Free Republic

The big black letters on the water tower that looms over this small South Jersey town announce “Everybody likes Pitman.” Except that someone doesn’t. Or so say many of the borough’s residents. Located just 17 miles southeast of Philadelphia, the Gloucester County town has the rural feel of fictional Bedford Falls in “It’s a Wonderful Life” — the kind of town where the barber shop is called just that in a window sign and has a working barber pole spinning out front. There is no snow on the ground, but wreaths encircle lamp posts like halos, the marquee in front...

Membership in the Knights of Columbus  Patrick S. Korten, Vice President for Communications Knights of Columbus Supreme Council The Knights of Columbus has always urged its members to live in a way completely consistent with Catholic teaching on all issues. We are proudly and unambiguously pro-life and have been at the forefront of the effort to protect marriage. Though we are saddened that not all of our members always live up to the Catholic faith, we are grateful that the vast majority do, and that they do so much good for the Church and society. Our councils have a...

 Despite having a rare neurodegenerative disease called Niemann-Pick Type C, the two oldest Hadley children, Peyton and Kayla, enjoy staying active and participating in events with their family at their Catholic parish in Medford, Ore. (Photos by Jared Cruce) Born three years apart, Peyton and Kayla Hadley began their lives as normal, healthy children. For their first seven years, both progressed normally as they began elementary school, scoring high on tests with excellent reading skills. Then, when Peyton turned 8, things began to change.  One of the first signs that something wasn't right began with Peyton's tendency to cock his...

    Knights Ronald Coco and Richard Bosse worked to obtain a new ultrasound machine for the Women’s New Life Center in Metairie, La., where Angela Thomas (right) is the executive director. (Photo by Mary Lou Uttermohlen)Faith was alone in a foreign land. She felt frightened, confused, angry and violated. Not knowing where to turn, she went to a local pregnancy center conveniently located near the university she attended. There, a positive pregnancy test confirmed her fears. An international college student studying for her master's degree, Faith didn't know how she could possibly continue her pregnancy and thought she had...

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St. José María Robles Hurtado by Pedro A. MorenoPriest, Martyr and Knight : A Special Heart With a Special Beat In this article: A Heroic Priest Christ, the King of Mexico Help from the Vatican The Ultimate Witness Almost 80 years ago, on a hill outside of the small town of Quila, Jalisco, Mexico, there was a deafening and deadly silence. A special heart, a priestly heart united with Christ’s own, was stilled. Its special beat, a loving palpitation for the Eucharist, was now silent. The silence became one with the predawn darkness in which a group of soldiers finished...

by Dave Jolivet FALL RIVER, Mass. (CNS) -- Boston Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley once said some consider Nellie J. Gray the "(Rev.) Martin Luther King Jr. of the pro-life civil rights movement." "But to me," he added, "she's ... the Joan of Arc of the Gospel of life." There are many other words to describe this 84-year-old champion of the unborn, but none are more accurate than "mother of the March for Life." For more than 35 years, Texas native Nellie J. Gray has been working unceasingly to end the slaughter of unborn children in the United States. And like...

Members of Blessed John Paul II Chapter Knights of Columbus joined by their Chaplain, Monsignor Michael T. Mannion, National Life Center president and founder, Denise Cocciolone, and other friends of the NLC celebrated the groundbreaking of the Knights of Columbu NLC ultrasound project. The 882-square-foot, two-story addition to the NLC building at 686 N. Broad St. in Woodbury will provide space for an ultrasound exam room, a handicapped accessible bathroom, an exterior concrete ramp, additional office space, and much needed storage space for items to assist babies and young mothers. Monsignor Mannion blessed the addition and the staff from NLC...

Memories of children crying over confiscated Christmas toys still upset the Rev. Tom Hill. Hill, a former Giving Tree volunteer, also remains baffled by the diapers. There were boxes and boxes in storage, he said, and yet Giving Tree Director Libby Wright resisted handing them out to mothers in her program. Wright often said food was in short supply when she sought donations, Hill said, even after he discovered Wright was storing large amounts in one of her organization's homes. Wright declined an interview request for this story. Hill, who now runs his own food program for the homeless, said...

The motorcycles roared down the street, their riders in black leather vests. Long hair peeked from under helmets. Clad in jeans, dark shades and short-sleeve shirts revealing the occasional tattoo, they parked their bikes and headed toward the Catholic church last month. Almost 100 strong, these bikers are out to change public opinion. One sported a patch on his vest that read: "These Are My Sunday Clothes." They're not your father's Knights of Columbus. They're knights on bikes, New Jersey's first Knights' Motorcycle Ministry. "We want to make sure that the public image of bikers isn't what they see on...

