Free Republic

...JoanWalsh at Salon writes that she was raised Catholic, but has since turned into "a secularfeministliberaldemocrat." Last Friday evening, when Obama's supporters were still clinging to their belief that his announcement of a compromise would steal all the wind out of the bishops' sails, she asked this: Why did we spend 10 days listening to prominent Catholics, including even some liberals and Democrats, insist that the White House had overreached and trampled on "religious freedom" - in this case, the "freedom" of the Catholic hierarchy to impose rules that even most Catholics don't live by? ("Catholic tribalism and the contraceptive...

How has the Obama administration’s contraception mandate on religious organizations impacted Barack Obama’s standing? According to a new Rasmussen poll, it’s had about the impact one would expect after a few days of consideration. Almost six in ten Catholics now disapprove of Obama’s job performance, and a near-majority strongly disapprove: Catholics strongly disapprove of the job President Obama is doing as the debate continues over his administration’s new policy forcing Catholic institutions to pay for contraception they morally oppose. While the president’s overall job approval ratings have improved over the past couple of months, they have remained steady among Catholics....

Twenty-five Notre Dame faculty members--led by the university’s top ethics expert, and including some of the school’s most eminent scholars--have signed a statement declaring that President Barack Obama’s latest version of his administration’s mandate that all health insurance plans in the United States must cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions, is “a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand." The statement—put out on the letterhead of the University of Notre Dame Law School--is also signed by leading scholars from other major American colleges and universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, Brigham Young, Yeshiva and...

It is a rare moment indeed when faith denominations of all stripes unite together in common cause, and it is rarer still when that cause is a political one, with a sole piece of legislation as its principal target. But when that law eviscerates the very foundation of religious liberty in America as protected under the First Amendment, it should not be surprising that Catholics and Jews, evangelical Christians, and mainline Lutherans alike find common cause in defense of their liberties.Such is the case with the firestorm of opposition to Obamacare and the Obama Administration’s attack on religious liberty. Under...

In politics, the timing is often the message. On Jan. 20 — three days before the annual March for Life — the Obama administration announced its final decision that Catholic universities, hospitals and charities will be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives and abortifacients. Preparing for the march, Catholic students gathered for Mass at Verizon Center. The faithful held vigil at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Knights of Columbus and bishops arrived to trudge in the cold along the Mall. All came to Washington in time for their mocking.

Over the weekend, the Catholic Church’s letter went beyond simply issuing oppositional rhetoric to media. Instead, priests read an open note to congregations across the country, dubbing the administration‘s take on women’s health and religious violations as an attack on their faith. In the letter, Bishops highlighted what they called “an alarming and serious matter,“ as their words contended that the federal government has ”dealt a heavy blow” to the Catholic population.

Obama lost my vote yesterday when he declined to expand the exceedingly narrow conscience exemptions proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The issue of conscience protections is so foundational, I do not see how I ever could, in good conscience, vote for this man again. I do not come at this issue as a Catholic special pleader, who wants only to protect my own, although it was a little bracing to realize that the president’s decision yesterday essentially told us, as Catholics, that there is no room in this great country of ours for the institutions our...

The Obama administration has chosen to ignore the First Amendment and add insult to injury for Catholics whose schools, hospitals and charities help make this nation great. Now the real fight begins. Religious leaders had feared the worst from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her Department of Health and Human Services, which since September has been considering whether to exempt Catholic and other religious employers from a regulation mandating insurance coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including some that cause abortion. But on Friday afternoon, Sebelius announced the bad news in the most offensive way possible. Refusing even the smallest compromise with...

Has Obama Lost the Catholic Left? Lyndon B. Johnson, after watching Walter Cronkite conclude a special broadcast which was heavily critical of the Tet offensive, said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”Well, this story isn’t exactly on the same level as that, but President Barack Obama may be losing the Catholic Left, with obvious implications for entrenched faculty on many Catholic college campuses. Michael Sean Winters, a lead writer for the National Catholic Reporter and vocal defender of the University of Notre Dame’s 2009 commencement honors for President Obama, wrote yesterday that he can’t see how he could...

