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ORLANDO, FL, September 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking to a room full of prominent US Catholic leaders Friday night, Senator Rick Santorum was challenged to run for the Republican Presidential nominaion.  Responding to a room already thick with applause, Santorum revealed that he was indeed "thinking about it" but asked for prayers and detailed his thinking on the matter.His remarks came after his address to the closing dinner of the 12th annual Catholic Leadership Conference - an invite-only gathering of Catholic leaders from academia, law, media, medicine, and politics, as well as leaders of movements within the Church such as...

I was very disappointed with biased news coverage of the recent funeral of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. If I didn't know better, I would think that he was being considered for sainthood. Is this the same man who was responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick? Is this the same devout Catholic who divorced his first wife, Joan, after 25 years of marriage? Wasn't he involved in the drunken escapades of the younger members of the Kennedy clan in Florida? During the funeral Mass, I was appalled to see that President Barack Obama was allowed...

In my previous blogposts on the Washington Post news pages’ campaign to “Macaca” Virginia Republican governor nominee Bob McDonnell by running story after story on McDonnell’s 1989 Regent University thesis—Republican Governors Association operative Nick Ayers has noted 34 such pieces, including articles, blogposts, cartoons, editorials and on-line chats—I have purposely refrained from citing opinion articles, since after all opinion writers can legitimately try to influence readers and readers are on notice that this is so. But I’ll make an exception here for Metro columnist Robert McCartney’s Sunday analysis in which he argues, persuasively, that the McDonnell thesis isn’t likely to...

Fr. Tom Rosica, the CEO of Salt + Light TV, has posted a scathing, malicious, and bizarre attack on the pro-life community in the Catholic Church on his blog, wildly accusing critics of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s public funeral of “division, destruction, hatred, vitriol, judgment and violence…destroying and killing others“. ...

Politicos, pundits and armchair campaign managers around the country are keeping a close eye on this year’s gubernatorial contest in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The stakes couldn’t be higher. In fact, many analysts believe this race (among others) may forecast things to come in the 2010 and 2012 elections ± up to and including the battle for the White House. That’s why it’s of little surprise that a branch of the Democratic Party’s media propaganda machine — the unabashedly liberal Washington Post – would, per usual, abandon any semblance of journalistic integrity and rush to the aid of State Senator...

The Washington Post on Wednesday increased its frenzied attack on Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, featuring two stories in the paper’s Metro section, an op-ed and a cartoon. Including opinion pieces, the Post has delivered six articles in four days on the Republican's 1989 master’s thesis about families and government policy. In an article with the loaded title "McDonnell Tries to Salvage Women’s Votes," Rosalind S. Helderman and Sandhya Somashekhar described how the candidate is trying to "help rebuild his relationship with the key voting bloc, damaged in recent days by the publication of his 1989 master's thesis." Helderman and...

RICHMOND, Va. - Bob McDonnell's 20-year-old conservative manifesto advocating government protections for heterosexual, two-parent traditional families not available to those living "alternative lifestyles" presents his gubernatorial campaign its first crisis. McDonnell has not commented on the 1989 graduate thesis since it was first reported in Sunday's Washington Post. His research paper targets abortion, feminism, welfare, "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators" as enemies of traditional families. With no nomination challenge and no distractions, his Republican campaign has stayed on script and rolled smoothly along until now. Democrat Creigh Deeds' campaign, trailing McDonnell in the most recent statewide polling, found new life in...

HORSERACE Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, is holding a conference call, discussing the Post's A1 story on his thesis, and other topics: "I never thought many people would ever read or care about my thesis. I think that until recently, only five people had read it, two of which were myself and my wife. I haven't thought about it in several decades." "I am disappointed but not surprised that my opponent wnats to make this a central issue in the campaign; he continues to backtrack from his pledge at first deabte that the focus of thecampaign...

Eager to draw attention Bob McDonnell's conservative roots, campaign advisers to Democrat Creigh Deeds on Monday called McDonnell's newly-discovered 1989 graduate thesis a "devastating" revelation that threatens to sink the Republican's campaign for the Virginia governor's mansion. The 93-page research paper — first revealed in Sunday's Washington Post — articulated a Christian conservative worldview that criticized "cohabitators, homosexuals and fornicators" and described working women and feminists "detrimental" to the family.

(Father) "Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, released this statement concerning Senator Kennedy. "We must, as a matter of precept, pray for the salvation of heretical Catholics like Senator Edward Kennedy, but we do not have to praise him, let alone extol him with the full honors of a public Catholic funeral and all the adulation that attends such an event." He adds that while Senator Kennedy called himself Catholic, like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden, they are actually wolves in sheep's clothing. "They do not hold to the teaching of the church....