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson Denver, Colo., Jul 7, 2009 / 03:26 pm (CNA).- The head of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, has responded to Pope Benedict’s newly-released encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (Love in Truth), by denouncing attempts to use it to further political agendas rather than viewing it from the Church’s comprehensive understanding of the human person.In an interview with CNA on Tuesday morning, Carl Anderson, leader of the world’s largest lay Catholic organization, decried the “spin masters who will try to spin the encyclical in one direction or the other” and emphasized that “the Catholic reader should...

I begin by asking all of our readers to pray for Fr. Geoffrey Farrow. He was the pastor of the St. Paul Newman Center at California State University at Fresno until he was suspended by his Bishop and removed from his position. This strong action was required and intended to be remedial, as are all canonical sanctions. Fr. Farrow openly defies the teaching of the Catholic Church concerning marriage and human sexuality. He also openly condemns the Catholic Church in public for her defense of marriage. Let me be clear, Fr. Farrow needs our prayer. We ask the Lord to...

Geoff Farrow objects to the K of C's support for California's Proposition 8 and for Catholic Moral Teaching Folks, this according to CNA: Fresno, Calif., Jul 2, 2009 / 06:43 am (CNA).- Citing the organization’s support for traditional marriage, a suspended Catholic priest who has turned to homosexual activism has called for Catholic pastors to block Knights of Columbus groups from their parishes and to borrow against the order’s insurance policies to fund homosexual groups. He said he advocated such action in part because the fraternal charitable organization helped support California’s Proposition 8, which restored legal marriage’s definition to being...

When duty called and the world was watching the pirate hostage situation unfold, Cmdr. Francis X. Castellano performed his job with honor and distinction. As the commander of the destroyer USS Bainbridge, Castellano was on the front line of the rescue operation that freed Capt. Richard Phillips from the grips of the Somali pirates, who had boarded his merchant ship Maersk-Alabama, and taken him hostage four days earlier. The rescue on Easter Sunday, April 12, involved Navy snipers who killed three of the pirates holding Capt. Phillips on a covered lifeboat after they left the recovered Maersk-Alabama. “We all worked...

Here’s another story that underlines how ludicrous the media have been in insisting Barack Obama was a natural choice for traditional Catholic and evangelical Christian voters: CNSNews.com correspondent Fred Lucas reports Obama finished stocking the advisory committee of his faith-based initiative with a bang: one new selection was Harry Knox, director of the "religion and faith program" of the gay-left Human Rights Campaign. Just last month, Knox described Pope Benedict XVI and certain Catholic bishops as "discredited leaders" because of their opposition to same-sex marriage. In addition to his remarks about the Pope, Knox also criticized the Catholic Knights of...

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...

...Fr. Phillip Chavez said in a [January 15] talk at the Rock Creek Knights of Columbus Council in Bethesda.... "In his nature, a man is called to protect his family...state, his religion; he is called to protect life." "For a man, everything is conquest, all is battle, whether he's mowing the lawn, playing pool, or winning the heart of his wife," said Father. "Every man wants to be known as a man who is willing, able and ready to lay down his life for what he believes." Men today have the same warrior instincts and natural vocations to be protectors...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new program sponsored by the national Knights of Columbus has helped its first pregnancy center obtain an ultrasound machine. The program is meant to provide pregnancy centers with the tools to help women considering an abortion see their baby and choose pro-life alternatives.The Supreme Office of the Knights of Columbus and the Florida State Council of the Knights of Columbus yesterday donated $44,050 dollars to the Women's Help Center in Jacksonville, Florida, for the purchase of a new 4-D ultrasound machine.The donated resulted from the pilot program started by Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson, to...

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Pa. (AP) - The Rev. George M. Docherty, credited with helping to push Congress to insert the phrase "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, has died at 97.</p> <p>Docherty died on Thanksgiving at his home in central Pennsylvania, according to his wife, Sue Docherty.</p>

WASHINGTON, Sept 19, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The following open letter from the head of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, to Senator Joseph Biden was published in major newspapers on Friday, September 19, 2008, including USA Today, the Washington Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR JOSEPH BIDEN Dear Senator Biden: I write to you today as a fellow Catholic layman, on a subject that has become a major topic of concern in this year's presidential campaign. The bishops who have taken public issue with your remarks on the Church's historical position on abortion are far...