..Deacon Dan McGuire, parish administrator at Assumption Parish in Granger, Iowa. “We get involved in politics. That’s obvious. But as a former excluded minority ... we keep faith in our private community. We don’t vocalize it in public.”.. It’s not clear how many Iowa Catholics intend to participate in either caucus, but according to a poll in November for the Register, Catholics represent 21 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers. Catholics represent 19.5 percent of the Iowa population....Quiner said he believes Gingrich’s conversion to Catholicism “resonates with a lot of Catholics” despite Gingrich’s three marriages. That conversion was obviously not a...

Not The Main Stream Media Narrative: We Are Democrats- We Accept The Bible: NY Dem Rep Ruben Diaz Leads Hispanics in Bronx Rally Against Gay Marriage http://www.theblaze.com/stories/not-the-main-stream-media-narrative-we-are-democrats-we-accept-the-bible-ny-dem-rep-ruben-diaz-leads-hispanics-in-bronx-rally-against-gay-marriage/

Obama Faces Hard Times With Catholic Voters Over Abortion When Barack Obama won 54 percent of the Catholic vote in the 2008 presidential election, commentators barely noticed that John McCain won a majority of the religiously-active Catholic vote (51 percent to 49 percent). This was a small margin, to be sure, but it doesn't bode well for the 2012 presidential race, after all the worst predictions of Obama's support for abortion became reality. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/25/obama-faces-hard-times-with-catholic-voters-over-abortion/

Catholics Swing 34% to Pro-Life GOP, But Priest Says Abortion Not Priority by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 10/29/10 6:08 PMA prominent dissident Catholic priest has launched an assault against Catholic bishops are who are saying pro-life issues are the most important in the upcoming election.But new polling data of Catholics makes it appear they’re not listening to him, as a New York Times/CBS poll shows a shocking 34 point swing of Catholic voters switching from pro-abortion Barack Obama to pro-life Republican candidates. Father Charles Curran, in a speech on Thursday, attacked the Church’s rationale that abortion must be...

By Just one week from the election the desperate Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota released what has been rightfully called, “The most anti-Catholic political ad you’ll ever see.” The ad depicts a man wearing the Roman collar which is emblematic of Catholic priests with a pin on his chest that reads “ignore the poor.” It is one thing to make such a vicious charge when there is some evidence that it might be true, but quite a different matter as it relates to the record of the Catholic Church in its charitable efforts. Why would these people make such a charge?...

The Democrats are proud of their generosity to the poor, and owing perhaps due to some unclear thinking aren't aware that charitable acts must be of free will, and there's no merit in being generous with other people's money. Hat tip to Ray at Stella Borealis for this item. But with them it's always the same, high crime and higher and higher taxes. Now there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said: Why was this waste of the ointment made? [5] For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and given to the...

....Along with the hint of fall in the air, the days after the American celebration of Labor Day mark the beginning of the election season. This midterm election in the United States of America could bring a massive sea change in governance. Political pundits troll the media making their prognostications. Polls are becoming as common as commercials in the political media landscape. Given their numbers, U.S. Catholics could determine the outcome of this election. That is if they learn how to be, in the words of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "morally coherent". That phrase was used...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she believes she must pursue public policies "in keeping with the values" of Jesus Christ, "The Word made Flesh." Pelosi, who is a Catholic and who favors legalized abortion, voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion that was enacted into law in 2003.

Mark Chaves of the National Congregations Study has put together an interesting graph demonstrating the ways that different religious groups engage in politics. The numbers may surprise you:  Chaves breaks down the results: First, notwithstanding extensive media coverage of political mobilization within conservative churches, conservative white Protestant churches do not stand out in their level of political activity. Catholic and black Protestant churches, overall, are more politically active than either liberal or conservative white Protestants. About three-quarters of Catholics and black Protestants attend churches that engaged in at least one of these eight political activities, compared to about half of...

I have had some time to recover from what occurred on Sunday evening, but I still feel sick to my stomach. I always knew there was a chance that Bart Stupak would change his vote for some reason other than securing his amendment, but I honestly thought he would hold his ground and not waver in his defense of unborn children. Senator Nelson's betrayal last year was very upsetting, but this... this is just so painful. The trouble is, we citizens have no choice but to believe in our politicians. We must risk trusting them to be true to their...

