in Maryland to scrap the use of its erroneous religion textbook. Granted, this is a specific request, but the media has been demanding many things of the new pontiff. Liberals have been crying for female priests, married priests, and permission to use contraceptives, without once examining the catechism to find why the church forbids such practices. Specifically, I believe Pope Benedict should order a review of the religious textbooks used in many Catholic schools. The new...

Early results: The Ratzinger papacy is a boon, and potentially a big one, to Republicans. This is not to say, of course, that Benedict XVI will act as Vatican precinct chair for the GOP. While the new pope is a highly-educated man, there's no reason to believe that he has the least interest in, or understanding of, the nuances of American party politics. And by all accounts, he's not a poll-driven guy. That said, there's a case to be made that as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had more to do...

n July 22, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., explained his position on abortion to ABC news anchor Peter Jennings. A close look at Kerry’s stance leaves voters with two rational conclusions. Either Kerry is too weak to stand against what he views as the destruction of innocent life or he is a straight-faced liar pandering to moderate Catholic voters. Both options are problematic and should cause Minnesota voters to reject him. In the interview Kerry confirmed his belief life begins at conception. He stated he is “not pro-abortion” and “there are huge moral implications” that accompany a woman’s decision. Simultaneously, he...

A pro-life group plans to protest the appearance of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on the campus of Georgetown University, a Catholic school, because of the Catholic senator's pro-abortion stance. The American Life League's Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church will lead a "peaceful protest" Wednesday outside Kerry's planned speech and is calling on the archbishop of Washington to speak out against Kerry and his pro-abortion views. "Once again, Georgetown University's adherence to Catholic teaching is being called into question. This time it's an on-campus appearance by a Catholic elected official whose political stance in favor of legal...

The Catholic Church has been accused of warning people in African, Asian and other countries with high rates of HIV infection that condoms do not protect against the transmission of the virus, the claims come just a day after a report revealed that a young person is now infected with HIV every 14 seconds. According to BBC report, "cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns in four continents of the church have been quoted as saying HIV can pass through tiny holes in condoms but latest warnings were made in a Panorama programme called 'Sex and the Holy City' by one of...

Rev. Al Sharpton's speech at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago on Sunday, Feb. 9, attracted a standing-room-only crowd of 1,200 people, as well as sharp condemnation and protests from pro-life and Catholic leaders and groups because of Sharpton's pro-abortion views. Sharpton was invited to speak by Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of the predominantly African-American congregation, as part of its Black History Month Celebration. During the week before Sharpton's appearance, area Catholics flooded Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, with angry calls and e-mails demanding that he cancel the invitation. Late Friday afternoon, the cardinal issued a press release indicating...