Saturday's grandiose Catholic funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy has the potential to be a scandal that will make Notre Dame's Obama Day a walk in the park. With all four living former Presidents in attendance and an address from President Barack Obama, the funeral is set to be a royal crowning, right inside a Catholic Church, of a man who betrayed the most fundamental moral teachings of the faith. What example will this give to Catholics and the rest of the world looking in? It will surely belie the Catholic teachings on the sanctity of life and sexuality. "Surely," they...

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy Boston, Mass., Aug 26, 2009 / 01:01 pm (CNA).- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) passed away last night at the age of 77 after a battle with brain cancer.  Kennedy, a Catholic, will be remembered for his service to the poor, and dedication to education but also his opposition to pro-life issues.After a long struggle with brain cancer, last night Sen. Kennedy took a turn for the worse while at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.  Surrounded by his family members and a priest, Fr. Patrick Tarrant, he passed away around 11:30 p.m.Fr. Tarrant told...

Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao New Orleans, La., Aug 3, 2009 / 02:06 pm (CNA).- Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, (R-New Orleans), the first Vietnamese-American congressman and a Catholic,  announced this past weekend that, because of the “stealth mandate” for abortion still present in the Health Care bill, he prefers to “save his soul” rather than  vote in favor of it.Cao, the only member of the Louisiana House delegation who had not weighed in on where he stands on the health reform bill, told the Times-Picayune on Saturday that he cannot support any bill that permits public money to be spent...

In remarks on the House floor last week, Congressman Chris Smith argued that President Obama purposely misled Pope Benedict XVI when he said that he “wants to reduce abortion” at their July 10 meeting. Smith recalled the president's statement to the Pope and pointed out that Obama has repeated it several times to different audiences. And yet, Smith charged, Obama’s actions have not aligned with his words. “He says one thing and does precisely the opposite.” Now, the New Jersey Congressman said, Obama is offering a plan for health care reform that is a thinly veiled attempt to increase access...

Despite bipartisan efforts from pro-life congressmen, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed legislation allowing taxpayer-funded abortion in the District of Columbia. One pro-lifer charged that opponents had been “muzzled” by Nancy Pelosi. The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act passed by a vote of 219 to 208. It contained provisions which allowed local D.C. taxpayer money to be used on abortions and expanded the exemptions to fund abortions “where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury or physical illness.” The House refused to consider a bipartisan amendment by Reps. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and Lincoln Davis (D-TN)....

SAN DIEGO — Catholic Answers is challenging a 2008 Internal Revenue Service ruling that it interfered in the 2004 presidential election by recommending Catholic presidential candidate John Kerry be denied Communion. But one expert on free speech at the University of Notre Dame, Lloyd Mayer, associate professor of law, is worried that this may be “the right principle but the wrong case.”The IRS at first levied an income tax of $102.23 on the San Diego apologetics organization, but returned the money, without reversing its ruling, after Catholic Answers appealed it. Said Catholic Answers’ founder and president, Karl Keating: “It’s the...

Today’s meeting between President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI will bring together two leaders who share a vision for helping the needy of the world and working toward peace, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said Thursday. Obama’s first meeting with the leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics follows the release of the encyclical “Charity in Truth” on Wednesday, in which Benedict stated that love of neighbor and justice require the wealthy and powerful nations of the world to help the poor, seek peace and protect the Earth. “He presents a challenge to all political leaders,” DeLauro said...

Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre has publicly confronted Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi after the latter announced his support of homosexual marriage in a New York Times opinion piece. Mr. Suozzi “certainly admits that he knows he is contradicting some basic moral teachings of his own faith,” Bishop Murphy writes. “This is not the first time he has done this. He has already placed himself publicly in the category of ‘pro choice’ on abortion. While homosexual orientation is a neutral reality on a moral level, homosexual acts are not morally neutral. They are wrong and they are sinful. Abortion...

A pro-life outreach has started a new prayer campaign hoping for the conversion of pro-abortion Catholic politicians to the pro-life perspective. The web site and outreach OneNationUnderGod is starting the effort today, the feast day of St. Thomas More. Pope John Paul II proclaimed More the patron saint of statesmen and politicians, so June 22 appears to be an appropriate time for prayer for lawmakers who Catholic deviate from the Catholic Church's longstanding pro-life teachings. Lisa Correnti talked with LifeNews.com about the new effort. "In the 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae, John Paul II reiterates what the Catholic Church has always...

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United States of Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has adopted a statement, "Catholics in Political Life," by a vote of 183-6, which says pro-abortion politicians should not be honored by Catholic community and Catholic institutions. "They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions," says the statement. On the question of withholding Communion from pro-abortion politicians, the document leaves the final decision to local bishops. The statement came after the Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians made an extensive interim report at the USCCB's...