'Unconscionable'...that's how one Catholic group is reacting to Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak's decision to trust an executive order from President Obama which allegedly keeps federal dollars from paying for abortions. Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote.org, says the President's executive order is a band-aid solution that fails to solve the fundamental problems in this bill, and can be repealed at any time.

In a final, urgent plea to prevent the passage of the current form of the Senate health care bill, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Saturday evening sent a letter to Congressmen asking them to vote “no.” “For decades,” the letter says, “the United States Catholic bishops have supported universal health care. The Catholic Church teaches that health care is a basic human right, essential for human life and dignity.”

Boston, Mass., Mar 20, 2010 / 09:03 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, yesterday criticized organizations such as the Catholic Health Association and Network for supporting a health care bill that will halt decades of government neutrality on the issue of abortion."Health care is such an important issue for the United States. It’s very disturbing to see that there seems to be a rush to push through legislation without carefully weighing all of the consequences," wrote Cardinal O'Malley on his blog."I think it’s unfortunate that some Catholic groups have not paid close enough attention to what...

AN OPEN LETTER TO POPE BENEDICT XVI I am willing to take the risk of appearing crude and arrogant in making a 'cold call' appeal to the Holy Father for a strong and resolute Papal Action in the matter of Catholic discipline and Social Justice with respect to the most vulnerable members of our civil society: the rights of the pre-born. In summation, the House of Representatives of the United States is considering legislative action which, if passed, would mark the most egregious attack on the rights of the pre-born in the entire history of the United States. The fact...

The most disgraceful thing is happening! Pro-lifers are receiving phone calls from people claiming to be Mass Citizens. The callers say that Mass Citizens is not supporting Scott Brown because of his position on health care! The truth is that Mass Citizens is supporting Brown because of his position on health care! These deceitful calls are coming from 202-461-3441, a Washington, DC number. The phone company says this is a company called SOOH. Pro-lifers are not the only victims of this scam. Our MCFL sleuths have found that this same number is calling people across the state claiming to...

Anti-death penalty movement wooing conservatives LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Roy Brown seems like a rarity — a conservative who's against the death penalty. But to Brown, a state senator and the 2008 Republican nominee for governor of Montana, the philosophy aligns perfectly with conservative ideology. He's one of the more high-profile figures reaching out to other social and fiscal conservatives, hoping to create a bipartisan movement against capital punishment. "I believe that life is precious from the womb to a natural death," Brown said. The Roman Catholic church has long been an organized and vocal critic of the death penalty, but...

[H/t NewsBuster P.J. Gladnick.] How panicked is the MSM at the prospect of a Scott Brown victory tomorrow? So much so that Chris Matthews has stooped to seeking to use Scott Brown's Protestant religion against him in heavily Catholic Massachusetts . . . The Hardball host made his despicable pitch during a Morning Joe appearance this morning. View video here.

Randy Shea January 17 at 5:09pm Hey Folks, Most of you have probably already heard about this but it's worth repeating. What Obama and progressives like Martha Coakley could not be more clear as to what they would do if given the chance. MA-Sen: Coakley: Devout Catholics "Probably Shouldn't Work in the Emergency Room" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ-ZeLSZPc8&feature=player_embedded You might know but I doubt that most of your friends do...So copy and paste this NOW...Spread it far and wide!!! In particular if you know Pro-Lifers in Massachusetts get this to them in what ever way you can... A vote for Coakley is a...

<p>How can a Massachusetts Senate candidate possibly offend 39 percent of voters in her state?</p>

“You can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.” Democrat Martha Coakley was on with Ken Pittman from WBSM in Massachusetts today. Martha told Ken that if you object to abortion and are a devout Catholic then… “You probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.” From the interview: Ken Pittman: Right, if you are a Catholic, and believe what the Pope teaches that any form of birth control is a sin. ah you don’t want to do that. Martha Coakley: No we have a seperation of church and state Ken, lets be clear. Ken Pittman:...

