Free Republic

Code: ZE04061023 Date: 2004-06-10 U.S. Cardinal: Lay Ministers Should Be in Sync With Church CHICAGO, JUNE 10, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Catholic lay ministers who disagree with the Church's teachings should not be allowed to assist in distributing Communion, according to a letter reportedly sent by Cardinal Francis George to pastors in his archdiocese. "If a minister should manifest his/her disagreement with Church teaching, he/she should not continue in active ministry until such time that the minister is reconciled to the Church's teaching," wrote Cardinal George, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Though this has been the policy of the archdiocese all along,...

Cardinal says no communion for gay protesters Sunday May 25, 2004 BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter Gay Catholics who plan to identify themselves by wearing a rainbow sash in church Sunday should be denied communion, according to a memo Cardinal Francis George has written to all pastors in the Archdiocese of Chicago. The wearing of the sash is sponsored by the Rainbow Sash Movement, which has several chapters across the country and plans to show up Sunday at Holy Name Cathedral.

Pro-abortion/gay rights Catholic Senator Durbin highlighted for "keeping the faith" media-hypocrite style...   Last week in Washington, Sen. Dick Durbin once again found himself at odds with the Roman Catholic Church. After an emotional debate on the Senate floor, the Illinois Democrat voted against a bill that made harming an unborn child a federal crime. He then flew to Chicago, where despite a packed schedule he made it to Sunday mass at Old St. Patrick's Church in the West Loop. "You can't have me until after mass on Sunday," the senator said in an interview last week in his...

I just got back from a Fireside Chat at my University Catholic Center somewhere in the archdiocese of Chicago. I thought I would share with any interested Freepers (Catholic Caucus especially), what his grace had to say and what the overall tone was. It started out innocently enough with the Cardinal debunking the DaVinci Code and putting it in its proper perspective as a work of fiction. He seemed surprised that it has created so much furor, afterall, it is a work of fiction, though certainly he aknowledges, the enemies of the Church and Christianity at large have attached themselves...

Versailles, Oct. 14 (CWNews.com) Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has given his clear support for the use of the Tridentine-rite liturgy. In a preface written for a collection produced by the International Committee for Liturgical Studies (CIEL), Cardinal George has referred to the Missal of St. Pius V as "a precious source of liturgical understanding for all other rites," and said that the pre-conciliar liturgy should be "better accepted." The work by CIEL, a Versailles-based organization faithful to the traditional liturgy, was published in France. Several months after Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos celebrated a Tridentine-rite Mass at the Roman basilica...

News Flash: Al Sharpton Not a Catholic Priest! Release of Sharpton Advertisement Meant to Clear Up Confusion, Says American Life League WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, the Crusade for the Defense of our Catholic Church, a project of American Life League, unveiled its newest public service ad. "Al Sharpton is NOT a Catholic Priest" is part of an ongoing effort to bring attention to recent abuse of the Catholic Church's longstanding pro-life position created by pastors sharing their pulpits with openly pro-abortion public figures. The full-page advertisement appears in today's Washington Times. It will also run in The...

Cardinal Francis George believes anxiety over false accusations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin hastened his death from pancreatic cancer in 1996. "I think it killed him," George said in an interview Thursday. "Cancer is a psychosomatic disorder very often. Would he have died as quickly as he did if he had not gone through that terrible ordeal? I don't know. Others have suggested that might be the case." In November 1993, Steven Cook, a 34-year-old from Philadelphia, filed a lawsuit against Bernardin claiming the cardinal and another priest had sexually abused him in the 1970s while Cook was...

On February 26, 2001 RCF sent the following to Cardinal George of Chicago. Your Eminence, I recently received a letter from a Mr. Matt Abbott regarding his Feb. 24, 2001 conversation with you at St. Rita High School during Parish Leadership Day. According to Mr. Abbott: ‘..he [Cardinal George] doesn’t like the fact that you make accusations with no evidence to back them up. He used the [Bishop] Ryan case as an example: He claims that there as no evidence of wrongdoing, other than Ryan’s “imprudent” association with certain individuals’ Surely Mr. Abbott misunderstood your comments, to assume otherwise would...

The head of the US episcopal conference Wilton Daniel Gregory said there was an ongoing struggle within the Catholic Church to ensure that the priesthood is not "dominated by homosexual men". Gregory and Chicago Archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, told reporters that the issue of homosexual priests had been discussed in a solemn morning meeting between Pope John Paul II and US cardinals on the issue of paedophile priests. "It is an ongoing struggle. It is most importantly a struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men," Gregory told a news conference after the...