Senate candidate Martha Coakley Boston, Mass., Jan 15, 2010 / 02:52 pm (CNA).- Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Martha Coakley has come under fire for saying pro-life medical workers with conscientious objections to some treatments “probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.” One critic said her remarks are a “wake-up call” about the threats to the religious freedom of orthodox Catholics.Coakley, a Democrat and Massachusetts Attorney General, is seeking to fill the former seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Recently her campaign has targeted her Republican opponent, state senator Scott Brown, for proposing an amendment to 2005 state legislation...

Oh. Wait. There are a few, aren't there? During an interview today, Martha Coakley was asked about the conscience issue Catholic medical personnel encounter when it comes to a law that mandates the distribution of emergency contraception, which sometimes works as an abortifacient. (I wrote about the details of this issue as pertain to Scott Brown and Massachusetts and Martha Coakley's misrepresentation of all of this here : http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mzc2ZGZiNzIzM2YwMjllODFiNDM0OGZiNWY3ZDhmYTE= Coakley explained that this should not be a problem because "we have a separation of church and state." "Let's be clear," the attorney general added. The radio host, Ken Pittman, pointed...

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, January 6, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The unprecedented controversy that rent the U.S. Catholic community over President Obama's abortion-themed commencement speech and his reception of an honorary law degree at the University of Notre Dame last May has apparently not fazed the school's president, who called the climax of the scandal "a successful" day that he does not regret.When asked in a South Bend Tribune interview published December 27 whether he would do it all over again, Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins answered, "Yes, I would." "He is the president of the United States, and there was...

LifeNews.com Note: Deal W. Hudson is the director of the Morley Institute for Church & Culture and InsideCatholic.com, and is the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster). The present standoff over abortion funding in health-care reform pits two sets of Catholics against each other: The bishops, supported by pro-life leaders, zealously oppose abortion funding, while prominent Catholic members of Congress just as zealously promote it. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi leads the pro-abortion Catholic pack pushing hard for abortion funding in the health-care bill. Her...

The only real chance of defeating the health care legislation came when the bill was lacking a majority of votes for passage in the House. A lot is being said and written about why national health care legislation is becoming a reality. The simple fact, available for all to see, is that the U.S. Catholic Bishops ensured passage of the bill in the House, enabling the Senate to move forward with its version.

The Democrats very public battle over battle abortion in the health care bill may cost them valuable support of Catholics in 2010. From the Politico By teeing up a public battle over abortion in the health care bill now before the Senate, congressional Democrats could be risking more than just the fate of the legislation.

By teeing up a public battle over abortion in the health care bill now before the Senate, congressional Democrats could be risking more than just the fate of the legislation. Hanging in the balance are millions of Catholic swing voters who moved decisively to the Democrats in 2008 and who could shift away just as readily in 2010. According to exit polls, President Barack Obama won the support of 53 percent of Catholic voters, a seven-point increase over the showing of the Democrats’ 2004 nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a Catholic. Among Latino Catholics, who are often more conservative than...

A New Grassroots Political Organization Makes Its Mark by Deal W. Hudson    11/06/09 The election results of November 2 were not merely the spontaneous reaction of Republicans to the bad economy and liberal excesses of the Obama administration. The four pro-life, conservative GOP candidates in Virginia and New Jersey were elected in a groundswell of religious and social conservatives, many of them independent voters who had voted for Obama only a year ago. A new grassroots organization played a major role in getting these voters to the polls -- the Faith & Freedom Coalition was founded by Ralph...

  Once, when asked his philosophy, Franklin Roosevelt answered simply, "I am a Christian and a Democrat."   As always with Roosevelt, there was more to it than that. He was not just a Christian, but a Protestant, an Episcopalian, a descendant of Huguenot and Yankee New Englanders on his mother's side. And he was not just a Democrat, but a New York Democrat, whose leaders and most faithful voters were overwhelmingly Catholic, especially Irish Catholic. There was a tension, always, between this Protestant patrician and his Catholic party, a tension that this congenial country squire and shrewd politician...

Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment that deprived gay men and women of the right to marry one another, was perhaps the ugliest and most divisive electoral moment since Proposition 187, which denied illegal immigrant children access to health care and public education. All across the state, gay men, lesbians, and their friends picketed hostile churches and boycotted businesses that backed the amendment. And as they contemplated their fate, they asked themselves: Who did this to us? Was it the Mormons? The National Organization for Marriage? Black voters? White evangelical megachurches? Now, eight months after...

Because Deal Hudson was director of Catholic outreach for George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, I was interested in hearing his take on the Obama administration's Catholic outreach for my God & Country column in tomorrow's U.S. News Weekly. Hudson thinks Obama's "common ground" talk on abortion is disingenuous—the president has rolled back the ban on federal funding for abortion providers abroad, supports rescinding the federal ban on government-funded abortion in the District of Columbia, and hasn't ruled out covering abortion through healthcare reform—but is nonetheless impressed by the administration's ongoing Catholic PR blitz. And Hudson is disturbed...

President Barack Obama Washington D.C., Jul 24, 2009 / 04:16 am (CNA).- Catholic commentator Deal Hudson says the Obama administration is engaging in "smart" outreach to Catholics by offsetting concerns about abortion with unifying rhetoric and compelling stories. In his view, this outreach also benefits from Republican inaction towards Hispanics and Catholics.Speaking with U.S. News & World Report writer Dan Gilgoff, Hudson questioned President Barack Obama’s "common ground" rhetoric about abortion."It's very smart for Obama to actually take the advice of his Catholic outreach team. They have done a good job navigating the challenges they face among Catholics over...

In the late afternoon of July 10, President Obama met privately with Pope Benedict XVI for just over 30 minutes. According to official Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., "The president explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concern on moral issues." On July 13 in a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Barbara Mikulski was forced to admit under persistent questioning by Sen. Orrin Hatch that the new health-care bill includes abortion coverage. Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute estimates government funding of abortion increases abortion by 20 to 35 percent. There were 1,206,200...

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...

Another good one! Linked below.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI stressed the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell research in his first meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday, pressing the Vatican's case with the U.S. leader who is already under fire on those issues from some conservative Catholics and bishops back home...Afterward, the Vatican said the leaders discussed immigration, the Middle East peace process and aid to developing nations. But the Vatican's statement also underscored the pair's deep disagreement on abortion. "In the course of their cordial exchanges, the conversation turned first of all to questions which are in the interest of...

Without a Doubt Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does. By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Jul 9, 2009 Tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama meet for the first time, an affair much anticipated and in some circles frowned upon by American Catholics in the wake of Obama's controversial Notre Dame commencement speech in May. Conservatives in the church denounced Obama's appearance as a nod by the premier Catholic university to a conciliatory politics that heralds the start of a slippery moral slope.

President Barack Obama sat down with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday for frank but constructive talks between two men who agree on helping the poor but disagree on abortion and stem cell research. "It's a great honor," Obama said, greeting the pope and thanking him for this first meeting, which lasted 30 minutes. They sat down at the pontiff's desk in the Papal Library and exchanged pleasantries before the media were ushered out of the ornate room. The pope was heard asking about the Group of Eight summit, the meeting of developed nations that concluded before Obama...

This has been a tough stretch for conservative Christians in America, especially of the Catholic variety. Notre Dame welcomed Barack Obama at commencement with open arms and an honorary degree after a number of bishops and conservative activists decreed that the nation's preeminent Catholic university had forfeited its bona fides with the invitation. The president has said that the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is not a priority, promised that "robust" conscience protections for health care workers are coming, and pushed for a package of abortion-reduction legislation that should be unveiled by summer's end. And just this week, Pope Benedict...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama sat down with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday for a meeting in which frank but constructive talks were expected between two men who agree on helping the poor but disagree on abortion and stem cell research.

Newsweek took their criticism of Pope Benedict XVI to the next level on Thursday- not only did guest columnist Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend affirm that the pontiff could learn from President Obama (something Newsweek and their partners at the Washington Post agreed upon back in April), but also blasted the Bishop of Rome and the Catholic hierarchy for their supposed “disdain” towards women and homosexuals. The former lieutenant governor of Maryland began her column, titled "Without a Doubt: Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does," with the context of the pope’s upcoming meeting with the American president,...